Greg Saunier doesní’t claim to be any sort of armchair Zen master, though his musical philosophy has a decidedly Eastern flavor. But when people listen to Deerhoofí¢â‚¬”the noisy art-rockers for whom Saunier plays drumsí¢â‚¬” the teachings of Carl Jung and Tibetan Buddhists doní’t immediately come to mind.

The way Saunier describes the musical experience is very much like a mandala, an integrated geometric pattern celebrated by gurus and retreat organizers. A mandala is often created in collaboration with a group, each participant adding something new to the design as it is passed around. The resulting mandala, then, represents an actual moment in time, a snapshot of a collective idea, a microcosm of infinity.

í¢â‚¬Å“Music doesní’t really turn into music until thereí’s a listener there participating with it and interpreting it and trying to make sense of it in their mind, trying to follow it, trying to apprehend it as music,í¢â‚¬  Saunier said in a phone interview from New York, on the second leg of a North American tour. í¢â‚¬Å“Then suddenly it becomes something. Without [the participation] ití’s sort of just a sketch.í¢â‚¬ 

í¢â‚¬Å“Weí’re trying to make some music that adds something else to the picture, but weí’re not starting from scratch. Ití’s part of a history.í¢â‚¬ 

Deerhoofí’s latest addition to the collective musical sketch pad is Friend Opportunity, the sixth album the band has released with its core of band members, which also includes guitarist John Dieterich and vocalist/bassist Satomi Matsuzaki. It is succinct and stripped down compared to their epic previous release, The Runners Four. But the soft melodies and groovy riffs amid the jarring, beautiful dissonances that characterize Deerhoofí’s music make it one of their most í¢â‚¬Å“accessibleí¢â‚¬  records.

But fawning descriptions like thatí¢â‚¬”or any description for that matterí¢â‚¬”are a waste of time for Saunier. Pragmatic descriptions and categorizations are irrelevant when it comes to the real experience of music, Saunier explains.

It is the listenerí’s experience that is most important for Saunier and his band. The reaction people have when they hear music is when it actually becomes music. Otherwise, Saunier says, í¢â‚¬Å“Our songs are just some ones and zeros on a dumb little round piece of plastic. Theyí’re nothing.í¢â‚¬  As soon as people react to the music, though, í¢â‚¬Å“they breathe life into it.í¢â‚¬ 

In this way, music is a sort of conversation musicians are having with listeners, í¢â‚¬Å“like a question and answer, or call and response.í¢â‚¬  While traces of Missy Elliotí’s song í¢â‚¬Å“Bad Maní¢â‚¬  or the Flaming Lipsí’ í¢â‚¬Å“Free Radicalsí¢â‚¬  (among countless others) can be found buried within Deerhoofí’s sound, Saunier says they are not trying to imitate anyone. Their music is simply a response to an ongoing artistic conversation.

That artistic conversation has indeed spanned mediums. Deerhoofí’s 2004 album, Milk Man, was largely inspired by the artwork of Japanese artist Ken Kagami. But Kagamií’s art was only the beginning of that particular conversation: in October 2006, Deerhoof traveled to a one-room schoolhouse in North Haven, Maine, a little island 12 miles off the east coast of the US. An elementary school teacher at the schoolí¢â‚¬”completely independent of the bandí¢â‚¬” had written and transcribed an entire ballet based on the music of Milk Man. Deerhoof gleefully accompanied the prepubescent ballet dancers as they performed Milk Man for the North Haven Community.

í¢â‚¬Å“I still caní’t believe it was real,í¢â‚¬  says a still stunned Saunier. í¢â‚¬Å“I have never seen anything like it. It was just completely original and unique.í¢â‚¬ 

Deerhoofí’s artistic conversation continues with the film Dedication, recently screened and bought by Harvey Weinstein at Sundance. Deerhoofí’s friend and longtime fan (first-time director Justin Theroux) asked the band to score the film. It was a challenging experience for a band that writes music intentionally unintentionally, who doesní’t even know what a song is really about until ití’s finished. But seeing the way their music interacts with the scenes of the film, Saunier explains, is like they suddenly realize what that song is really about.

í¢â‚¬Å“Once somebody has apprehended and made sense of the music in their way, it makes the life of the music bigger.í¢â‚¬ 