by Benji Heywood (@benjiheywood.bsky.social)
The unavoidable discourse of today’s political climate has me thinking about manufactured consent. The idea is basically that all political debate happens within parameters set by existing power structures. As such, any debate within those parameters can’t challenge those in power.
This tracks, to a point. Art, however, is an outlier. The power of art—and why authoritarian regimes ban books, harangue musical artists, and blacklist directors—is this: Art is debate that can’t be controlled.
Said another way, art is important because of its status as political speech that exists outside of power structures. In an interview with Poets & Writers, Toni Morrison said, “All good art is political! There is none that isn't. And the ones that try hard not to be political are political by saying, 'We love the status quo.'”
Yet Morrison wasn’t as naïve to believe that all political art is good. Anyone who’s listened to their older brother’s high school punk band knows that just having a political message doesn’t necessarily make your art good.
Automatic, the LA-based electro-kraut-pop trio of Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Halle Saxon (bass, vocals), and Lola Dompé (drums, vocals), knows this. The band's three albums—including the recently-released Is It Now?—are examples of political music that works. Pairing satirical and incisive lyrics with nod-along grooves, hip-shaking beats, and catchy choruses, Automatic’s music smuggles in its politics. Which, if you ask the band, is the point.
“You have to get people moving,” Izzy says in the band’s is It Now? presser. “It’s harder and harder to enjoy a sense of escapism; it’s tinged with delusion. Action feels more rewarding.”
Is It Now? inspires this kind of action. It engages the listener physically before it tries to win any intellectual points. Post-Trash sat down with Halle Saxon and Lola Dompé to discuss the making of the new album, balancing politics with art and how to find joy in resistance.
Automatic by Erica Snyder
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Post-Trash: You’re both in LA right now, but Lola, you just flew back from Alaska? Were you playing a show?
Lola Dompé: My husband is a pilot, and he used to live there and work there, and he still kind of works there sometimes, so we made it a work vacation.
PT: Halle, are you more comfortable playing shows or would you rather be in the studio?
Halle Saxon: My favorite part is recording, but I do enjoy the shows. I get really, really nervous, personally.
PT: What’s the show versus recording calculus for you, Lola?
LD: I really enjoy playing the actual show, but I really don't enjoy touring at all. But the 30 minutes on stage is a lot of fun for me.
PT: Let’s talk about the recording of the new album. You did it to analogue tape, which is rare these days. Why do it to tape?
HS: We've always been attracted to punishing ourselves (laughs).
LD: Our sound is so minimal and it's nice to have tape to fill in the space.
HS: It’s like another character (in the recording). The process is nice, too. I’m reticent of technology generally, so knowing that we’re recording to tape, that what we’re hearing we actually performed instead of just slapping a filter on something—it’s nice to find ways to avoid using technology on everything.
PT: You also used a new producer for the first time this album. How did you connect with Loren Humphrey (Arctic Monkeys, Nice As Fuck, Cameron Winter)?
HS: He’s old friends with our managers. He’s old homies with Kevin Parker, who they manage, too. They all came up together.
LD: He also made an album by a band called Nice as Fuck, which really influenced us to start Automatic. They had bass, drums and vocals—and that’s it. At first, that’s what we wanted our band to sound like, but then we added synth ‘cuz we thought it sounded cool.
HS: It was such a privilege to work with Loren. He’s a huge tape nerd.
LD: And he really pushed us in different directions. Because he has a background in 70s rock, he likes to record everything live as a band, so he pushed us to do that. He wanted each song to have its own groove.
PT: Being such a minimalist band, was there a concern of having a new voice in the room, even though this person wasn’t playing an instrument?
HS: It's hard working with someone new. Our first two records we did with a very close friend that we knew very well. We had the utmost trust in him, and we didn't think that we were going to be able to find anyone to fill that gap. So, initially we tried to record the album on our own but then realized that we were out of our depth. So, we agreed to try out Loren because of his references, and his past work. And then in the end, it was awesome!
PT: It says in your bio that Loren had a choreographed dance move to each song. Is that true?
(Both Halle and Lola laugh)
LD: I’m going to be so embarrassed if Loren reads this. But yeah, it kinda goes along with the whole performing live as a band thing. His thing was, if you can’t find a movement or a groove, then the song isn’t ready. So, I interpreted it as, if Loren was grooving then we were good to go.
PT: I’m picturing this venerable producer doing interpretative dances to the music.
LD: (laughs) It was most definitely not like that. He just had a little dance move for each song.
PT: When I’m having a cool experience, I like to try and identify a memory that will stick out to me ten years later. If you had to guess, what do you think will stick out for you from the recording process of Is It Now??
HS: A lot of the rooms we recorded in were super memorable. We started in Valentine’s Studio in the Valley, which is this old studio that was abandoned for, like, 30 years then restored to its original state.
LD: It has such a vibe! A lot of LA artists recorded there.
HS: Yeah, it’s just really cool, like stepping back into time. And then finishing it off in the basement of Loren’s beautiful house in Upstate New York—I was obsessed with this house. And his very sweet wife made us food every day. And he lived by a lake and one day we took this community boat out on the lake. It was super magical.
PT: That does sound memorable! I want to transition to the content of the album. The band's been outspoken in the past about your skepticism of consumerism and patriarchy and other political power structures—and that's something that attracted me to the music. But when you listen to the actual tunes, the band’s politics aren’t the first thing that strike you. How do you view the balance between politics and art, and how do you instill that balance in the music?
HS: We were just talking about this in another interview. I don’t feel it’s every artist’s job to talk about politics. But we decided as a group that we didn’t want the moment to go by without using this as an opportunity to say how we felt. With the state of the world right now, it’s just impossible to live with your head in the sand, especially in such an extreme city like Los Angeles that’s in the center of a lot of upheaval right now. It’s not always obvious what we’re saying in the lyrics so we like to use this platform to talk about it. (Writer’s note: this interview occurred just after the occupation of DTLA by U.S. Marines and the National Guard, which was later ruled illegal by a federal judge.)
LD: I think it's important to have both elements—politics and art—in a song. Personally, I don't seek out songs that have a political meaning. I don't even really listen to lyrics that much, but I have always been drawn to songs more on an emotional level, how the sound makes me feel. As an artist, I always really like to make people feel empowered and grounded. That's my goal.
PT: There was an interview I read where you called it “joy as resistance.” How does that work?
HS: Thinking about how news and the internet operate, both benefit from the individual feeling sick and alone and isolated and fucking freaked out. Because then they’ll go buy things to fix it, and buy things to distract themself, to entertain themself. So, when you’re out for a walk with your friends and you’re laughing and you forgot your phone at home—that’s resistance. Anything you can do to be happy in this climate with other people, is resistance.
PT: Is making the music a form of resistance for you?
HS: That’s really tough. We can express anti-capitalist sentiments but we don’t really get to escape it. We have to make merch to sell and hope people will buy tickets to the shows so we can keep going. And it sucks. Especially because so much of the music industry relies on alcohol sales, which I really despise. In some ways, the music is a relief because we get to express ourselves. But sometimes, I feel a little disingenuous, even though I know everyone else in music is making the same decisions because there are no other options.
LD: We’ve talked about this in the past, but I know the idea of being a musician no matter if it pays the bill is something that resonates with Izzy. She’s very much into the idea of resistance—you know, like, they’re trying to make it impossible to be a musician and she’s not going to let them win. Personally, I have so many other interests that I’m not sure I’m a musician-til-I-die person as much as Izzy is, because it’s hard to be a musician! Where I find joy is in the community. Being part of a community of musicians has been such a big part of my whole life. I think community is a superpower against all the greed.
Is It Now? is out now via Stones Throw.