I caught up with Andrew Rieger, frontman for the Athens, Georgia based art-pop quartet Elf Power after their afternoon set Saturday at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, Illinois.
Rieger discussed everything from working with the Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann to Georgia's indie rock scene (they were an original part of the Elephant Six arts collective, which also included Of Montreal and Neutral Milk Hotel).
Keegan Hamilton: First things first, why the twelve-string guitar?
Andrew Rieger: I think I started playing the twelve-string in 2005. It's just anytime you pick up a new instrument, there's something slightly different that inspires you to write differently. I'd been playing the same acoustic guitar for so many years, then I bought a twelve-string acoustic and it inspired me to write differently. That's where it all started, that was about three years ago and I've been with it ever since.

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