Bryan Poole, guitarist and singer for the indie-pop band Of Montreal, said the band recorded its latest album with the help of Georgie Fruit, a "64-year-old black she-male who's been in and out of prison a couple times."
"He wrote a lot of the songs," Poole said. "We met him toward the end of our previous record."
Poole said Fruit was previously part of a '70s band called Arousal, has no concern for what people think and refuses to filter his words or actions. What Poole didn't say was that Fruit is not a real person, but a dark alter ego of the band's songwriter and frontman, Kevin Barnes.
Of Montreal will perform Friday at The Venue with The Fiery Furnaces and Fire Zuave.
Poole described the band's latest album, "Skeletal Lamping," as a journey into the dark side of the human psyche. Skeletal lamping, a cruel method of hunting nocturnal animals in the dark, metaphorically describes the illumination of hidden thoughts and desires.
"There are certain things in your psyche that you probably don't want to admit to, that you need to delve deeper to see," Poole said. "A lot of them are dark, sexual things. Some of it's the feeling that people are against you. There's thoughts of hurting people that you love."
Some inspiration for "Skeletal Lamping" came to the band when they entered a mosque in Istanbul. The locals took them out to dinner and bought a special liquor for Dottie Alexander, the band's bass player. Her reaction was weird and adverse, Poole said.
The band's other members took her back to the hotel. She started babbling things they had never heard before, like "I'm a fruit zombie puppet" and "the licorice nipple is always lasting." The band asked her what she meant and wrote it down.
"There were some darker things she said too that I can't say," Poole said. "They may have been from deep in her childhood or maybe even past-life experiences or something."
Poole said Of Montreal's performances resemble surrealist tragedies.
"If Apollinaire had written a Greek tragedy, that's what we would sound like," he said.
Doors at The Venue, located 233 W. University Ave., open at 9 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online for $16.
