Portland, Oregon’s The Decemberists recently shocked their devoted fan base when they bolted from long time indie label, Kill Rock Stars, for the mainstream industry giant known as Capitol Records. For those who followed the underground sensation that began with their landmark first three albums, Castaways and Cutouts, Her Majesty, and Picaresque, the move to Capitol looked like it could spell the end of the band they knew and loved. But resting in the trust of literary front-man Colin Meloy, The Crane Wife signifies a big middle finger to the rules of what is and what should be an indie major.
The result was far from a pop radio hit or an abstract concept album. Instead, The Crane Wife is The Decemberist’s boldest artistic statement to date as indie pop, prog rock and romantic folk collide around multiple tales of the darkness within the human condition by way of the twelve minute epic “The Island,” the haunting ballad “Yankee Bayonet” and beat-friendly funk of “The Perfect Crime #2.”
Shortly after kicking off a tour to support the highly profiled release,Glide had a chance to speak with The Decemberists’ multi-instrumentalist Chris Funk about why The Decemberists are still the same band people have come to know and love.
How did you and Colin Meloy initially link up?
I was working with a music publicity firm, and a woman that worked there worked with his band Tarkio, and I really liked his music. He started coming around the office in the hope that someone would give him some exposure. I mentioned to him that I played pedal steel and he said he was looking for someone to play pedal steel on the first EP that we did. So he invited me in and of we went from there.
The Decemberists have been known to make “concept albums,” as sticky of a term as that may be. My question is whether or not you feel there is a specific concept behind the group’s newest studio effort, The Crane Wife?
No, I don’t. I think that’s a bit misinformed for folks to say we do entire concept records. There are obvious threads, like “the Crane Wife (Part’s 1, 2, & 3).” They’re obviously married together. Of course “The Island” has a common theme.
And what theme is that?
Violence, rape and death *laughs*, it’s no laughing matter. That theme of tragedy reappears a few times on other songs like “the Shankhill Butchers” and “When the War Came” in various forms. I think it’s thematic in the sense that there are common themes and ideas, but there’s never going to be a musical directly based on the album from song one to song ten.
Alright, that’s fair. A lot of the fans have commented that there is a different sound from the Decemberists other work. I’m curious as to whether or not you agree with that?
I do think that. I think every record has a different sound. I think what you’re hinting at is that the album is “over produced” or might have a slicker sound or something.
I was actually thinking the album has a darker sound. Do you feel The Crane Wife is over produced or that it’s a criticism that the group has been taking on?
I’ve heard that in a few places. I think it’s in line with the fact that we’re on a major label now. I don’t think it’s over produced. On every record you try to make a better record. With us, we never sat down and said “lets make an over produced record.” That’s just crazy to me. There’s not a dial you can turn in the studio that on one side has my voice and on the other has Christina Aguilera, you know? You always try to make a better record. Had we been working on Castaways and Cutouts at this part of our lives we’d probably be making a similar sounding record. As far as darker, I think it is. I wouldn’t say it was darker in a direct reaction, but maybe it’s a subconscious side of our times. There’s always been a tragic element to all of the songs if you dig deep enough. Even in the happiest of our pop songs like “Billy Liar” if you dig into the lyrics you’ll realize it’s not this “jump up and down” pop song like you may have thought it was.
The Decemberists are held in pretty high regard on the “Indie scene.” I’m curious if there are any other acts on the scene the group may be mentoring, or if vice versa, there has been a group you guys grew up with who helped show you the ropes.
I have no idea if we’re mentoring any groups. That’s pretty frightening to think of *laughs*
Is there anyone that’s been influential on you personally, who the group might have played with?
Um… I think most of our hero’s on the rock medium are more “college rock.” We played with the Pixies once, and I can’t say they’re a direct influence on the band, but maybe our mentality of hitting the road was influenced by them. Sort of like the Replacements, even though we don’t sound like that. We’ve never been a band that said we should sound like this, or we should write music like that. I think there’s a lot of songwriting influence from Robyn Hitchcock, in the sense of us having reoccurring characters and narratives, but that’s the only thing I can think of as far as song writing. Maybe some Belle & Sebastian, like them using horns, that was something we thought we wanted to try doing. But everyone in the band listens to so much different music that random influences just pop up.
What have you been listening to lately?
At this point, I’ve been listening to older records. I do a lot of record shopping on the road; so a lot of older, folk music on Rounder records. Old timey stuff that’s kind of fill based, and banjo based. Its very instrumental stuff. I play a lot of those instruments so it’s interesting to me. As far as new records, I just bought My Brightest Diamond, Lavender Diamond, who’s on tour with us and I think is really great. I’ve listened to a lot of TV on the Radio lately, which I think is great. But I don’t just go out to the record store every Tuesday and buy stuff just because I want to find something.
You mentioned a bit earlier you just got signed onto a major label. How do you think things have been different since the group signed with Capital records?
Honestly, I don’t think that much is different. I guess there are more posters hanging in town. Maybe as a consumer people are seeing more stickers in record stores or magazine ads, but we didn’t want to fly the Good Year blimp over every town. For me, it just seems like the next step. Things aren’t that different. We don’t even have a music video out. Capital is a nice label and if you want to talk “Major” vs. “indie” it’s hard for me to do because it’s all individual people working at these labels. The indie world is always revered. The scene is kind of the Holy Grail and I understand why. But at the same time, I know a lot of Indie labels that do a great disservice to their bands in the same way major labels do. I can name off ten bands on “Indie labels’ that nobody has ever heard of, and everyone should have heard of, all because of the short comings of their label. Everybody has shortcomings, and I’m not shit talking the indie scene because we still identify with that. We feel our musical influence in peer groups, but we went with Capital because we liked the people. They understood what we were after, which was to continue our career, with a few things that were different. The big change? I don’t know. It feels like we’ve just been doing the next record. I think we all set ourselves up for the worst. We sort of thought “oh my god, how are they going to marginalize our career” and they’ve been really great. They listen to us and respect us, and so far so good.
Do you think for kids who are oriented around the idealism of the “indie scene,” the Decemberists has lost some credibility as an indie band?
If you lead your life by completely cutting major corporations out of it, and you live and breathe that, and spend your dollars in such a way, then I definitely think we have (lost credibility as an indie band). That’s unfortunate because I’d like to think we put out a good record, and hopefully people listen to music for the sake of music. Its too bad people get caught up in that. I also understand why people react that way because there is a sense of ownership with music and bands in particular. At the same time, you never hear about people saying “so and so is a sellout because they’re doing a film with Paramount.” People don’t talk about that. I mean they do a little in the film world.
So maybe it’s a bit of a double standard?
Yeah. I mean, music is so close to people’s hearts and I understand that, but I think it’s unfortunate if people are only buying records from indie labels, because they’re missing out on some good records. Most old music was primarily released on major labels, whether its classic rock or folk music. There are still a lot of great bands we identify as indie, like Built to Spill on Warner Brothers. There is this 90’s grey area, where we see bands like Sonic Youth who are the kings of the indie scene and on a major label. The list goes on and on. I understand, I don’t disrespect anybody who wants to live their lives that way. It’s a real turnoff to live in a world of ever-growing consumerism and commercialism. We’re on the road, and every truck stop we pull of at is a McDonalds and that sucks. There is no character in that whatsoever. But to say you aren’t going to buy a Decemberists record because its on Capital is a bit short sighted you know? If you stole a record off the Internet and didn’t like it, that would be more of a reason not to buy a record in my opinion.
It was pretty big deal for a band of the Decemberists’ level to go out on a limb and put a video out for free on the Internet, when you released a music video on Bittorrent. How do you feel that might change the way media is released?
I don’t know if we’ve directly influenced anything. I know Beck just released a bunch of videos on Youtube. There’s been a big wave of advances that’s changed the way people get their information every day. It’s really hard for me to sit back. I’m a semi-Ledite so when that was released on Bittorrent, I had no idea what it was. It was our director’s idea because him and Colin were computer geeks. They were like “oh Bittorrent blah blah blah” and I said I didn’t have any idea what that was. The next thing I knew Wire magazine was writing about it so I said “this is a good thing huh? Bittorrent?” so for me to completely answer how that video changed the way people get their information these days isn’t fair because I’m a few steps behind. It seems like things are always changing. I’m told things are always changing. People talk about the recording industry being in a slump because of people downloading stuff, but I think we’re just in a time of change. Just like when the compact disc came out. I think it’s exciting to see people come and find new music and find it faster than they ever have before. When I was a kid we had to go and get crappy fanzines. I say crappy because you really had to dig deep to find music. People act nostalgic about it like “back in the 80’s and 90’s we just had Zines and record stores and that was it.” I was from the suburbs and that sucked. I had to drive into the city and find this record store to get music. This sense of adventure is really exciting and romantic, but the fact that you can go to Myspace or one of 8,000 blogs, download a few mp3’s and immediately learn about bands is awesome. If I was a young person, I would definitely be taking advantage of that. I think I do take advantage of it. It’s pretty awesome.
Folks can get a feel for what they like and what they don’t before they have to shell out any cash. It’s definitely empowered the consumer.
Totally. Music is for everyone. People like to keep bands in this little pocket and it’s pretty sad.
Let’s say a big Decemberists fan is bringing a friend to a show who hasn’t heard of the band or the music. What would you like this new potential fan to leave having experienced?
Maybe a sense of entertainment? I’d like to think folks are entertained because people are coming to see and here the music. So something slightly visually entertaining without being too shticky. I want people to feel like they’re getting their money’s worth. We’re aware of the fact that our ticket prices are getting higher and higher with these fucking companies like Ticketmaster. In some towns our shows are running up towards $40. We’re very conscious of that, so we want people to have fun. We don’t have big chips on our shoulders so I think we just want people to have a good time. There’s a lot of history and spirit to the music, so we want to pass that onto people. We want to give them songs they want to hear, and if they want to sing a long, we love that. So to answer your question, a big old nerd fest.
Live photos by Amanda Ryan Albion
