The Antlers: ‘Every Time We Climb To A Bigger Venue, It’s Mind-Blowing For Me’

The Antlers have announced plans to release the final single from their latest album ‘Burst Apart’, so DIY decided to have a quick catch up with Peter Silberman about it.

The band will release ‘French Exit’ on the 7th May through Transgressive Records.

Giving us an insight into track, both musical and lyrically, frontman Peter Silberman had this to say: ‘We wrote the song a long time ago. It began as a really minimal electronic thing, I think at first it felt like a Knife song, like ‘Silent Shout’ maybe. But as we started thinking about it as a band’s song, it took on this new wave almost-reggae thing, and started sounding like it was made in 1982, but also in the future.

‘The name was a bit of an inside joke of ours, about how all of us tend to just suddenly and quietly leave parties when we’re done, without saying goodbye to people or announcing we’re leaving or any of those things a sane, considerate person probably does in that situation. It’s kind of a social faux-pas I guess, but it’s less about the people you’re inadvertently snubbing and more about just wanting to get the hell out of a place as quickly as possible for your own reasons. So lyrically, I tried to write about that, but with one-on-one scenarios and the way that you can “French Exit” with individuals, being non-committal and flighty.’

So, do you feel as though ‘French Exit’ finishes your singles campaign successfully? ‘I think that things are changing in a pretty major way right now. People have been talking about the “death of the album” for awhile and claimed that singles were partly responsible. But lately it feels more like singles are killing singles, that there’s just too many loose songs floating around unattached to anything, so it’s sort of like “Another song? Who cares? I have 1 million songs and a million more pass through my periphery every day. What’s the context?” So I think the collection of songs is becoming important again, and frankly that’s more interesting to me than a single because it requires thinking about how songs relate to one another.

‘I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t know what makes a singles campaign successful, other than things like sales, radio play, press, and other measurable factors, but those are just numbers. If you release a bunch of singles for a record, it should be to give some kind of overview of that record and help you fill in the blanks of a record you’ve only heard bits and pieces of. Maybe it’s also to create anchors for different points in the record and the way you think about it when you’re listening to it, like intended focal points. Being so close to Burst Apart, it’s hard for me to say if we achieved that.’

The band are also getting ready to play their largest UK headline show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, so how does that feel? ‘Pretty fucking crazy. I began the Antlers with high ambitions but low expectations, so every time we climb to a bigger venue, it’s mind-blowing for me. I enjoy the challenge of making a big show feel personal and human.’

And will you be preparing any differently for a show that large, or just tackle it with the same mindset as all of your other shows? ‘We’ve changed our setlist for this show and are thinking about things a bit differently - a more “total” approach. We’ve got some new songs that we’re debuting that we’re super stoked on, but we’re also bringing back a couple older songs we were reluctant to play last year because we were sick of them and don’t play songs well when we feel that way. But we’re rejuvenated now.’

So, with news of largest ever shows, and final singles, inevitably the final question can only ever be, what comes next for the band? ‘We just finished recording something new that’ll come out in the near future. It’s us getting into concepty stuff but in a different way than we have in the past. It’s still top secret, though.’

The Antlers play at Shepherd’s Bush Empire tomorrow evening, on the 26th April. ‘French Exit’ will be released on the 7th May.