In the Studio: Of Montreal

For Of Montreal's previous disc, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Kevin Barnes wrote freaked-out synth-pop tunes that explored the depression he felt when he became a father and moved to his wife's native Norway. "When I think about it now, I really wasn't prepared for adult reality," he says. He's since moved back to Athens, Georgia, to cut the band's ninth record (Barnes records by himself, assembling a group to tour), but he's not feeling much better. "Every day, I wake up, I never know if I'm going to want to slit my wrists or go jogging," he says. "It affects the music."

"Softcore" is a falsetto-voiced funk jam, "Paradigm Kisses" devolves into a dark explosion of guitar noise and "Our Last Summer as Independents" is a love song he wrote for his wife, Nina. But the weirdest cut might be "Plastis Wafer," about an incestuous brother and sister. "I always joke how each album is a parallel to a Prince record," he says. "This one is my Sign 'o' the Times, Lovesexy and The Black Album all together."

Related Stories:
• Of Montreal Album Review: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
• Of Montreal video for "Grolandic Edit"
• Of Montreal's Artist Page on RollingStone.com

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

More Song Stories entries »

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