Fun Fun Fun Fest: Between Blade Runner and Sonic The Hedgehog, there's Neon Indian
The latest electronic incarnation of ex-Ghosthustler man Alan Palomo, Neon Indian was supposed to be just a lark, an escape from his glossy, retro-electro band VEGA that Palomo devised primarily as a one-off song project. (That song, “Should Have Taken Acid With You,” was a tongue-in-cheek apology to Brooklyn video artist Alicia Scardetta for not following through on their plans to drop LSD together.) But something about Neon Indian's tape-worn aesthetic and haunting retro-synth soundtrack struck a chord, quickly leading to blog buzz around its debut LP, Psychic Chasms, the recruitment of a band to bring it to life, and global touring. Back in Austin—one of two places he calls home along with Brooklyn—for Fun Fun Fun Fest, Palomo spoke with The A.V. Club about making the leap from the bedroom to the stage, bizarre YouTube videos from his fans, and how his newest project draws influence from both French films and Sonic The Hedgehog.
The A.V. Club: How has the transition from being a bedroom project to playing live shows been going?
Alan Palomo: It’s been going quite well. We finally found the best way to re-contextualize these songs that had been written in my room. It's always been my dogma, as far as performing is concerned, that if you're comfortable exposing the music to an audience, then you should be ready to back that up with a legitimate live performance. I wanted to put something together that people would remember—a solid band where it still sounds like Neon Indian, but it's fuller.
AVC: For such a young band, Neon Indian already has a ton of fan videos on YouTube. How do you feel about that?
AP: Oh, dude! It blows my mind. I could very well just collect all those fan videos and project them while we perform. People find the strangest footage that they feel complements the songs in their own unusual, VHS sort of way. I remember seeing one for "6669 (I Don't Know If You Know)"—it just starts with someone licking a nipple—and being completely flabbergasted like, "Uh… Well, I guess that fits?"
AVC: Do you have plans to make your own music videos yet?
AP: Actually, we just shot the “Deadbeat Summer” video yesterday with this collective called Moop Jaw based out of Australia. It has this strange, documentary-esque, slacker vibe that's reminiscent of early-’80s skate videos, or Gus Van Sant’s meandering protagonists. It's basically day tripping—doing all the normal things you would do on a debilitatingly hot summer afternoon. It almost feels like an advertisement for what I'm going to be doing once I move to Brooklyn. Which is like: doing laundry. Talking to some homeless dudes. Shooting the shit.
AVC: You first envisioned Neon Indian as a multimedia collaboration between yourself and Alicia Scardetta. Do you still plan to play up the visual side of it eventually?
AP: I was studying film right up until I took the hiatus to do this, and even then I was trying to get into UT film school. I have every intention of trying to take some of those skills that I've acquired and interject them into the Neon Indian project. I've already talked about, on the second or third album, maybe writing a screenplay and having the songs on the album be the score to this short film.
AVC: Psychic Chasms has a cinematic element that’s reminiscent of some of the soundtrack work that Vangelis and Tangerine Dream were doing in the ’80s. Was that a direct influence?
AP: Vangelis, of course! Blade Runner is one of my favorite fucking movies of all time. Part of the creative process in writing the album was, if I ever felt depleted, I'd go to I Luv Video and then stay up and watch movies. There's this French movie called Diva from the early ’80s. One of the particular moments that I remember—where immediately after I was like, "All right! Turning off the movie, going to write some music"—was this guy gets stabbed in an arcade, and the guy is bleeding on this Pac-Man machine and stumbling through the room trying to make his way out. You hear all these weird little Galaga arpeggios and this ominous, eerie synth pad in the background that sort of sounds like John Carpenter's late-’70s, early-’80s stuff.
AVC: That video game aesthetic seems really prevalent in all your bands. Have you always been into video games?
AP: I grew up playing a lot of games. These days, it's rare that I have the time to sit down, so I almost play games more for creative purposes—to put on something that has this unusual soundtrack. I've noticed that Sonic [The Hedgehog], at least some of the later ones, have these elements that are totally comparable to, like, a Yellow Magic Orchestra song. These really proggy synth melodies, and unusual little crushed 12-bit samples. There was a point sometime in high school where I dropped it, but I feel like that's what needed to happen to let the nostalgia kick in.
AVC: Do you think someday kids will look back on our modern video games with the same sort of nostalgia?
AP: These games are going for realism, and it gets to the point where it’s creepy. It doesn't offer the same memorable characters that would be the closest thing to a strange childhood sidekick. That's what so much of the appeal was. People developed these really strange characters that you could somehow relate to. Like, "Hey, here's a turtle that's also a ninja and has a sai." When you're 5 years old, that's awesome. It's a really strange world that kids are growing up in now, because we're tailoring these really young adults. That's what it feels like: little kids as adults.
I remember watching Cartoon Network recently, and seeing this cartoon that was basically a parody of Temptation Island, that show on Fox. I don't know what kind of adult I would turn into if I grew up watching something like this. Even when you're a little kid, you can't escape the reality of a bunch of Dolce And Gabbana employees being stranded on an island, and all they do is fuck. When I was a kid, I saw Rocko's Modern Life and The Adventures Of Pete And Pete, and a lot of the writers for those shows have really great imaginations and good taste in music and would find ways to put in little bits of culture that transcended more into the adult realm. It's a cool thing to revisit. It's like, "Oh hey, I didn't know that The Magnetic Fields played in my favorite kids show."
