Owen Pallett im Interview mit noisey:
It started with 30 tracks. Was it difficult cutting it down?
It was difficult, with Heartland working with Rusty on the mix, we created a unified sonic world. With In Conflict, even though I think the songs are better and recordings are better, I prefer it in almost every way to Heartland. I was having more troubles with the mix and with the sequence and getting it to hang together as an album. I started to roll with that, to roll with the fact that it wasn’t totally immersive in the way that Heartland was, and to play with that, even. When you buy the record in different formats, there are different sequences and different closing tracks and the album is never quite there. It’s even in the album artwork, there are inconsistencies in the formats and all of them are marred by phosphorus paint. Some lyrics will always be obscured. In a way, I used the fact that it wasn’t fully gelling as an album and just kind of went with it. Make it gel even less.
What do you want people to take from this album, above all else?
I don’t really hope for much of anything, my goal was that historically what had made me happy about making records is that there was always something surprising. Something I’m not expecting. It’s a conversation with a total stranger or a family member. The fulfillment comes from unexpected and unanticipated places. For example, my father who never listened to my music is very enthusiastic about one of the songs on In Conflict, specifically the vocal performance. That was extremely gratifying to me because my father pointedly never came to shows, not for any weird reasons, we get along great, he just didn’t want to. That he did sit me down and talk about what he liked about this thing; that was really good. What I’m trying to say is that I hope this album interacts with people in very unique and interesting ways and I’m eager to see what people’s responses are.
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