December reign
Playing only three shows on English soil while working away on their forthcoming new LP, The Decemberists’ gigs are a big deal for fans and band alike. Before the Saturday show at the Zodiac, I managed to track down bassist (electric and double) Nate Query for a brief chat. Battling against the sounds of an accordion being sound-checked, I ask about innovation, progression and hints for the new album.
“On the new record he [Colin Meloy, singer and chief songwriter] is dabbling further into British folk or the prog stuff than we have before.” The new songs they play later bear this out: one is musically darker and more instrumentally experimental, and the other, tentatively titled Summer Song, takes them further still into folk mythology.
If not already evident, this is not a band content with average imitations of what made them great, but still, the mention of prog seems incongruous with the band’s folky-piratey ethos. Where did this discordant note originate? “The risks we’ve taken have often paid off and encouraged more risk taking.
Like The Tain [twenty-minute epic with five movements] was an experience where even though we only did it for four days, it was a process of trying new things and going in directions we hadn’t gone before. A little bit more of progrock or metal influenced sounds, and the epic song was fun to play around with.” The motivation for this ceaseless experimentation, carried into the diversity of recent album, Picaresque, seems to be a healthy and creative fear of too much uniformity.
“When the band started he [Colin] was sick of hearing everybody sing these love songs. If given the option we try and stay away from cliché. In the studio we’ll play a song and everybody will switch instruments. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t.” Distance from cliché seems to manifest itself most strongly in the lack of traditional adolescent love or hate lyrics.
“Red Right Ankle is a beautiful love song, but the lyrics and the way it’s written are certainly not typical. A strong trend these days seems to be Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand.” Although cautious of criticising these bands, Nate’s distaste for laziness or unoriginality shows. “It’s an over-hype of a particular sound that’s very derivative of bands like Gang of Four. Some of them are fantastic but there’s just too much of it.
Colin’s writing provides narratives, usually from history or folklore, and it is especially interesting when he blurs fiction into modern life because of its rarity. He evidently feels the historical significance of the current presidency in the States to be worthy of song.
However, immortalised as it is in 16 Military Wives: “Because Bush has been such a devastatingly terrible President, and because so many people are excited whenever anybody criticises him in public, the song got latched onto by a lot of left-wingers. Especially because the video links high school bullies with the Bush administration and the way America treats the rest of the world. I certainly abhor the Bush administration and do think that he acts like a spoilt asshole.
The way the video implies that high school bullies are spoilt rich assholes is a good metaphor for the current U.S. Government.” Politically conscious, but with a detachment resulting from a love of spinning a good yarn, The Decemberists are, for our time, troubadours from another age, and totally unique.
25th May 2006