I am a devout/religious/fanatical SXSW attendee and somehow managed to miss Home Video these last two years when they’ve played the festival. This Brooklyn-based electronic duo (Collin Ruffino on vocals and guitar and David Gross on bass and keyboards) has been on the rise since their first album, No Certain Night Or Morning, released in 2006. They’ve also shared the stage with Blonde Redhead, Yeasayer and Justice. Below are some ramblings I had with Collin and David before they play their show Thursday night at DC9. Continue reading after the jump.

MP3: Home Video – “The Smoke”

So how did you two meet?

We met in high school in art class.

When was it that you decided to form Home Video and how did you decide on the name?

We had been making music for a few years in college and late high school under various different names. It wasn’t until we both ended up in New York that we started making the music that would become Home Video.  The name came to us in a dream.

How would you say your music has changed from your first album to “The Automatic Process.”

The first album was more minimal and sparse and electronic.  The Automatic Process is more layered, and has more live instrumentation–more piano based songs, more live drums and more guitar.  It’s still definitely in the electronic realm though.  Overall, it just has a more “live” feel.  Lyrically, it’s a bit more personal than the first album, I think.  More confessional songs rather than big global ideas.  Though they both have a bit of both.

 

Tell me about your creative process and how you start creating an album.

We generally get into a room with a computer and instruments and start recording ideas.  So one of us will have a beat usually that we have programmed and we’ll listen to that and play along for a while until we stumble on something we like.  Then we layer from there.  Once there is a bit of beef to it, Collin will work out a melody and lyrics for the song.  Sometimes the lyrics are written as a response to the music, and sometimes they are lyrics that are already sitting around.  The lyrics start to suggest a structure, so from there we refine the song until it makes sense to us somehow.

How does being from New Orleans have an influence on your sound?

New Orleans is an old, dark, beautiful place.  We don’t really fit in the music scene there, which is mostly funk, jazz, and brass bands.  But, the visual and emotional feel of the place is in our bones.

David, how has being a classically trained pianist and having somewhat of a musically “sheltered” childhood influenced the kind of music you two play?

I think my background gave me a unique set of ears – I have a relatively narrow idea of what is interesting  musically, and this definitely shapes the Home Video sound.  I also lack some of the pop intuition that Collin has, because I didn’t really grow up with the music that many of my peers’ parents were listening to - for better or for worse.  Luckily there’s plenty of pop music that Collin and I both love – mostly the darker, less ordinary stuff.

Collin, as the group’s songwriter, a lot of the lyrics are very intimate and about relationships -something we can all relate to. Are you drawing from personal experience?

Well, I write the lyrics, but we both write the songs.  The lyrics are pretty personal, mostly based on actual experiences.  Songs like “I Can Make You Feel It”, “Beatrice”, “Business Transaction” are all just bleeding confessionals that I hope other people can relate too.  There are some songs that are sort of more fantastical, like “Every Love That Ever Was” which is based on the book “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy.  Or “You Will Know What To Do” is a sort of sci-fi inspired idea, about having the world crumbling around us and looking to someone to sort of save us.  But they are all, at the heart of them, about emotions I’ve felt.

Describe your music in three words.

Sublime, Dark, Beat-driven

If there’s one band you would want people to compare you to, who would it be?

We’d actually rather not be compared.  Who wants that?  We’ll leave that up to writers and critics.

touché
Fancy