Interview with Zach Condon from Beirut

This is an phoner talk before appearing translated on nationwide print media. Unedited interview with Zach Condon, vocalist, composer & leader of BEIRUT; just a few hours before the first of his two sold-out shows in Mexico City. 

Tell us about your trip to Europe. I guess you’ve been a musician since your childhood, did you always have an orchestral influence or did you develop it while in there?

Yes.. I started playing the trumpet in 4th or 5th grade. I guess I always had big ambitions for the music always. And I guess orchestra music is pretty ambitious. But yeah, when I went to Europe I was just lost in general, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, I had just dropped out of highschool and when I heard this brass bands it clicked pretty quickly.

I imagine you started getting other influences and decided to go full time to music.

When I came back there was no question anymore at that point. I was pretty sure about it. I worked a couple shitty jobs, I even scooped icecream for a while. But that’s when I started recording the first album.

About Gulag Orkestar, when did you get the idea of arranging such instruments? I heard you got some of them from garage sales.

It’s funny, it’s not like I set out a plan to use every instrument I possibly could cause that wasn’t the idea at all. It’s just that I couldn’t play guitar and I didn’t want to. But when my grandmother died she gave me her accordeon.

An inspiration.

Yeah, yeah! She was a great accordeon player.

Are there recordings from her?

No, I don’t think so. She performed a lot, but she only performed for family…

It’s not like we could find her on YouTube or something.

No, probably not. Although I wonder if my grandfather- No, I think they lost her recordings. Maybe they’re hidden in the house somewhere.

How did you become acquainted with the now defunct band Neutral Milk Hotel?

Well, obviously I was a big fan when I was quite young. I was listening to them at the age of 14 or 15. But I actually met Jeremy Barnes in Alburqueque because he was born and raised there. Now he plays in A Hawk and A Hacksaw, but he played with Neutral Milk Hotel for many years. And I only got to know more of him recently, but Jeremy Barnes was always the connection. And he’s an accordeon player as well and that’s how the connection kinda clicked cause we were both in Alburqueque and it’s very bizarre that both of us were into the same music in such a far away place.

Can you say that your connections with them had a lot to do with the release of your music through 4AD Records?

Yes. Jeremy was the first one to send some people in New York the demo that I had made. Because I was too shy to actually show anyone myself unless they personally asked for it. I was only 18. But Jeremy actually showed it to people and helped me out. He kinda got me on my feet actually!

Your voice is so special. Do you think that maybe in the future you will use it with another sounds besides folk music and explore other areas?

Yes. I feel like the voice is -or has become, at least..- the most important part in my music and is what draws people in no matter how much the sounds behind it change. So I don’t know where it’s gonna go yet, but that’s the one unifying factor in all my music.

I wanted to ask you about your trips to Europe after the release of the first record. Some of your tour dates were cancelled, why did that happen?

Basically, when you’re a “brand new success” (I guess you could say) you just want to say “Yes” to everything. I mean I was so surprised that anyone wanted to hear me in Europe that I said yes to every single concert they asked me to play and every single interview they asked me to do. At that point I had been travelling for two months straight and .. you know, I actually was partying pretty hard, stuff like that.. But my life had just changed a hundred and eighty degrees over night and so at some point.. I think I was in Britain, driving to Scotland, and I just kinda collapsed. My head started playing really strange tricks on me and I didn’t know what was going on. So I had to cancel the tour, take some time off and just realized something. I guess I found my limits on that tour.

They say and when you find your own limits, that’s when you define yourself.

That’s true! [Laughs]I found my mental rock bottom in that year and it was interesting.

Artistically, does that get you to other places?

Exactly. Because of that.. “breakdown” I went back to New Mexico and recorded the second album, The Flying Club Cup. And I actually feel that that one is a success in a lot of ways because it’s so focused in comparison.

About the second album and it’s french sound, you changed a bit. You grew up a lot from the first to the second one.

It’s funny, when your career starts off like that, one year feels like three or four. It feels like eras are passing instead of years, it’s really interesting actually. I feel like I had to grow up quite fast. And that’s kind of the story of my life.

Can you tell us nowadays that you enjoy shows more than playing in the studio?

I love shows! At this point I can say it. A year ago I would’ve told you that I prefered the studio, actually. Nowadays I feel that I can be just as creative with the live instrumentation. I mean, I’ve done some really weird stuff live, I’ve worked with a string orchestra and for me that’s a fucking thrill, just as exciting.

What about the name Beirut? It’s the capital of Lebanon.

It’s kinda funny actually, it’s nothing political at all. I’ll guess I’ll try to tell you quickly. Basically, when I started recording I didn’t know what to call any of my songs or any of my albums, you know the ones that I was making for myself in my bedroom. And I had to snap! So I would just blindly point at cities on a map. So every song title would be a city name, every album title would be a city name, and in every new album the band name would be a different city. It just so happened that Beirut was the name that I was on when I started writing the Gulag Orkestar and so it stuck.

It almost makes sense though, because there is a strange [] to that city, the fact that they call it the [ ] of the Middle East. A culture of [] but it’s also destroyed by war and horrible things.. I don’t know..

The Flying Club Cup sounds like a connection with a magic place where only some people can be or only you can be.

It’s supposed to be very fantastical. Like an imaginary folk music country I invented.

How about the trip to Oaxaca. I heard it came up with one of your musicians, whose mom is a teacher there.

I loved it. What’s really interesting for me in being here, it’s like being a more lively New Mexico. Like I’m home but it’s lively and it’s more entertaining. Because Santa Fe and Alburqueque can be very sleepy places and very similar, especially the deserts. But I spent most of the time working, we spent two weeks just really concentrating in Teotitlán del Valle, just constantly working on the March of the Zapotec. There was nineteen of them! And it’s a lot of people to work with, especially when you don’t speak the language you know, my spanish is terrible, I only speak shitty New Mexican spanglish.

What words do you like in spanish?

[Laughs] I only know how to fuck with people in spanish. “Pinche pendejo” that kinda shot. Truth is, I never pictured any interest coming from Latin America ‘cause I wasn’t aware what the modern musical scene was like down here. But it’s been exciting actually, I’ve been recognized in the street, which I didn’t expect…