It has been almost two years since the release of the New Pornographers debut, . A self-described super group of friends from Vancouver's underground, the Pornographers got together to create the hard-popping, driving album. Diverse influences abound in the band, which includes alt-country legend Neko Case as well as members of the influential Destroyer (Dan Bejar) and Zumpano (Carl Newman). The Daily Cardinal caught up with band leader Carl Newman at home in Vancouver, just before they started their tour.
What have you been doing to get ready for the latest tour?
Practicing a little bit. We've been trying to record and get things together because we're really disorganized.
How long have you been recording?
Kind of off and on for the last few months. We haven't started the end run towards finishing [the new album], we've just been working here and there. I think in the spring'that's when we're really going to knuckle down and start getting it kind of done. I kind of want to have it finished around July ... and have it come out before the end of the year.
How has touring been treating the band?
It's been shockingly good. We just never anticipated that we would do as well as we do. [The record] sold a lot more copies than we thought it would.
Is everyone in the band more or less committed to the New Pornographers now, or are they all still interested in their original projects also?
Well, Neko's definitely got her country thing, which is her high priority. And Dan [Bejar of Destroyer] is recording with us but Destroyer is still his main thing. I think the rest of us, the New Pornographers is basically our main band. Jon still plays in another band called the Evaporators, which he's played in for 12 years or something.
Are you done with Zumpano?
Yeah. We've got a record that's kind of like two-thirds finished. I don't know if it's ever going to get finished. We're basically, I think, finished as a band. If we finished our record, it would kind of be like the last thing we do.
Is Dan out of the band now? I heard he left.
Actually, he just moved back to Vancouver. He isn't playing live with us, but he's been recording with us.
Has he been writing songs?
So far we've only recorded one Dan song. He just moved back into town, so now we can actually call him up and force him...
All the rest of the songs are your songs?
I don't know what the ratio of my songs to Dan's songs are going to be on the next record. On , it was eight songs of mine and four of Dan's. I think we'll probably have at least three of Dan's on this next record.
So Dan has left, but he's back in the studio recording with you guys, so there's really no hard feelings between the band and Dan. He just left to pursue his own solo interests?
A lot of that stuff was just kind of invented in the press, I think. Dan ... left to go to Spain for a family reunion, about ... a month and a half after our album came out. It was an opportunity where he could just live in Spain for about four months. Then he ended up moving to Montreal. And people thought a lot of it had to do with getting away from the Pornographers because we were getting too popular, because there are a lot of themes in his music about being very ... afraid of the huge music-making machine or whatever, you know'the industry. Or at least cautious of it. So I think it just created this little mythology where people decided that Dan was just putting his money where his mouth is and quitting the band, and there was the idea that we were the sellouts and Dan was saying, \I don't want anything to do with this."" Even though we actually are not making nearly enough money to be considered sellouts. So it's good that Dan is recording with us ... then it can confuse people who think that we're enemies or something.
You've gone on record saying that you would have liked to have spent more time mixing . Do you plan on spending more time with the new album?
I don't know. I think we're going to mix it in a different way. I think we're gong to mix it in a bigger studio. We're going to do a lot of tracking and overdubbing at John [Collins, the bass player]'s studio, then take it to a big studio. It will sound better if you mix it in a big studio, and also it's easier.
Can we expect any serious changes in sound on the new album?
I don't know. I think it's going to be ... maybe a little bit more dynamic, and that it won't be as one, two, three, four and then 40 minutes of full-bore rock. Maybe it will have more quieter moments. One thing I thought Mass Romantic didn't have enough of'it didn't have enough valleys in it. I thought it should have been brought down at some point and become quiet, and then become crazy again.
How does the band go about writing songs or learning songs?
I don't know, it changes from song to song. There have been a few songs where it's just started with me playing the song, and then the band just plays over the top of me. Other stuff we just jam and work out the arrangements.
On the tour, can we expect to hear a lot of the songs you're working on for the new album?
I think we've basically learned about five of them. It's hard to get the songs ... to playing mode, but we will try. Sometimes with us it doesn't seem like a song is completely finished and fully realized until we finish it in the studio, because songs often just get torn apart in the studio and reassembled. It'd make me feel kind of strange about playing a song when I'm not sure if that's the finished version of the song. Especially considering we're at a point where people are actually listening to us. If we play a song live and then six months later people start going, 'Hey that song had completely different words when you played it last time.' So, got to keep everything the same.
On , Neko is more of a guest vocalist. On tour, can we expect to see more of her singing, or does she just step out on the songs she's not in?
Well, she sings backup vocals on a lot of songs. There's a few new songs I wanted Neko to sing, but we haven't gotten around to doing them yet, which is too bad. I guess in some ways she kind of has a secondary role in the band, but not really. She's still a big presence in our live show.
I know Neko's very popular here in Madison, I'm sure you'll be well received.
Ever since our record came out I've been nervous about playing those places where everybody loves Neko but they only want to see her do country.
Have you had problems with that before?
No, only with a few people. Maybe some guys will come to the show and you're talking to them and all of a sudden you realize after a few minutes this guy thinks he's at a Neko Case and the Boyfriends show.
Is that frustrating?
It's only happened a couple times. I find it annoying more than anything. Neko's country thing attracts a weird kind of a ... stalker kind of audience. Maybe it's the alt-country thing, maybe it's just filled with stalkers.
