Interview Robert Lowe a.k.a. Lichens has the power to stop time and space

It may sound unrealistic to say, but no one in the Chicago music scene looks like Robert Lowe—and it’s not just because he’s African-American in the notoriously white-dominated indie-rock world. Lowe, with his afro, scraggly facial hair, and distinctly retro style, simply sticks out—and that also applies to his music, particularly his latest project, Lichens. For almost a decade, he has worked at the Empty Bottle and played in local band 90 Day Men, but with that band on hiatus, Lowe has recorded with New York indie buzz band TV On The Radio and proceeded with Lichens. 90 Day Men’s music—a mélange of psychedelia, indie rock, and noise—was always challenging, but Lichens makes that band look like Sum 41. Lichens new album, The Psychic Nature Of Being, contains three droning, epic songs (one clocks in at 20 minutes) that are completely improvised and move at a glacial pace, evolving subtly around vocal loops, guitar, effects, and other noises. It’s not music for people with short attention spans; Lowe usually only plays one song during live performances. Beyond the music’s inherently unwieldy nature, its subtle nuances speak volumes about Lowe’s talent. Just before The Psychic Nature Of Being came out, Lowe talked to The A.V. Club.

The A.V. Club: When people ask you what Lichens sounds like, what do you say?

Robert Lowe: Well it’s kind of hard; I never really know exactly what to say. It’s an idea that I had based around movement and growth and progression, which mainly pertains to my voice. They say that the voice is an instrument along with other instrumentation—i.e. guitar, bells, or what have you—which add elements and color to what is happening. The main thing that I try to get across is the fact that every performance is a one-shot deal. Everything is done in real time, and everything is improvised—given there is a skeletal frame work, generally an idea that I have that I try to expound upon. But if I do it once, I will never be able to do it again.

AVC: It sounds like it’s pretty stark, though it still has a richness, too. Do you consider the record minimalist?

RL: I definitely think that, if you needed to classify it minimalist, would not be inappropriate. The idea is extremely stripped down because of the urgency of the situation and the fact that it’s only me. There’s only so much I can do, and those are my parameters right there, and I have understand how to cope in that situation given what I have to work with.

AVC: You’re improvising, but when you recorded, did you have a certain framework that you worked within?

RL: It was actually pretty loose. The ideas for the guitar were a little more solid because I’m not as adept a guitar player. I don’t know the guitar as well as I know my own voice. So going into it, I formulated ideas about where I wanted the guitar to go, how far out I wanted it to go. But still working inside of a framework, and not having it written, there will be anomalies that happen. I don’t know if necessarily any of it is preconceived, but I have an idea of where my hands are going to go. But, that being said, they don’t always go there.

AVC: After you recorded, did you go back and change anything?

RL: No, and nor would I want to. The only edit that took place on the record was on the last track on the record. There’s a silent segment close to the middle of the track that I edited down for time reasons only.

AVC: Considering the songs’ length, how many can you perform live?

RL: Generally, I just do one piece.

AVC: Do you watch the crowd at all?

RL: No, that’s another thing that I want to concentrate on: interacting more with the crowd. I think that would be an interesting dynamic.

AVC: Interacting how?

RL: First and foremost, acknowledging the existence of someone there watching what you do and after that, taking it from there.

AVC: It’s certainly not something they’ll get in two minutes.

RL: No, it takes some time. It does.

AVC: The 90 Day Men played on New Year’s Eve last year, but that’s been your only public performance as a band in quite some time. What’s going on with that band?

RL: We are on an indefinite hiatus. We do have plans to do at least one show next year. Other than that, I couldn’t really say. Everyone’s busy doing other things, and everyone’s good with other things.

AVC: The other big news was that you more or less joined TV On The Radio. How does that work with your living here?

RL: Well initially, the idea was that I would join the band becoming a full member. What I did was I went to New York to work with them on their new record, and it really made more sense for me to work as a collaborator, not as a full member, given that my ideas and the way that I work are wholly different from the way that they work as a unit. Bringing someone new into the fold at that particular time didn’t make much sense. It also didn’t make much sense on my end because I was putting [Lichens] on the back-burner, and this is my main focus, and this should be my main focus. So we decided that it would be best not to have me as a part of the band full-time, because it would ultimately take away from what I was trying to do solo, and it would be harder to integrate me with what was going on with where they were.

AVC: Are you going to perform with them?

RL: I have performed with them, but currently no there’s no plan to do so.

AVC: Would you be open to the idea of touring with them?

RL: Sure, we’re all friends, and we get along really well. It would be really easy for me in that situation—more so in that situation than in writing—because the shows are always marvelous.

AVC: The press release that accompanied the album said you planned to tour more—is that solo?

RL: Right now I’m working on putting together a tour with Grizzly Bear and Soft Circle. I’ve been talking with Jana Hunter, and she and I have been talking about doing some dates together in the U.S. I’ve been talking to Vida a.k.a. Bird Show about doing shows in Europe early next year.

AVC: The 90 Day Men were road warriors. You guys were always going out.

RL: It’s a little much, and it’s something I wish never to do again, tour that extensively. That’s when it becomes a job. You can work a day job and not destroy your body… If you’re doing it, and you love it, and you’re loving every minute of it, then that’s great. But I know that that’s not the case with almost everyone.