INTERVIEW:  

Nominated by David Gordon Green.

Based in Austin, Texas, the instrumental band Explosions In The Sky are masters of creating moving, majestic soundscapes. Beginning with a simple melody, then layering on harmonious variations, their songs gradually build toward rhapsodic crescendos. We spoke with the band's remarkably grounded guitarist Munaf Rayani about books, best friends and Baskin Robbins.

Q: Do you remember your first inclination to play music?

Munaf: Yeah, I kind of do remember. When I was much younger I was around music a lot - like, my father and stepfather both played music. So just hearing that, I kind of just fiddled around on keyboard and stuff.

Q: What kind of music were they playing?

Munaf: Mainly Eastern Indian music, with tablas and stuff like that. It was definitely really interesting to be around. My first actual moment of Westernized music that I made... Well, Michael James who is one of the guitarists and bass player (for Explosions In The Sky), he used to work at Baskin Robbins in Midland, Texas. He used to carry his guitar everywhere with him, because his apartment had been broken into twice. He would take it into Baskin Robbins and just set it down behind the counter. One day I was visiting him and on a break he put the guitar in my hand and taught me how to play a power chord. It was pretty awesome.

Q: You had never played the guitar before that?

Munaf: I'd never played it before that. So everything that we're playing now, it all started with Michael James.

Q: Is that how you met him?

Munaf: I actually met him two weeks prior, on the basketball court.

Q: Do you guys hang out when you're not on tour?

Munaf: We definitely do. It's pretty funny. I mean, we're with each other all day, everyday, when we're on tour. Just in each other's face in the van. Definitely, we go through our highs and lows, just because being in such close quarters with anybody for so long can start to wear on you. But we all get home, and I honestly believe that we only have each other's numbers in our phones. It doesn't go a day or two before we see each other.

Q: What have you been listening to lately on the road?

Munaf: Well, this tour we were listening to the Arcade Fire a whole bunch. We've never seen them or anything, but we've heard their record like a hundred times. And someone was talking to me about the Arcade fire record in my dream. It was pretty funny.

Q: Have you ever seen a ghost?

Munaf: No. I don't know if I want to. I kind of want to, but I kind of don't want to.

Q: You don't want to see one?

Munaf: No, I'm scared.

Q: Did you have a happy childhood?

Munaf: Come on! What if I didn't have a happy childhood? That's not a very good question, now is it?

Q: I guess not. Have you read any great books recently?

Munaf: I'm admittedly a very slow reader, I'm probably not the smartest on in the band. All the boys read like ten books on tour. I might read one or two. And then the Game Boy gets in the way, and then we all start playing games. We're playing this game called Bookworm.

Q: Is it like Scrabble?

Munaf: Yeah. There's another game called Snatch that's only made in London. It's pretty amazing. It's like a mix between Scrabble and a lot of other word games, but it's just tiles that you lay face down on a table. You keep turning them over until you find letters, and say you see 'less' in there, and then you can snag my word 'hope' and add it to your clan, and you've got the word 'hopeless'.

Q: Um, what was I going to ask...?

Munaf: How about 'how long have you been playing music?'

Q: Didn't I ask you that?

Munaf: No, I'm asking you.

Q: Oh, me? I don't play music. I thought you were suggesting a question for me to ask you.

Munaf: Oh, no.

Q: I sort of failed as a musician.

Munaf: Not at all, man. This will kind of give you an insight into the things I think about. I was thinking about whistling yesterday - whistling or humming. That's a pretty good instrument. Even if it's really bad, you are still moving from this note to that note without, for example, looking at a guitar's frets or a piano's keys. So I thought that was pretty cool, to play something like that without looking at anything.