There’s no way to predict where your imagination will take you. There’s no chemical formula, no way to control when, where or how it will manifest itself. For most people, the chaos of an active imagination can be distracting — even overwhelming — so they do what they would with any unwanted brain activity: they ignore it. But Deerhoof refuse to let their impulses go ignored. They’re doing more than just letting their collective imagination roam — it’s practically running the whole show.

Their sound seems to defy rational thought. Explosive guitar interplay, wildly twitchy drums and the innocent Japanese-school-girl vocal delivery of Satomi Matsuzaki characterize the San Francisco four-piece’s music, and over the last 12 years, Deerhoof have incorporated multiple genres into their music, from the bounciness of soul to the dissonance of no wave to the playfulness of electro-pop. Losing none of their energy or immediacy as their songwriting has matured, they often incorporate many of these explorations into a single song, making the band impossible to classify and even more difficult to fully comprehend.

Although the band’s unpredictable nature makes their songs difficult to fully digest on first listen, they never seem like they’re merely slapping ideas together. The band’s latest release, Offend Maggie, is a perfect example. No matter how many turns the band takes within one three-minute song, there is always an overarching sense of unity — a fact that speaks to the band’s ability to effectively integrate each member’s exceedingly imaginative voice into the songs.

“Each of us just tries to pay attention to what's happening with our inner worlds,” says guitarist Jon Dietrich. “[We] keep trying to figure out how to communicate with each other.”

This sense of communication means that every musical role within a song is negotiable and frequently changes as the music requires. Once the basic song structure is created and the band members have a vague idea of how it’s supposed to go, it becomes its own entity. The song takes over the musicians, bossing everyone around and telling them what to play and when, regardless of what they were playing 10 seconds previous. As Dietrich explains, this notion applies to the construction of an overall album, as well as the song.

“For us, any overarching concept reveals itself as we are working on it, and to me, [our albums] all feel like concept albums,” he says. “Before we record, we talk about all kinds of ideas, but the shape of the album isn't something that we can really understand until it's done, and even then, it might take years before I really understand what it is.”

This process doesn’t just come out in their music, either. Earlier this year, the band printed sheet music for a new song, “Fresh Born,” which appears on Offend Maggie, and made it available at their shows and on their website. They then invited fans to make cover versions of the song using the sheet music and submit them directly to the band, allowing even more people to enter into their collective imagination.

“To us, it's like getting to see the song filled out or completed by other

people,” says Dietrich. “Our version presents one possible approach to the song, and each of the other versions provides another piece to the puzzle. Any song could be approached like that, and it's so inspiring for us to hear other solutions.”