Music

A/S/L: CFCF talks Yeezus, avocados, and Montreal's best bagel

by Josiah Hughes

A/S/L features online chat interviews with musicians. Get it? The internet.

Montreal-based artist CFCF (a.k.a. Michael Silver) has explored numerous nooks and crannies of solo music production since his rise in the late 2000s. Music for Objects, his latest effort for Paper Bag Records, continues the artist’s trend towards minimal neoclassical composition, exploring cinematic instrumentation and moving repetition and timeless technique through eight ebbing and flowing tracks.

Hitting up Silver on Gchat, we discussed his latest work while making time to talk fashion blogs, Yeezus, avocado spread, and the great Montreal bagel wars.

Josiah: Hey Mike, are you there?

CFCF: Hey there! Yup.

Josiah: Hey! How’s it going?

CFCF: Good! And you?

Josiah: Good! Just lazing around at the office! So the idea for this column is that I just chat with you for as long or short as you want, then we run the whole thing. Sound good?

CFCF: Yeppers.

Josiah: So what have you been up to today?

CFCF: Not too much really — made some coffee, browsing the world wide web. Trying to recover from this really annoying ankle injury.

Josiah: That sounds pretty great! What happened to your ankle?

CFCF: Just overworked it running. Pretty sure it’s shin splints, though I haven’t seen a doctor or anything. It is the worst.

Josiah: Oh shit! That sucks! Do you make music full-time or do you have a job as well?

CFCF: Nope, this is what I do full-time, although ‘full-time’ might be stretching it.

Josiah: Hahaha. That’s awesome! So what does a day in your life look like?

CFCF: Ahah. Well, I get up fairly late usually. I can’t really help it. I wish I could. So I make coffee, eat some lunch, etc. Then it’s really anybody’s guess. Over the winter I was making just buttloads of music, to the point I had to tell myself to slow down — there is no way I will be able to catch up with this much material with my release schedule. So lately — just hanging out is the thing.

Josiah: that’s really great! Do you generally try to release all of the music you make or are you sitting on a bunch of stuff that you don’t know what to do with?

CFCF: Yeah, most of it I don’t know what to do with. Sometimes I’ll get into a stretch of writing stuff that is very cohesive and that will eventually become something. But then there will be like 30 things that are like, ‘That was fun, but this is almost useless now.’

Josiah: What does your writing process look like?

CFCF: I guess it starts with just sitting around and listening to music. Like, getting really into it to the point where I’m like, okay, I want to try to do something that is like this and this and this. And then I sit down in my office and tinker. It’s not too much more complicated than that. The song grows itself organically — depending on my dedication to it, I guess.

Josiah: I find that interesting because your music has evolved to incorporate (at least what sounds like) much more of a classical influence… are you ever sitting down and actually writing out music note by note or planning it out like a legit classical composer, or do you mostly write intuitively?

CFCF: No, I don’t know how to write music like that. It wouldn’t work for me at all. It’s all intuitive. But I also don’t see what I’ve done as being ‘classical’ in any sense. I am incorporating some ‘modern classical’ elements, but it’s still pop to me.

Josiah: Of course, and I don’t mean to sound reductive! What instruments to you use when you start tinkering?

CFCF: It depends on the direction I’m trying to take, but generally it’ll be piano sounds, synth or guitar. Or samples.

Josiah: And how do you group the songs?

CFCF: Most of the time that will come after the fact. I think it’s too restrictive to work on songs with a completely solidified concept in place. For Objects, I just knew the kind of music I wanted to be making, and vaguely how the concept would work, but it was only when I had these eight songs, I started to assign titles and really give it the finished ‘theme.’ I mean, an album or EP is just a way to give meaning to a bunch of stand-alone pieces, so that the pieces themselves are cohesive is more important than the theme. And it’s interesting to see how the theme will become richer when you start to add different types of songs in there.

Josiah: Totally! So once you’ve made that decision and you’re preparing to release something, do you feel at ease or do you ever second guess yourself?

CFCF: Well in the case of this EP and Exercises, I made changes right at the last second, before mastering. There were newer things that were better than what I already had there, so I swapped them out. I think that last-second dash to make it stronger is what ends up making it exciting and stops you second-guessing later.

Josiah: It’s been quite a while since you’ve released a full-length. What do you prefer about the EP or mini-album format?

CFCF: Well I’ve been working on an album for a while now. I don’t really prefer EPs, but it’s nice to have an avenue where I can explore smaller or more niche ideas and not have it perceived as my Next Grand Statement, or whatever. There is stuff I want to do, that I’ve done with these EPs, that is very different from what other things I want to do that I’ve done with the LPs.

Josiah: That makes perfect sense! Can you tell me about the Next Grand Statement?

CFCF: Haha well. I’ve been teasing it in interviews for a while now. It’s changed a lot over time. Now I don’t want to put that much pressure on it haha. But it’s a kind of pop record, in the vein of Peter Gabriel, though with some darker elements. I am singing on the majority of songs. And it’s kind of exploring this separation from nature and the combination of fear and desire that you feel when faced with its enormity.

Josiah: Wow! Any idea when that’ll be out?

CFCF: Very soon! Like… later this year.

Josiah: Awesome! Okay, this has been very business-y so far hahahah. On a more casual note, what is your daily web routine?

CFCF: ahah umm, Hipinion and Twitter, mostly. Then I will check other things like Root Blog, Tumblr, WWD, Hypebeast, dumb sites.

Josiah: Yes! That’s great. That’s what the internet is for! Is it ever weird if people are sharing your music on Hipinion?

CFCF: I kind of expect it. It’s not a big deal. Plus everyone there who is into it is really supportive so it’s great. I’ve been there for ages so it’s a good vibe.

Josiah: Sweet! And being that it’s #followfriday hahaha who are some of your favourite Twitter personalities?

CFCF: Well I have to rep dudes like @AcephaleRecords, @0PN, @HowToDressWell, @jacquesgreene because aside from being chill dudes they also bring it with good tweets. @wikipetera also rules the school. @DoritosOntario. @RaymondPettibon.

Josiah: Damn that’s a fine collection. @DoritosOntario is killing it today.

CFCF: Yeah today has been a great day for Doritos in Ontario.

Josiah: Hahahaha. You live in Montreal right?

CFCF: Yup!

Josiah: How’s that going? Where do you like to hang out?

CFCF: It goes well as always! I’m from here so it’s just home. Nice to see my family a lot. My favourite hang zone is my apartment, but otherwise I tend to spend a lot of time at Sparrow. I’m not a crazy social party guy so lately it’s been pretty low-key.

Josiah: Staying home is kinda the best. I’ve only ever been to Montreal once, and I was hanging out with our mutual friend Jesse Cumming, and he mentioned that there’s basically two bagel companies competing to run the city’s bagel scene. Is that true? And do you have a favourite?

CFCF: Yeah, it’s between St. Viateur and Fairmount Bagel. So Fairmount is actually the older of the two, but they’ve kept it so really real that they never like, branched out or opened other locations, so they’re not as recognized. St. Viateur has all these other locations so their bagel load is just way bigger and they can export more and so people just think of them first. But I am taking a stand: if you don’t rep Fairmount Bagel, you don’t know anything. You’re faking it.

Josiah: Whoa! Big words!

CFCF: It’s time people knew!

Josiah: Is it a pretty heated point of debate in the city?

CFCF: yeah kind of. Everybody has an opinion. It’s just in this case, there is only one correct opinion, and then a less acceptable one. St. Viateur isn’t bad by any means, they’re still great bagels. Just not the greatest.

Josiah: What about poutine, how do you feel about that dish and what do people need to know?

CFCF: Chez Claudette on Laurier is where it’s at. That’s my favourite in the city.

Josiah: I think I might’ve had that. How do you feel about lower end poutine? Or even chains like Smoke’s? is it blasphemous?

CFCF: What is Smoke’s?

Josiah: It’s a Canada-wide chain, although maybe they didn’t bother opening one in Montreal hahahah. It’s like fast food poutine

CFCF: Haha yeah I don’t think we have that in Quebec…. Oh, apparently there is one near Concordia

Josiah: I don’t really know where I’m going with this. Just wondering if you fuck with cheap shitty poutine or if you’re more of a poutine elitist so to speak.

CFCF: Yeah, I’m not really an elitist, although I tend to be weary of out of province poutines. Weary? Wary.

Josiah: Hmm good question hahahaha. Wary looks weird too.

CFCF: I’m wary of non-Quebecois poutines, which makes me weary.

Josiah: Hahahaha. What’s the ideal scenario for people to listen to your new EP?

CFCF: Probably if you’re drinking a coffee and eating a piece of lemon cake or something. And then just stare at all the stuff on your desk really intensely.

Josiah: That sounds delicious and delightful!

CFCF: Ahah well seriously I think the idea is to get into a headspace where you’re appreciative of the little things in life. That kind of comes over me after I watch a movie by people like Yasujiro Ozu or Wim Wenders. They have a really nice way of expressing that value in our life of the banal things.

Josiah: That’s great! Love me some Wim!

CFCF: Definitely! For a good cross-section — people should check out Tokyo-Ga, his documentary about Ozu.

Josiah: Cool okay! I still need to see that ballet one he did too.

CFCF: Oh yeah me too. Would be cool to see it in 3D.

Josiah: You’re full of good recommendations. What have you been listening to lately?

CFCF: Hmm lemme check
Yeezus
Dean Blunt – The Redeemer
Sade – Love Deluxe
Pure X – Crawling Up the Stairs
a lot of Moodymann and dance stuff by folks like Omar-S, Anthony Naples, Huerco S., DJ Sprinkles

Josiah: Okay how do you feel about Yeezus?

CFCF: Oh I love Yeezus. It’s amazing. Sonically just crazy that it’s in the position that it is.

Josiah: What do you mean by the position?

CFCF: Oh just that it’s such a huge event album. And it just sounds so crazy.

Josiah: Yeah! I agree. The music is absolutely insane. As opposed to the new Jay-Z which is intended to also be a huge event album but has practically 0 innovation.

CFCF: Yeah that album sounds like it’s going to be terrible. It’s so cynical and boring.

Josiah: It’s super boring. 🙁 It’s funny how they just market albums as event albums now, like once a month there’s a new event album.

CFCF: Haha yeah, and then the album comes out and you give it one listen you’re like “pfffft.”

Josiah: Yeah exactly hahahaha. Even, as much as I love Boards of Canada, it was weird how Warp marketed that as a huge event… I mean it was a good album but everyone sitting around live tweeting some new ambient synth jams is pretty funny to me.

CFCF: Hahaha yeah it’s true. The fanfare is so pointless. They could have just put out the record and people would be way more excited. But I guess it’s all about racking up the pre-orders.

Josiah: So what is your plan with the rest of your day now?

CFCF: Hmm no clue! Every day it seems like it might start raining at any point so I’m afraid to commit to anything outside. Ideally I’d like to be in air conditioning at all times, but alas…

Josiah: Hahaha. The heat has been killing me this week. Well maybe you can just get into a fight with someone on Hipinion or at least just look at pages and pages of GIFs. I know that sounds sarcastic but both of those things are fun hahaha.

CFCF: That sounds like a nice day.

Josiah: Sweet! Well I need to grab some lunch, so maybe we’ll cap it here unless there’s anything you want to add.

CFCF: Haha no that’s good! I will also eat lunch

Josiah: What are you gonna eat?

CFCF: Oh no clue. I might eat this avocado spread with wasabi and soy sauce on toast. It’s pretty addictive.

Josiah: That sounds amazing. Alright well have a great day! Thanks for making the time!

CFCF: No problem Josiah! Take care!