Not without Merritt

Catching up with the deadpan and generally unelaborative Stephin Merritt, who'll spin the Film Fest opening party.

by Brian Howard

Photo By: chris buck (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

The Philadelphia Film Festival opening party will feature the DJ stylings of Magnetic Fields/Gothic Archies mastermind Stephin Merritt. (The dour songwriter spins with Jesse Fuchs Monday nights at New York's Beauty Bar.) When we caught up with the deadpan and generally unelaborative Merritt on the phone in Los Angeles, where he's working on a musical based on Neil Gaiman's Coraline, he informed us that he got involved with the film festival because "they called me and asked me to."

City Paper: Your DJ sets are described as "a mix of bubblegum and psychedelic pop." What can we expect to hear?

Stephin Merritt: Well, the Archies. [Long pause]

City Paper: Are the Archies a staple of your sets?

Stephin Merritt: Not so much that they are a major staple as that they are an epitome.

City Paper: Is the music in your sets stuff that's been influential for you as a songwriter?

Stephin Merritt: What I play when I deejay is usually things that I've more recently discovered, so it couldn't have been influential because I haven't heard it.

City Paper: Is there anything you've found recently that you're excited to debut?

Stephin Merritt: I'm very happy with the unreleased tracks on the Bee Gees boxed set that came out recently — the first-three-albums Bee Gees box set.

City Paper: Do you plan a set out in advance?

Stephin Merritt: No. Occasionally we'll deejay on a holiday or something that calls for a particular theme, like if we're doing Martin Luther King Day, it might be more political songs.

City Paper: Do you try to get people dancing?

Stephin Merritt: No. In all three of the places I've deejayed in New York, there's been no dance floor. They're in the East Village where dancing is prohibited. We just don't play that loud.

City Paper: So is it more of a lounge feel?

Stephin Merritt: No, not if by lounge you mean marimbas.

City Paper: What I mean is, is the scene generally people sitting around enjoying the music?

Stephin Merritt: As far as I can tell, no matter what you do, people are going to sit around talking to each other.

City Paper: What can you tell me about Jesse Fuchs?

Stephin Merritt: We've been working together for a year and a half. He likes a bit more Roger Miller and I like a bit more Tonto's Expanding Head Band. In other words, he's a little bit country, and I'm a little bit electro pop.

Philadelphia Film Festival Opening Night Celebration, Thu., April 5, 10 p.m.-1 a.m., $45-$50 party and 6 or 8:30 p.m. film screening, $35 party only, Penthouse Lounge & Grille, 460 N. Second St., 267-675-9700 ext. 4, www.phillyfests.com.