On Apr. 11, DIY Indie Rock band Frog performed at One Wheelock as the closing show for a tour showcasing their new album — “1000 Variations on the Same Song,” a concept that plays with the inherent repetition across the songwriting craft and canon. The Dartmouth sat down with Frog member Daniel Bateman to discuss the band and its latest album.
What was your process for creating this album?
DB: The theme is basically a rhythmic idea. I’m trying to make one recipe over and over again — millions of ways — and be the best at that recipe. I’m shutting out a lot of the palettes. I can only make white and blue paintings, right? But I’m going to make some fucking badass white and blue paintings over and over again. That’s the idea: It’s not that they’re the same song — using the word song very loosely.
It’s just myself and Stevie improvising. We go in on a Sunday, we get the setup and we have a great time. We improvise for hours and hours. That’s where all the songs are written. The idea is that the improvised version gets to be on the record.
Usually that doesn’t work out because I screw something up. The one on record is the first time we felt good about it when we put it on tape. I think we actually made the whole album, and then I lost the tape. We just made it again. I ended up finding the first one. It wasn’t as good, so I’m glad we did it again. Every time we played, it was better. We thought a third one would have been even better.
How do you use drums in this album?
DB: We [used] the same drum machines that I usually [use] under stuff. In the record “Count Bateman,” I didn’t know how to play the drums. I was really bad at it, so, if there wasn't a click track, I was just fucking awful. I needed a click track. Click tracks are so boring, but the drum machine is a little bit less bad.
Prince always did it like that -– he played the drum machine with no click, just boom-boom-dot-boom-boom-dot. He used a LinnDrum and then he played regular jumps over it. I like that sound a lot. There are a lot of people that do drum machines and then real drums. I love [the] way it sounds on tape, so it works out that I needed to use them because I was really bad at drums. I’m better now, but I'm still not that good. I'm pro-click track — if Prince does it, it’s fine.
In “You Know I'm Down,” you change the lyrics when you're playing them live. Why?
DB: Part of the reason I write so many new songs is that I don’t remember the old songs. How am I supposed to remember all those lyrics? When performing old songs, I just make up new lyrics if I’m not getting there, [and] they’re always good. It’s fun, you know?
You seem to have a lot of disparate influences — Lil Wayne for example. Could you speak more about that?
DB: Yes, Lil Wayne’s the greatest ever. He’s a genius. The Carter documentary on YouTube about him is one of my favorite movies ever made. I’ve watched it like 10 [or] 20 times. He’s just so locked in — it’s amazing. He’s like Bob Dylan but better. Wayne is so locked in — he’s making music when he’s not even trying to. He’s a next-level genius.
The name “Frog” came from the 1980s Casio synthesizer sound. How do you incorporate these synths into your music today?
DB: There [are] two of them — the one I sing about one and the one I use. [Steve] found it when he was painting his old elementary school, and it’s a Casiotone 101. It’s not that complicated, but it’s got some good sounds on it. I’m bored of them now, so I never play anymore. Some of the keys don’t work, so you can't get to certain sounds -– but you can still get the frog.
The new one I have is the one that I spend a lot of time with. I bought [it] off a crust punk for $5 on the street. The F-sharps don’t work. A lot of the keys don’t work, so you don’t get all the sounds you want to have. All the voicings you have aren’t there. Sometimes you’re trying to play different chords, but the chords are wrong because some of the keys aren’t working. It forces you to do certain things you don’t want to do in ways that can lead you on interesting journeys. You want to play this one chord, but it doesn’t let you, so you’re just left with what you have. You have to rock with it.
