White Poppy “You need the chaos to have order, just like you need hardship to appreciate joy. I suppose I do value chaos.”

How focal of an instrument do you see your computer being used to shape your music?

I don’t see my computer being a part of my music THAT much. I don’t use one live, and with recording I mostly just use a computer to add overdubs to the tape recordings, and export files to email to people.

I’m definitely more of a gadget person. I like to actually see and hold the instruments, as opposed to using virtual ones. That being said, I would like to get better at creating beats and stuff on the computer.

Is touring how you met Constellation Tatsu?

Well, the way I met Steven from Constellation Tatsu was when he put out a Samantha Glass tape. I made a video for one of those songs. Then through that, Steven heard White Poppy and wanted to release a tape.

How’d you end up at Moon Glyph then, with Beau on your new collaboration together, Dorval & Devereaux?

The Moon Glyph connection was through Beau. I found out about Samantha Glass because NNF sent me his Midnight Arrival tape, and I got totally hooked on it. At the time, I was in this collaborative space, so I emailed him and suggested we collaborate and he was into it so we started working over the internet together.

Are y’all planning on continuing the project?

At first it was just a one-off thing that was potentially going to be released as White Poppy and Samantha Glass, but Beau suggested we used our last names, and we both agreed it was nice to open up the possibility of continuing it.

So no other collaborations in the foreseeable future?

No. Wait, actually: YES. I’ve been talking about doing something with my friend Kristian who I used to be in a band with. He now plays in a band called Babysitter, and when I’m in Montreal next month we want to try to work on some stuff. Though, I try not to put too much pressure on myself with these kinds of projects because I already feel like I take on so much. I like to keep it open. If it’s something that happens then GREAT! If not then, whatever.




Crystal Dorval selfies

What band was your pal in with you?

It was my first band, from when I was a kid [Maniacal Laugh], it’s called Vincat. It’s so hard ‘cause it’s embarrassing for me to share that stage of my musical history. I dunno, you can’t be embarrassed by the things you do. So I try to think of it as a step to where I am now.

You’ve taken a lot of steps it seems. It seems like you know everyone too. Like, how do you know Mac DeMarco?

Yeah, the Canadian music scene is so tight-knit, and since I’ve been doing it for so long you just end up meeting people along the way. I ended up making friends with Mac on MySpace in 2009 [Laughs]. He was in that band Makeout Videotape, I was doing a project called My Friend Wallis and we became band friends. I then moved to Vancouver, and I ended up on this tour with him ‘cause his bass player dropped out last-minute. I suggested I go in his place as a joke, but then it happened. I learned all the bass parts in two weeks and left for a month in an RV around North America. Our other friend’s band Walter TV was also on that tour. Now they play with Mac as his backing band.

Outside of the Canadian community, what art is currently inspiring your works?

I feel like I’m most often inspired by world music. My friend just introduced me to this amazing Ethiopian piano music. It’s so nice. I’m also hooked on Rhythm & Sound’s “King in My Empire.” Idk I’m constantly listening to compilations and mixes, so when people ask me what I’m listening to I’m always like, ‘Oh, I forget…. this… African mix… ?’ Maybe people don’t hear it much in my music ‘cause I’m compared to shoegaze and dreampop often, but I draw a lot of my inspiration from African and Brazilian music. I’m just obsessed with the drums and rhythms and clangy guitar lines. That’s my JAAAMMM.

Just for fun, in your Sanity Soap blog you have writing about light and darkness relating to good and bad, and the nonexistence of the two within that dichotomy. So, again, just for fun, if White Poppy were the light in this musical world, what would be its DARK counterpart?

Maybe, Black Sabbath [Laughs]. I like older heavier music, stoner rock. I like to make heavier music, but it just doesn’t fit with a lot of the White Poppy stuff, so it never comes out.

I did one BAD thing, and that was REALLY fun and memorable, but I don’t want to say what it was.

Well, I mean, you can hear that in “Wish and Wonder” for sure, though…

Yes, well — not to be one of those people who LOVE their own shit always, but I love that song. It’s such a simple song, but I have no idea how to recreate something so simple. I don’t even remember creating it. It’s just that one baseline with all this stuff going on around it. I love the fidelity of that recording. I’m always trying to recreate the fidelity of it but I can’t. That song is a mystery to me.

What do you like about cassettes?

I love the happy accidents that can happen. You can’t get that as much with digital recording. With tapes, there are elements that can come into play that are out of your control. I record over old tapes I find a lot, with Drifter’s Gold you can hear that. With the track “Who Are You,” you can hear the opposite side of the tape playing backward at the end. I kept that in because I liked the way it sounded, but it was just a fluke.

On “I Had a Dream” there are a few accidental warbles where the tape just fucked up during recording. But those little quirks end up being my favorite things. None of that would have happened, though, if I were recording digitally. So I like how it has a bit of a mind of its own, which gets incorporated in music.

Along those lines of candidness with your cassette recordings, and not to contradict your writing, but on Sanity Soap you talk about chaos as if it’s a bad thing, but it sounds like it’s sort of helped you out throughout your musical endeavors, do you care to expand this idea either way for TMT? Or maybe that’s not what you mean by chaos..

I haven’t thought about going out of my way to experience chaos, considering there’s a lot in my life naturally, fortunately [laughs]. I see my musical process as a way to make sense of chaos, or structure it, but you are right, I do embrace it, if not feed off it creatively. Perhaps I can now apply this method to my emotional life.

Going back to the light and dark thing, nobody really WANTS negativity in their life or hardship or chaos, BUT they do have a vital role in life. You need the chaos to have order, just like you need hardship to appreciate joy. I suppose I do value chaos.

You use “pffffft” a lot on Sanity Soap too. Can you make that noise for the readers of this interview?

[Loud Laughter] Yeah, it’s pffffft… Not like that will help since this interview is being transcribed to writing.

So you’re just chilling until after this next trip, and then you’ll grip all that travel inspiration to start up new White Poppy work?

Yeah. It’s all about adjusting to the different lifestyle out here. I haven’t had much time to adjust since I was preparing for the Euro-tour, and now this up-coming one. So, it’s been hard settling down. I’m excited to get to the point where I can really get into creative-mode. I’m constantly reminding myself to be patient for that to come, as I sit around watching Gossip Girl all day long [Laughs].

It sucks trying to get over that feeling of guilt because I’m just hanging out. I find I’m constantly feeling guilty when I don’t do something “productive.” Though, the reminder is always that resting is GOOD, it’s productive for other reasons.

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