...Trail of Dead’s Conrad Keely shows o his Brooklyn living room

About Our Host Two years ago, Keely traded his house in Austin, Texas—longtime HQ for his art-rock out t …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead—for a one-bedroom in Brooklyn. The downside? “My neighbors can hear everything,” says Keely, 36, who also does the band’s graphics. But a new city proved the perfect inspiration for sixth album The Century of Self (Richter Scale/ Justice), and for Keely’s art. His latest medium is ballpoint pen. “The band is really into my ‘blue phase,’ ” he says.

TV “That’s a show about Einstein from the History Channel
that I recorded on TiVo. He’s one of my heroes, for sure.
Einstein, not TiVo. Though TiVo did revolutionize TV watching
for me. Who wants to watch all those commercials?”

J.S. Bach painting “James Olsen is a childhood friend who gave me the idea to be a musician. I wanted to be a Marvel Comics artist, and he was like, ‘Man, let’s be rock stars!’ And now he paints a lot more. He painted the J.S. Bach for me on request. He’s my musical hero. I almost don’t think of the Bach as a painting, but as a religious icon.”

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Blueprint “That’s the blueprint for the ship I was designing— just this kooky thing inspired by the Miyazaki movie Howl’s Moving Castle. It’s got every imaginable piece of motion on it: balloons, dirigibles, sails, rockets. It’s kind of like the Baron Munchausen ship.”

Viola “When I started playing the viola, it felt like a past-life
experience. It was like, ‘Oh, I feel like I used to know how to
play this.’ I’m better at the cello, but it’s an ongoing thing. I’ll
be 80 and I’ll still be learning these instruments.”

Glass pipe “I’m an advocate of legalization. I smoke probably once or twice a day. It’s a social thing, too, so if friends come over, we’ll smoke out. But on a pragmatic level, it’s very good for focus when doing artwork and composing music—you can get into that world. ’Cause, you know, what are we doing as artists and musicians? We’re world building, aren’t we?”

Art books “This is my reference library. Whenever I’m thinking about something I want to draw, I’ll go to my collection and just look for the work. I think the 19th century is the period my art is really grounded in. I’m de nitely a representationalist.”

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Ganesh gurine “I love Hindu idols, because growing up in
Thailand, they were everywhere. And I love anything associated
with the elephant, which is why we use it as our band logo.”

Mask “I believe this is Hanuman, the monkey king. These masks are supposed to look really scary to ward o bad vibes. I got it in Thailand with my dad. I moved away when I was four—he still lives there, in Phuket. That was my rst language, but now I can’t speak it.”

Drawing board “I started drawing when I was two. It’s my
rst memory. When I was 13, I got into punk rock, and since
then art has taken a backseat, but I think it’s because art was
always easy for me. Music was the challenge.”

Cats “I have two cats. Totoro is named after the lm My Neighbor Totoro—she’s from Brooklyn, so she’s got a lot of attitude. Cillian is from a farm in Texas. The lady I got him from told me she never takes her cats to the vet. She said, ‘There are so many on the ranch—they just die.’ ”

Photographed for SPIN
Photographed for SPIN
in Brooklyn, New York,
in Plymouth, Michigan,
December 19, 2008
December 4, 2008

BY ELLEN CARPENTER PHOTOGRAPH BY OFER WOLBERGER

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