Neu Mix #009: Pick A Piper

Brad Weber’s Pick A Piper project appeared to emerge in early 2013 with the announcement of a debut, self-titled album on Mint Records. But Weber - who shadows as a percussionist for Caribou - is merely using the rare downtime in his primary commitment to release a work he’s been adding bits to for the past five years. While everyone still basks in the brilliance of Dan Snaith’s ‘Swim’ record, Pick A Piper’s been given a moment in the spotlight, one that it fully deserves. Weber - alongside Angus Fraser, Clint Scrivener and Dan Roberts - has fused his percussion duties into a record of its own standing. Some elements of Caribou’s own work undoubtedly cross-over, but this debut’s a piece of its own standing, featuring guest-spots from Braids and Blue Hawaii’s Raphaelle Standell-Preston and Ryan McPhun of the Ruby Suns. 

In his curated mix, Brad seems to transfer the eclecticism and excitability of his first work into a new 45-minute piece. DIY favourites Sinkane (a musician who’s crossed paths with Weber plenty of times) features alongside CFCF, Luke Abbott and Teen Daze, as well as names who’ll be new to many a cursory listener. 



How long have you been working on this project in between your duties as Caribou percussionist? How much of a challenge has it been to make a cohesive full-length like this debut?
I formed this project in late 2008 after finishing up touring ‘Andorra’. We put out an EP in 2009 but were much more acoustic back then, but still had dance world kinda in the back of our minds. It’s really difficult for me to make a cohesive full-length because I’ve never felt good at writing tracks that sound similar enough to each other. I love to play around with a lot of different ideas and styles which don’t necessarily make for a cohesive output overall. But I finally had a concrete vision this time of making music that blended the organic and electronic in a way that made the original sound source often tricky to pin down. Music that was poppy, but not always using pop song structures. And a record that made you bob your head but wasn’t exactly dance music.

When you’re on the road, on tour, experiencing the odd break, are you naturally inclined to just start writing songs and sections of a track?
While on tour for most of 2010/11 I took any spare moment I had to work on new ideas. Whether it be in the back of the tour van or even on an airplane, I came up with tons of little loops, rhythms and melodies during the course of those years. Whenever I was home, I’d pick my favourites and start to develop them into full ideas with Dan and Angus’s help as well as other friends who happened to be around during those periods.

When collaborating with people like Raphaelle Standell-Preston, did you write the songs from scratch with them, or did you dream up the songs yourself beforehand, always having the collaborators in mind for when you recorded?
The songs were mostly completed by the time I passed them over to our vocal collaborators. For whatever reason I just felt an urge to have certain people sing certain songs. The original idea was to have them re-record the vocal melody we already had laid down. But in most cases the vocalist in question couldn’t help but offer us another melody or two as well. Which in many cases really took songs to the next level. In Raph’s case, she did a really cut up new interpretation of an old vocal melody we had back when the song was called ‘Yellowknife’. She completely re-envisioned the part and made it all her own, which is exactly what this new, moodier version of the song needed (it’s now called ‘Once Were Leaves’). 

Did you always want this record to be a big collaborative record or did it just end up that way? Is there anybody you’d dream of guesting on a future album?
That’s always been the idea with this project. A collaboration between like-minded friends. In the beginning it was just Dan, Angus, Clint and I (Clint has since left to become a daddy). But I knew over time that I wanted to open it up to other friends for collaboration too. Some songs on the record were just written by Dan and I or Angus and I, but some had several people contributing small ideas, be it a melody, bassline, vocal idea or whatever they had in mind at the time. The overall process I would describe as “sampling my friends”. I recruited trusted pals to come in and record various ideas/loops/bits along to tracks that I had already started. Often two or more people would record along to the same base tracks without hearing the other person’s ideas. I choose what I liked and then cut up and manipulated what they had given me and arranged full tracks from it.

Has the intention always been to do something like this, bringing out your own album? Even at an early age is it something you dreamed of doing?
This is the record I’ve always dreamed of making since I was like 13. I used to make little solo albums and burn CDRs and give them to my friends. But they were more like a collection of songs than an actual album. After I had like 10 or 12 tracks, I’d make another album and pass it around. I’ve played drums on lots of albums, but wasn’t always contributing to the songwriting. But there is a band I was in when I was 23 called Winter Equinox that wrote a full length together (kinda sounded like Explosions in the Sky or Godspeed with a larger palette of instruments) that I’m still super proud of. But Pick a Piper is the first record where I really took the reins and made the music I’ve been wanting to create my whole life. It’s also being released the way I’ve always dreamed. Believe it or not, this is the first time music I’ve written has been on vinyl and it means a lot.

Is it important that people view this release as separate as possible from your role in Caribou?
It’s inevitable that the record will get compared to Caribou. Dan Snaith was a huge influence on me even before I starting playing in his live band so of course there are going to be some similarities. That and the fact that I’m also feeling more dance music structures/sounds these days. I do appreciate that perhaps more people are paying attention due to my role in Caribou but I hope people love the record for what it is, not just because of the connection. Thankfully I feel like that is the case so far.

Would it be right in saying that this is a very percussion-focused record? Did that come naturally? I guess it kinda ties in with some of the artists you chose for the mix - I always associate Luke Abbott with a similar style.
Drums are my first instrument, so they are probably always going to have a huge impact on what I do. They are also what usually comes first in any given track. The original idea with Pick a Piper was to make dance music out of acoustic instruments and layer together boat-loads of drums and percussion. It was a cool idea, but not very balanced. Our music and the live shows ended up being too drum focused and everything else was shoved to the background. I wanted to take bits and pieces of that original focus but have a stronger emphasis on vocals/melody and space. These songs are way more sparse than our past material (even though it may not sound that way). I just wanted to create a record with great melodies and textures and layer in a more tasteful amount of drum/percussion emphasis. 

Can you talk us through the rest of the mix? Are these guys necessarily reflective of the sound you tried to achieve with this album or do they just well work by association?
You mentioned Luke Abbott. He’s a huge influence for me, so it’s hard not to include him in any DJ’ing I do. Some tracks in the mix I’ve just discovered lately (like Session Victim, Jonas Rathsman). Some of them are by artists I’ve loved for a long time and mean alot to me (Chancha Via Circuito, Kenton Slash Demon). Sinkane, Slim Mitchel and Xavier Leon are good friends of mine. Sinkane (Ahmed Gallab) filled in for me in 2008 when I broke my wrist on tour and he’s been doing incredibly well in music ever since. After seeing him play in a lot of other people’s projects, it’s really awesome to see his own stuff taking off. Xavier Leon grew up in my hometown (Waterloo, Ontario) and was a part of the Red Bull Music Academy in 2011. He’s also in the production duo Sibian and Faun who writing some really insane left-field stuff that seems to be getting lots of attention at the moment. The Sofrito afro edits are amazing. I love DJ’ing a mix of a bunch of different styles and trying to tie them together in some way. I think there is always some type of underlying funkiness, even if I’m mixing techno, house, afro-funk, hip-hop, etc. I’ve also layered in loads of extra percussion to tie it all together. I love DJs who really challenge their listeners to go on a journey with them, which may include a lot of tracks that the listener totally didn’t expect but somehow fit together perfectly. That’s what I hope I’ve done here and something I’d like to get better at in the future.

Tracklist:
Chancha Via Circuito - burkina
Sinkane - runnin’ (Daphni Mix)
Loudery - just a little bit
Chicago Damn - hold on
Session Victim - good intentions
CFCF - before and after light
Sofrito vs Tabou No2 - tabou for the people (JD Twitch edit)
Benis Cletin - money make man mad (Sofrito disco dub)
Kenton Slash Demon - singla
Kenton Slash Demon - khattabi
Slim Mitchel - gonna rain
Fairmont - mobula
Teen Daze - late
Luke Abbott - modern driveway
Xavier Leon - entrenched (Liar remix)
Jonas Rathsman - tobago (original mix)
Jimmy Flamante - time
 

Neu Mix - #009: Pick A Piper by Diy on Mixcloud

Pick A Piper’s self-titled debut album is out now on Mint Records. Order digitally & physically.