Cold Cave's Wesley Eisold on the unending loneliness of being in a band
Cold Cave mastermind Wesley Eisold has been a bit of a nomad over the last dozen or so years. He’s moved from Boston to Florida to Southern California to Philly, leaving a handful of bands in his wake and taking little more with him than his equally mercurial artistic vision. With outfits like Some Girls and Give Up The Ghost, Eisold explored the drum-pummeling and scream-steeped nuances of hardcore punk, but his latest project takes an entirely different tack. Cold Cave is, essentially, synth pop—keyboard music with drum machine beats whose dissonance comes in the form of hazy computer fuzz and Eisold’s dry, dour lyrics. Cold Cave also seems to carry an air of permanence to it. He recently relocated to Manhattan and seems uncharacteristically content with his surroundings. And even though Cold Cave’s membership has grown since Eisold’s Matador Records debut, Love Comes Close, he considers Cold Cave a collaborative solo project, which means just enough creative instability to ensure some real longevity. In advance of Cold Cave’s show Feb. 25 at Empty Bottle, Eisold talked to The A.V. Club via e-mail.
The A.V. Club: You’ve said that you love dance music but loathe clubs. What attracts you to using elements of that medium now—say, a 4/4 pulse over the old double-kick thrash?
Wesley Eisold: I just love it. I like walking around and listening to music. When my steps coincide with a beat, in my head I feel in unison with the world that I’m living in. Also, this is music that I can make and play myself. It’s not about choice so much as necessity, and I hope it sounds that way. Virtuosos don’t provide much for me—I like hacks with heart. I think it’s great that someone can be so qualified, but I’m attracted to primal desperation over options. I don’t have options. I wanted them for too long to know this much is true.
AVC: You’ve moved between projects pretty lithely until now, seemingly unconcerned with leaving one behind for something new. Is there a sense that Cold Cave is permanent?
WE: Like anyone, I just did what felt like the right thing to do at the time. There was a lot of emphasis on the idea of “a band,” and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sustain a healthy marriage, which is what being in a band is like. It’s a bit embarrassing how telltale it is, but having grown up moving every few years, I think you put so much hope into the idea of other people saving you, helping you plant your feet somewhere, making you feel at home. I feel like I’ve admitted that, ultimately, all we really have is ourselves, and so this is me.
AVC: You’ve said in other interviews that you essentially created Cold Cave as an alias, something that there’d be no reason to quit. Why bring in other players, then?
WE: Initially, I asked friends to perform live with me because it wasn’t something that I wanted to do, or even felt like I could do, alone. It was basically three non-musicians pushing buttons on stage. I was, and still am to a degree, interested in aesthetic and presence first, and music second. I love music, but more for the context within the music than a certain sound. There isn’t a permanent lineup to this. Cold Cave exists as my alias, as Prurient is Dominick [Fernow]’s. I’d asked Caralee [McElroy, formerly of Xiu Xiu] to play guitar on the record because I couldn’t. Then it just ended up with them performing with me regularly.
AVC: Were you specifically seeking artists with a background more steeped in electronics than your own?
WE: Not at all. I just want to play with people who understand the context of the band. There are a lot of people I’d like to make music with, people I find inspiring. The process is a little abnormal because you have to explain to someone what it is you’d like to extend to the world via music, but there aren’t exactly words for it—you can only hope that the other person will feel what you’re trying to articulate. You can’t expect drive and compassion from everyone who enters your life, but you have to demand it of the people you are creating with.
