Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes Explains the Modern Influences of ‘Innocence Reaches’

Matt Matasci

Veteran Athens, GA indie rockers Of Montreal released its fourteenth album, “Innocence Reaches,” in August. Led by vocalist-songwriter Kevin Barnes, the psychedelic-pop group made waves in the early 00s with releases like “Satanic Panic in the Attic” and “Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?” The new record adopts a heavy electronica influence, shifting from that rock-oriented sounds that characterized their two preceding releases. Barnes spoke with Entertainment Voice about the new album and their current tour.

What led to “Innocence Reaches” becoming such a beat-driven dance record?

Well, one of the big reasons was that while I was working on the album, about midway through I took a writing retreat in Paris. The studio I was working at had a lot of analog drum machines and synthesizers so I just got into working with that gear and getting back into making dance music and electronic music, just out of necessity because there wasn’t really anything else to work with. Once I started to get into it a little bit more I caught the bug and wanted to move more in that direction.

So you didn’t go into recording intending to make it in that style?

No, not at all, I was just sort of following the spirit of the last two records initially with more people in the creative process. And then, halfway through, I started getting more into just working alone and building the songs track-by-track. So the album is kind of a half-and-half, with two different ways of working.

You mention taking more inspiration from sound collage driven artists like Arca and Chairlift, how did these new influences affect the songwriting and recording of this album?

I think the sounds and production style that they use is really inspiring and interesting, because so much of what I have been doing was nostalgic and backwards, as far as taking influence from the 70s and the 60s. So to hear stuff like that made me realize how much great stuff is being made right now, that really has nothing in common with The Beatles or The Beach Boys. Something completely modern. So I wanted to incorporate some of that into what I am doing.

Is there much difficulty for the band in translating these sounds into a live format?

Well, like a lot of current bands, we are relying—to some degree—on backing tracks, drum samplers, soft synths and things like that. It’s a lot easier to reproduce specific sounds. If you were to just reproduce it all with traditional rock ‘n roll instrumentation it would sound pretty weird—and not in a good way. So, it’s a lot easier now to reproduce the sonic textures of the album live.

Have you stuck to your new material on this tour or have you been able to perform older songs too?

We are doing a lot of older songs, and it is fun just seeing how there is actually a thread that connects all the songs together. It doesn’t feel jarring to jump back and forth from “Hissing Fauna” to “Innocence Reaches” and “Skeletal Lamping” to “Sunlandic Twins” and all the songs flow together in a cool way.

And with the stage production, it’s almost like musical theater. We are doing the same set every night and I have maybe six costume changes. There’s constant movement and constant change happening on stage, as far as visuals and theatrics and all sorts of props. It’s a very dynamic, very complex production and a lot of the songs are pieced together in a medley style, with verse and choruses of one song jumping into the verse of another song and a chorus of another song. It’s just—it’s very acrobatic. It’s really interesting and a new approach, we’ve never done something like this before so it feels really exciting. A new challenge.

I would imagine you get better at it with every show.

Yeah, definitely because muscle memory kicks in and you don’t have to think. We don’t actually write out the set list anymore, it’s just a matter of hitting your cues and once you get comfortable, you can start making it more complex, adding new dance moves or choreographed things. The show still has room to grow; it’s not the exact same oppressive set night after night. It feels open to experimentation.

“Innocence Reaches” is available on Apple Music.