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Bradford Cox is the front man for indie stars Deerhunter, but he’s been making home recordings under the name Atlas Sound since adolescence. With the band currently on hiatus, Cox has released a CD as Atlas Sound, Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel, on Kranky.

The recording wends its way through a variety of styles, blending experimental electronica with pop song constructions. Pieces like “Recent Bedroom,” “Cold as Ice,” and “Quarantined” wed memorable vocal melodies with synthesized washes of colorful harmonies, punctuated by glitchy interjections and quirky yet compelling rhythms.   The title track is an affecting ambient instrumental. Childhood memories are evoked by a home recording of a “Ghost Story” from Atlas Sound’s formative years.  I recently had the chance to talk with Cox about the CD, touring, and his future plans.

Christian Carey: Tell me a little bit about your background and your early musical experiences.

Bradford Cox: Well, my cousin, Kelly, he really turned me onto the music that would influence my entire aesthetic. I was real young, maybe 8 or 9. He had a Lou Reed Transformer poster on his wall and taught me to smash my matchbox cars with a hammer to make accident scenes. He turned me onto the Butthole Surfers, U2, the Velvets, and of course a lot of Athens bands like Pylon, and the B-52′s (my favorite).

I started trying to bang around on homemade drums and made tapes where I’d just make up little songs on the fly. I was about 11. This was around 1994. I was really into Pavement and the Breeders. I just had this pretend world where I would make up fake band names and make little collages for the cassette covers and try to give them to my friends. I would make a tape and give it to a girl and she’d give it back and be like “I don’t get it. It sounds, like, broken…” But I was not deterred!
I’ve never had any former training. The first instrument I really picked up was the drums. My parents didn’t have a lot of money and certainly couldn’t afford a real drum set so I made drums out of anything: pots and pans, tupperware bass drums. I invented a cookie tin snare drum with paperclips taped to the bottom that would rattle. If you hit it with a  pencil  it sounded really realistic. So I’d just bang on trash and listen to my favorite bands on my headphones. As I got older, in high school, there were some rich kids who got into heroin and stuff. One of those kids sold me his vintage drum kit for 50 bucks so he could score. I still use them to this day.  

CC: How long have you been recording as “Atlas Sound?”

BC: Since around middle school. I made four-track tapes. I borrowed the four-track from a kid whose parents had a lot of money and bought him stuff all the time that he never used. He never asked for it back. I bought a microphone stand at a thrift store and it had a sticker on it: “Atlas Sound.” It’s a company that makes stuff like that, mic stands and things. I just started using it. I was listening to the band the Swell Maps at the time, and they had “rock” names. The drummer’s name was “Epic Soundtracks.” I thought, “I’ll be Atlas Sound…” I hope I don’t get sued!
 CC: How did you decide to record on Kranky?
 
BC: That’s just one of the little blessings God threw at me – a real  curve-ball. It’s been fantastic. I can’t imagine working any other way.
 CC: Tell me about the title track of the record; it’s quite an evocative image – what inspired it?

BC: I had a dream that was kind of odd and symbolic, which is weird because I seldom have symbolic or meaningful dreams; usually I’m just on a game show or lost in a fancy mansion or something. But in this dream… I can only describe it as this movement where all these sane people with “well adjusted” lives were looking to psychotic teenage boys for validation – “let the sick lead the well.” It’s kind of hard to explain but I feel like it means a lot and means nothing all at once.
CC: How do you approach arranging your music for live performance?

BC: Man, I really just want to have fun, you know? I think the audience might expect a polished performance with a lot of the electronic elements from the album being reproduced; it’s not quite like that at all. It’s kind of raw and a little sloppy, but a real good time. It’s like 90′s garage-drone rock.
   
CC: Did you enjoy working on the Grizzly Bear track for their Friend EP?
BC: I love those dudes like family. They are really sweet. Ed and I are going to  Morocco  with Owen from Final Fantasy and the Arcade Fire to make some songs, kind of just for fun. That’s what I’m doing to take a break after this tour. We go in March. I hope I don’t get kidnapped. They sell kidnapping insurance to Westerners going over there.  
CC: What changes in your creative approach when working with a band as opposed to on your own?
   
I can relax more and just be myself. There’s no ego.
CC: What’s the situation with Deerhunter at the moment?
 
BC: I’m not real sure right now. We are a family and like every family we have a lot of problems but we are stuck with each other no matter what. I love all of them. I know we are going to try to do a new record this year. I want to try and make a Deerhunter record happen, but none of us are going to let anything mediocre come out. If it isn’t pretty strong we will just stop and try again later.

 CC: What else do you plan to do after the tour?

BC: Well I’m gonna do the Morocco thing and then come home and chill for a second and then tour Brazil and possibly Australia. I like to keep busy. This is my whole life at this point.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 17th, 2008 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.