Interview: Seven Questions For No Age

Los Angeles-based noise-rock duo No Age are making their long-awaited return to Aotearoa this month, gearing up for a lightning-fast five date national tour taking them to the four main centres as well as new punk hotspot Blenheim. It'll be the team of Dean Spunt and Randy Randall's first local shows in a decade, having last visited here in 2009 for a legendary pair of double-headline events with Memphis rocker Jay Reatard, who sadly passed away the following year. Our roving reporter Fluffy, no stranger to a dynamic duo himself, hit up No Age for a round of questions via email about the noisy twosome's new album Snares Like A Haircut, their DIY ethos and more, in anticipation of next week's aural onslaught...

Undertheradar proudly presents...

No Age

Tuesday 26th February - Whammy Bar, Auckland
Wednesday 27th February - Valhalla, Wellington
Thursday 28th February - The Plant, Blenheim
Friday 1st March - Space Academy, Christchurch
Saturday 2nd March - Captain Cook, Dunedin

Tickets available HERE via UTR

1. One of the things I think is coolest about playing in a a two-piece band is that the stripped back instrumentation allows for more sonic space for artists to experiment. Have you made any cool / rare / interesting discoveries in this realm lately? Have you uncovered any more advantages to playing as a duo as time marches onwards?

Randy: Oh man, so much fun. I don’t know how to compare being in a 2 piece to other bands. The discussion making process is really easy. There are some restrictions that we have used to work as an advantage for us. We have fun doing as much as we can with what we able to do with only 4 hands and four feet.

2. Can you please tell us a little about the sonic and lyrical inspiration behind your latest album Snares Like A Haircut?

Dean: Lyrically the album relies on mostly what I like to call “intuitive mediators.” Words that bubble up from somewhere that check the others, stand around and ultimately help work it all out. Shutting off my brain is a feat sometimes, Snares was all about it though.

3. In the band’s early life you embraced a solid DIY ethos - having self-released a score of offerings, as well as dropping a zine to accompany your Losing Feeling EP. Do you feel like this approach is still relevant to distributing art in this day and age?

Dean: Of course it is. We still take this approach and wouldn’t really have it any other way. We have people that help us out in our world but for the most part we do everything. As I’ve gotten older it has only affirmed that making art this way is the only way that makes sense.

4. I read an interview where you were describing the need to have time in order to feel free and able to explore creatively and that even creating music can turn into a grinding routine, similar to working a 9 to 5, which is personally the opposite of my motivation to make music. Do you have any tips on keeping that exciting energy alive during the creative process?

Dean: Yeah try to not compromise and don’t follow trends. Those two things will lead you down a path that is unlikely to return from. Also don’t make decisions based on money, or at least solely on money. Sometimes I guess your hands are tied, we all need to make some bread, but how much? And stay up late, that is a nice hour for your brain.

5. Your 2009 NZ appearance with Jay Reatard (the last time you were here) is spoke of very highly among local music connoisseurs. Do you have any memories of the occasion?

Randy: We had such a great time the last time we were in NZ with Jay. It was a whirlwind trip, 2 shows in and out. Obviously we had no idea Jay wouldn’t be with us longer. He was struggling with some stuff during the tour but we all had his back and we look back on that tour fondly. We got to go to a black sand beach and have a look around. I recorded the sound of the ocean there and used it on a song call 'Aim at the Airport'.

6. What’s the most off-the-wall spot that No Age has ever played a show?

Randy: We played a former rice factory in Peru and the walls were made with the husks from the rice. That was such a fun show, it was crazy.

7. What's on the horizon for No Age in 2019?

Randy: We are writing new songs for a new record. We are playing 3 new songs on this tour. Hopefully we will record the record when we get home from this tour.

Tickets for No Age's upcoming tour of Aotearoa are available HERE via UTR.