Last weekend marked the 10th anniversary of the Sasquatch Music Festival, an annual concert held in George, Washington that has drawn in the likes of acts such as The Postal Service, MGMT, R.E.M., and Kanye West over the years. This year, artists ranging from indie-folk veteran Iron & Wine to paradigm shifting producer Flying Lotus performed for thousands hailing from all over Washington, Oregon, California, Canada and pretty much any location with direct flights to Seattle, Portland, or Vancouver. 

Yet in the midst of Das Racist commanding their crowd to throw Soyjoy energy bars at them to Bubbles (Mike Smith) from the Canadian T.V. series Trailer Park Boys coming out-of-character to thank the audience at the end of TPB's set, one act at Sasquatch stood out in particular, and that was The Glitch Mob.

Performing at sunset in a time slot occupied by Bright Eyes, Matt & Kim, and Robyn, the L.A. based laptop music collective managed to pull in a tremendous crowd, packing "The Banana Shack" -- Sasquatch's dance/comedy tent -- to the brim before even playing a single note. Amidst anticipatory cheers, smoke rising from the crowd, and diehard Vancouver Canucks fans shouting "Go Canucks Go," The Glitch Mob took the stage; what commenced was 1 1/2 hours of laptop music heaven and pure energy, with groove after groove rolling in one after another nonstop. A late addition to the sold out festival, The Glitch Mob gave an unforgettable performance at the festival and solidified their ground as an act that undeniably has nowhere to go but up.

Neon Tommy spoke to the current members of The Glitch Mob -- producers Boreta, edIT, and Ooah -- before their set.

Q: You guys excited to play Sasquatch?

EDIT: Definitely. We're honored to be here. Its an amazing venue, its beautiful -- I think its going to be a good time.

Q: Anything in particular you're looking forward to?

OOAH: Being out here. It's such a beautiful place. Being able to look out and see what's happening -- its really special. We play a lot of venues across the country and this place is unique.

Q: You're scheduled to play for 1 1/2 hours, longer than most other acts here. How does it feel to have that extra time to perform and hone out your material?

BORETA: It's cool. We like as much time as we can get to play music to people. We're honored. 

OOAH: I didn't know other acts had shorter sets.

Q: How does The Glitch Mob work? Do each of you have set responsibilities or do you guys take a more free form approach?

BORETA: Its pretty free form. It all cycles around. We'll go through phases where one guy will take over and write for a while, or we'll work in one's studio or separate out into our own studios and make parts we'll combine them, but I would say free form is really the best way to describe the process. There's no really prime reason to what happens.

Q: You guys released an album in 2010, but before that you've had a history of releasing individual songs, 40 minute mixes, remixes of songs, and other standalone material not tied to the traditional album approach of releasing music. Do you think more artists will follow this trend as time passes?

OOAH: Yeah, I mean...that's an interesting question.

EDIT: I think in this day and age, fans feel a little more inclined to get the music straight from the band themselves and its definitely a good thing that people have the option of paying artists directly as opposed to going through someone like iTunes. The way we distribute our music to fans is really important. 

But still, we're big on releasing albums. We feel it's a more cohesive story overall as opposed to just the singles game.

Q: You mentioned the phrase "cohesive story" when describing the perks of releasing an album. Are story and narrative important elements of your music?

EDIT: Yeah. Story is really big. We're not out there just to create cool sounds; every song has its story.

Q: Do story and narrative play an important part in The Glitch Mob's approach to performance as well?

OOAH: Definitely. I mean -- its a story; its a journey; its an experience which I'm sure differs for every listener and attendee. 

Q: Finally, you guys are also well known for playing in the streets, urban areas -- places not usually considered as traditional music venues but still you guys make it work. How did that idea first come about?

BORETA: We wanted to re-think the idea of street performance, especially when some people don't consider electronic performance as real performance -- that if you have a laptop you really aren't doing anything. We wanted to blur those lines and go out to places and play electronic music, to do our thing with laptops on the streets and places where that hadn't really been seen before. 

Q: How did those performances play out?

BORETA: They were fun. There were definitely a lot of people that liked it, and a lot of people that were super confused. (Laughs)

 

 

 

Reach reporter Aaron Liu here.

Follow reporter Aaron Liu on Twitter: @aaronliu_on_T

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