(Check out their new album,Radiant Dawn,hereandhere, andtheir tour schedule here.)
You mentioned on Twitter that you used to be a chef?
What kind of cuisine did you work in?
I only ever worked in a couple of decent restaurants.
Do you cook a lot at home now?
When I was working in food I fucking hated cooking at home.
I ate really poorly when I was working in the food industry.
I think that may be a common thing.
Oh, its super common.
Do you do most of the cooking in your household now?
Its shared between me and my partner, but I generally am the one cooking.
I like usingMSG for fried rice and noodle dishesjust a little bit.
So theres actually a demand for itforbacalao, basically.
Its way easier.
Thats the secret stash area in my kitchen.
We were playing in North Carolina, and right up the street there was a hole-in-the-wall Burmese grocery store.
Its a betel leaf, makrut lime leaf, and then the actual nut and quick lime powder.
Oh my god.
So I walked into the store and I was like holy shit, this is completely legit.
They also sell a really good Burmese curry powder.
Do you manage that?
You know, I try.
Ive come to the conclusion that its almost impossible.
And your time is really restrictedwhen youre loading in, and youve got soundcheck.
But it can also be incredibly frustrating.
Oh well, no big deal.
But if youre on tour and you found a Vietnamese restaurant, youre thinking all day Vietnamese food.
This is my reward.
This is going to be the highlight of my day when Im not on stage, and its bad?
Its like this crushing blow.
I feel the same way if Im traveling and I waste a meal.
I feel like if I pick the wrong place Ive failed in some way.
But I can imagine thats compounded by the stresses of being on tour.
And it definitely depends on the region.
What do you get?
I usually get a breakfast sandwich and a double espresso.
When I was younger I would just eat absolute garbageyou know the hot dogs on the little roller rack?
I do.
Or the Tornadostheyre basically chimichangas.
Thats a safe bet.
I will say that with the fried food cabinet, sometimes there are treasures.
Europe is really great for eating on tour generally.
Actually, Im going to exempt the United Kingdom from this because their food is fucking garbage.
You dont like mushy peas?
Its just post-war ration cuisine.
Its like they were on the ration system during The Blitz and everybody was just like Well.
Good enough for us.
They do have jerk chicken and really good Indian food.
But generally, Europe is pretty good for whatever the promoter provides.
Its exciting, if youre in Italy, to go out and eat before a show.
Because its a lot of boiled endive with flour sauce on it, and a slice of lukewarm ham.
Like real Protestant suffering foodlikesufferingfood.
These are some real top-tier fried gas station treats.
That sounds amazing.
you could get spaghetti carbonara at a 7-Eleven.
You mentioned on Twitter that you once rerouted a tour so you could cook in Sicily?
Theres always been some kind of food trading going on there.
I think its the southernmost point of Sicily.
Its almost North Africa in its feeling.
Theres a lot of Moorish influence.
So I went and rented an apartment there with just a basic gas stove.
How successful were you?
Its a non-sauced pasta thats got bread crumbs, fennel, raisins, pine nuts and sardines.
That sounds great.
When youre not traveling, what do you usually eat for breakfast at home?
Ive kind of changed my breakfast diet recently.
I like that breakfast.
But thats not what you eat now?
Yeah, its not what Im eating now.
Put really finely sliced green onion on the top.
And then you eat it, and its great.
And its a single pot.
What kind of coffee do you usually drink?
Im generally an espresso guy.
My partner and I got an espresso machine last year.
I have to really monitor my coffee intake because if its around I will just drink it all day.
That breakfast sounds pretty filling.
Do you usually find you gotta eat lunch or does that keep you full for a while?
It keeps me pretty fullI have a crazy high metabolism for some reason.
Ill usually have some kind of sandwich, or a light salad or something for lunch.
Especially if Im in the studio, just something I dont have to think about too much.
And is dinner usually a bigger production?
I find it really meditative.
I dont get to do it very often, but I love doing it.
Last year my partner and I went through theMamushka cookbookby Olia Hercules.
Its contemporary and older Ukrainian cooking.
I absol utely love it.
She also wrote a book on cooking from the Caucuses.
I mean thats basically the title.
How to kill a chicken, shit like that, but also you know…Czarist Russia.
The cookbook itself is an interesting artifact in that its really aspirational.
But then there are these elaborate recipes for what you would associate with the Romanovs.
Aspic dishes, like a whole perch in aspic, and deviled eggs inside of it.
Thats extremely my shit.
And that set of cookbooks is the thing I always go back to if Im making anything, really.
Ill just sit there and read through those books.
I think itsTime Life Cooking of the World?
Its like a 26-volume set, and it was published in the late 60s and its incredible.
Some of these volumes are almost a Socialist International project.
I think Magnus Nilsson references those books inthat Nordic cooking volumethat he put out.
Oh, for sure.
Peoples cultural and racial prejudices are really weirdly baked into the way they talk about food.
Maybe not so much anymore, but even with Chinese cooking, you know theres that sort of misunderstanding.
Do you watch Chefs Table at all?
I havent seen all of them but I do watch them.
Yeah, I did.
What do you think about that one?
I have a lot of Russian friends, and Ive been there many times to play shows.
I think thats a really good way to put it!
I did not.
Its one of the big national foods of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
I go there frequentlymy partner, Devojka, is Macedonian, and a lot of her family lives there.
We eat a lot of ajvar, and I was shocked to see these articles about ajvar come out.
And its really just a delicious snack to have withrakia,the local hard booze.
And in a way youre trying to say that its a good ingredient, whichit is.
But to charge so much for it….
Was it presented in a Hawaiianwas it SPAM nigiri or something?
Youre appropriating something that was made out of necessity for poor people and making it inaccessible to them.
I think it may have been a fried rice.
I wish I could remember more details but this was like, five years ago.
It was a white guy doing it.
Theres an almost macho quality to that shit that I really dont like.
Can you believe it??
Its like the cooking equivalent of being an edgelord.
Its like a weird class division thing.
Youre appropriating something that was made out of necessity for poor people and making it inaccessible to them.
Its wild stuff.
Kind of shifting gears here: Do you have any studio snacks or practice snacks?
Thats a good question.
Ive been eating a lot of these these very expensive and delicious potato chips.
Speaking of elevated food.
What brand?
Torres brand truffle potato chips.
They also have Mediterranean herb flavored potato chips, and they are just fucking delicious.
Are these made with truffle oil or are they truffle flecked?
Describe the truffle chips to me.
They have truffle oil in them.
I mean theyre notthatspendy.
Theyre not an eight-dollar bag of health chips.
But yeah, they taste very truffle-y.
I think they cook them in olive oil, so theyre just really delicious.
How do you make your egg salad?
Boil up the eggs, chop them, mayonnaise, picklesvery importantgreen onion, and dill.
Do you have a particular brand of mayonnaise that you like?
Yes, I do.
Its kind of eggy in a way that I like.
Im not really sure if its technically good mayonnaise, you know?
I mean, it tastes good.
It does the job.
Ive never really looked at the ingredients, but I fucking love it.
What other condiments do you have hanging around?
Are you a hot sauce guy?
I like Cholula a lot.
Its kind of tangy.
But I really like the Szechuan hot sauces and chili oil.
I use a lot of chili oil.
The Szechuan sauces have that tingly feeling to them, right?
Yeah, they have the Szechuan peppercorn, which has a kind of numbing flavor.
I think over the last half decade, the options for eating have gotten way better in the Midwest.
Although the Midwest has some real old school classics.
Im a fan of Culvers butter burger.
If I have to have fast food in the Midwest, that is good.
But you might find weird Amish restaurants.
Ive been to a couple in Ohio and Wisconsin and Indiana.
When it comes to fast food, Im in no place to judge.
I eat McDonalds because Im garbage, but those butter burgers are really good.
And A&W in Canada is actually a constant tour meal if were touring Canada.
The stretch of road between Montreal and Toronto is maybe one of the bleakest drives.
Its like Hanna-Barbera sort of recycled background.
You kind of go into a trance because its so monotonous and shitty.
They have these en-route sort of travel plazas and they all generally have the same restaurants.
Theyll be a Tim Hortons a Starbucks, and an A&W.
The A&W in Canada is great; the Buddy Burger is a great burger.
Its different than the A&W we have in the US?
Yeah, it is.
Im not exactly sure how, but it just tastes different.
The vegetables are better.
That sounds about right.
Do you keep any frozen or convenience foods around for moments where you cant cook?
Yeah, I do.
Spicy cod roe is another quick, easy thing.
Asian supermarkets usually have itmentaiko.
You get these packages of cod roe and oil and some spaghetti.
Put the cod roe in a pan with some butter and a little bit of cream.
you might add garlic but you kind of dont need to.
Use a bit of the pasta water to thicken up the sauce at the end.
Have you ever hadbottargabefore?
Its like a Japanese version of that really simplebottargapasta.
Its in an un-refrigerated prepackaged little bag.
I ate it last night.
Can we see inside your fridge?
Fridge is pretty grim, Claire.
Do you have any favorite hungover meals?
That meal is totally delicious.
Or Ill do like a Japanese curry, from the Gleico brandjust throw-everything-in-the-pot curry.
Then I cook some ramen, and add poached eggs on top.
Eggs are a cure-all, I think.
Are you a cocktail person or a beer person?
I like wine a lot.
Yeah, Im a wine guy.
What do you think it was?
I dont know.
So I just switched to gin.
Gin is so good!
Its like a speakeasy.
Its probably my favorite bar in New York.
They have a drink app and some of her drinks made it on the app.
Shes been hosting these these Pink Panther speakeasy nights at the apartment.
So Im totally spoiled for cocktails, basically.
Shes totally mastered that, but also has mastered a bunch of other way more complex cocktails.
Its dangerous, because we were just getting shitfaced every night.
Thats basically what happened during the writing period forRadiant Dawnthe new Operators record.
And then, you know, Id just be absolutely doomed.
Do you have a particular brand of gin that you like?
I thinkThe Botanist.is really good.
I would say it could compete with international gins.Ampersandis one of them.
Some of them are obviously, like, a little too tisd out, like artisanal.
Theres one gin from Canada that I actually loveits aDefender Island.
It comes in a dark, almost like a fifth bottle, like a mickey.
Its like a smoky gin.
SaltI would go like like unrefined sea salt.
FatI would have to go with lard, like pork fat, because its totally delicious.
Im a big fan ofcvarci.
Its like little roasted pieces of lard that you eat as a snack.
And for acid Id just say lemon.
I like a nice, medium-tart lemon juice.
This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.
