In Service of Spreading Joy: An Interview with Avey Tare

By Tyler Francischine

Photos by Amy Grace

With teeth bared, eyelids fluttering and his head rapidly oscillating on his neck, Avey Tare channels the spirit.

The veteran recording and performing artist who makes up one-fourth of the band Animal Collective showcased his newest solo output, February’s “7s,” on May 13 at L.A.’s Lodge Room. The performance saw Avey dig deep not only into his back catalog--“Ghost of Books” from 2010’s “Down There” had the crowd squealing in surprise--but into himself, inspiring similar sentiments in the audience.

Listening to Avey’s recordings, which are rife with raw emotionality, feels like having a deep one-on-one with a confidante, those kinds of rare, endless, cathartic conversations in which everything under the sun is up for discussion and you shock yourself with each honest revelation you release. When Avey performs his works live, that introspective, thought-provoking experience transforms into a joyous, communal exercise in both exhalation and exhilaration. The audience and performer are connected in intentionality and openness.  

After a particularly climactic swell of sound, Avey emits a piercing yelp. His call is returned by a dozen hoots and howls from around the Lodge Room. It’s almost as if he’s asking, “You ready to get deep and vulnerable with it?” to which we reply, “Let’s get it.”

A couple weeks after he wrapped up a run of performances along the West Coast, I spoke to Avey Tare, born David Portner, about the biggest rewards and challenges in his two-decade career as a touring performance artist, the creativity-boosting benefits of spending time in nature, as well as the value of taking breaks in between projects to simply live life.

First, I’d love to hear how this last tour was for you.

Avey Tare: “I thought the tour was a lot of fun. It was also a lot of work for me. I've never done a tour like this one in that I was kind of doing most everything myself. The first part of it, mostly the East Coast and Midwest, I did in my car, and then for the second half, I flew to the West Coast and rented a minivan.

“For both of the legs, my sister, [visual artist Abby Portner,] helped me get together some ideas of how I wanted the set to look. And so, she was on the first couple days just to help me get things up and running, but after that, yeah, I was out on the road alone. It was a trial-and-error kind of tour. I had no idea how it would be. On other tours, I have set up visuals and prepped merch and that kind of thing. I just have never had to do everything all on the same day. [laughs]

“I just treated every day as something new, a new sort of adventure, a new mystery, not really getting any expectations up. One mantra I have in life at this point especially is, don't expect anything, you know what I mean? I think it's some words to live by. My Animal Collective bandmate and I were actually talking about it a little last night, how it fits in with a lot of Zen philosophy.

“On this tour, I worked with a lot of great people. I toured with my longtime friend Danny Perez for a few days. That was awesome to get some quality time with him and see the art and music that he's working on. A lot of friends and family really stepped up for me as well. Those moments reconnecting with people made the tour very special.”

Wow, so did wearing all the hats on this tour increase your appreciation for all the people and moving parts that come together to create a tour?

Avey Tare: “Oh, definitely. It made me grateful for the people who I have around me in other circumstances that do that work. It just makes me want to work as hard as I can to put in the best that I can.”

You’ve been touring for two decades. What would you say are the most rewarding aspects of touring and its biggest challenges?

Avey Tare: “It sounds cheesy, but the biggest reason I'm out there is just to bring joy to people. I want people to have a good time these days, you know? I don't know what people's outlets are for joy in their lives, but this seems just as good an outlet as any to me. When I'm on a solo tour like this one, it's easier to see the direct result of that. Since they're smaller, more intimate clubs, I'm sort of in the thick of it, and I have more connection to people. It's the energy of the crowd that makes the music work, I feel.

“I also just generally like what happens in the live setting. I like improvised music, the mistakes, the fact that things can be different from night to night, and the challenge. It’s the challenge that motivates my creativity.

“And being able to travel around -- I feel very privileged that I have a job that allows me to do that. So many times on tour, I’m just astounded. When I’m driving through mountains and canyons in Utah or seeing large fields of cacti, it blows my mind.

“The downside of touring is it's a lot of work, and it's not a lot of sleep. It's very exhausting for me after three days of having to drive 6-8 hours to a show, not getting back to the hotel until 1-2 a.m. and then getting up at 8 a.m. to do it all again. I mean, it's all self-imposed because of the kind of tour I do. I could just take an acoustic guitar around and make life a lot easier, but that's not the kind of thing I want to do. That's not me. So, there's a price to pay.” [laughs]

Has performing “7s” on this tour changed your relationships to these songs and the feelings that inspired them?

Avey Tare: “For myself and for the audience, I always want my performances to feel very organic, like there is a lot of spontaneity happening up on stage. Playing ‘7s’ live gave these songs a living, breathing feeling that I hadn't experienced before. It made a song like ‘The Musical’ (which to me is a more mellow song on the record, though you can sort of groove to it) much more alive and energetic. Feeling the energy of the crowd and how people would react to the song from night to night, or even to ‘Lips at Night,’ felt more frenetic.”

When I’ve seen you perform, sometimes it seems to me like you're going someplace else in your mind, and I'm like, ‘Is this composition in real time?’

Avey Tare: “I leave stuff open for moments like that, for sure. And I feel like the more comfortable I get with this material, the more that'll start to happen. I still want to do some more shows before the year is out. The next group of shows that I do, I'll probably break things apart more and mix things up, switch up the order and maybe throw another new song in. I’ll just see where it goes next.”

Did you use this tour to tease or work out any new material? I know Animal Collective tends to do that, and I thought I heard something unfamiliar at the Lodge Room show.

Avey Tare: “In general, I've always approached tours around new material. There was a new song I played that I call ‘The Mystical.’ It's an idea I had with these chimes, and I just had these feelings festering inside of me. So yeah, that came out there, and it was nice to play from night to night.

“I'm at a place right now where I'm trying to let the ideas simmer for a little bit and work themselves out of me in a slower way. We’re currently trying to put out a new Animal Collective record, and with ‘7s’ this year and ‘Time Skiffs’ last year with Animal Collective, I have ideas, but I’m not ready to take the next step.”

Is it fair to say it’s a conscious effort of yours to live some life in between creative projects?

Avey Tare: “I think so. I just let that inspire me and allow myself to be in the studio without feeling like I'm there for a specific purpose. During the week, I go to my studio (it’s a little room off my garage, nothing impressive) pretty much every day, and right now, I want to be in my own time, thinking about stuff and seeing what sticks and what doesn't.

“I also have access to Drop of Sun Studios. My good friend Adam McDaniel, who recorded ‘7s,’ and I get together once a week or so when we're around Asheville to flesh out ideas. And he's a big fan of that, too: just going into the studio and being like, ‘Let's just see what we make.’”

Speaking of your creative process, can you tell me about the time in your life when you first realized music was a means of achieving catharsis for you?

Avey Tare: “It was really early on, in high school I'd say, when I connected to music like that. It came more from listening to music at that time, and it was certainly tied to experimenting with THC and LSD--how that stuff affected music and how music affected that kind of stuff.

“But, you know, I've been around music since I was a kid. My dad was always playing piano in the house. Not too long ago, my brother actually sent me Super 8 footage of my first steps, and I walked right to the piano. In the footage, my older sister puts me up at the piano, and I just start banging on it.

“You could say I was drawn to music, but it was really in high school when I felt this emotional connection. It did something to me that nothing else in my life did. That's not to say that I thought I was going to have a career in it, but I just could not help but spend most of my time trying to figure out the ins and outs of music, writing and recording. I just immediately wanted it all.” [laughs]

Do you find that your musical expression happens in the same way for you as it did in those early days, or have you seen an evolution in the way you process thought and emotion through song?

Avey Tare: “It can happen in the same way; it's just more complicated now because I have such a long history of it, and I’m constantly looking back and comparing. Being the type of person who wants to do something different and wants to change, there's just a lot more thoughtfulness these days than maybe there used to be. But I feel like that stuff can be eliminated, too, and when I’m in a clear headspace, I get the same thing out of it that I did back then.”

Thanks so much for sharing that with me. And now for something completely different to wrap us up. When you’re not creating music as Avey Tare or in Animal Collective, how do you like to spend your free time?

Avey Tare: “I live in western North Carolina now, and what I'm there for is the nature and wilderness. I like camping, hiking and kayaking. I'm going backpacking next week around North Carolina. A lot of ideas can come about from just hiking or kayaking around. The way nature flows is a big inspiration for me. It’s a good head cleanser and soul cleanser, too.”