When you meet people who don't know your music, what do you say your band is like?

Bradford Cox: I say rock 'n' roll.

Lockett Pundt: Yeah, that's what I say.

BC: Because I don't want to assume too much or too little about anybody's scope of interests. You never know who is into what, you know what I'm saying? You'll meet a mousy dentist and you talk about music and suddenly they're like, "I saw Richard Hell in 1981 at Club 688, which is some dive club in Atlanta at the time. Lockett's dad, for example, he collects guns and I think he's a registered Republican. He's a real man's man, but if you start talking to him, it's all Roxy Music, XTC, Bowie. You can't assume anything about anybody, and especially in the South.

I was wondering because one of my main impressions of your new album was that I kinda wish it was the first one that I'd heard, because it sounds like a good starting point.

BC: Really? In what sense?

In the sense that a lot of my favorite records when I was a teenager were the third, the fifth, the eighth album by someone. It seems like if you were coming into Deerhunter on this record, it'd be…

BC: Cool to go back and investigate?

Yeah, and I think any of the records would've been like that, but this one feels like coming in to R.E.M. around Document.

BC: I can take that as a compliment.

You definitely should, I'm a big R.E.M. fan.

BC: They're one of the greatest American rock 'n' roll bands of all time.

I don't think people appreciate them as much now.

BC: That's because people have short memories. But you know, R.E.M. is a band I think of when I think about Deerhunter. The one thing I aspire to is to be a great American rock 'n' roll band. And when I think of that, I think of Pylon, R.E.M., even bands I don't even particularly like. There's just a lineage, and a history, and a respect for elders. Sonic Youth and things like that, these are bands that paved the way, and none of us would have a job if it weren't for the work they did.

What is the Americanness of it to you, as opposed to being, like, a British band?

BC: There's lots of different ways to answer that question. The Sex Pistols or The Smiths are two bands I don't really care for at all. In fact, one of those two bands I absolutely hate passionately mainly because of their incredibly arrogant singer.

That could go either way!

BC: That did not have an amazing band called Public Image Ltd to save themselves with. God, if I talk about The Smiths and I talk about R.E.M., which do you levitate towards?

R.E.M., no question.

BC: There's a distinctive Americanness about R.E.M., it's a respect for elders. The first thing I ever tell someone when they ask me about my distaste for The Smiths and Morrissey, it's always, well, have you ever read Morrissey's description of The Ramones? If I ever meet that guy…whatever! He makes me want to wear fur. There are Smiths tunes that I find more acceptable than others, but I'd rather just not hear any of them. Frankly, all it took was that one criticism of The Ramones to permanently…you know, if you want to be on that side of the fence, cool.