In January, the passing of Charlie Cooper, one half of the electronic duo Telefon Tel Aviv, put the musical future of that group in question. In February, their third record, Immolate Yourself, came out as planned on Bpitch Control. Antigravity Magazine spoke with Joshua Eustis, the band's other half, about Charlie's death, which was ruled an overdose, and the band's future...

ANTIGRAVITY: Even for someone who knew you, the level of friendship you communicated to the world after Charlie died was intense. Can you flesh that out a little bit to help people understand exactly what kind of relationship that was?

Joshua Eustis: It's kind of hard to put into words, really, but we depended on each other for everything. Aside from being best friends, we worked together, we lived together for many years, we made three records together, did remixes together and basically never argued about music in the studio...

AG: Are you mad at Charlie at all?

Joshua: Sure. I like to tell myself, to give myself comfort in a very selfish way, that it's a natural response to something like this. But I can't really be mad at him because the Medical Examiner, for instance--I'll tell you this, since everybody is wondering--ruled inconclusively. They couldn't rule that it was a suicide, because there wasn't enough evidence to indicate that it actually was. It very well could've been an accident and that's what the Medical Examiner thinks at this time. We get the toxicology report in a week and it's going to stay between me and his family. If it wasn't intentional, then I'm a lot sadder, but I'll take comfort in knowing he wasn't trying to take an easy way out of life's problems. But, if it was intentional (which I don't think it was), then yeah I'm pissed off because it's a bullshit way of dealing with life's problems--problems that everybody has: girl problems, money problems. Fuck, everybody has those problems. To despair when you have problems is the height of folly, because despair is only for people who know the end beyond any doubt. If you know for a fact that it's going to end badly, then you can despair, but nobody ever knows that everything is going to completely fall apart and your life is going to end. For that reason I would be pissed off if the Medical Examiner comes back and rules it a suicide.

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AG: Are you looking forward to promoting [the new record]?

Joshua:I am trying to look forward to that; I'm a little lost on how I'm going to do it. I don't know how it's going to go down exactly but there's definitely going to be a massive tour later this year, basically July through October, ideally. The world, U.S., everywhere else that I can get a show. I don't know who's going to be involved or how it's going to go down: I'm not there yet. If the band's going to continue...I don't know. We'll see.

Later in March, Joshua announced his plans for that tour. He said, "I've decided to play shows (I know, I know, it's not exactly a big deal, but hey...). Fredo [Nogueira] is going to come with me and play keyboards and sing backups. Some of you may know who he is already, but if not, he has co-written some things with TTA and basically been our best friend for a million years. He's always around when we're making a record. We'll be playing mostly stuff from the new LP, and some even newer stuff, so please come out and help us move things forward!"

The pair played Europe in late spring, and now they're coming to North America, with a month of shows starting in September. They'll play NYC shows on Friday, September 11th at the Bell House with The Race and on September 12th at the Mercury Lounge. Tickets for the Mercury Lounge show are on AmEx presale now. General sale starts at noon.

A trailer for the new record and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Telefon Tel Aviv touring w/ a new member - 2009 dates"