Animal Collective Continues Musical Journey with Soundtrack for ‘The Inspection’

Even from his early days, David Portner, the de facto frontman for the acclaimed Baltimore-born experimental pop group Animal Collective, felt music was “like a different world.” It was something that presented a portal into something new, a dichotomous realm where he could absorb sounds solo, or with others around, engaging in the experience inwardly or outwardly. It has also provided Portner a way of life, a way to pay bills and a means to a massive creative output.

From the beginning, he was looking to participate in songs. He asked his parents for piano lessons at three years old. He also received records from older siblings that provided their own specific windows into new things. Today, these various pathways continue, both stretching and colliding in the artist’s orbit as well as in his own mind as he creates music that at times bounces and bashes, and at others smoothens and mollifies. Animal Collective, which released its latest LP, Time Skiffs, earlier this year, more recently released music for the score of a new film, The Inspection. But for Portner, each of these works marks another step forward in his constant artistic journey.