Fair enough. What was your favorite song that you remixed for another band?
I did those remixes two years ago and I only did them for money. I did a remix for Klaxons out of love, because when we went to London for the first time they let us stay at their place for like five weeks like in their jam space and they didn’t care. And this was before they were even called Klaxons. They were called Klaxons not Centaurs at the time. And finally they got their record deal and they said hey can you guys do a dance remix of one of our tracks? So I did the “Atlantis to Interzone” remix. And then that one did so well that all these bands offered me money to remix them too, which was strange because I only did that out of love. I really do love those guys and I appreciate everything. So we were touring in the UK and everything’s really expensive there, and Alice was hungry one night and she was like can I have money to buy a bag of chips. And I check my pockets and I didn’t have any money to buy her some fucking chips. I’m like sorry, you know, I can’t afford a bag of chips right now. And then later on in the night we checked our email and there was a message from Bloc Party offering us money to remix them, and I was like fuck, thank God, now I can buy food again. And that was always the case, I would never do a remix when I didn’t need money and every time, like I remember one time we were touring America, same story, we were getting from city to city using the Greyhound bus, you know the public transit with like 40 strangers? This was February 2007, and in one city we didn’t have enough money to buy our ticket to the next city so we were almost gonna miss the show. Same story, later that day, this other band gave us money to remix them and I was like yeah pay us up front so we can get to the next city tomorrow. Those remixes were done just to keep us surviving on the road. The “Atlantis to Interzone” remix is the pure one.
What about this Madonna image controversy hoopla?
We found this image, this guy did a tracing of a Madonna photo and we offered him $300 to use it however we want: posters, records, whatever the fuck we want, right? And he wrote back saying that’s a really generous offer, thank you so much, and then he gave us his PayPal address. So we were on tour at the time, we got home and remember, oh yeah we gotta pay that guy. So we look up that PayPal thing and he doesn’t exist on PayPal. PayPal cut him off because [of some illicit internet activity.] So now it’s like, alright dude you need to give us another way to pay you, can you send us your address? I’ll mail you a money order. So I go to the store, made a money order for $300, the guy reads the message, you know on Myspace how you can see when someone’s read it. It says “read” right away, no answer. A month goes by I’m like hey I still have this money order for you, give me your address, give me somewhere to send this money, we’re about to make shirts with the image. “Read” again, no response. Another month goes by, this money order’s gonna expire, you need to send me an address, give me a P.O. box, give me your parent’s address, I don’t care. “Read,” no response. Two years later, timed to the release of our album, he writes to Pitchfork, all the newspapers in Canada, Crystal Castles stole my artwork, all I asked for was a measly $300, they’ve made thousands of dollars – which isn’t true – selling my design. We didn’t sell that many shirts, come on, give me a break. The sad thing is people fell for it, people believed him. We were getting all these messages from his fans saying we came to your website to tell you off but we haven’t been able to stop listening to your music. So we just thought ok, let’s leave this alone, we’re making fans, people are learning about us thanks to this guy…this guy’s genius marketing plan.
Are you into “Crimewave” being played on Gossip Girl?
I heard about that, I don’t know what Gossip Girl is. Is it like Sex and the City or something?
Like, for 16 year-olds.
I have no opinion on it. I heard it was a club scene, so maybe it does make sense.
You said that you and Alice both love obscure punk bands, so what else do you guys listen to?
We bonded over our shared love of Aids Wolf and Sick Lipstick, we couldn’t believe that we both loved those bands, especially surrounded by old people and the blind. What else do we listen to? Sonic Youth, Stooges, Joy Division, New Order, those are bands that we love.
Do you think you’re going to do any more remixes if somebody offers? Do you hear any songs right now that you would like to remix?
I haven’t done a remix in a long time. If I ever work on music, it’s the next Crystal Castles album.
Is there anything else you want to say? Announce? Proclaim?
We’re really surprised that anyone is listening to us or giving us any attention. When we started our plan was to put together a 7-inch and somehow tour America but not tour clubs, we wanted to play basement parties. So we had this vision of recording songs, pressing some vinyl, and getting together with Health, because they had done this basement tour already, so we wanted to do one together. The vocal in “Crimewave” is me cutting up them. Have you heard the original? It’s completely different. That track was made for that tour that we were putting together. They said why don’t we do a split 7-inch, you cover us on one side we cover you on one side. I said I don’t want to cover any of your tracks but how about I sample the vocals on your track. So they sent me the vocals, chopped them up, rearranged them, put them over on the earliest Crystal Castles song and I thought it was a failed experiment. I was like uh, I don’t know about this, so I sent it back to them and they were like we love it. And then they sent it to some friends and those friends sent it to some friends and the next thing you know it’s all over the internet. So that basement tour that we planned on doing, those were our goals, to press a 7-inch and tour basements with Health. And it’s just really bizarre what ended up happening and we’re really shocked at how many people know about us or how many people come to shows. Just the attention that we get is a shock.
In a good way or a bad way?
Neither, it’s just bizarre. Hey, we started this because we wanted to tour basement parties of America. And now we’ve toured England six times, America three times, we just came back from Moscow, Japan…it’s all fun.
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