“I pretty much go to work every day, so I’m always working on stuff. It’s not always necessarily about my band – soundtracks, collaborations. I should be working on the new Brian Jonestown Massacre album, but it’s going a little bit slower than it should,” he reveals. “I think it’s because I can’t imagine what it is I’m looking for. If I had an idea, I’d find it. I made up some really good songs, but I can’t see in my mind how they would fit together as an album. Even though the album format might be extinct, I like to view the songs in bundles like that. I’m interested in longer trips than just hits.”
More so than pretty much any other artist on the planet, Anton is constantly exploring and experimenting with distribution methods, being a pioneer of sorts for online filesharing.
“I’m interested in all forms of media. I’m about contact. I put all my stuff on the internet in the earlier days. By the time Napster came, I had an FTP site so people could instantly download and seed my stuff on peer-to-peer downloads. I pay people to destroy sites where people are selling those files. Just like iTunes, people have their own blogs and try to sell my demos. It’s ridiculous. The decisions need to be made by society and governments.
“In the meantime, I have to focus on market share and plant my seeds everywhere. I was aware of what a dead end record deals were to begin with. That’s why I maintained my rights, and I’ve seen all my peers just dropped. They get to an age where they’re just not interested in playing music anymore. I’m not one of those people. Most days I enjoy playing music, I get a thrill from finding something new. But it doesn’t last very long. It’s something I still enjoy doing, so that’s why I do it.”
The Brian Jonestown Massacre have been in existence for 25 years, with Anton’s enthusiasm for performing music now as strong as ever. “When I play live, it’s equally terrifying and exhilarating. You’re vulnerable. I was thinking yesterday about how many concerts I’ve done where people haven’t locked into it when something amazing is happening. I’m not being an egomaniac, just the concerts I’ve seen of other people and everybody’s feeling it. I’m not talking about rocking out, flipping your hair – I’m talking about when it clicks. I was thinking about it yesterday, and you can never bring any of that back. There were times when Matt Hollywood [guitar], back when he played bass, that he got so sick of the long repetitious stuff and just sat down his bass. Just walked off stage, ‘Fuck this, I’m not playing this riff one more time’.
“It’s so bad, considering what we were playing was radical in its minimalism. Just not getting it. It leads back to the rehearsals, where so many people have not got what they’re being a part of. Now 20 years later I’m living in Berlin, and it’s still paying my rent. It’s paying for all my shit. They never got what practice was about. I’m going off on a tangent again. All I can say is that I enjoy searching for stuff. I feel that western culture is geared towards the fame thing. This is a better place for me than LA. I just work on my music.”
Since 2007, Anton has made base in Berlin, finding his niche as he acclimatises to newfound fatherhood. “I don’t speak German, so it’s difficult if my washer and dryer get broken. I’ve got a baby now, and I think it’s a good place for him. I have those things to consider. It’s a good economy, education system, it’s safe. There are a lot of pluses. I don’t want the same things for my son as I did for myself – freedom to do what I want, ‘Fuck the man,’ sort of thing, start a revolution, fuck society, let’s rip it apart.
“You look at a phenomenon like Lollapalooza was, and just thousands of people with braided hair and dreadlocks, people in purple hair jumping around to music. Every single one of those people would have been beat to death if they were a teenager in my hometown,” Anton deadpans. “That whole thing became a commodity that was sold to you. Or whatever it is now, it’s disturbing. It reminds me of fascism. Bieber fans remind me of Hitler youth, the hysteria, the fanaticism, it’s just over nothing. I know that it’s not impossible to be a part of beautiful things like youth culture, I experienced that, felt my kindred spirits. There’s a big tradition, even with Aussie bands, of people supporting each other. I just find that it’s the opposite when it folds into itself – ‘You’re supposed to like this because it was on TV, because Simon Cowell told you.’ It’s just that fanaticism that bothers me.”
BY LACHLAN KANONIUK
