Editor's Letter

The Age

Friday January 18, 2008

Liza Power, editor

If there's one place I'd like to be right now, it's sitting on the porch of Sam Beam's studio in Dripping Springs, Texas, listening to the hum of bugs. Simple, really. Roll a cigarette, listen to some Panda Bear, look out over the hill-country scrub. Much like Jay Gross (see page 17), who sweetly remembers Iron and Wine's music as once - sometime before the release of Garden State - seeming like a kind of "password, a secret handed from person to person". Fascinating to watch a band move from quiet secret to, well, something else. Take Arcade Fire - our cover story (page 4) - for example, whose first Melbourne show sold out in a matter of minutes last month. Not that the placid William Butler appears overly fazed by the whole mega-success concept. Asked by Craig Mathieson what it feels like to play to a crowd of 10,000 adoring fans, his response is a neat: "Well (it's) jolly nice. I'm glad this band thing is working out." Then again, this is a fellow who will happily admit that his preferred method of winding down after a tour is scuffing around the house, building shelves for all his nice books. As you like it. Of course, for Dan Snaith, the 29-year-old pop-craftsman behind Caribou, relaxation is a pursuit best enjoyed with some advanced mathematics close at hand (see Dan Rule's story, page 11). The elegance of seeing patterns in things, fitting abstract ideas together, you see. I think my idea of peace and quiet may sit a little closer to Dylan Mills', aka Dizzee Rascal (see page 10). Entertaining line from that interview: "As long as no one tries put their hands on me or chats no shit in my face, everything will be lovely, man." Quite right. -- Liza Power, editor