"Each record we make, we hope it stands on its own," answered Anderson, who also is currently active in the band Ascend, a duo who put out one of my top 5 records of last year with Ample Fire Within. "The underlying theme is to make each record different than the one before it. This one, the idea you mentioned of birth and decay, I totally can relate," Anderson said. "I think there's some of that but we didn't consciously set out to do that. We started it like all our records: Stephen and I in the studio with some ideas and riffs that we build on. That's some of the beauty in this record in that it grew into its own thing and evokes all these different thoughts. There wasn't a concept. It just happened."

Stephen O' Malley put in his two cents. "It was such a long process making these tracks," he offered. "The second track took a really long time, a year and a half! It's interesting to see how it develops during the process. It's the benefit of not over-planning. When you are collaborating with so many different people it allows the record to develop a personality of its own."

"There's total surprise," adds Anderson. Monoliths really sounds like a natural event, forming like ages passing in nature altering the planet.

"Some of the stuff is, 'Wow, what happened?', like the blissful stuff at the end of the album," said Stephen. "It's totally appropriate and integrated but it's an amazing feeling." It's amazing SunnO))) accomplished something so beautiful and honest."

Greg adds, "It wasn't calculated. A lot of people think so, but it just happens."

Perhaps people assume every move the pair make is well planned in a dark lab, as they are well-spoken and often cite influences and a wide variety of intellectual sources. Or maybe it is because the band won't be photographed outside of their stage cloaks and cowls. There is a sense of deep planning, like casting a thought out spell. I joke about this with the band, and also mention that it seems almost inevitable that they would have had to use the word “monolith” in an album title somewhere.

Stephen agreed, laughing. "Totally. It was also probably inevitable we did a record with all these, I don't know what to call it...spiritual jazz elements. It's become such a part of the background picture of our interests."

I wondered aloud if the album titles come before or after for Sunn O))).

"We always have working titles but we finalize it when everything's done and fully formed," said O'Malley.

"The artwork, graphics, and titles usually come after we've had time to think about what's appropriate," added Anderson.

"I hadn't really thought about it," admitted O'Malley, "but it always comes later—having a title ahead of time might restrict it. Our music is pretty abstract, or at least non-verbal. Even though there's vocals, especially on this album in particular, there's so much more that to define it prematurely is not attractive."

The lyrics on Monoliths And Dimensions add meaning, but Attila functions almost as another musical texture than as a front voice. Anderson agrees with me. "Yeah, totally. That was what was really special about working with Attila. We've done several recordings with Attila but it's always been Stephen and I making music and then sending it to Europe and him doing his vocals and sending it back. No physical contact or exchange of ideas, just a tape in the mail. This time, Attila was in the studio with us and was bouncing ideas off us. It made for a much more solid collaboration."

"It was also inspiring to get his ideas while hearing the music," said Stephen. "It gave form to the riffs in some way. 'Oh, you're hearing that? You're researching Hollow Earth theory for this track?' It gave so much more perspective and personality to integrate, which was really inspiring."

Greg adds that, "Attila said something really cool during the session that was very reflective of his character and lack of need for ego as a singer. He wanted us to use him as an instrument, so if we had an idea about sounds or styles to tell him. That's rare for a singer, because being a singer, you almost have to have an ego to be a good singer! If you're the frontman, you're the focus of the group, so for a vocalist to say that was very cool. Those are the kind of people I wanna work with."

"Britney Spears," jokes O'Malley.

With such a massive soundscape on their hands, I asked the band how they planned to do this record live, if at all. Before they could answer we were interrupted by a polite elderly couple at the restaurant table next to us at the noisy restaurant/bar where we were seated. They were intrigued by the interview and asked to be on Sunn O)))'s mailing list and said they would come see them in New York sometime! Greg smiled and was very nice and took the old woman's information down. Boy, was she in for a treat if they actually check out the band some day!

"We don't wanna put restrictions on the group," said O'Malley shortly after our amusement passed. "That's one of the main points of the group, to try not to tie it down, if we can avoid it. We've been talking about, if we wanna do this type of presentation live, to do it as a special event, so we don't have four tour busses with union pay scales! It's not a 'rock band' type of thing. We are touring, but..."

Greg pipes up," Sunn O)))'s not really a rock band on tour. When we do stuff it's usually for two weeks. One of the reasons is we're older, but if you play too much, people get burned out. We like that when we play a show it is a special event. Some bands tour full time and you might not go tonight because you can see it in a month again. There are bands that are amazing who do that. Look at Motorhead. They continue to and are great."

"High On Fire," adds O'Malley. "But we're just not that kind of band. We get to look forward to playing two weeks in Japan or playing Chicago again, and it's good."

The band has an unorthodox sound and presentation anyway, something that has drawn visual artists like Banks Violette or director Jarmusch to the band's work. Violettte, who often has dark music accompany his exhibits, recently collaborated with Sunn O))) in a rather interesting and notorious manner.

"Banks had an instillation in London and Sunn O))) kind of played the opening. It was kind of weird because we played and they didn't allow anyone into the gallery as part of his concept, but we went with it," said O'Malley. "Banks made a sculpture of our backline that was incredible."
Greg added, "The sculpture was on the second floor and the band was playing on the first floor. We flew out to London and I thought there'd be a select, small audience, but he told us to play and the door would be shut. No one was allowed in the gallery while we played and we had all these fiends outside freaking out, like, pounding on the door! As soon as the last note was finished they opened the doors and people rushed in but we were gone!"

Stephen explains, "The whole concept was aftermath, missing the event and seeing the remains, which was represented by the sculpture."

"A friend of ours is a comic artist and made a strip about it," remembered Greg. "The gallery is this building shown with demons pouring from the windows and there's a dude with a beard, like, 'Hey, I wonder if they have a merch stand.' It was funny. No show, just merch! Good concept!"

"I want to have hot dogs," said Stephen. I tell him a friend of mine, Pat Manley, wanted to have an opening act on a tour be an all you can eat buffet or salad bar.

"I wanna do a show with a barbecue on stage, making hot dogs. We'll introduce taste into the concert. Smell, touch, sight, AND sound," says O'Malley in a very hi-brow manner. "Maybe veggie burgers".

"No! Steak! Flesh! Real!," growls Anderson, making a fist. "As for Jim Jarmusch, he was a fan of Boris and wanted to meet them. He thought they were great. I talked to Boris' manager and they were of course very excited and when they met I contacted Jim to follow up and he said, 'I want you to know I'm a huge fan of Southern Lord Records and SunnO))) and Earth." Great! Cool!"

"So, we traded materials," he continues. "I sent him some albums and he sent me some criterion collections of his movies with extra commentary and director's versions. He said our music was an inspiration in his films and eventually he was working on the new film and wanted SunnO))), Boris, and Earth to be part of it. He picked songs he liked for the soundtrack. He was telling me how he enjoyed the band and I thought, 'Is he gonna ask us to be in a movie!!?’" Boris is a huge part of the film. They have the opening song and the end credits. The track "Farewell" off the album PINK is the main theme of the movie. There's a couple of tracks from the Boris/SunnO))) ALTAR album."

SunnO))) have been in some student films before but this was the first time they were in a real film and a great way to start. Jarmusch is sure to understand and treat their music right. I was lucky enough to have an inkling of the collaboration a long time ago because I moonlight as a waiter in addition to being a rock-scribe/alcoholic, and overheard Jarmusch mentioning Boris when he dined at a restaurant where I work in the Catskills, so it was pretty cool getting the PR notice in my inbox confirming this all these months later!

I ask SunnO)), lastly, how they picked their collaborators and if it was hard to coordinate so many people? It turns out Eyvind Kang brought on a lot of the people he works with, and band friend/horn player Steve Moore and engineer Randall Dunn worked on projects with many of the others. Steve Moore studies with the other horn players Stuart Dempster and Julian Priester.

"It was interesting," says Anderson. "Stephen and I both grew up in Seattle but have been removed from it for some time. Stephen lived in New York, and now Paris, and I've lived in Los Angeles for 12 years. To go back and make a record in Seattle was interesting, to learn about all the musicians in Seattle that we had no idea about, especially Julian Priester, it was like, 'Holy Shit!’ Seattle has a community of musicians who are playing some really out there music. You think Seattle and the first thing you think of is Grunge or Hendrix."

"Sir Mix A Lot," reminds O' Malley.

"Of course," said Greg. "But it was eye-opening having played in bands in Seattle to go back and discover a whole new scene. It was fucking awesome! I had no idea a dude who played with fucking Herbie Hancock and John Coltrane was an important figure in this community of musicians. He teaches at this school called Cornish. It was a discovery for us, teaching old dogs new tricks!"