"Although I didn't write this song, it spoke to me in a way that made me feel as if it was my own story,” Brandon said. “I found myself playing it over and over again in my bedroom, remembering situations that I've been through.”
Check out the video for yourself below.
Back then, he admits, he didn’t really like people that much. But as time passed, McMahon grew tired of playing on metal bills for small, avant-garde noise crowds and decided to fully open himself up to the world. With his face front and center on the cover, he’s let a bit of light in on his new album, Freedom, and has become more generous with his listeners in the process.
Each of the 11 tracks is a small world with fully fleshed-out characters, storylines, and a very real source of inspiration. “A lot of the characters on this record were pulled from my life,” McMahon tells me. “My history and lineage and obsessions”—his dying mother, “stereotypically macho” father, larger-than-life childhood role models. He extracts these obsessions from private meditation and translates them into vigorous, “mathematically crafted” rhythms that, unlike earlier Amen Dunes records, you can dance to.
“Believe,” the most vulnerable track on the album, honors his mother and her tenacity in the face of terminal cancer. Yet it manages to do this with levity, whispering reverence, even humor—“When I was a kid I was afraid to die/ but I growed up now.” He tells me, seriously, “her approach to being sick changed the way I thought about being alive.”
“Miki Dora,” the record’s standout single, is a reflection on the eponymous surfer legend whose radical, aggressive style turned him into a punk-pioneer of the sport. And it’s a perfect example of the evolution of Amen Dunes. Like previous records, it’s a meditation on the broken fantasies and role models of his childhood. But this time around, it’s less introspective keening and more of an upbeat narrative, with “tons of micro-movement” stitched into the story.
Even the intro track contains a dizzyingly complex array of emotions, placing a kid’s spirited, hokey-inspirational speech from 2004 hockey movie Miracle next to an Agnes Martin quote (“I don’t have any ideas myself; I have a vacant mind”) recited by his terminally ill mother. It’s dark, weird, and perversely funny.
As we’re both finishing our coffees and I’m running out of questions, I see something scribbled in my notes that I’m not sure if I should ask him. But, of course, I go ahead anyway. “Do you think,” I ask, “that this is pop music?”
“Yes!” he says, pleased.
“Dance?”
“Yes,” he says. “I consider this record dance music. It is when you listen 100% to the rhythm.”
This makes sense when he tells me his inspirations for the album’s sound: Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, The Beatles, Nirvana, Tom Petty. “I always thought, Tom Petty is such a self-centered guy. Everything’s always about him. But it dawned on me that it’s not true. It’s actually very generous of him. He was like, I’m gonna give this to you so you can fucking love it.”
In a real way, pop is the most generous sort of music. It gives incessantly, is effortless to listen to, and doesn’t demand anything more from you than to keep consuming it. Whereas Amen Dunes’ earlier albums required real work on the part of the listener, Freedom is ready to serve, constructed with skillfully polished beats and hooks that almost take a physical, pulsing shape as you listen to them a second or third time. This is a tough feat to accomplish, and was done with the assistance of musicians like bass player Gus Seyffert of Beck and producer Chris Coady of Beach House.
The underlying strength, and ultimate success, of Freedom lies in its unguarded interrogation of deeply personal subjects—adult reality vs childhood fantasy, masculinity, family, illness, etc.—all while testing the borders of Amen Dunes’ sound. Mixing pop into dark noise music. Dance rhythms into lonely, ruminating guitar. In the end, the vivid framework of pop doesn’t constrict these songs, but elevates them.
We've seen them in concert before, at their Brooklyn show last Summer— and we had captured what we physically could, given that the show had begun, and ended, with the Twitter comment, "LAST TIME I SAW HO99OR SOMEBODY RIPPED MY SHIRT TO SHREDS AND I LEFT THE SHOW WITH NO SHIRT."
This time, we got the chance to actually converse with the deadly duo backstage before their headline show at The Deaf Institute— and got to hear all about hypothetical situations, (appropriately) horror stories and… Beyoncé?
Aside from war, what else is hell for HO99O9?
Yeti Bones: Waking up everyday knowing my life could be taken away in a split second,because this world and a lot of people in it are deranged. you never know when your time is up, war is hell and life is hell.
theOGM (blueface): A Toothache.
What’s the least horrible thing about being in a band?
YB: Interesting question, least horrible thing? For the most part being in a band wasn’t my main focus in life growing up, so for me just being in a band period is the least horrible thing. Also this is a very lame answer I’m giving you right now, sorry, I love you, forgive me. Fuck :-)
OGM: Sharing.
The scariest thing about the music industry in 2018?
YB: They will fuck you in the ass with no lube and leave you to burn in hell. The music industry is cutthroat, fake, a pose, filled with sharks, leeches and hungry animals. It’s a game of chess and if you play your cards right you might head forward or if you suck enough dick you might reach even higher grounds. It’s very “scary”. But we like to keep things authentic on our side of the stick: survival of the fittest, fuck or get fucked, kill or be killed.
OGM: Exactly what he just said. They will fuck you hard and fast, then slow and laugh about it.
The most terrifying thing that’s ever happened on tour?
YB: Playing in front of a sold out crowd with no HO99O9 fans in attendance. Opening up for a bigger band resulted in me punching a nazi heckler who kept shouting out absurd and disrespectful comments throughout our whole set. I have zero tolerance for racism.
OGM: We were driving in France when the shooting happened in Paris. A friend of a friend was sending us live footage of people in the streets trying to get away, bodies lying in the side streets. The borders were filled with army soldiers and all shows were cancelled in France for the whole week! We went to the site after it happened a few days later. You could still see all the bullet holes in the walls.
The most evil track you've ever heard?
YB: The most violent, wild, mind blowing, shocking, menacing and for the most part evil track I have ever heard in my life is “Kim” by Eminem on his Marshal Mathers LP record. It came out when I was in High School, my sled and everybody loved it. But a whole song about killing your girlfriend, dragging her body through the woods and burying the body is pretty gnarly. I’m pretty sure that album was number one in the music charts.
OGM: “Bills, Bills, Bills” by Destiny's Child. The hook is "Can you pay my bills, can you pay my telephone bills, can you pay my automo-bills, if you did then maybe we could chill I don't think you do so, you and me are through". So if this dude can't pay her bills, she’s outta there and the dude is a low life. He’s driving her car, not putting gas in it and then buying her gifts with her own money. This song is evil, setting bad examples on both ends for children. PS. I love Destiny's Child and Beyoncé.
If you could remake the soundtrack for any horror film, which would it be?
YB: Hellraiser. He’s one for no sympathy or tears, no apologies nor does he let you live. His killings are magnificent and on my top list of flesh devouring scenes. I hope one day I could be as lucky as to meet him, he’s a very fine gentleman in my eyes.
OGM: It'd have to be Django or Black Swan, I love Natalie Portman lol.
Which three musicians, dead or alive, would you fuck, marry or kill?
YB: I would kill every member in Blink 182: chop their bodies up into itty bitty tiny pieces, get Warped Tour to book them a “reunion” show during one of their summer extravaganzas. Once it’s time to play I would launch all the body parts onto the crowd of die-hard teeny bopper Blink fans, then the speakers would start playing Slayer’s “Reign In Blood”. Ah man, it would be so sick.
OGM: You'll never know until you see the ring or the death certificate.
Does your hometown have any specific word of mouth horror stories?
YB: Supposedly there’s the legend of a New Jersey Devil lurking in the woods somewhere out in west bubble fuck New Jersey. I don’t know much on him, nor do I know much about the hockey team, but what I do know is that Newark has a high number of murders and killings in the community. Same neighborhood I’m from, my childhood was a horror story in itself.
OGM: They took all our teams! Brooklyn took the Nets away from New Jersey so we only have the New Jersey Devils. The Giants and Jets stadium is in NJ, more of a sad story. Luckily they didn't take our chicken shacks away lol, bless up.
What was your first email address?
Something like ‘nsyncsucksdeek.' I never ever fucked with Justin Timberlake.
Did you listen to the radio when you were growing up?
Ya, Z100 & KTU.
What is your go-to midnight snack?
I’m the midnight snack.
What was the first concert you ever went to?
Technically, Yo-Yo Ma in Central Park, but by my own choosing—Baha Men.
The last YouTube video you watched?
I’ve been watching these two right wing-leaning white women disect politicians’ body language.
Has a song ever made you cry?
"Glamorous" by Fergie makes me cry on site.
Favorite curse word?
Asshole.
Feelings about clowns?
Misunderstood.
Unpopular opinion!
I miss people accusing artists of being in the illuminati.
A condiment you couldn’t live without?
I used to be a Trojan kinda guy but Lifestyles now.
