Tristan: A slightly personal question for Tim: I’ve heard through the grapevine that you’re a teacher – me as well. We have, I’m told, this thing called “teacher mode” where we carry ourselves a certain way. It’s almost an act. Do you ever have difficulty doing this, in conjunction with what might be fuelling the sounds of HANL?

Tim: Managing anxiety and depression sucks when you need to reserve an emotional well for 100+ students and engage them with the material at hand. The expectation is that you regularly inspire your charges and connect with them where they’re at, broadcasting on every possible frequency. I get inside my head a lot about that. On paper, I guess I’m doing a good enough job with it, but I still have a difficult time believing anyone.

I try to present the most honest version of myself as possible without it being an act (kids see right through us anyways) but, I dunno. Maybe I’m existential death guy. Maybe I’m super encouraging and motivating. Maybe I’m just another interchangeable adult in the way with the Peanuts wah-wah voice. Maybe I’m good at masking my angst. Maybe not. You’d have to ask my students to characterize the true shape of my “teacher mode” – they are the beholders.

Tristan: A slightly personal question for Dan: I’ve heard through the watermelon vine that you are a bit of a gym rat. What is your relationship like with your workout regime? As in, do you find it therapeutic? Does it kinda tether your days together with a routine?

Dan: I hate the gym. I hate going there. I hate physical exertion in general. But I found a few years ago that it was a powerful tool in managing my mood. It’s also just a part of getting older – if I don’t do it, I get very out of shape, very quickly. I’m very aware that heart disease has killed most of the men in my family, so I do what I can to mitigate that risk.

Tristan: What books are you reading lately?

Tim: I finished Lonesome Dove a few weeks ago, then A Confederacy of Dunces. I’m currently working on Piers the Ploughman – Dunces  reminded me I picked up a copy at Savers a while back but forgot about it. I’m teaching a medieval course this semester, so I’ll probably throw some of it at the kids.

Dan: Tim is reading smart shit, while I decided to work my way through all the Jack Reacher novels from the beginning.

Tim: Ugh, I never sound relatable in this section of the interview. That Greek zine piece from 2008 was recently unearthed and I discovered that then, I said “Chekhov” or something – which was true! – and man, that makes me look like a jerk. Who tells music press they’re earnestly reading fucking Chekhov? Give me credit for Lonesome Dove, at least. It was made into a mini-series and had a bunch of cash-in sequels and prequels, I’m pretty sure.

Tristan: In early interviews, I’ve seen you say that Deathconsciousness what written under the assumption that no one would hear it. (Somehow, it still feels like a “hidden gem” when I replay it.) Anyway, would you say that you’ve retained that as a modus operandi of sorts? Obviously you’re more popular, and plenty of people will hear what you put out, but, do you still write music as though it could be sealed in a vault somewhere after?

Tim: The new album is, in our estimation, the best possible sequence of material pulled from a larger set the two of us wrote, and the best possible document of our identity at the present moment (Side A features our collaborators in the live band, Side B is 99.9% me and Dan). It’s everything we hoped it would be. We never asked ourselves, “How can we create something that lives up to an audience’s idea of what HANL is supposed to be?”

Yet, we chose to pursue the LP format – 45 minutes total, 20+ a side – which, while a puzzle I personally enjoy putting together, is obviously a concession to how it will be consumed and what an audience expects. Does observation necessarily change behavior of the observed, if on a subconscious level?

Dan: In the end, it’s impossible to recapture what it’s like making art without the knowledge that people will see it, judge it. Ever since the first single came out, I’ve been very aware (in my head) of how people might see it, how they might connect with it (or not). There’s a part of me that worries about that, just like there’s a part of me that worries about which parts of my personality got passed down to my kids.

But in the end, we did what we’ve always done: exactly what we wanted. It’s a deep, deep part of Tim’s and my DNA to want to subvert expectations. We love the record…ultimately, that’s all there is to it.