Sophomore release sees The Courtneys take big step forward
Indie-pop outfit’s new album shows songwriting growth
It’s been four years since The Courtneys released their self-titled debut album. In that time, the Vancouver indie-pop band toured the world, opened for big-time pop band Tegan & Sara, signed to a legendary New Zealand record label, and worked on the followup. Courtneys II, released in February, is a big step forward in songwriting and fuzzy-guitar-pop sound from the trio of drummer/vocalist/lyricist Jen Twynn Payne, bassist Sydney Koke and guitarist Courtney Loove. We talked to Loove about rejected album titles, finding a label and cool tour merchandise.
Q: You’ve called the second record II. Were there any rejected album titles?
A: There were a few. We were going to call it Silver Velvet, after the song we that starts the album. I don’t know why we went with II. I guess it worked better as a continuation of our first album, which was self-titled. It was suggested, and then everyone was like, “Yeah, that’s perfect.” There are so many decisions to make when you’re in a band . ... Anytime everyone agrees, it’s like “All right, let’s do it.”
How did the time between albums affect the new record? Touring, meeting other bands, listening to different music?
The way we wrote the second record, it’s kind of like a long timeline with songs really far apart from each other, from when we wrote the first batch of songs. The oldest songs on II we wrote so long ago, just after we finished the first one. We didn’t write them all in a month, but over at least two years, at our band practices once a week. We had enough for another record. But yeah, we grew a lot as people, touring and meeting other people and bands on tour. Going to new places definitely inspired a lot of the lyrics.
Was there a point at which The Courtneys went from being a fun thing to almost a business? Maybe when you were asked to open for Tegan & Sara?
I don’t know when you become a business. But when we got that tour offer it was really different than anything we’d done and we felt really inexperienced. We didn’t have a choice but to hire a booking agent. The paper work was going to be too overwhelming. We’re at a weird point. We’re still friends doing a fun thing, but it is kind of business-y at the same time. But we don’t have a manager, we don’t really need one yet.
Now, The Courtneys are the first non-New Zealand band to sign to Flying Nun, is that right?
I think they did sign an Australian band a long time ago, but we’re the first North American band for sure. Basically, we were just huge fans of Flying Nun forever. We emailed them years ago to see if they would want to distribute our first release, and they said they would. Then we went to New Zealand, partly because we’re fans of the label and Flying Nun bands. They put on a tour for us, and that’s when we go to meet them. It’s a really good match for us. They seem to have a similar mandate. Our deal is pretty simple and gives us all the freedom we want.
The band has come up with merchandise like a Courtneys car air-freshener. Will you have anything like that on this upcoming tour?
We’re working on merch right now. There are a couple new shirt designs. That’s boring. There’s this really weird pin that we’re going to have. I really wanted to do a dinner plate. I thought that would be the stupidest thing ever to bring on the road — dishes. I don’t know if it’s going to happen for this tour, but maybe down the line.