Vampire Weekend's Baio: Bowie, Trump and Being a 'Man of the World'

“Bowie showed me what an album could be,” Chris Baio says. “When I was 18 I heard ‘Low’ for the first time. It’s full of these weird but tight pop songs like Breaking Glass - a song with a memorable chorus and a big guitar riff - and then on the back half you’ve got Warszawa - this very abstract, ambient piece of music. It all happens on the same record and it never seems contrived. It all makes sense.”

We are talking about David Bowie because Baio’s new album, ‘Man of the World’, has formal similarities to the icon’s late ‘70s catalogue. The Vampire Weekend bassist’s second solo outing is a tour through art-rock composition that pairs pristine pop tunes with far more experimental, fugacious tracks.

“You do get a sense that he really thought about the album as a form,” Baio continues. “Particularly from the mid ‘70s. That’s my favourite run:‘Station to Station’ to ‘Scary Monsters’.”

Reflecting on this time also holds a mirror up to Baio’s relocation from New York to London three years ago, and his harnessing of a similar creative boost to the one Bowie hit upon when he moved to Berlin in 1976. So far, the results are 2015's ‘The Names' - an excellent record that operates like an EDM mixtape - and ‘Man of the World’, which is a political commentary on the election of Donald Trump as US president.

“I was truly despondent in the immediate aftermath,” Baio says. “I stayed up late [and] I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I thought if I drank enough whisky he wouldn’t win, but drinking whisky doesn’t work that way, which is a lesson I should have learnt by now.

“If the US presidential election had been a regular one - if the Republican candidate had be a regular one as opposed to a very dangerous, scary and unhinged one - I probably wouldn’t have made another record so quickly.”

This relates to the fact that the majority of 'Man of the World' was written during a highly emotional two weeks in November last year. Nevertheless, the intervening six months have produced an album that feels occasionally detached from the political chaos of American life.

“The perspective of an American living in London is a big part of where the record is coming from,” Baio says. “What does happen when I’m over here is that I do feel more cognisant of my Americanness - I feel more American. You feel like a bit of an explainer for whatever is happening in your country, and the weird and scary part is that I have seemed to be a representative for a country that’s going to shit politically.”

Despite this gloomy appraisal, ‘Man of the World’ is a bright record that wears its politics rather lightly. In particular, the title track, PHILOSOPHY! and Sensitive Guy offer highly satirical perspectives on the Commander in Chief: “I’m such a sensitive guy / Even my tears cry!”.

There are also some very Vampire Weekend moments, like The Key is Under the Mat, which joyously recreates the frenetic Afrobeat energy of the four piece. That said, Baio is measured in his optimism, and is reluctant to offer political punditry.

“I didn’t think [Trump] would be as ineffective on a number of things,” he says. “He’s basically a chaos President. And a lot of his hurtful agenda is having a very difficult time getting through. His [Muslim] ban is being held up in the courts, and was written initially in a legally illiterate way. In manifold ways he’s being ineffective.

“[But] I’m out of the prediction game. We should assume he is in there for the full four year term, and we should focus on mitigating the damage that he is doing. What’s been helpful is following what’s going on, see what he is doing and give money to causes that counter areas in which he’s effective.”

‘Man of the World’ is out now on Glassnote.   

Baio Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:

Wed July 19 2017 - LONDON Waiting Room

Click here to compare & buy Baio Tickets at Stereoboard.com.

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