Liars raise demons. If you’ve got some skeletons in your closet, they will pull them out, dust them off, and use their ribs like a xylophone. They’re a band that critics loved, then hated, and now love again, and they don’t seem to care much either way. Living in the long shadow of hype is normally enough to make the strongest band cynical, but the truth is, Liars are downright cuddly… After this interview was finished, singer Angus Andrew gave me a big hug, and said thank you for my time. Seriously.

When I caught up with Liars on their tour for Drum’s Not Dead, I gave them three themes we could talk about: Criticism, Places, or Animals. They chose Animals without skipping a beat.

everyoneisdoomed: In your lyrics there are horses, spiders, cats, dogs, dragons, donkeys, bears…

julian gross: wow.

eid: …and not in your lyrics, but in your videos and promo stuff there are farm animals and slugs. Why do you choose to use animal imagery so much?

angus andrew: I think we all really love animals. I think there’s something about the animal kingdom per se that is mystical in the sense that they’re communicating with each other and things are going on that we still don’t know anything about. It’s great to see two dogs interacting and what sort of things they could be talking about, we don’t know. I think for those images or those elements allow for a deeper look into the way things interact, so if you use a spider as a representation of a person it becomes something a little tangible.

eid: How do you see yourselves as animals?

julian: Do you mean what kind of animal?

eid: sure.

angus: Didn’t we figure this out already? When we were reading those books… The Dark Material or something like that? Anyway, the premise in pretty much a whole book is that every human has an animal, and that animal is a representation of that person’s soul…

julian: …and they change until you become an adult and once you become an adult, you fix on a certain animal.

angus: We would always discuss which animals could be ours and Julian’s would be a cat.

eid: Why?

julian: You know, I like to sleep, I like to cuddle, I like to purr, I like to lick things.

eid: So is that like the Liars’ Book Club?

angus: It is. I mean, we go on tour a lot together so that’s obviously an economical way to get through material. We read the whole The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe before it was cool again. That was right before [the album] …Drowned, so we got really into that. It was good inspiration for us.

eid: What experiences have you guys had with animals? Did you guys have pets growing up?

angus: I have a great story. Am I talking too much? [laughs] Me and my mum were kayaking in the middle of the ocean, and she was reading a book and I was paddling. All of a sudden, out of the clear blue stillness, came a ssscccccccrrreeeeee and it was a whale. It was pretty close… And I kind of look back on this point as a weird point, but my gut reaction was to just dive in after it. I know it’s weird, but it was awesome. I could to see the whale underwater and it was like the size of a bus, driving away.

julian: I love that story. I really do. We were just in the great barrier reef recently, me and Aaron [Hemphill], and that was absolutely beautiful. It was so amazing.

eid: Snorkeling?

julian: Snorkeling and scuba diving. We’re men now so we decided to take the next step and add the oxygen tank. We also went to the Daintree, the oldest rainforest in the world, plus one of the seven wonders. Dippin’ in it. Swimmin’ around.

eid: Aaron, any experiences that you’ve had with animals that you’d like to tell us about?

aaron hemphill: I used to catch rattlesnakes when I was a kid and try to sell them to hospitals for anti-venom to make money. You catch them with this special noose.

eid: Can you actually do that?

aaron: You can, but they don’t need that. And when they see, like, four ten-year-olds with skateboards and a PVC bucket with sand coming out of the bottom, they know there’s something wrong. So they would always flip out. They don’t do that, you know? Hospitals don’t buy shit from kids. It’s not like they have a room where they fang out the venom and mix it around.

julian: Would you take them there alive or dead?

aaron: Alive, yeah. You can’t get the venom out unless they’re alive.

eid: So apart from what animals you might see yourself as being, if you could be any animal, what kind of animals would you be?

angus: I like the elephant. A motherly figure, solid, dependable, can cry.

julian: I wanna go with the cat still, because I just like the whole way that they do their thing. But you know, there’s something to be said for birds: They fly, and that’s kinda awesome.

eid: Okay, so, last animal question: On a level playing field – where there was water deep enough so that a Shark could maneuver, but shallow enough so that a Bear could stand and move freely – who would win in a fight between a Bear and a Shark?

aaron: Shark. No question.

angus: Bear.

julian: I’m gonna go with shark.

eid: Why?

julian: I mean the shark’s mouth is just huge. One snap, bear’s leg gone. Then what? Then what’s the bear gonna do?

aaron: It’s a marine animal. A bear can swim or hunt in water, but it’s not the best at it. It’s like asking if the shark would win on land vs. the bear.

angus: I still think the bear. I mean, the bear’s tough. They catch fish out of the water already, so why not a big one?

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