Earlier this week I reviewed Putting the Days to Bed, the much-anticipated album from The Long Winters, which releases July 25th on Barsuk Records. John Roderick, the band's founder and lead singer, was kind enough to fit the following email interview into his busy schedule, and I would like to thank him for his time and thoughtful answers.I'm sure it can be odd (or perhaps surreal) reading reviews or articles about your work. That said, if you'd like to correct, expound upon or comment on anything in my post about your album, please do.
I think that's very generous for you to offer. Most musicians are timid about posting responses to online reviews for obvious reasons. No one wants to get into a flame war with a writer over his/her review. But wouldn't it be great if people really did respond to reviews of their stuff? Like: "What? Are you crazy? I don't sound anything like Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows!! Why do people keep saying this?!"
In a recent interview with a Barsuk intern, you said, “everybody has little disasters pock-marking their memory, and little triumphs growing up between the cracks,” and that you write songs about this kind of stuff. Can you pick a track or two from the new album and explain the catalysts that created them?
Well, I never like to get too specific about individual songs, particularly not about their catalysts. In general I try to take life's disappointments and turn them into some kind of fuel, even if it's cynical resignation. A lot of musicians turn their disappointment into anger, and their songs are anger-powered. My reaction tends to be more of a whimsical shrug, so my songs are more shrug-powered. Hindsight, Teaspoon, Pushover, I mean, a lot of the songs have a half-smile and a wrinkled nose written into them, where the events described might have inspired another songwriter to scream and spit.
In the same interview, you said it took about month to record the album. How long did the writing process take?
Hindsight, Rich Wife, Seven, and Honest were all written in the studio while recording. The others were written in various stages over the previous year, but most of the arrangements and instrumentation were decided upon on the fly.
Which other musicians (past or present) have been influencing you lately?
My friends and tour mates influence me a lot, so I'm writing songs in part to impress other musicians. I hope that Matthew from Nada Surf, or Charles from The Wrens, or Colin from The Decemberists, or the boys in Centro-Matic or Death Cab hear my songs and dig them, and when they congratulate me I feel gratified. Chris Walla has apparently been playing and singing the song Honest during his soundchecks, which is the best kind of compliment. Other than my friends, I continue to listen to AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and ZZ Top mostly.
I’ve seen a few interviews mention that you’re a history buff and bookworm. What good books have you read recently? Also, can you recommend any World War II books? My wife can’t get enough of them.
There is a new rash of books about the RAF "area bombing" campaign over Germany, which are essentially calling those bombing missions "war crimes". In general, I think that attitude is poppycock, but there's always some yuppie historian trying to take a piece out of the WW2 mystique. I've been into WW1 recently, because it screwed up everything so badly in Europe that they're still not over it. Books on WW1 you can buy by the pound.
What’s your favorite period of history and why?
Oh, jeez, every new thing I get into becomes my "favorite" period for a while. As soon as I say fin-de-siecle Vienna then I switch to Charles III, then Charlemagne, then Byzantium. I like lots of fighting over false gods.
And while we’re on the topic of history, how do you think historians are going to view present-day America?
It depends, do you mean the historians living in virtual reality New York, (on servers located in a salt-mine in Utah), or the historians in Damascus, in the future-state of Pan-Arabia, or the historians at the Madagascar Esperanto Society?
In retrospect, what stands out the most about your six-month hike from Amsterdam to Istanbul? Would you do it again?
The best part about taking a trip like that is that you never have to do it again. Traveling on foot for that long, everything starts to seem like a part of everything else, and that was kind of the point. There aren't really things that stand out, because no matter how wild any particular moment was I still had to walk all day to get there and walk all day the next day to get away from there, so everything feels continuous. That's a slightly infuriating answer, I know, but I am personally resisting ever cutting that walk up into humorous anecdotes.
You seem to like pushing people’s buttons, to make them reevaluate themselves – do you have any good, new button-pushing stories you’d like to tell?
Well, I was just rooming with Dave Bazan of Pedro the Lion in Barcelona, and although I've known him for many years we've never really had the concentrated opportunity to just hang around shooting the shit. He's pretty well known as a "Christian" indie rocker, although he's far too complicated to tag that way, and I was gingerly trying to determine whether he was going to suddenly start speaking in tongues or screaming to high heaven about Jesus in the middle of the night by asking him a few polite questions like, "So... Jesus. Pretty good deal, of him, I mean, to die, and I mean, for our sins, and stuff, right?" but Dave wasn't taking the bait. Then he got drunk on Spanish wine and said, "I wouldn't go making promises to "the meek" if I couldn't even keep myself from being nailed to a board." I knew we were soul brothers.
When I read that you’re a secular humanist, my ADD brain started thinking about Kurt Vonnegut. Are you a fan of his work?
How can you be an American and not love Kurt Vonnegut? Although you might get a different answer from him on the question of the RAF's "area bombing" campaign. Still, I'm reevaluating this whole secular humanist business because I wasn't aware that the dues were so high. They have meetings three times a month! Who has the time?
In an interview with The Believer, you quoted Oscar Wilde as saying, “Great artists are boring conversationalists, and interesting people are never great artists.” Do you still hold this to be true?
Well, the trick of that quote, to me, is that there's nothing prohibiting a person from being an interesting conversationalist and a VERY GOOD artist. I think Oscar Wilde is a perfect example. You can be a fascinating person and a fascinating artist, but the ineffable quality that makes an artist truly "great" seems to come at the expense of that artist being even bearable as a fellow human.
You also noted you have a ‘very close, intimate relationship’ with food. If this is the case, you should come to Charleston and play a show, because the food here is great. Are there any plans for The Long Winters to come this way?
We've never played in South Carolina, although I once bought an amplifier at the music store next to the giant Peach up on I-85 by Spartanburg. We're playing in Atlanta and Chapel Hill in late September, so unless the good indie-loving folks in SC get their act together and book us to play, y'all are going to have to make the drive. I am seriously in need of some truly Southern food!
Downloads:
The Long Winters | Pushover [MP3]
The Long Winters | More MP3s
