Elf Power

Andrew Rieger had no idea it would turn into this. Neither, for that matter, did Jeff Mangum, Robert Schneider, Bill Doss or Will Cullen Hart — the original friends behind the famed Elephant 6 Collective. After creating homemade tapes in the early ’90s, a series of bands that would influence the underground rock scene for the next 15-plus years emerged centered around an early label called Elephant 6. That circle would eventually include Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Of Montreal, Elf Power and The Apples, who later became Apples in Stereo.

Rieger was an early addition to the group, forming Elf Power with Laura Carter and contributing to the early exchanges of tapes (and influence) as time went on. Elf Power is now equated with the other notable acts, although they’re one of the few still making music today. Rieger says the others are still around, even if they’re not as prominent; but as for Elf Power, they hope to remain in the mainstream consciousness as long as possible.

SSv: It seems I’ve run across several articles over the last couple of years discussing the early-to-mid-’90s Athens scene and the influence you had alongside several others. Are you surprised by that at all? Or even surprised to still be around?

Andrew Rieger: I feel that there’s been a pretty strong interest all along actually. As new kids get into music who weren’t around at the time when we first started doing all of that, there’s definitely been some renewed interest. I don’t ever really feel like it has waned. All of the bands that started doing all of that are all still active in music for the most part. Jeff Mangum, even though he doesn’t release albums, still records music a lot at home. It’s been pretty active all along, I think.

When I first started recording and putting out records, like that very first album we did called Vainly Clutching at Phantom Limbs,I was doing them mostly by myself on four-track cassette and pressing out some copies for some friends. Then I met the guys in Olivia Tremor Control and they were doing the same thing, self-releasing these singles of home recordings. That was nice to find kindred spirits who were living in Athens at the same time in the mid-’90s.

From then on, we just started collaborating and recording a lot with each other. It was just a natural progression from there. It’s great that people are influenced by that music and that people still like it. I’m still grateful that people still give a shit at all. [Laughs]

SSv: Surprised by that at all? This is a fickle industry.

Andrew: Yeah I feel lucky that people still listen and come to our shows and that we get to travel all over the world and play for people. That’s definitely not something I take for granted. It might not last forever, but it’s an honor to be able to do that. It’s really a fun way to live your life, to travel around making music for people.

We don’t really reflect back on the history of the band too much. I don’t listen to any of the old albums ever, unless we’re trying to relearn one of the songs to play live. I just feel like I’m always thinking about the next thing. Not that there’s anything wrong with looking back and playing old music. I still enjoy the songs from 1995, but that’s not something we consciously think about too much. We’re just always thinking about the next thing.

SSv: Did you realize back then that you were on to something or did it feel like a magical season of some sort?

Andrew: Yeah, the first couple of tours we did with Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia [Tremor Control] and The Music Tapes, it felt like all of our projects were unique. Yet since we all collaborated together, they all had somewhat of a similar thread running through them. Those early tours were awesome. It was nice to see that people outside of Athens were into what we were doing. It’s been a lot of fun all along for sure.

SSv: What’s important to you now with Elf Power that maybe wasn’t even important a few years ago?

Andrew: It’s really just a constant challenge to try to make new music where we’re not repeating ourselves. We want to do something that’s different and new. That’s always the goal is that you don’t repeat yourself and that you keep creating music that is fun for yourself and fresh for yourself primarily and then you hope the audience likes it as well.

But I think that collaborating with different people keeps things fresh. The album we did with Vic Chesnutt in 2008 was really cool to do. That was an album where I wasn’t the main songwriter. They were Vic’s songs and we were backing him up and that was something we’d never done before. Each new experience like that teaches you new things.

SSv: That’s an interesting position as a band, I think. To be this influential band known for this sound and time and place and yet to still make new music that’s entirely fresh… that has to present some interesting scenarios.

Andrew: Yeah, we try not to think about it or overanalyze it too much. For this last album, the few years prior to starting to work on it, we had released two albums — our last album and the one we did with Vic and then we’d toured America and Europe multiple times. We were really burnt out, so we took a little break and spent about eight or nine months just writing and rehearsing and just trying different things.

Some people would come in with just a fragment and then that would develop into a whole song. Other times, I would come in with a whole song that I thought would be great, but then when we put it with the full band, it really wasn’t that good. So it was a long period of trial and error, which was really good. It was a lot more time than we normally take to do that, but I think it paid off in the end.

SSv: You brought up Vic Chesnutt and I know you dedicated the album to him. What specifically for you was that relationship and influence?

Andrew: I got into Vic right when I was coming out of high school and going into college here in Athens in ’89 or ’90. I was just a huge fan of his for years, but I didn’t actually meet him until later in the mid-’90s and became acquainted with him just through living in Athens. It’s a small town. So when I would see him, I’d always mention that if he ever needed someone to play with, I’d love to collaborate.

We finally did it and recorded that album together [Dark Developments] over the course of about a year when we would each have time at his home studio. It was a real casual collaboration. It was really creative for both of us. I love Vic and really enjoyed doing that album together. We enjoyed touring together. It was fantastic. Obviously it was extremely sad when he died. I still think about him all of the time. He was a great friend and a great artist, so it was a great loss for sure.

SSv: Do you remember where you were when you heard the news?

Andrew: Yes, I was at my mom’s house for Christmas. It was not really a big surprise, because he had attempted suicide many times in the past, even a week or so before that. So the last time I saw him after he had tried to kill himself the time previous to that, I kind of felt like it might be the last time I would see him. So it was hard, but it wasn’t entirely a shock. He had talked about it and attempted it and sang about it in his songs for many years. So it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

SSv: Do you feel like his influence is felt on the new record?

Andrew: Yeah, I’m a huge fan of his, but he’s not one of those artists that I sound like. My songwriting isn’t directly influenced by him. I feel more of his influence as a friend and as an admirer of his work. But there are lots of artists I love that I don’t feel directly influence my work. I love John Coltrane and lots of jazz music, but I don’t think that has any direct influence on my work. I love Slayer, but we don’t sound like Slayer. [Laughs] Just because we love somebody doesn’t mean they’re going to directly affect us.

SSv: [Laughs] That’s true.

Andrew: [Laughs] Who knows? Maybe our next album will sound like Slayer. Anything could happen.