The Onion Interviews Martin Dosh

Download: Dosh - "Capture the Flag"

MPLS-based multi-instrumentalist Dosh released his fourth full-length long-player, Wolves and Wishes. Wolves, like its predecessors, does a fantastic job demonstrating what Dosh is all about: minimalist electronic symphonies which, using loops of different instruments like guitar, violin, saxophone, keyboards and drums, build slowly, but surely, to a rousing conclusion. Inquiring minds would probably like to know how Dosh goes about making his records, so the people over at the Onion A.V. Club, the like-minded entertainment section of satirical newspaper The Onion, sought the answers to that question, and more. Here's an excerpt of the interview:

AVC: Wolves And Wishes and The Lost Take brought in a lot of guest musicians, including Bird and Bonnie "Prince" Billy.

Martin Dosh: I want to expand. I'm unable to play instruments like violin and guitar—I play a little bit of guitar, not enough to come up with cool ideas, I think. I just want to have other textures in the music—I don't want it to just be all keyboards, xylophones, and drums. It can be really cool that way, but right now I want to hear those other textures. The violin is awesome, and obviously there are other avenues I could explore by sampling other things. There's so much I like about sampling other people that are reacting to my music. So I have my basic track [with] drums, melody, keyboards, and Jeremy comes over and says, "What should I play?" I'm just, "Eh, try a couple things." And we'll do a few passes through, improv-style, and listen back, find the good stuff, chop it up, move it around.

From there, the interview, conducted by Christopher Bahn, goes on to discuss the effect that touring has on Dosh's creative process, working with frequent collaborator Andrew Bird, and whether or not Dosh worries that a song will be too complex to play live.

Read the rest of the interview here.

In the meantime, check out two videos of Dosh playing live. There's "Capture The Flag", which was captured at Dosh's home, and "Um, Circles and Squares", the video of which was shot by a fan at Dosh's show in Omaha on June 6th. The last is of Dosh playing "Subtractions, Part One" at the Walker Art Center last month in Minneapolis, as part of his "World of Dosh" shows.


(Dosh, "Capture The Flag", live at home)
Via Anticon


(Dosh, "Um, Circles and Squares", Live in Omaha)
YouTube Link


(Dosh, "Subtractions, Part One", Live at the Walker Art Center)
YouTube Link

Wolves and Wishes is out now. Buy it here.

Dosh MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)