Safe As Milk

An interview with Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel

By Stephen Head

With one of the damnedest post-'60's monikers in all of rock 'n' roll, Neutral Milk Hotel has generated quite a little buzz in the music industry. The schlemiels at Spin named NMH's On Avery Island "one of the ten best albums you didn't hear in 1996," all the while not realizing that Jeff Mangum & Co.'s debut platter had survived countless repetitions on the Grip poolhouse turntable.

So when, in May, Neutral Milk Hotel dropped into Charlottesville to play a packed Grip-sponsored bash (along with the lovable Olivia Tremor Control). . . well, our staff was too busy throwing back a few Sake Bombs with Bob Guccione Jr. to be in any condition to interview anybody.

But after a few aspirin and some time allotted for NMH to finish their stateside tour, Grip's own Stephen Head caught up with frontman Jeff Mangum at his Athens, Georgia digs. . .

Grip Monthly How did your U.S. tour wind up?

Jeff Mangum It went really well. I was really happy with it.

Grip Any horror stories to report?

Mangum We all got really sick in Minneapolis, after catching this bug in Chicago. By the time we got to Minnesota, I was just throwing up. I was sick for three weeks.

Grip That sucks.

Mangum Yeah, but we still had good shows even though we were really ill.

Grip Is it true that you started Neutral Milk Hotel in Louisiana when you were in high school?

Mangum Yeah.

Grip What direction have you geared the band to evolve toward?

Mangum I've never really. . . I mean, I've always taken it one song at a time. I just write whatever songs come out of me and just sing whatever comes naturally. So whatever those songs happen to be, that's what the band is. I don't have a real, conscious direction for the group.

Grip Neutral Milk Hotel is often dubbed a 'fuzz folk' outfit. Did you listen to a lot of folk music growing up?

Mangum Not really. I don't listen to a lot of folk. I just think that the reason that's come about is because the songs have a different variety, a different way that we record them. All the songs get written on an acoustic guitar, but I don't consider it to be 'folk.'

Grip What are some bands or artists that you're into?

Mangum I'm really into Soft Machine. . . John Coltrane. . . John Cage.

Grip On Avery Island unfolds and flows together remarkably well. It really seems to embrace the album concept in that the songs seque into one another quite nicely. How did you approach recording it?

Mangum I can't help but to approach a record in terms of the impact of a collection of songs. So a lot of songs, say I'll write a 10-minute song, but instead of doing one 10-minute song, it'll get broken up into little bits and then different themes will appear in different places. It's not so much a divisional thing. . . it might come across as that. But in my mind, in a traditional sort of 'classic record' thing-- where there's a beginning, a middle and an end as far as cut-up-- the overall impact is not going to be the same for every person. I'm not necessarily expecting someone to come to a grand conclusion in the end.

Grip So what is Avery Island?

Mangum It's an island off the coast of Louisiana.

Grip Is it like a carnival island, like on the cover?

Mangum Yeah. Mainly though, I kinda had a weird spiritual experience there when I was a kid. When I was in the 8th grade.

Grip Which was?

Mangum A giant Buddha in the middle of the island.

Grip Oh. When you played the Tokyo Rose, you introduced several of your songs by saying they were written after visiting certain places, like San Francisco. How do you know when to write a song?

Mangum I don't know. I don't really think about it, you know. I just sort of let them show up when they start to come (laughs)

Grip Lyrically, your songs seem to frame personal moments, but at the same time they sort of have a surreal quality to them. Are they all fairly autobiographical?

Mangum Yeah, they're very autobiographical. A lot of times, each lyric, each line is sort of a moment in my life and somehow they get crammed together into a song that makes sense to me. A lot of times I'll write a new song and it's really important to play it in front of people, because sometimes you can't help but wonder whether or not they'll be able to relate to it. So many of the words are little filmstrips that are rolling through my head, and people might not know exactly what you're talking about.

Grip What are your plans for the next NMH album?

Mangum We're doing stuff right now. We've been waiting for Robert (Schneider). He's in the Apples in Stereo. They just finished their album yesterday, so we've been doing stuff here and waiting to go to Denver to finish it.

Grip When will it be released?

Mangum Sometime in the Fall.

Grip Do you have a working title yet?

Mangum No.

Grip How many songs are you going to record?

Mangum We've got 19 (songs) that could be on the album, but it'll get scaled down to a single record. But we could take all kinds of different directions. I'm not exactly sure what it's going to be like.

Grip One last question that I'm sure you're tired of answering. Why 'Neutral Milk Hotel'?

Mangum Oh, we've just had that since. . . it's always just been. . . I mean, there's meaning behind it, I just don't really like to divulge it.