Q&A with Heads on Sticks

Tomorrow, WKNC, N.C. State University’s radio station, kicks off its two-night Double Barrel Benefit. Now in its ninth year, the event serves as the largest fundraiser for WKNC, David Mueller, bassist for Birds of Avalon, plays night two of the event with his side project Heads on Sticks. He talked to Assistant Diversions Editor Allison Hussey about Heads on Sticks and some of his favorite parts of the Triangle music community.

Diversions: How does Heads on Sticks differ from what you do with Birds of Avalon?

David Mueller: It’s really different. I write all of the music for Heads on Sticks and sort of design it on my own and then bring other people in kind of after-the-fact to work up live arrangements and sort of build the songs out. With Birds of Avalon, definitely each person writes different stuff, but it’s more of a collaborative process between several people.

The instrumentation’s different, we use a lot of rhythm tracks and stuff and programmed elements with Heads on Sticks that isn’t as prominent with Birds of Avalon.

Dive: What kind of relationship do you have with WKNC?

DM: Well, I’m a Raleigh native, so I’ve been listening to it since I was a kid. It has definitely changed a lot over the years, and I think it’s really stronger now than it has ever been.

There was definitely a time when I was a teenager, it seemed like a lot of the programming was out of step with … I don’t know. Now, I really feel like you hear a lot of new music and it’s all kind of tied in to the current scene. But it’s always been a really crucial part of the cultural life around Raleigh.

College radio is just kind of indispensable because it’s the only source to hear a lot of that — especially now, online, you can seek out a lot of stuff — but before that was really prominent, it was your only resource for a lot of new music.

Dive: Who are you looking forward to seeing at the Double Barrel Benefit?

DM: I have to work on Friday night, so I won’t get to see the first night. But the second night, I’m pretty excited about seeing everybody. I’m good friends with Mike Dillon from Gross Ghost, and I’ve always liked what they’ve been doing.

I guess Birds of Avalon has played with Kingsbury Manx once or twice, and they always put on a really good live show. So I’m excited about seeing both of them.

Dive: What can people expect out of your live show?

DM: I’d like to fix it so that people never knew what to expect, really. We’re always kind of evolving.

One of the nice things about the way we work now is, as opposed to a traditional bass-drums-guitar combo, we’re able to tailor the sound on the stage for each song, and using some of the technology that’s available now to create different atmospheres.

So you wouldn’t necessarily know what to expect, but we try to keep the energy up, control the mood in the room. I guess I don’t know what I would want people to expect.

Dive: Do you have any new material in the works?

DM: I’m working on a new full-length right now that should be out some time later this year, in the late spring, early summer, the way things are looking now.

Dive: How does it compare with your other material so far?

DM: A lot of the releases I’ve done, I’ve been doing on my own, they sort of coincide with the creative development of the project, as opposed to being on a strict schedule of releasing and touring.

I’m constantly building on the concepts and ideas that I’m working with, and when I feel like things have moved forward or are in a more interesting place, that’s when it’s time for something to come out.

So I would hope the next release sort of just builds upon everything I’ve done, but offers a wider perspective. I’m always trying to incorporate new elements and new textures.

Dive: What kinds of new elements have you been working with?

DM: I’ve been studying a lot of sound design stuff over the past year or so, working with ways to control the characters of some of the sounds and synthesizers and stuff like that.

I feel like I really spent the year before that learning a lot about classic mixing, how to make things sound good, how to get the sonic character you want out of a recording.

Over the past year, I’ve really focused more on using that as a foundation and having new areas to be able to go into with the types of sound and creating your own sound from the ground up.