IN THE STUDIO | AVEY TARE
Despite founding the experimental pop band Animal Collective in Y2K and releasing a host of critically acclaimed albums, workaholic songwriter Dave Portner has still found time to collaborate separately with band mate Noah Lennox (Panda Bear), release six solo albums under the pseudonym Avey Tare and drive numerous other projects to completion.
In recent years, Portner has relocated from bustling Los Angeles to woodlands on the eastern edge of Asheville, North Carolina, sequestering himself in his diminutive home studio. However, for his latest Avery Tare album, 7s, he was seduced into working at Adam McDaniel's Drop of Sun complex in an attempt to further metamorphose his surreal approach.
Over the last two decades, there's been barely a year when you haven't released a solo album or an Animal Collective LP. Would you describe yourself as a workaholic?
I was more of a workaholic when I first started, to the point of being so addicted that I couldn't wean myself away from making music until the wee hours. As I've got older, I've tried to find more balance and find that I actually do better work when I'm not pushing myself so hard. For the first decade, my goal was to always be working on or releasing something and it worked out well, but over the last decade I'm taking a little longer to make Animal Collective records and giving more space for the
