It started to be more like what we considered to be a normal band, which we didn't really want it to be. Maybe it was just the expectations - "we can't do that song because it doesn't sound like a Field Music song," though we never got the point where we felt that way explicitly.

SFBG: What did you want to do with School of Language?

DB: I wanted it to be very spontaneous. I wanted to be in the position to follow any idea for a song, regardless of what it was, even if it was a song that I did mostly on a computer. Even songs that are meticulous put together. I wanted to make that decision spontaneously. The other thing with Field Music, when you ty to make decisions collectively it can take a long time.

SFBG: What were you listening to when you made the album?

DB: There was a couple of songs there that I was trying to think along the lines of Neil Young, toward the end of making the record I hear Everyone Knows That This Is Nowhere. I was trying to come back to some things that were a big influences but didn't show up so much in Field Music.

I was also really thinking about Led Zeppelin. The first music I got into when I got into playing guitar was Zeppelin. Roxy Music's first two records.

SFBG: Were you excited by the Zep reunion?

DB: I was probably finished by then - I was a bit skeptical though it sounds like it was very good! You can't replace John Bonham. I was also going through a Prince phrase - he's always there.

SFBG: You have three songs named "Rockist" on the CD - what is it about rockism that you're interested in?

DB: It was just a word going round my head - I wasn't really thinking of anything specific, but it seemed to fit for a reason. I guess I came across the phrase reading Clinton Heylin - From the Velvets to the Voidoids, and I love rock music.

I see what people mean when they use the phrase - it implies that to embrace the power of rock is a bad thing, and to embrace the power of rock is anti-pop or anti- ideas. I'm not into that at all. I like the friction of all those things running together.

SFBG: Where did the name School of Language come from?

DB: I'm fascinated by words. The name was just pretty random, but since then...I love language. I need to work on my lyrics! I need to get better lyrics. I'm going to my school of language to learn to write lyrics!

SFBG: What is the song "Disappointment '99" about?

DB: It's based on a real feelings of disappointment - my first brushes with the music industry were in '99. And that kind of formed a lot of my ideas of how I should function within the music business, and that song is just kind of about the faith you put in people. A lot of the songs are about relying on people, deciding whether it's a good thing, or in the case of that song, maybe a slightly naive thing to do. But life would be a less fun thing if you didn't put a little faith in people. It's still something I struggle with.

SFBG: What exactly happened in '99?

DB: That was when I did my first real band, something called New Colors. We did one show at this music industry event, and it was maybe our first, second show, and it was kind of terrible - lots of music industry people there with their arms folded and looking pretty unimpressed.

We came away thinking that was terrible - that they all thought we were on hard drugs, which we weren't. It was noisy - it was drone-rock Pet Shop Boys, and then strangely, the next day we went out for the day and came back and we had loads of messages saying, "Oh, you've won this competition. We’ve been trying to get ahold of you all day!" The answering machine was full of messages from lawyers. You think, oh, wow, I'm an 18-year-old guy, and this is really exciting. And then you think, wait, these people don't like what we do. It's just some kind of stupid hype!

That's the kernel of my '99 disappointment.

SFBG: Did you end up putting out a record?

DB: No, definitely not. The starnge thing was we didnt end up making a record till two or three years after that. I realized later if you want to do something, you've got to be a driving force behind it. If you believe in it, you should do it. You should only get invlved with people who really like what you're doing and stick up for you, people who have faith in your ideas - otherwise, if you don't sell a few records, the relationship will prove to have no foundation. If no one wants to do, do it yourself.

SFBG: You're talking on the phone of Doug McCombs of Tortoise - are you touring with them?

DB: No, he's in my band! The Thrill Jockey family is a wonderful thing, and Bettina who runs the label has a bunch of wonderful musicians who are willing to put up with my weird songs and try to help me make some serious rock music out here on this side of the Atlantic. I don't have a band at home - we only just started. [McCombs is on bass; Ryan Rapsys of Euphone, on drums.]

SFBG: What did you do between New Colors and Field Music?

DB: I did a master's degree - a first class honors degree and a prize for meritorious achievement in the field of mathematics.

SFBG: True what they say about music and math being very similar?

DB: I don't have the simple formula for how those things fit together.

SFBG: What are you listening to right now in the van?

DB: The Groundhogs. Greetings from Asbury Park by Bruce Springsteen. I'm listening to a record my brother's just finished. I'm going to going to make everyone listen to Thelonious Monk in a little while.

SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE
With Headlights and the Evangelicals
Fri/21, 9:30 p.m., $10
Hemlock Tavern
1131 Polk, SF
(415) 923-0923