Dave Portner is a busy guy. Under the pseudonym Avey Tare, he’s acted as “de facto frontman” of Animal Collective, arguably one of the most influential groups in all of indie rock, for over a decade now. The band’s prolific output\u00a0represents just a fraction of his complete discography – he’s released collaborative projects with Eric Copeland, David Grubbs, and Vashti Bunyan, as well as his former wife Kr\u00eda Brekkan. In 2010, he released his first solo album on Paw Tracks, the dark and deeply affected Down There<\/em>, largely focusing on his feelings about death and illness with a murky sound to match. It’s reflective of a dark period of his life, but with the debut of his latest project, Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks, it seems like he’s come out on top.<\/p>\n

Releasing Enter The Slasher House<\/em> in April, with former Ponytail drummer Jeremy Hyman and ex-Dirty Projector\u00a0Angel Deradoorian on keys, the record’s vibe swings to the poppier end of Avey Tare’s songwriting spectrum. Much like the campy B-movies the moniker recalls, Slasher Flicks is an endeavor concerned mostly with fantasy and escape rather than introspection. That’s reflective, in some ways, of Portner’s own migration from the East coast to Los Angeles, where he now lives with girlfriend\u00a0Deradoorian. But more than anything, Slasher Flicks\u00a0is about the simple fun of playing music as a three-piece, and though its more straightforward than much of Portner’s catalogue, the eleven tracks on Slasher House<\/em> each bear his familiar stamp.<\/p>\n

Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks are soon to embark on a West Coast mini-tour that kicks off with a stop at FYF Fest. Animal Collective have also announced fall DJ residencies in New York, Philly, and D.C. Portner chatted with AudioFemme about the particular influences that play into this latest project, how he tackles songwriting and producing, and what’s next for Animal Collective.<\/p>\n

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AudioFemme: <\/strong>Hi Dave! Thanks for chatting with us. You\u2019re in L.A. right now, and you\u2019re kind of on a short break from touring with Slasher Flicks \u2013 you were out for about a month after the record was released, did some shows around Pitchfork Fest, and then you\u2019re going back out around the end of the month, including FYF. Do you like\u00a0<\/em>doing festivals?<\/em><\/p>\n

AT:<\/strong>\u00a0Festivals have never been my favorite thing. I definitely like the opportunity to do \u2018em, but I feel like more than not they\u2019re usually pretty stressful. So it\u2019s kinda hard to go into \u2018em thinking it\u2019s gonna be a like great time or something, you know.<\/p>\n

AF: <\/strong>I\u2019ve often wondered what it\u2019s like for bands, because as a person who goes to a lot of more intimate shows,\u00a0I find festivals to be sort of the least desirable way to see a band.<\/em><\/p>\n

AT:<\/strong> In terms of being in the crowd and stuff, yeah, it\u2019s definitely not for me. In terms of playing you\u2019re just dealing with all these people that are stressed out for good reason to begin with – just trying to move things along – and I feel like it\u2019s just not the most personal musical experience.<\/p>\n

AF:<\/strong> How has the rest of touring been, your headlining shows?<\/em><\/p>\n

AT:<\/strong> Oh, they\u2019ve been great. The tour was really fun. I just like the more intimate feeling, it\u2019s really a lot easier to connect, especially if the crowd is feeling the music. In that sense it was good, it was just good to play with Jeremy and Angel every night. We had a good time playing and it was cool to just be able to drive in a van around the country. It\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve actually gotten to do that, and see things.<\/p>\n

AF: <\/strong>Do you mean like, on the road? Did you go to roadside attractions?<\/em><\/p>\n

AT:<\/strong> Well a little. I mean I guess just first and foremost being able to see the landscape. I guess I\u2019m used to bus travel lately and you don\u2019t really get a lot of that, especially because you travel at night, mostly, on a bus. You don\u2019t really see the landscape change, and I think that\u2019s definitely one cool thing about the US and driving around, is there\u2019s so much variety to see.<\/p>\n

AF: <\/strong>So the album\u2019s been out since April. Are you pleased with how it\u2019s been received? How does it feel to be playing it live now?<\/em><\/p>\n

AT:<\/strong> I think so. I\u2019m not the type of person that\u2019s too tapped into how the record\u2019s doing. For me, especially, for this project, it\u2019s supposed to be just a little bit more fun and laid back, just trying to just take some time away from working so intensely at music. I mean, I want it to do well, obviously, and I think it is, which is good. But yeah, the songs are tight, and it\u2019s been good being able to play all of them live. When we were writing the record we played some shows before we recorded and there were some of them we kind of wrote after so it\u2019s nice to just be able to play the whole record.<\/p>\n

AF: <\/strong>Yeah, I actually went to one of those early shows, the one last summer at Glasslands.<\/em><\/p>\n

AT:<\/strong> Yeah? That was a crazy one!<\/p>\n

AF: <\/strong>It was great – exciting to see the songs develop and take shape. A lot of people have compared the songs to some of the more poppy, anthemic Animal Collective tracks. Did that come from sort of shifting the Animal Collective live sets to more of a \u201chit list\u201d rather than amorphous jamming that comprised earlier tours? Did that shift influence the way you went into writing for Slasher Flicks?<\/em><\/p>\n

AT:<\/strong> No, not really. I mean, I guess I write a lot of songs. So there\u2019s definitely songs I\u2019ve been writing over the course of the last year and a half or so that aren\u2019t included on a Slasher Flicks record per se, but I think there is a specific style of song I started putting together for this record because I kind of knew I wanted to do it with a three-piece band. I\u2019m always thinking like, well how can I produce this record, or how can this record be produced, to do something a little bit different than anything I\u2019ve done before.<\/p>\n

Down There<\/em>, the last solo record I did was [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][this] very sort of inner, heady thing that I kinda just kept inside of me for a long time and I finally got out with electronics and was mostly just me in a bedroom. But I think I just wanted the Slasher Flicks songs to just be something that would be fun to play live, and easy to play live for a band. So I think that\u2019s where it comes from too. I was also messing around with referencing a lot of stuff that I listen to actually which doesn\u2019t happen a lot with Animal Collective. I mean, it does, but since things are dissected a lot more by each member of Animal Collective it turns out way different, usually, than I would envision it the way I first wrote the song.<\/p>\n

AF: <\/strong>What kind of things were you listening to that influenced Slasher Flicks most heavily?<\/em><\/p>\n

AT:<\/strong>\u00a0It goes back to my love of old garage music, the heart of like psychedelic music, like 13th Floor Elevators, or Silver Apples or Love, or anything like that… late sixties, early seventies Kraut stuff. Also stuff like Steely Dan which I\u2019ve grown to like a lot over the last four years. And even like jazz stuff, which I think doesn\u2019t really come through so much on the record, but I think definitely in how jazz is presented on record.<\/p>\n

AF: <\/strong>And maybe that collaborative style of improvisation?<\/em><\/p>\n

AT:<\/strong> Yeah, yeah, and just sort of like the more freeform aspects, letting that seep in where it can.<\/p>\n