The Decemberists

0:00Hello? Chris? Yeah. Hey, it's Matt Shekter calling. How's it going? Good, how are you? Good. Well, let's get things started. I want to play Billy Liar right away. What do you think of when you hear that song? Well, I think of, I suppose, a youthfulness and playfulness, and I think the song is real pop song, like a free design song or something to treat and then the ironies. Billy Liar's got his hands in his pockets, staring over at the neighbors knickers down.

0:45The summer is a turnety for you, sleeping in until your father's down. The ship gets a real short shrift as you dollop packages. No one seeks to want you at your back. Santa fishing for a wild-bound corset, bright shawl, that sits in lights that current take him.

2:33A gentle breeze will leave his fans' sad design. It's like yourselves, the arcade fire, especially up in Canada here.

4:44Have you noticed it being in that scene? I mean, I don't think indie rock ever went away. I think indie rock was, you know, I think it's taking on a new form. I think indie was started by people who, you know, had no other choice. And now it's becoming this industry. You know, you said that arcade fire are huge. So I'm not going to say it doesn't have the spirit of indie rock, but selling out three nights in, you know, Toronto or something. You know, I think, you know, labels like murder, kill rock stars are very much operative businesses at this point.

5:31So I don't really know what indie is anymore. I hear radio stations in Los Angeles now changing their format to indie, and it's sort of confusing, you know. I just think it's a way to label bands and go understand what kind of music it is you're playing, which is good and bad in a way. I think it's more college rock, honestly. And I think that it's exciting that we're getting away from the Yarl band, like Creed and Biscuit. I'm glad that it's gone to answer your question more specifically. So I'm glad people are, you know, are coming back to other kinds of music, you know. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think like that period of time, like early 90s, you know, post grunge or at the tail end of grunge, I don't think people were downloading.

6:22I think it was harder to get your music out. I think now mixed CDs and things like that. I think it's a lot easier for people to get a hold of music, which is sort of the point. Do you think it's healthier harm to more of the down, like the illegal downloading? I think it helps us, definitely. And I think it's hilarious to watch, you know, the majors and maybe some independent labels, you know, sort of try to squash that. And they're sitting around scratching their mindless records. Yeah. These people aren't exposed to it, you know. So I think you'll see people moving away from the formula of radio. I'm scared for my own career. I think radio will always be there, but I had with online radio now and I think it's exciting.

7:15Yeah, I do. I do read it. Exactly. From the message board, I posted a little thread saying, you know, hey, I'm going to be interviewing the band. You got any questions? I've got two of them here. The first one says, is we both go down together a prequel to Leslie and Levine? And if so, how do the two stories connect? It is a prequel. And I have a hard time talking about the specific, I think it sort of gives away quite a bit when you sort of say, this is exactly what the song is. You know, obviously the lyrics were designed to challenge the listeners. So for me to spell out exactly what every song is, I think. It's been a mystery to your stuff? Probably the mystery. For me personally, I just don't, I don't, I think it's more fun to sort of, you know, just enjoy the song for what it is.

8:01Definitely. That being said, I mean, this isn't high-lit at your ear either. I don't, I mean, maybe it could be digested, but it's still rock and roll. So I'll let Collins build a beam if he wants to, but I don't care too. Fair enough. Well, let's play that song. We both go down together. When I was listening to it, it gave me a very medieval feel.

11:17Maybe it's because of the cover of the album and just the way it's presented and stuff. But did you go into the studio? Well, into the studio. But when the songs were, you know, written and being recorded, was that kind of a feel you guys were going for? Yeah, I think we set out to, I mean, you know, obviously we were a band of sort of more folk instrument at times. That's something we wanted to explore further. You know, bands like Fairport Convention and Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, like all that sort of stuff. We were listening to a lot of that and still do, you know, surely Collins and all, you know, all that stuff. And I think the next record will be sort of dive that way even further, you know. But personally, it was buying like their Herdy Gerdy and, you know, more mandolins and more banjos and that sort of thing.

12:04And, you know, the cadre is the Collins songwriting too. And for the era, even though specific instruments might not be era specific, you know, sort of invokes that mood, I think. It is something we set out that's the open to trying this. Cool. One of the instruments in there that says is the wormhole. I've never even heard. What is that? The wormhole is on the song, the bag man's gambit. And it's sort of the middle of the song when it's sort of the way there's all this chaos. And it's nothing. So you go from a thousand miles an hour down to zero in about three seconds. And that was just done by, you know, reversing a tape, flipping a tape over basically everybody striking a note and letting it trickle out as long as it could. So we do that effort to perform on it and lots of our friends.

12:55Nice. I like it. That's cool. Yeah. Like I would say that you're the Tamarack, which is a tree and you're dressed up as it on the thing, which is a little spooky to be honest. I mean, that mirrors when I got the CD at first. But does the costume come from the line in Eli? Does that regard the idea from it? Or was it? Yeah, absolutely. That is the, I mean, every scene is taken from every song, you know, various songs on the record, some elephants and whatnot in the studio. The first line with the picture delivers a note and touches his luscious yonder inside of the Baroness.

14:48See these spines for this live blood just by its side. Since the Baron, her Baron has bought her and done. The sits upon her flesh and slate on her face.

16:37That's blow a multitude of coronants. Melodies wrapped soticle and fair. In our hearts of fire, the sky ablaze with cannon fire, we all raise our voices to the air. To the air. And a bomb. I picture a December show to be more like a play rather than a concert, is it?

18:29Don't the songs kind of a little bit? I think it's sort of taking that on a little bit. I mean, it was nothing conscious, you know, we've never been very conscious about our performances and said, let's do this or that. I mean, this part of this tour we wore some out, or like sort of matching outfits. One was from a video for 16 military-wise and the other was sort of halfway through the tour. We were just like, you know, this is a knot, like just be who we are with the song. I think this sort of distracting how all this going on. I mean, I think the welding set and our hearts are there. Speaking of money going away, you lost a lot of your equipment. It was stolen. Have you got it all back yet? How are you guys working on getting it back?

19:16We've not gotten it all back. I mean, we had a considerable amount of returns from the police department, from Oregon police department to about four meth houses and a bunch of it and illustrator and my girlfriend spearheaded an online auction with a bunch of artists and that raised another $8,000. So we're doing okay now, I think. Cool. Well, it's good. Yeah, emotionally it was a little devastating. Yeah, here he is. Did you lose anything sentimental at all?

20:02No, I was a fortunate one to get, you know, I have a green guitar early like, and I did lose a banjo that cars have sent on my own value. That's a shame. I was wondering, well, it says you guys lost a lot of equipment. I mean, there's a singing amount of instruments on the sound. Do you bring them all on stage? Do you have people playing them or is it more of a like a keyboard type thing? No, no, no, we don't do that. I mean, we represent the instruments in the true form. Good. You know, Petra Hayden was with the playing violin and then I switched between Deltzmer and Herdy Gurdie and Banjo and guitar and, you know, whatever, so yeah, it was crazy to try. We had to perform a show that night when all the instruments were stolen. Thank God we were in our hometown.

20:48Cool. You mentioned 16 military wives earlier. The sentiment's in it about America, you know, America doesn't does if America says it's so. Is that a feeling shared by the whole band? Absolutely. I mean, I think that's I think that's the way the majority of the world feels and sees it and whether you think it's a good thing or a bad thing is another story, you know, whether you say we have the power to go into a country and do it. Well, let's just go ahead and do it and, you know, wrong in it or yeah, I mean, I think you're a blind fool to live in the world and be Republican, conservative, Democrat, whatever you are and to say we don't have that kind of power. Any Republicans in the band? I don't think they'd be playing with this.

21:40Do you guys vote Democrat then? I can't speak for everybody. I did, you know, not not joyfully voting Democrat. I'm sort of the lesser of two people. Interesting in the United States how we portray the Democratic Party as the stable. You know, he was blood on his hands too. So, you know, I didn't do it willingly. I did it out of. I think it's the same way it is up here too. We're just voting liberal because we don't want to get service in. Exactly. But who would you have voted for? If John Kerry wasn't the contender, I suppose. I don't think it would have voted for anybody. I mean, I think, you know, I think your local government is the best place to start. Maybe it's a little idealistic to say that, but, you know, I think voting really does that and much of a difference.

22:26I mean, obviously, it can't make some huge decisions in your life, you know, depending on who you are or how you, you know, how much money you have. But I think it's important for everybody to, you know, chip it and get involved in their community. I think that's really the solution and not really who you're voting for. I like that. Let's play 16 military wives. Sounds good. 16 military wives. 32 softly focused, brightly colored eyes. Tearing at the nachos, a cludgy ring or a little hand-ordered ratchet checker.

27:34We thought about that. That was actually a decision from our producer Chris Waller who... Do you like that? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I think we're a very different band. Oh, yeah. We listen to all kinds of music in our lives, don't we? Oh, yeah, for sure. So, that was sort of his decision. Actually, I, you know, had this vision of myself of a little bit more chaos going behind it, but in true form and, you know, bringing it, it's just a really simple love song. And I think, you know, in retrospect, it was a really great decision and it's a really sweet song because of that. Yeah, I like it. It's nice way to close up the album. Yeah, absolutely. There are angels in your angles.

28:34There's a low moon caught in your tangles. There's a ticking at the cell. There's a purr of a pigeon to break the still of day. There's on we go drowning. Down we go and are. We go a drowning. Down we go away. There's a tough word on your crossword.

29:28There's a bad bug nipping a finger. There's a swallow. There's a calm. Here's a hand to lay on your open palm today. There's on we go drowning. Down we go away. And are. We go a drowning. Down we go away. Away. There are angels in your angles.

30:23There's a low moon caught in your tangles. Now spin featured you in their next big thing in a shoot. Do you guys read, spin? Do you guys take those articles and be like, yeah, we, you know, there we go. I read spin rolling stone and those kinds of magazines when I'm traveling to read. And honestly, I can't read books in the van because I get a little car sick and I actually use that time just to listen to music on my iPod. You make the switch to iPods. We all have, yeah. Oh wow. Do you think I was going to get rid of the album concept? I think so. I mean, I don't think I get really artwork concept. Like I know, you know, Colin versus the new iPod that has the, you know, you can download the artwork and read all the artwork. Oh really? I didn't really do that. That's amazing.

31:08Yeah. So I think, you know, I don't think that's going to get rid of the album. It's entirely. And I think there's singles. You want to go back to the album, you know, because there's like people that talk about classic albums and I think you're really missing out on how one song can lead to another song or what not if you just download single and be through. So I don't think it'll play the format where we're receiving it. Of course it's going to change and it has been changed. But, um, it's your question. I mean, no, we don't read those things and really freak out. I mean, the only time we ever did was on our first tour, there was a live show review in the New York Times. And I think because we all read the New York Times, we were really excited about it. But now it's just kind of like, Do you feel things starting to get bigger?

31:55Are you noticing a change in crowd sizes or how things are being dealt with overall? Yeah. I mean, obviously the crowds are big. I mean, well, not obviously. I guess you guys don't see every show we play, but they're bigger. You know, we're playing a Boston tonight. It's like 1800 people. Oh, wow. So. Congratulations. Well, thanks. And, you know, Beck asked us to open a few shows this summer. Wow. Crazy. And we're going to perform on Colen O'Brien coming up. And, you know, so it's weird. I mean, I don't really pay attention to it. I mean, I don't know. What can you say, you know, about things? I mean, I'm not talking about things.

32:40You know, new people didn't like it. You know, it is something we want to do. So that said, we... Well, what's our plan, Colen? Do you guys know yet? I don't know. We have no idea. I mean, probably 16 military lives. I think they requested it. Maybe it's the kind of thing where you say no. They say you can't come then. Call me too. Only. Only. You get max to play the fast drums on it. Yeah, totally. And get the horn section in there. That'd be cool. All right. We got another question from the message board. Okay. Is there a DVD coming out? So, well, we'll be on it. There is a DVD coming out in the sense that we, you know, are labeled Kill Rock Stars, you know, given us a budget to do it and everything. So it's being held up by just a footage like what exactly that will be.

33:29We took some video cameras, you know, in retrospect. It's funny because I just watched that movie dig, which features the dandy world and the Brian Jones, Tom Asaker. They're all great musicians. And obviously there's a lot of sadness in it, too. And his mental illness or whatever you want to call it, drug happens. But I see that and then I think like, wow, are we going to put a DVD out? It's like, what are we really boring? We are eating a subway. Just going to the subway and your tree costume. See what happens. That'd be pretty cool. Yeah. So there's no story really, but we are going to release, what will be something, it'll be some live footage. And then we have, you know, a lot of videos that haven't been released, like a couple animated

34:16videos, one of the song, Bash, one of the bride and then another one of an 18 minute long videos of an EP called The Tane. Probably nothing groundbreaking as usual. Explain another two in your choice. Eli the barrel boy or the engine driver? Let's play the engine driver at the beautiful. Engine driver. Take my hand for ten.

37:14And torture. Ever torture. Okay.

38:55Band or artist that you owe the most to? The pogue slash camper van Beethoven. Cool. Song you've written that you're most proud of. Engine driver. Cool. One word, the decemberist. Drunk. D'you think? D'you think? Thanks a lot Chris. Really appreciate it. All right. Thanks.