Lo-fi garage-punk trio Times New Viking has just put out its fourth album on Matador Records. Read the interview below:

What are you up to at the moment?
We are at an internet cafe in york, hence why i am able to finally respond to your questions.

What are your main musical influences?
It’s hard not to be influenced by the Velvet Underground so i will say them as well as Ohio bands like Electric Eels, Devo, The Cramps, Pere Ubu… not all of them in form, some in style. Pere Ubu had very similiar ideas about music and backgrounds, like they appreciated literature and wanted their music to be of equal value to like, Faulkner. Devo and Electric Eels were art school kids like us. Actually Devo started in the months that kent state closed down due to the national guard shooting 4 students. silver linings to a tragedy. after we started playing we discovered Flying Nun and X-pressway pop music out of new zealand and australia and that pretty much blew our minds. we have played with the clean and they are the only band that has ever beat us onstage.

Do you think your music should ‘belong’ or ‘fit in’ to a particular musical family or genre?
If anything the Ohio lineage that i mentioned above that also extends into the now, passing through the 80’s and 90’s columbus bands like Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, True Believers and V-3. also anything that has been released on Siltbreeze i am proud to call my labelmates. Siltbreeze released our first two albums and continues to release the best stuff around.

You are releasing records in a difficult time for the music industry: how do you see the future for it?
More people have started buying vinyl instead of cd’s and i could see that increasing steadily. It’s funny, i work at a record shop and a couple people have come in to buy, say, the new wilco album but we don’t carry it on CD, so they will buy the LP with the free download although they don’t own a record player.

Could you you tell us what is the most important source of income today ? Records, syncs, tours, merch…?
Definitely touring, we always owe money for records because we are too generous in giving them out. On tour we cut our expenses way down by hardly eating and drinking for free so we can make money. The only thing we spend money on is record shopping.

As an artist, how do you use & see the web today? How important is it for you and how do you see it evolving in the coming years?
We use the web to post shows for all the other people who actually use the web. None of us have internet at our houses, Adam walks to the internet cafe once a day to check emails.

You have some buzz in an emerging country but no way to monetize it, would you give away your music for free to keep growing it ?
Sure, new countries probably wouldn’t have the internet yet so we would drop cassettes on ‘em from a helicopter, probably some hot dogs too.

What do you expect from a label in 2009?
Just to keep letting us do whatever the fuck we want. and that hot dog cassette thing i mentioned.

What’s your favourite: digital and physical format and why?
Physical because you can’t eat an Mp3, with this economy you never know where your next meal is coming from and vinyl has way more substance than Mp3’s that are made of…i don’t know what.

Recommended music sites?
dunno, donewaiting.com is the Columbus Ohio music site, so check that out i guess.

How’s the scene in Columbus? Any good bands around?
I really like Hugs & Kisses, a defunct R &B theatre band. Psychedelic Horseshit has always been my favorite.

Places of interest in your neighbourhood?
I just upgraded from Washington beach, where the students and entire Columbus rock scene live to Clintonville, a hippy lesbian parents neighborhood just to the north. There is an indian mound in my backyard that some people say is a landfill.

Best thing that happened to you recently?
L.U.V. and this sandwich.

Number one junk food?
Weed brownies, jello shots.

Best venue?
Ever? I really like playing house shows and venues that people go to.

A movie you would like to watch now, right now?
“666″, a nigerian anti-drug movie made by a pastor. yeah, i read about it in Vice.

Best place to live?
Every time i go to a new city, i say to myself, “i could live here”, but i never move, so Columbus, Ohio i suppose. Maybe someday i will move to the country or a remote island that i have yet to discover. And i would choose LA over NYC anyday.

Last album you enjoyed listening?
Before i left for tour i was listening to the first side of Cocteau Twins’ Treasure, Robin Gibb’s Robins Reign and this private press Jim Shepard 7″ Voices Of Men over and over. Just discovered the Camper Van Beethoven version of the entire Fleetwood Mac album Tusk, which Lindsay Buckingham said he likes better than the Fleetwood’s version. I really like the new Lindsay Buckingham album gift of screws while im at it as well.

Best TV shows (current and ever)?
Don’t watch too much tv nowadays but when i am depressed watching the Sarah Silverman show cheers me up. Jared watches the Simpsons and the Family Guy every day.

Best gigs (2009 and ever)?
El Paso Texas house parties. I slept in a treehouse.

Last book you enjoyed reading?
Reading the brothers Karamazov right now and it is taking precedent over my partying on tour.

Fave night drink and morning beverage?
Whiskey / Kombucha

Visit Times New Viking Myspace

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