In Issue 100 we talked with Dntel, aka Jimmy Tamborello of the Postal Service, about his latest musical ventures, monkeys, and more.

What do your parents think of your music?
They’ve always been really supportive. The Postal Service was the first time that they totally genuinely liked to listen to it. Earlier, my stuff was a lot darker, or more goofy. They were always complaining that I didn’t turn the vocals up loud enough. That used to be my solution for any vocals that were a little bit off–I would just turn them down. It kind of drives me crazy when you can’t hear the vocals clearly, so I stopped.

Do you care about the difference between analog and digital?
I do now. I like being able to hear a little bit of how something was made. It’s nice when you can kind of feel the people behind the music that’s coming out. I notice that in older music, like ’60s stuff that I like. I like that it wasn’t so polished–you can kind of feel the bands in the studio making the music. You can feel the seams of the song and kind of hear how it was put together. With electronic music, you can simulate that feeling, but all the sounds that come out are more intentional. If I play a note on the keyboard that’s triggering the synthesizer, it’s going to remain the same unless you program in that things are going to change. With a guitar, each time you hit the string it’s going to be slightly different. Going back to the analog equipment thing, one advantage of analog gear is that it’s not so precise, so you start to get some of those accidents.

How did you meet Erlend