Neon Indian

Alan Palomo, the mastermind behind Neon Indian, broke on to the scene in 2009 with his excellent debut album Psychic Chasms. His most recent, 2015's Vega Intl. Night School, was widely praised by critics and seen as an exciting step in a new direction.

Palomo was born in Monterrey Mexico, grew up in Texas, and has lived in Brooklyn since 2010. He sat down for an interview back stage at San Francisco's Treasure Island Music Festival to talk about topics including Prince, Suicide, the 80s, Mexico's music scene, Donald Trump, and his favorite Street Fighter character.

Music-News.com caught up with Neon Indian at Treasure Island Music Festival.

I thought the video for “Slumlord” was one of the most entertaining videos of the year.
Thanks. Awesome man.

It finishes as kind of a cliffhanger. Is there a sequel?
Uhhh. It’s funny cause, any of the visual content associated with this record has been kind of variations on an idea. But it's funny because when the “Annie” video picked up there was a lot of the same imagery to at least establish that it could be happening in the same universe. But, I think it was one of those where like, writing the backstories and a lot of the characters, because even if even if no one ever sees any of those narrative components I want to at least have like over engineered it so it makes sense to me when I'm watching it and shooting it.

So I would say in my mind there's absolutely a sequel. But if there's going to be a direct sequel? I don't know.

Well the people are waiting.
Dope.

You covered Prince’s “Pop Life” in a video with a group of musicians. What did he mean to you as a fan and as an influence?
Well I think, you know, and truth be told I'd gotten a recent opportunity to write about him for the Guardian and it put me in this kind of position where I really had to think about it, and like, properly survey just the overall, you know, disposition I have about his catalog and just him as like this just mythological person you know, but he really represents like the last of the self assembled pop star, like you don't really have it. You have a lot of people that will touch on a few of the data points in different combinations of what it takes to be like a pop star, which is like you know, you can sing. You can dance. You can compose. You can produce. And all the while look good doing it. But like there's very few people that do all of it at the same time. Very few. And even a lot of the greats always have some specific collaborator. Ya know, like even, ummm…

Like Rod Temperton with Michael...
Ya. Ya know, Michael Jackson obviously had Quincy Jones and a team of musicians and that's not to say that Prince didn't have the Revolution, but he wrote, you know, it's right there in his record, ummm. It's right there in his self-titled second record. It's after For You, but like, and also, For You, he didn't get to produce which is why he kind of got out of his label contract like immediately, but it says right there in the liner notes, you know. Written, arranged, and performed by Prince. He played every instrument and that's just something that we are losing at such a rapidity. We're like, ya know, even, and like most pop stars now completely, ya know, admit to them not even obviously like, many of them not writing their own songs. But even people who are specifically known for their verse, just saying, you know like Kanye doesn't write all of his rhymes, ya know? It's like there's a lot of, there's more of an embraced mentality of like a collective effort to make something great, which has different results. But I think it's a little sad that we haven't seen someone of this generation, and might not in the future, who truly is in every sense of the word just entirely autonomous. Doesn't need anybody to make a record and to make it great, ya know?

You interviewed Martin Rev from Suicide for Talkhouse podcast. With the passing of Alan Vega, what can you say about their impact on you as an artist?
Well I think that ah, it's funny, well... my brother's not in here but um, I remember one time just kind of like flailing in my room to that Suicide song from the second record, umm "Harlem", and my dad and my brother walking in and me just sort of like "YAAAA", just like flailing about in my room just ya know in this fit over like how like energized I felt by that music. But um, ya know, it's obviously, it's like people give them so much credit as being like Proto-punk and like the beginning of that, so just the ethos about the music in general because like their music just so transcends what I think of when I think of like, ya know, the Sex Pistols, or like something that you would think of as immediately punk. Ya know? Or like Black Flag or some band that only lives within the construct of what that genre is, and what I liked about them is that it's like it's really hard to pin them down with even a specific sound because they made all sorts of records and they all felt like punk to me, ya know, so like in that sense, Alan Vega, ya know, was a huge inspiration and like, yeah, obviously it's like my old project was called Vega and there's always been allusions and not that I fancy myself some kind of imitator or like, assumed successor. That was never the intention.

For me it's just like kind of celebrating this dude that like, ya know, that I've seen so many other people kind of like represent in so many different ways. One of the best bands I ever saw live was a band from Austin called CBA that I saw in Denton, and they were so completely Suicide. It was all like sequencers and like you know was very like EBM. Kind of like aggressive, like it sounded like Saturn Drive, or the later Alan Vega stuff. But even the fact that I would never have seen a band like that you know at a small punk show in Texas without the lineage of these people who just really connect and cling to that ethos and sound. So you see it everywhere and it's like, it was such a, it was depressing when he passed because he almost kind of like, there was still much left to be said. And on top of that, ya know, it's like I feel like obviously in a year where a lot of great artists have passed on he should be in that canon right there with the best of em.

Yeah. It's funny that you mention that because my next question was if there’s any connection between Alan Vega of Suicide and the name Vega you've released music under previously? I've wondered if it was that or a Street Fighter connection?
Well, definitely Streetfighter as well.

Is it? Cool. Ya because Street Fighter you hear randomly referenced in music. I know I've heard it with Frank Ocean. Kanye. M.I.A.
It's a weird, like pop culture staple that people connect with, you know? And especially because like everybody had their character, and I always played as Vega.

I was Chun-Li.
Well, Chun-li, Yeah. Chun-li was great! She was super quick, and so fast.

People get annoyed.
Oh yeah.

Because you can aerial attack, jump back. Aerial attack, jump back. And they're like, "That's cheating!"
Ahh man. I've learned a few of the Chun-li moves. I definitely played as her as well, cause I think they didn't introduce Vega until the second one.

Yeah, Street Fighter II.
But that was a strategy for sure. And I followed it down the line, ya know, like even before I was old enough to really play. It was like I would watch my brother play which was a lot of my early video game experience, was as a bit of a spectator. But no, I think that was one connection of it. And then like, it's just a name that kind of kept repeating for different reasons. So like putting music under the moniker for Vega was one thing but like really the intention of calling this record Vega Intl. Night School was more of a direct reference to like cannibalizing Vega as a project and incorporating it into Neon Indian because, normally, people, fans will sometimes be like, you know, "Dude, like, where's the Vega record? Why aren't you making that?" And I'm like, "I did!"

(Laughs)

Right?! It's in that record. I don't feel the reason to tread the same ground again and like go back and bring back some like whatever blog house thing, you know? Like whatever construct that fit into at the time as far as you know Internet-y dance music. But I feel like I definitely wanted to bring that spirit into it. And like the whole arc of Neon Indian has been slowly increasing the BPMs and this last record was the first one they could have, maybe it's not entirely a dance record by any stretch of the imagination, but it's definitely got some of that in it. And then the next one will probably veer even further, you know?

So to recap, who's your favorite character?
Well, Vega!

Perfect (in Street Fighter voice). This is funny because the next question is, did you put out the video for the Vega track, "No Reasons", with footage of Josh Brolin in an 80's skateboarding film? Or was that a fan video?
That was a fan video...

Because it's amazing.
Oh yeah. It totally lines up.

It's perfect for house parties. You throw it on and people are like, "What is this song!?" "What is this video from!?"
(Laughs)

"It fits together so perfectly!"
There was a... I think it was like some blog out in Chicago called Clean Team or something, but they put it up back in like 2008 or something, so it's been sitting on YouTube for the longest time.

Makin' the rounds. I've seen you DJ before and I enjoyed SoundHounding songs from your set because they lead to great early 80s discoveries. What initially drew you into the sound and aesthetic of that time?
You know I think it's an interesting time for like, not just in music but just in pop culture in general. There's so many waves that are kind of happening. You know I think it’s going to be difficult to have another time in which that many genres kind of established themselves within it. Cause like now, all the kind of stuff that people are constantly mining, and I feel like DJ culture really kind of took off in the 80s as well. Which is initially sort of where I approach it from, because I don't know, to me like the nostalgic visual aspects of it like don't really appeal to me as much.

I feel like, people must think of me as some very nostalgic person. So like, it's always weird when a friend or somebody puts something like Kung Fury on my Facebook feed being like "Oh you love the 80s. You'll love this!" And to me, it's kind of annoying. Because it's like, a lazy, it's like yeah we all know Karate Kid, and The Last Dragon, and all that shit, but you know, and sure I enjoyed it as a teenager but there's a certain point where like yeah, but you also have these like remarkable, like Cold Wave happened then. EBM and Industrial music really kind of found a vibe then. The beginning of rave culture in England. Then obviously like Chicago House. Detroit Techno. And then over in Europe you've got Italo disco. And then in Spain you've got Balearic music, and like club Amnesia, and Ibiza and all that stuff. So there's just like this huge wealth of information. And then Sophisti-pop with like Prefab Sprout, Scritti Politti, The Blue Nile, like, there's so much to draw from that I don't necessarily think of it as like, I'm an "80's guy". You know, it's like I've got my boom box, and my power glove.

(Laughs)

Because that shit's kind of obnoxious too because there's an element of it being really surface level, you know? There's so much beyond that that you can really explore, and like, I'm not even talking about what happened in film in the 80s too, you know, which is another huge repository of influences to draw from. But it's just, it just never seems to disappoint me to continue to dig down the rabbit hole.

I once caught you at a festival in your home city of Monterey that Todd P co-founded, called MtyMx Fest. The festival had an ethos of building community between Latin American and American artist and fans. Do you get many opportunities to go back there and play? And do you find there are opportunities for Latin American artist to come over here?
You know, I think that what has been really refreshing in the past couple of years is that it's not so much, cause it was always like, you know, and I would hear bands in Mexico that sort of like, you know, they'd been beginning to flirt with indie aesthetics, it kind of, it sort of too directly references something that already exists in the American ethosphere, and so there's an element of like pandering which as a Mexican, for me, it can be kind of like, I've never been into the vibe of writing music to pander to some different market, you know, or ethnicity for that matter.

But where I feel like it's really kind of found this like beautiful new autonomy is in electronic music because you've got a lot of labels, you know, and even more recently, specifically, a label like N.A.A.F.I. in Mexico City that completely have their own sound and it has components of like you know, of Latin music in it, but it's definitely not dogmatic about it, and it's definitely not trying to impress any other, any other country you know by what they're doing. And yet it's so influential to what's happening everywhere else. You know, so I feel like Mexico is a very interesting place for music because, or at least like, you know, when we think of like indie or Internet music, because it's also, it's kind of a class thing unfortunately, like there's a small, you know, obviously there's a growing middle class. But I realize it's sometimes that interest in indie music in Mexico I find comes from a place of affluence. Ya know, like you fly out to Coachella to go see that band, which I find kind of bullshit sometimes. But I think it really amazing that like I think Mexico now, it's not even a question of whether, you know, they need to come over here, it's more of a question of like, I love that they're kind of making everybody else sort of see what they're doing and really moving the narrative of the music forward in that regard.

Thoughts on Trump?
What could I possibly say about Trump, that hasn't been, you know, the only thing I can say is in the last week, you know, the carriage was already like careening out of control and then suddenly it just combusted, and like now it's on fire. It's like careening straight towards a barn and like, it's going to be a beautiful explosion when it finally just happens.

Any current bands or artists you've been enjoying?
Ummmmm, as of late?

Ya. Anyone recently you've maybe seen them live or just heard their release?
I would say, as of late... who am I listening to? I would say, definitely been listening to a lot of DJ Sotofett, DJ Fett Burger, and a lot of the stuff that you know kind of came out of like Sex Tags Mania, and you know, obviously always checking out the Mood Hut releases with like Jack J and like Pender Street Steppers.


On top of that, ummm who'd I see? Well recently I went to Sustain-Release, that Techno festival that happens like in upstate New York, and you know obviously like Ital always brings it, and who else? Who actually had a great record in the last year was DJ Richard, which is particularly kind of like, it's a little Gothier. But yeah, it seems like it's you know dance music or techno culture in particular seems to be in a bit of a boom. I lean more towards the like Tropical and Balleric stuff, the House-y stuff I guess. But you know, there's always a wonderful time and place for blaring, doomy techno at 5:00 in the morning.

So I really appreciate that you bring it as a front man and draw that out of the crowd because you don't necessarily see that often on stage in any genre anymore. How did that evolve in your live set?
Well, that's a compliment of the highest order. But I don't know, I mean, in the finishing stretches of the record I was revisiting Sign o' the Times. A buddy of mine, my old bandmate, when I was like, my first band, Ghosthustler, he would play tunes from that record. And I think, you know, being 18 at the time I was still kind of more on like, "1999" or "Purple Rain". And those are the watershed moments. But what I love about Sign o' the Times, it's kind of his most like collage-y, sort of mosaic type record, and it genre hops, and it's so deeply strange. It’s almost like, there's moments that sound like a Gary Wilson record or something. It's super weird.

But, part of the M.O. with this record is to, like especially when we present it live, is to bring a little bit of that kind of... musicianship is gonna sound way to like self-important or something but just the idea, the performative aspects of playing live because I feel like too much of the indie rock continuum is to just stand there and look as disaffected as possible like playing your tune, and that you know, that absolutely is a powerful statement too. But watching someone like Prince go at it, or watching Stop Making Sense, or any of the great you know, like watching Sade Montreux Jazz Fest 1984...

I gotta check that out.
That's a great one. And any of these epic concerts, you see that sense of performance, and people, you know, they come to see a show. And I realize it, for our fans sometimes it catches them off guard. Like if I roll up in all white with a white skinny tie, I'll hear someone in the audience be like, "Oh my god..." You know? But that's part of it. There's got to be a little bit of ham and cheese in there as well. But that's like, the record doesn't take itself too seriously. If it borders on ridiculous, I kind of find that to be a compliment.