AvidBlogs caught up with hip-hop producer Dan the Automator to talk Got A Girl, the band he created with Mary. Check out some highlights below and head to the gallery to check out the pics. They’ll be performing at Joe’s Pub in NYC tonight, tomorrow and then in Los Angeles. If you want to buy tickets for the NY performance, click HERE. Los Angeles–click HERE.
Anthony Gordon: How did you end up working with Mary?
Dan: In 2008, Radiohead was playing the Outside Lands festival here in San Francisco and [Radiohead guitarist] Ed [O’Brien] called me up to have dinner with him and Nigel Godrich and a bunch of other people. We were hanging out and these guys I hadn’t met before, Edgar Wright and Bryan Lee O’Malley, and Edgar asked me to do some music for a film they were making called Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and I was like “Yes! Of course!” Mary, who was starring in the movie, was at the dinner as well. She told me she was a fan and wanted to do some music together. We stayed in touch and a year or two later we were like “you know what? We should just try something and see what happens.” It ended up being cool and we had good chemistry together so we kept making songs and just took it from there.
AG: How did you two go about making this record? What’s your songwriting process like?
Dan: I make the music, and sometimes I’d send her tracks here and there, but mostly we’d sit together in the studio and she’d come up with melodies and we’d work out lyrics together.
AG: What are your plans for touring with the record now?
Dan: We just did two shows on the West Coast, then we have a few more coming up in New York and LA. I’m feeling pretty good about it. The band is well rehearsed and the shows have been going well. Right now we’re just dipping our feet into the water to show people we can play live.