This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Post-Trash: You’re both in LA right now, but Lola, you just flew back from Alaska? Were you playing a show?
Lola Dompé: My husband is a pilot, and he used to live there and work there, and he still kind of works there sometimes, so we made it a work vacation.
PT: Halle, are you more comfortable playing shows or would you rather be in the studio?
Halle Saxon: My favorite part is recording, but I do enjoy the shows. I get really, really nervous, personally.
PT: What’s the show versus recording calculus for you, Lola?
LD: I really enjoy playing the actual show, but I really don’t enjoy touring at all. But the 30 minutes on stage is a lot of fun for me.
PT: Let’s talk about the recording of the new album. You did it to analogue tape, which is rare these days. Why do it to tape?
HS: We’ve always been attracted to punishing ourselves (laughs).
LD: Our sound is so minimal and it’s nice to have tape to fill in the space.
HS: It’s like another character (in the recording). The process is nice, too. I’m reticent of technology generally, so knowing that we’re recording to tape, that what we’re hearing we actually performed instead of just slapping a filter on something—it’s nice to find ways to avoid using technology on everything.
PT: You also used a new producer for the first time this album. How did you connect with Loren Humphrey (Arctic Monkeys, Nice As Fuck, Cameron Winter)?
HS: He’s old friends with our managers. He’s old homies with Kevin Parker, who they manage, too. They all came up together.
LD: He also made an album by a band called Nice as Fuck, which really influenced us to start Automatic. They had bass, drums and vocals—and that’s it. At first, that’s what we wanted our band to sound like, but then we added synth ‘cuz we thought it sounded cool.
HS: It was such a privilege to work with Loren. He’s a huge tape nerd.
LD: And he really pushed us in different directions. Because he has a background in 70s rock, he likes to record everything live as a band, so he pushed us to do that. He wanted each song to have its own groove.
PT: Being such a minimalist band, was there a concern of having a new voice in the room, even though this person wasn’t playing an instrument?
HS: It’s hard working with someone new. Our first two records we did with a very close friend that we knew very well. We had the utmost trust in him, and we didn’t think that we were going to be able to find anyone to fill that gap. So, initially we tried to record the album on our own but then realized that we were out of our depth. So, we agreed to try out Loren because of his references, and his past work. And then in the end, it was awesome!
