Manila (CNN Philippines Life) — From “making music for haunted houses” to scoring a stylish Apple commercial, and eventually writing a song for Beyoncé, New York-based electronic duo Chairlift has managed to keep their cool throughout the evolution of their music and the things they do around it, despite the inevitable pop refinement and abandonment of grit that supposedly comes with a certain rise to fame.
With a more polished and mature sound, Chairlift’s latest album “Moth” embodies how the band embraced their idiosyncrasies with more conviction, arguably less fuzz, but with nevertheless the same set of eyes orchestrating their audiovisual imagery, still outlandish and alluring as ever.
The maturity is “natural,” says singer-producer Caroline Polachek, who came out in a flowy sunset-colored dress (as she is seen in the music video for the “Moth” single “Ch-Ching”) at Black Market in Makati last weekend, in their first concert in Manila. “Change excites us,” they say, with drummer-producer Patrick Wimberly narrating their touring experiences and the new friends they make everyday.
The band’s strength lies in their ability to stay true to themselves and to their audience despite their introspective and seemingly-alienating music philosophy. With Caroline’s onstage choreography including touching of fans’ hands and offering the mic to them, Chairlift made friends with many people in the club that night.
At the dimly-lit Mao Den above the main room of Black Market, CNN Philippines Life sat down with Caroline and Patrick to talk about their sonic coming of age, what it’s like working with Beyoncé, and the musical soul searching that comes with America’s shifting political landscape. Below are edited excerpts from the interview.
People have been talking about your last album, “Moth,” and they’re saying that there was a big change of sound from “Does You Inspire You,” that it’s a little bit more refined. Is this a conscious choice or is this something that came naturally?
Caroline: It came very naturally. [It took us three years before putting out that record so] naturally, in that time, our lives changed, and our experiences changed. We weren’t making any decisions in a negative way, We’re not looking back on our records and saying, “Let’s not do that,” but rather, we’re inspired by them, by new things. Change excites us.
Even within a record, from one Chairlift song to another is kind of like a mixtape format … [of our] impulses. It’s very organic for us.
How does your songwriting process go?
Caroline: Every record [has had] a different way of working. This record [was about] experimenting with really [ambient] sounds and it was actually mostly instrumental tracks first, and then the vocals came on top of them.
One thing that surprised people was “No Angel,” the song you penned for Beyoncé. How did that go?
Caroline: She hit Chairlift up for writing. Patrick and I wrote five songs together that we submitted. Patrick threw in a couple of instrumentals and I threw in “No Angel” which was a song that I’ve written on my own, a year and a half prior. I sent it to her and six months later, I got a text message at 3 in the morning saying, “We need stems now!” So I sent them stems, and six months later, it appeared on the record. We had no idea.
The whole process was quite secretive. We weren’t in a room with her at the time. She’s really a master of collage. So she took the production and the writing from that song, and added writing from James Fauntleroy. The rap was from James Fauntleroy, that was for a different song that she sort of Frankenstein-ed together, which is brilliant. She’s got an incredible ear and she knows what she wants to hear. She took everything I gave her, and she added on top of that.
America’s going through a lot of changes right now, with its current political climate. Do you think this is going to affect your music?
Caroline: It’s definitely making me think a lot about what role music plays, not just politically but also in very central terms, like, what do people need music for in times that are really confusing and really fucked up. I think it’s making every musician in America do a lot of introspection and soul searching.
Is this making you grow more aware of your audience or yourselves?
Caroline: I think [we’re] actually less aware of the audience. It’s a very personal question, but at least for me, it’s more like, tapping into some things that are very abstract and incredibly personal.
Is this your first time in Southeast Asia? Any stories on tour that stuck out for you?
Caroline: No, but this is our first time in the Philippines. You guys have the most amazing mangoes in the world. And beautiful people.
Patrick: It’s funny when you get so used to traveling … We [don’t travel with a] big group, we’re like five or six people. We’ve gone to a lot of places and the funny thing is being in this tight group of people and everyday you’re making an entirely new set of friends. We have a new set of friends today. Our friends in the Philippines have been amazing and they’re totally different from the friends that we had in Tokyo just two days ago.
Caroline: It’s a very social job. But we love it.
