Michael Benjamin Lerner — the man who makes up Telekinesis — is a happy dude. When I met up with him (on the phone, mind you) last Friday, he and his band were coming down from a great gig at NYC’s infamous Bowery Ballroom, during which an apparently uber-talented Fred Armisen sat in on the drums. Lerner claimed to be having a pretty good day, but upon further conversing he noted that the band’s van had broken down.
“I’m currently in a strip mall in Jersey City,” he said, “waiting for our van to get repaired, and it’s terrifying. I will most definitely look back on this moment as a ‘what the fuck am I doing here?’ moment, and … there are definitely moments in a band that are like that — you put yourself in the most crazy situations you could ever put yourself in when you’re touring.”
Nonetheless, Lerner’s youthful positivity was infectious. Born and raised in a versatile music scene in Seattle, WA, his dad was a radio DJ and he seemed destined from the start for a life immersed in music.
“My dad would bring me records all the time, we would go to shows all the time,” said Michael. “He introduced me to a lot of music that’s influenced me a lot, specifically now. My parents totally understand the career path more because they were in that career path as well.”
Lerner’s first big push arrived when he was accepted into the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, founded by none other than Sir Paul McCartney. Michael described his time there as a “pretty formative experience.” He later elaborated, “It was amazing! I went over there for a year and studied recording and … learned how to drink alcohol for the first time like a crazy person — pretty much got all my drinking years done in one year in Liverpool. It was a great time. I absolutely loved it!”
Upon returning, Michael really hit the writing books — eventually catching the ears of Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla. The two got together and recorded his first full-length, the semi-self-titled Telekinesis!. Lerner quickly signed to Merge Records and released the second bookend of a major relationship, 12 Desperate Straight Lines, not long after. Both albums were chock-full of clean and lean straight-forward power pop, yet they were lyrically at odds with one another: Telekinesis! was brimming with new-found love, while 12DSL was the result of a devastating breakup.
His latest, the excellent Dormarion, doesn’t mark a shift in style — there’s no questioning this is a Telekinesis record — but it does find Lerner at his most mature and balanced state yet. This is without a doubt a reaction to the vast improvement in his personal life: “I got into a relationship that is super stable and we’re getting married and bought a house. Everything in my personal life is not as tumultuous as it once was during the making of that [12DSL] record — I think it seems like I’m a happier person than when I made Desperate Straight Lines.”
From the rockers that recall his earlier days, to the bare acoustic numbers, to the synthed-out show stoppers, Dormarion is an expansive and realized piece of work. It still finds Lerner showcasing his knack for catchy melodies, but they sound more varied and fresh amongst different tempos and lyrical topics — again an effect of his elongated elevated mood. “It’s probably not intentional the way it happens for me,” Lerner stated. “I just write music usually how I’m feeling at any particular moment. It’s probably no coincidence that I feel that way [more balanced] because I feel happier in my personal life.”
Lerner enlisted Jim Eno (of Spoon fame) to produce the album and named it after the street Eno’s studio sits on. Lerner affirmed, “Naming your record or your band is kind of a stressful situation because there are a million options and you never know what you’re going to do. Dormarion was one of those things where I looked it up on the internet and there was absolutely nothing about the history of the street… like you Google it and there’s nothing about it. So I don’t know what it means, where it came from, if it’s a family name… which is kind of bonkers. That’s why I wanted to use it — I don’t really know of any words you can’t find a definition for.”
While the production and songwriting on Dormarion is a marked improvement from his earlier releases, the recording process was business as usual: “On the record it’s usually just me playing all the instruments. When we play live I drum and sing and get my friends to play guitar and bass and keyboard.”
And even though Lerner prefers to keep Telekinesis as a solo project, he also enjoys the experience of playing his songs live with other musicians. “I’ve literally had a different band for every tour at this point,” he noted, “so every time we have to learn all the songs, they sound completely different — which is rad! It’s like I almost get a new leaf on life every tour cycle.”
Whether you need a finals study break or you’re ready for a good ol’ fashioned summer night of power pop in its most excellent form, come see Telekinesis turn that new leaf on Thursday at the High Noon Saloon.