When I was pretty young, I said, “I like that song,” and I was trying to figure out who it was. WW: Is there something that you’d stumbled upon and he sat you down and said, “No, you don’t want to go down that road”?ĮM: Yeah, I do remember that song “Stand” by R.E.M.
He would kind of make sure that I wouldn’t get into bad music and things (laughs). A lot of the stuff I got into when I was pretty young – like junior high, high school – was stuff that he kind of passed down to me. WW: Did he introduce you to some interesting music as you were growing up?ĮM: Yeah, definitely. From there, he details his first encounters with fellow musician Mike Stroud a subsequent meeting that led to the formation of Ratatat the sudden blossoming of record-company interest even though the pair had only completed four songs (and never performed live) at the time an in-concert baptism of fire, with Interpol officiating the creative evolution from the first two Ratatat disc, which were mainly assembled in Mast’s bedroom, to LP3, a an XL Recordings CD cut in an old mansion loaded with vintage gear and his contention that adding vocals to the group’s sound would detract rather than add to the effect.Īfter all, sometimes words get in the way. Mast begins by detailing his background, including the important role his older brother, Eric, aka Portland, Oregon indie-label impresario E*Rock, played in his musical development – and vice versa. So take a long drink of the complete Q&A, accessible below. Westword’s August 28 Ratatat profile dips into a lengthy interview with Evan Mast, who makes up half the lineup of this electro/eclectic instrumental partnership.