Words by Adam Symington//Illustration by Kate Forrester
While Kip Dynamite may love technology, this week I was forced to lean more toward Jason Lytle’s thoughts on the subject. The driving force behind the now-defunct Grandaddy, Lytle wrote bleak and cautionary tales of the negative and numbing effects of technology on our everyday lives. This week I fell victim to technology and joined his club. I bought a new, technologically advanced recording device for my interview with Martin Dosh that would ultimately malfunction and cause a myriad of complications for both Mr. Dosh and myself. For that, I apologize again to Mr. Dosh and thank him for his understanding and his efforts to finish this interview by e-mail. So without further ado, Anticon’s Dosh on his new LP “The Lost Take”, fatherhood and the Minneapolis scene.

The Daytrotter interview:
The new album, “The Lost Take” seems a bit more planned and arranged than your previous releases. How much of the album was planned in advance and how much developed as you were recording?
Martin Dosh: There was some planning, initially. I knew I wanted to have more live drums on the record, I knew I wanted to use a Chamberlain and a Mellotron, and I wanted it to sound more ‘band-y’ than my other records. Aside from those general plans, just about everything was developed as I recorded the album. The songs were more or less written as they were recorded. The cohesion may have more to do with the continuity of various sounds from track-to-track, but I don’t know.

“The Lost Take” also has appearances by Andrew Bird and Tapes n’ Tapes’ Erik Appelwick. What were their roles on the album?
MD: Just about all of the contributors added stuff towards the end of the process. The songs were probably 85-percent arranged and done, so in a lot of ways, they were just reacting to what I had already constructed. I then took their reaction, and edited and chopped and re-sampled until it reached a point where I could say, “Okay, this is done”. Of course, the textures of electric guitar and violin have not been terribly present on my earlier stuff, so their roles were also to reshape ‘my’ sound, whatever that is.

The album seems considerably more calm and mature than “Pure Trash,” your last release. Did you have a specific goal for this album in terms of arrangement and sonic space?
MD: Like I said earlier, I was definitely going for more of a band sound. Live drums, guitars, bass, etc… But aside from that general idea, there were no specific goals, other than to make a good record. I think having the drums, pianos, mellotrons and such recorded by professionals like Tom Herbers and Ben Durrant added a lot to the sonic space. Whereas all of “Pure Trash” was made in my basement with headphones on at night, using samples of stuff I had recorded over the past 10 years, “The Lost Take” was done with other people, in rooms, with amplification, and with actual physical banging on things.

*_How has “The Lost Take” affected and changed your live show?
MD: It’s just given me more songs to learn and play. Aside from that, I have no idea. It’s too hard to reflect on that. You’d be better off asking someone who’s seen my live show evolve over time.”

Your music has a very urban, hip-hop likeness to it. Given the recent trend and successes of hip-hop collaborations like Madvillian, Gnarls Barkley and DangerDoom, have you had any thoughts or plans to collaborate with anyone? Anyone of your label Anticon?
MD: I would love to collaborate with any and everyone on Anticon. I have done stuff with Jel and Nosdam, but not with any of the vocalists. I’m sure it will happen sometime soon. Andrew Bird’s new record is out in March, and I think that would qualify as a collaboration since I play drums, keys and samples on most of it.

*_You currently live in Minneapolis. How do you feel about the local music scene there?
MD: I’m never moving anywhere. This is it. There is so much good music happening here, so many good bands. I don’t even know where to begin.

How has being a husband and father affected your career as a musician?
D: “Other than just giving me motivation to hustle, I don’t know. I MD: I am sure it has infiltrated every aspect of my music, but I couldn’t be specific. I’m just glad to be alive and lucky to have such a wonderful, supportive family, who somehow I am able to support by doing whatever it is I do.

What are your after-tour plans?
MD: Work on a new EP that will be out for the second leg of the tour, west coasting in late January and February. It’s got some live stuff from the record release party, where I was backed up by a lot of the folks that are on the new record, and it’s gonna have some new tracks as well. Hopefully I’ll get it done real quick. Then springtime, [Andrew] Bird’s record hits, and we hit the road for lots of shows. It’s going to be fun.”

Finally, in no apparent or god-fearing order, the current musical listenings of Dosh:
1. Joanna Newsom – Ys
2. Glenn Kotche – Mobile
3. Jolie Holland – Springtime Can Kill You
4. Cale Parks – Illuminated Manuscript
5. Fat Kid Wednesdays – Singles
6. Tortoise – A Lazuras Taxon
7. Fog – Loss Leader
8. Kill The Vultures – The Careless Flame
9. Bonnie Prince Billy – The Letting Go
10. Islands – Return to the Sea