"Sequential Circuits"

"Sequential Circuits" was one of those titles that stuck around for so long that it became what the song was. It was impossible to go anywhere else with it. I feel weird about company names being song titles—maybe if I had used Sequential Circuits equipment it would make more sense. The song is about mental systems and ways of thinking—particularly, how we think of ourselves. I like that there's a really long tail at the end of the song—it's a cool way to start an album. It's like when an orchestra is warming up: there's tones in the beginning, there's silence, and then the music starts. There's this anticipation of, "Is it gonna start now?"





I was talking to this holistic healer lady in Portugal who lives down the river. She said, "Your character is represented by three spirit animals"— a wolf, a bear, and an eagle. I thought that was odd, so I thought it would be a fun exercise to write a song that was a cartoon-y image of the way I thought about myself. There's various sections of the songs that talk about elements of my character—a wolf section, a bear section, and an eagle section at the end. I've always had a thing with wolves, even though I was totally wrong about them. We think of wolves as these solitary creatures, but they're actually dedicated family beings. They travel in packs, and when they're on their own, they die. They don't survive.





"Davy Jones' Locker"

There's a couple of songs on the album that have a weird seafaring vibe—I don't know where it comes from. Any time there was a weird noise while recording, [co-producer Pete Kember] would record it. There were a couple of moments in the sequence of the album where I felt there needed to be a space in between songs. I found some weird sounds for an intermediary force, and I wanted a title to give an early indication of the album's seafaring vibe. I wanted to project a mental picture of being really deep in the ocean, which is one of my worst fears. One time, Animal Collective were in Australia, and [AC members Deakin and Geologist] are certified divers. [AC member Avey Tare] and I didn't do the training, so we just snorkeled. We plopped into the middle of the ocean, which was awesome, but kind of terrifying, too. You look down and you just see this huge expanse.





"Crosswords"

I've wanted to do something with the "Ashley's Roachclip" sample for a long time. There's a handful of tracks I really like that feature that sample—particularly P.M. Dawn's "Paper Doll"—but I felt like letting it ride for so long with a drum roll at the end. I haven't heard the sample used in that context before. I've wanted to use the drum sample for a long time—I think it might be used in the remix of Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner", which I love. That remix is sort of a totem for all these songs, production-wise. It's got a magic to it.





"Butcher Baker Candlestick Maker"

Pete wanted me to cut this song title down, but I was like, "I'm going full monty with that shit." I was really into long titles this time around. The song has a nursery rhyme feel, so I think the title works. I like that there's a line about a plug-in. You know in movies when actors look at the camera? That was my version of that.







The song sets up an animal vs. person comparison. The way animals deal with things instinctually and don't really get lost in their minds was very attractive to me; there's a nobility to that. The song talks about the dark places that people get into, and all the emotional and mental clutter that we have—but it's also about sex. There's companies that make sound packs for producers, and some of them are cheesy and lame. There's a couple sounds that I used from a reggae pack for this song. I got into using stuff that felt really common and devoid of any unique character, and tried to use stuff in a way that felt like nobody else could have made it except for me. Bringing my own personality and character to those things was something I got pretty excited about. On their own, though, the sounds are pretty cheesy. If I isolated them you'd be like, "I don't know about this."





"Come to Your Senses"

This song took forever to finish. It was definitely the hardest to mix. It was the first song we recorded, and it took way longer than any other song. After we came out of the studio, I made this little MIDI sequence for a hi-hat pattern, and it was the missing element. But it took us a while to hit on that.

