A Place to Bury Strangers’ music’s been called a lot of things, but the one that caught me off-guard the most came straight from vocalist Oliver Ackermann’s mouth. “Glorified pop” is the last descriptor I’d use, but of course, who am I to question the source of the music? Either way, critics and audiences alike have been praising the last two full-length efforts from the noise rock (or glorified pop?) NYC outfit. This last fall, Exploding Head released and proved the band’s 2007 debut wasn’t a fluke.

Here in this SSv exclusive, Ackermann talks more about the Pitchfork review that launched them farther than they could have predicted and how they plan some instrumental experimentation on their next album. More than anything, he speaks about what it means to have the song speak to you in a way that becomes magical.

SSv: The full-length review came out to such strong acclaim. When you look back at that time, what did that provide for the band? Can you tell if it started you in a different place than others?

Oliver Ackermann: Oh, it was really great. That really just helped us to become established as a band, period, I think. It gave us the opportunities to have more people interested. It made it much easier on us to be able to travel and play shows and be able to focus on the music. It was really good. I know that it was completely unexpected for me and it transformed what this band was doing and everything. It was very cool.

SSv: When you say that it transformed everything, do you remember the first wave of that — when things were just beginning to change?

Oliver: Definitely. It wasn’t necessary anything about any particular shows. There were just more and more people who were interested in the band. We had people keep on contacting the band about doing things and stuff. It was just so much easier.

SSv: How did that begin to happen? Was it a particular write-up?

Oliver: Definitely. Everything started in a really big way with Pitchfork. There were definitely other things happening before that happened, but that was all happening very slowly. But as soon as the Pitchfork thing started happening, everything else just fell into place. It was maybe a few days after the review was up, someone had called me — I think it was the bass player in the band. He said, ‘Holy shit! Did you see us on Pitchfork?’ I was like, ‘I didn’t know. That’s awesome.’ Then he told me to check out how many MySpace plays we had and it was around 14,000 for the day or something. I was like, ‘What in the world is going on? This is ridiculous.’ [Laughs]

SSv: Did that affect your expectations for Exploding Head?

Oliver: You know, I think the album came out great. I guess I don’t really expect anything. The thing that I’m expecting is maybe different than others would think for something like that. But I thought it came out really awesome and we got what we were going for for this project. In fact, I was surprised that it came out as well as it did.

SSv: With six months now between you and the release of Exploding Head, are you still steeped in support for that or are you beginning to think about the next project?

Oliver: We’re always thinking about the next step. We’re thinking about the next step even as we were recording the last record, I think. Those ideas always change and I’ve come up with all kinds of other ideas as well for our future stuff. I definitely want to do something that’s a lot more experimental in those ways that we couldn’t really do with that record.

I mean, that record really captures a lot of what we sound like live to some degree – I think at least. Of course, live recordings are completely different, but just in the way that I guess it’s kind of stripped down. With the next record, I want to take things further with different instrumentation and spend a lot more time with sound exploration rather than the basic instruments of the band.

SSv: Are there certain instruments in particular that you’re thinking about reaching for?

Oliver: I guess maybe it would be a lot of weird, effects-driven stuff, sort of like modulators or oscillators and stuff. Maybe some violins or something, who knows? But that might not happen as well. But there will definitely be some sound experimentation with homemade synthesizers and stuff like that.

SSv: Is Mute a one-album deal or what?

Oliver: I think it’s up to whatever we want to do. As far as I know, it’s been really great to work with them on a lot of levels and so I guess we’ll just have to see what happens. We’re definitely going to have to go with them for at least another record. They’ve just been really cool to work with and I think it’s a young enough relationship where I think it’s too hard to tell, I guess, ultimately what we do. I mean, I really love the label, so as far as what they’re doing now, they’re great.

SSv: You guys remained centered on the band’s key sounds and yet some songs like “Deadbeat” went toward some surf-rock sounds and others explored some newer genres.

Oliver: We started recording about 22 songs or something for the start of this record and then it just seemed that some of the songs made the most sense. I can never predict what’s going to come out per se, but those were the songs that were just written at that time and they seemed like they just fit together with the whole movement of the album. It just seemed right. I couldn’t say exactly what that was except that it just sounded appropriate. The songs spoke to me or something.

SSv: Is that how a song comes out — that in some levels, it speaks to you?

Oliver: Yeah, definitely. If I was maybe able to explain it, it wouldn’t be that awesome, magical thing. I would understand it too much to not even have it move me, you know? I think that’s one of those awesome things about sound in that it’s something you can’t really touch. You can see it or even get a full grasp of what it is or what is going on.

SSv: I know they’re subjective, so it is hard to talk about art or the creation of art, but I love that phrase when you say a song speaks to you. But can you describe the process of when that’s happened in the past – what you’ve found out about it?

Oliver: You’re just kind of open. I don’t even know why I would write something to be any specific way. You just kind of put out what appeals to you. When you’re starting a song, maybe you have an idea for a sound that you think will be really, really awesome and you can even try to force this kind of sound on a song. But it’s those moments when you’ve been up all night forcing something to try to work, there will be this accident that happens that really takes it a new direction that becomes the heart of the song. It’s about being open to even being surprised by the song. Sometimes the ideas in your head are the ones that come out as you imagined, but other times, you hear these different elements in all these different things that affect the direction of one song.

I mean, that’s the same way even when recording stuff. I don’t even like finishing writing a song until it’s recorded, because it’s like you want to have the song able to breathe and have the structure or composition of the song change according to how the song is coming out. Even then, we keep our songs open when we play them live, because you almost don’t know what it’s gonna sound like or what it’s gonna feel like at that kind of moment at some show. The song could tell you to go some other kind of way. So you just have to go with what the sounds tell you that are coming out. We probably play a lot different than others, unless you’re really a musician’s musician. We’re definitely not that, especially since we’re really just playing glorified pop songs, I guess.

SSv: [Laughs] That last line is definitely not something I expected you to say.

Oliver: [Laughs] Yeah, it’s improvised pop music or something, I guess.