Rally against the ever-heating world you are extended into. Fresh out of the musical delivery room, shoegaze rockers DIIV have presented their new album Frog in Boiling Water to the world. The group will be baptizing it at the National on July 17th in Richmond. I was lucky enough to sit down with them and hear about all that went into the new record, what it means on individual and group levels, and what we, the eager and anticipating concert goers can expect.
The band had slowed down their live presence while they forged the new album, “but it’s just exciting to play new stuff.” With Deceiver, their last studio release, “we workshopped those songs live, but with the new record, we wrote it in a vacuum,” bassist Collin explains with a sharp look in his eye. While discussing playing these new songs live, the group feels like Formula 1 racers revving their engines, waiting for that flag to wave. With their tanks full of energy and ready to play live, we dive into everything and anything in Frog in Boiling Water.
The title details a phenomenon of reactions. If you were to drop a frog in boiling water it would naturally flail, desperate to escape the burn, crying out in unnatural and unique ways, but if you place a frog in tepid water, let it adjust to each increased degree, you have a content frog, boiling to a smooth death. The title applies to “everyone including us” the band tells me. Singer Cole explains how this idea has been on his mind for the last 20 years; “it was Bush and Gore, two neoliberals with the same banks backing them” with both parties just slowly heating up the water. As a youth in the time of decision, his eyes were open and course was set, this idea was to be on his mind for a long time.
The album tackles the scary position that we, the common man, face in society right now. “I think at our core we are pessimists about the world” Collin explains, but the album is a bit of a personal quest, with the individual looking for hope. “The title is very individualized, there is a frog in the water… trying to look for optimism or hope within it.”Breaking into the different pieces of the album we discuss “Everyone Out,” seemingly optimistic “but it’s built on a flawed premise” where the character finds hope in a self centered realm, “the optimism lies on an individual level on this record.”These songs are like a modern historical document, in 30 years these lines will be in textbooks. Cole goes on to agree and at the same time explain the unending optimism he finds in Marxist philosophy, something that is extremely influential and apparent in his writing. “As a marxist I have to be optimistic… it is the belief that the modes of production evolve” and eventually the world will find itself free of capitalism and its degradation, “and that excites me” he says with something bright behind his eyes. But quickly his eyes darken. “But what if we meet the X factor before we can evolve?” These are the complicated yet well thought out ideas that are explored in the new record.
These ideas are not separate from the live show. “I see the live show as us existing in capitalism,” Collin puts out, in which the crowd can both be immersed while also feeling connected to the world outside of the room. To guitarist Andrew, “the performance aspect is still unfettered by the conceptual” but the experience is still thought provoking, with the lyrics projected high above the band, and questions and concepts presented between songs. “It is a bit of an ADD experience” he adds, with an unending stream of sensation in each show. In terms of questions and answers they “are not trying to say one thing” and are more interested in people asking their own questions after a concert. But in the end, “it’s out of our control… when someone can not see past the irony in a song.” What does intention even mean if no one is around to ’get’ it?
The iron of the band was certainly tested in the lengthy multi-year process working on this album. With a variety of different weights on different shoulders, there were certainly tense moments that could have had catastrophic effects. The band themselves do not think they know the full weight of the atmosphere, but have “heard from enough people involved that the struggle made the album what it is” – a surge of emotion and pain poured out into 10 songs. Pure power. There is an inevitability of mental strain that comes with such serious topics, but Collin assures that “the feeling that is baked into the music is backed up by actual struggle.” There is not a disingenuous note in this record, only raw feeling and intense ideas. Drummer Ben adds in “once something is finished you can paint it however you want,” regardless of the conflicts that arose in recording. They have chosen to see the strength of the band as the important take away. The struggle is over now. Flip the coin on what it meant, but heads or tails, the coin is hot.
As we dive deeper into the album I bring up my favorite line. In a prominent place on the penultimate song “Soul-net” we are given “I want to be nothing.” I bring it up and sit back as the four members swirl in and out of eloquent conversation about that line. The political council has convinced us that the individual “is a net negative in the world.” Collin warns of “the post capitalism hell-scape, a sick world.” The character they explore looks everywhere for why the world is so incredibly cruel under capitalism, while never having the sense to step back and look at the system itself. Andrew adds that the question of significance is an intrinsic part of the human experience. “At some point in your life you are going to examine that idea.” Do you want to disappear into the void? You may end up examining your own life after facing the ideas that are “baked into the album, in a fundamental way.” Ben adds that the truest and most fundamental responses in life are fight, flight, or freeze. That is not to say there is no hope. Andrew explains that it is something the band has worked on over the years. To face these seemingly impossible systems with a puffed chest and planted feet. To be a support for those around. “Human nature is weird” Cole says into the wind with a wistful look.
As the conversation turns casual, Ben tosses out his admiration for our city, our Richmond. When followed up he explains youthful days hitchhiking into town and staying in the iconic treehouse by the James. The rest of the band chuckles as they explain their last Richmond show, a number of years ago, where they arrived late and rushed into a show expecting a disastrous performance – but still won over the audience and other bands. “Only up from here” Andrew says with an excited grin.
Whether you have to hitchhike up, crash in questionable conditions, or speed from the show the day before, you do not want to miss DIIV at the National on Wednesday July 17th. Be prepared for an immersive, inspirational, and stimulating show with 4 incredible musicians and thinkers. I’ll be seeing you there.
Main photo by Louise Kovatch
