ALBUM BY ALBUM
Destroyer
A picaresque romp through the greatest works of loquacious rock’n’roll prophet Dan Bejar and pals
IN the wake of Destroyer’s most successful album to date, 2011’s Kaputt, Dan Bejar was introduced to a music licensing guru. “It’s the only frank discussion I’ve ever really had with anyone in the music business,” he reveals. “To me, Kaputt seemed like the kind of thing that someone would license. And the dude was just like, ‘I’m sorry, man, but your words are weird and your voice is weird, and there’s too many words so you’re constantly hearing your weird voice.’” He smiles ruefully, though clearly he also takes some pride from his rejection by the system. “It’s all there in that answer, the good and the bad.”
From inauspicious 4-track beginnings, Destroyer have stubbornly chiselled out a place in the indie firmament, doing more than anyone to uphold the notion of rock music as a rapturous, poetic, life-affirming force. Bejar’s unconventional voice and excitably profuse lyrics may remain a turn-off for television music supervisors, but for those who’ve seen the light, he’s a major prophet of our times, an acerbic and inspirational presence at the centre of music that frequently scrapes the sky.
Despite enjoying only a fleeting brush with success, the fact that Destroyer have now been releasing records for almost three decades tells its own story. “It sounds amazing on paper, and at the same time it sounds insane,” Bejar admits. “This one thing that I do, have I really been doing it the entirety of my adult life? I’m sure, in essence, it’s the same drive as it was 30 years ago, but my life is unrecognisable. Which I think is normal, but most people aren’t asked to account for themselves and their whereabouts in the winter of 1995.” Which is where our story begins…
SAM RICHARDS
“I was writing at the top of my game”: Bejar circa
…Rubies
, 2006
2011: “I was completely obsessed with
Avalon
”
WE’LL BUILD THEM A GOLDEN BRIDGE
TINKER RECORDINGS, 1996
Literary ambitions outstrip musical abilities on spirited no-fi debut that references both Guided By Voices and
War And Peace
I was in one band before, but I didn’t really have much control over the sound of things. Already I sensed that being the lead singer in a rock band was maybe not what God put me on this earth to do – which didn’t stop me over the next few decades. But I did borrow a 4-track and started singing not-rock songs that I had written on an acoustic guitar.