We began playing together in and around 2009, both coming from pretty different backgrounds. Lauren Dillard spent the early 00s making experimental visual art and equally experimental accompanying scores in New York and London’s clubworld after attending Emerson College in Boston with a major in Film/ Video. while I (Flax)came from a house background, growing up in Detroit, residing at the infamous Motor Lounge, but now transplanted securely in New York City for the past 12 years. We’ve merged our sounds into a collective named CREEP and this year see’s our debut full length, “echoes” in November.
You two met in a pretty unconventional way through the ancient social media site Friendster. Can you remember your first ever conversations?
LF: God no. And I’m scared to even look haha. We were friends long before we made music together and it mostly consisted of phone calls from myself to Dillard, who then lived in Boston at the time, of my exploits the night before. My first 4 or 5 years in New York were pretty wild.
LD: I can’t remember our first conversation and even went as far as to try to log into my old friendster account but the site is now defunct unfortunately (or probably fortunately) for us. Haha. I was working at Marc Jacobs in Boston at the time on weekends while in college and Flax would leave me these crazy voice mails that I would check on my lunch break about her weekend excursions. Pretty funny.
Both coming from different musical backgrounds, how do your individual styles blend together to form CREEP?
LF: I have a more traditional take towards production and writing while Dillard follows no rules. It’s a perfect match for us as we seem to blend classical and contemporary creating a pretty unique sound.
LD: Yes Flax comes from a house music background and I am more of a no wave / industrial girl at heart. She tends to polish things down while i rough them up if that makes sense. It creates a good balance.
The anticipated upcoming album Echoes is drawing closer and closer to its release date. It’s been 18 months in the making, but how are you both feeling now that it’s so close to fruition?
LF: I am so so ready for the record to finally come out. To me, it feels like this chapter needs to finish to begin the next one.
LD: Can’t wait for it to be out! Its been a long time coming and it will feel good when the circle has closed so to say with “echoes.”
It’s hard to look past your most recent single, ‘Vertigo’, which features the legendary Lou Rhodes on vocals. How did this collaboration first come about?
LF: Another instance of the internet coming into play. She is one of the few on our record that we didn’t already know personally, so we reached out on Facebook. She had heard the song we did with Romy and was open to trying to something with us. I’ve been a fan of Lamb since the 90s so this was a huge collaboration for me.
LD: It’s cute because her son actually was a big Jamie xx fan and had heard our music on online music blogs and told Lou Rhodes “yeah mom they’re cool.” I had the pleasure of going to dinner with Lou in Bristol a couple years back and she is such a lovely and inspiring person. It was a pleasure an honor to get to work with her.
All in all there are 14 guests singers on the album including the likes of Romy from The xx, Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow and Australia’s own pop princess Sia. What were these artists like to work with? Are there any studio sessions that stand out from others?
LF: The cutest was recording Romy, which at the time was in my bedroom. CREEP wasn’t my main musical focus at the time so it was much more DIY. I recorded Sia the same way on a song we did together in 2008 called ‘You’ve Changed’, but things really have changed since then haha.
LD: Yes recording Romy was so amazing I remember trying to NOT MAKE NOISE in lauren’s kitchen at the time while Romy was recording in the bedroom but being so excited. Her voice totally gave me chills! It’s so crazy having such talented friends.
You wrote and produced the album independently and then worked with Chris Coady on the final mixing. Recently he’s mixed for Beach House, Santigold and Zola Jesus, so what did he bring to the table?
LF: He brought out so many lost elements. I’m so thankful that we waited to work with him because we definitely needed a fresh set of ears for a proper mixdown. He also produced the last Beach House record, which is one of my favorite records of all time. He’s just an all around great guy as well. We discovered a couple days into mixing that we actually worked together at this giant chain music store on 48th street called Sam Ash. He in the recording department and me in the DJ department one floor up. That place was the SLUMS of all jobs so it’s funny to see how much life has developed since then. That was my first job in New York!
LD: I had run into Chris because we both frequent the bar Home Sweet Home and their (now deceased) cold-wave party called “Wierd.” He was my absolute first choice to work with on the record and I was so happy when he wanted to work with us! His past work with GANG GANG DANCE was a huge inspiration to me. Saint Dympna and Eye Contact are two records that I continue to listen to pretty much every week. Not to mention the last Beach House record has also been on constant rotation. Being in the studio with him was a huge learning experience. It was like he took our music and made it 3 dimensional. What a great guy!
If you could pick a dream vocalist to work with on the next record, who would you pick?
LF: For me at this point, I just want to find someone totally fearless. Someone willing to take risks.
LD: I’d be excited to work with one vocalist on several songs and try to develop a sort of concrete narrative.
I’ve done a tally of sorts, and I’ve found one of most-used genre you get labelled with is witch-house. How do you both sum up your sound when the inevitable question gets asked?
LF: People can (and obviously will) call us what they want. We don’t waste time thinking about these silly, ever-changing micro-genre’s. Just as long as they’re listening.
On top of the music itself, there’s also a beautiful visual aesthetic to CREEP. How much work goes into the videos and imagery?
LD: A lot of thought goes into the visuals and imagery. I usually do all of our graphics and a lot of the show visuals and we collaborate on the music videos with other artists. Since we can’t tour with every guest vocalist on the record, our live visuals play a key role. We sometimes call the visuals our lead singer. I come from a video and graphic design background so it is cool to be able to use those skills in different creative settings.
Being DJs, I’m assuming you both have a huge source of musical inspirations. Who have you been listening to recently?
LF: I’ve fallen back in love with deep house to almost an obsessive degree. House is in my blood, even though I didn’t spin it when I lived in Detroit in the 90s. I played more electro and drum and bass. Nothing has stood the test of time more for me though than my house records. It’s nice to see MK finally getting his day in the sun. He has made some of the most classic house on the planet and although it took people 20 years, he’s finally getting the recognition he deserves.
LD: I have been all over the map recently with what I have been listening to. I have gotten back into Arthur Russell in a big way. I think his music still sounds so new. Gang Gang Dance is always a staple for me. Recently I feel like I have been getting more into lyrical artists. I used to care so much more about synths than lyrics but have come around. I heard the new Cass McCombs record last night and immediately replayed it when it was over. What a solid record. It is called “Big Wheel and Others” He has a song on it with guest vocals by Karen Black (RIP) that really stands out.
What’s the music scene like over in Brooklyn?
LF: There’s always so much music happening in Brooklyn nowadays. I think there is definitely a resurgence happening because there was quite a lull here for a long time. Even the club scene is coming back in a huge way. I’m falling in love with this place all over again.
LD: Yes as Flax said, the music scene in Brooklyn seems to come and go in waves. There was a huge slump for a while. But I feel like there is a big resurgence coming around in the art scene here. There are certain photographers and film makers that I think of as new rockstars and I think that is pretty important. Music and art always go hand in hand. Seems like a new movement is brewing and I like that.
Are there any chances of seeing you head down to Australia soon?
LF: Touring starts in February of ’14 and I’m really looking forward to getting back on the road. I’ve never been there with CREEP so will be a whole new fun experience, so I’m definitely hoping so.
LD: Ive never been and am very excited to!
Where we can see you play next, what releases do you have available and where can we get them?
We have some shows surrounding the release of the record in New York in November and we may get back to Europe / UK in Dec. You can find all of our singles on iTunes, Amazon, Beatport, etc.
Creep ‘ECHOES’ is out 8th November 2013, through Inertia Australia.
