Pitchfork

There's a new behemoth in town, and Battles is its name. The fire-breathing, Warp-signed supergroup comprised of Tyondai Braxton, Ian Williams (ex-Don Caballero), John Stanier (ex-Helmet, Tomahawk), and Dave Konopka (ex-Lynx) drops their proper debut LP Mirrored on May 15, as previously reported. EP-based excitement has been brewing for a few years now, but longtime fans may be in for a few surprises.

For one: vocals. First single "Atlas"-- out April 2 in 12" and digital formats-- has 'em. So do several other tracks on Mirrored, as Battles' Braxton and Williams revealed to Pitchfork during a recent chat. So what's the deal, guys?

Said Braxton, who does all the quote-unquote singing, "It's not just straight vocals throughout on every track. Sometimes it's more conventional, sometimes it's more affected and used more as a texture. So there's no clear definition of the way that we use the vocals-- but we do have maybe three or four songs with lyrical vocals in them."

For Braxton and band, it's all about pushing boundaries. "The thing that I really like about other bands that I grew up listening to-- that I was inspired by-- is they have the same tools that other bands use-- you've got your lead vocals, guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, whatever-- but the way they use them is so different. So I always wanted to try my hand at using those same tools to go in the direction that I was interested in, and that we were interested in as a collective."

"We all are very cool with just trying out a bunch of different things. We're no more an instrumental band than we are a rock'n'roll band with no lead singer. We just try different things and do what we want to do, which is refreshing-- it's a refreshing formula to have in this band, where there's nothing that's too out of bounds.

"And though the vocal thing might be a little more conventional in a lot of ways, even there there's no fear of being able to go that route and see what we can come up with. And I had wanted to sing and wanted to see what it would be like to have a Battles song written, so we explored that direction."

Added Williams, "there are a lot of different notes that the record hits, it seems to me. There are a few eight-minute pieces of lots of different sections, and then there are some really short songs."

Battles worked with engineer Keith Souza at Machines With Magnets studios in Pawtucket, Rhode Island (just outside Providence) over a period of several months-- much longer than either Braxton or Williams is used to working on a record. As Braxton put it, "I feel like I did a term at Brown or something."

"It was a really intense record [to make]," Braxton added. "It was relaxing in the sense that we were able to try a lot of different things and be comfortable with experimenting because we had the time, but there was no shortage of work to be done, so it was a really intense process."

Although Battles has sapped up all of its members' time in recent months, Braxton-- who signed to Warp as a solo artist in February of last year-- has his own thing going on, as does Stanier, Battles' drummer, who plays in Australia's the Mark of Cain.

"I'm writing stuff now," Braxton revealed, "and it's the kind of thing where, being that it is just me, I have to find pockets of time where I can just kind of get stuff done. I know we'll be touring this year [dates recapped below], so my prediction is that I'll have stuff into the label by the fall. So it's pushed back a little farther than what I expected, but it's okay."

Williams hopes to flex some solo muscle soon as well. "Ty and I started playing together a few years ago, when I was thinking of doing a solo thing. We sort of combined forces and then slowly it turned into this band, Battles. And now it's fully a complete band: 25% effort from everybody to create the 100%. So I no longer feel like I have a solo voice again, and if I have time I might try to record some music by myself. That idea has never left my head."

Be on the lookout for a Timothy Saccenti-directed video for Battles' "Atlas", for which the band constructed the set.

Said Braxton, "Without necessarily revealing what it is, the video ties into the album art, and ties into the whole campaign of the whole record, the whole promotional...movement with the record. It's really cool, and people should check it out."

Just don't get confused. This is Battles we're talking about-- one word, plural. Since the supergroup hit the scene, however, a few similarly-named acts-- including Vancouver's the Battles and London's Battle-- have sprung up. And while Tyondai and Ian admit they're not yet ready for legal action, they did express some concern over the possible identity confusion.

Braxton said, "I'll just sum it up like this: you want to be able to exist as the band name that you'd come up with as before, in every territory that you perform in, and every territory that you can play in and have records released in. You want to be able to maintain your identity without it being challenged. So, you know, that's the hope and the thing that you have to protect as a band that has a similar name as someone else."

Williams summed it up even more succinctly: "Like, imagine if Al Gore had another guy out there named Al Gore...now that's an inconvenient truth."

I have Battles in my life:

03-20 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
03-22 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
03-23 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
03-24 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
03-25 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn #
03-27 Birmingham, AL - Bottletree #
03-28 Lexington, KY - The Dame
03-29 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop
03-30 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
04-01 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
04-02 Buffalo, NY - Soundlab ^
04-03 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
04-04 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
04-05 Boston, MA - Great Scott
04-06 Providence, RI - AS220 %
05-09 Hamburg, Germany - Halfenclan Exil
05-10 Berlin, Germany - Maria
05-12 Cologne, Germany - Studio 672
05-14 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso (Room 2)
05-15 Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
05-16 London, England - Scala
05-17 Sheffield, England - The Corporation !
05-18 Bristol, England - The Cooler
05-19 Somerset, England - Butlins Minehead (All Tomorrow's Parties)
05-20 Leeds, England - Stylus Uni !
05-22 Manchester, England - Academy 2
05-23 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC2
05-24 Birmingham, England - The Barfly
05-25 Dublin, Ireland - Temple Bar Music Centre
05-26 Paris, France - Maroquinerie
06-01 Rome, Italy - Dissonanze Festival

* with Mary Timony, Twilight Sad
# with Loney, Dear
^ with Knife Crazy
% with Mahi Mahi, Demon Venom
! with Clark