Colin Meloy:

“It’s a very crafted thing”

You’ve described this as the “best” Decemberists album…

COLIN MELOY: I’m so in the midst of it that I don’t necessarily have a feel for what a “good” Decemberists record is. But there was a point during the recording process where I was looking at the material that we had amassed and feeling confident that it was the best thing that we’ve done. That’s the thing that keeps you going.

The band really cut loose on some of these songs. Was it an easy recording process?

We had a bit of a false start: we wanted to play around with no actual record in mind, while also toying with the idea of producing ourselves. But while everybody felt excited by the fragments of songs in the moment, it wasn’t particularly productive. We were using Tucker Martine’s studio but were initially reluctant to use Tucker as producer for fear of going backwards. But seeing Tucker again after so many years got me excited about renewing that creative partnership. We did have fun in the studio, but this record is a very crafted and curated thing.

What made you decide to structure it as a “double” album?

We started out with something like 20 songs and worked really hard to whittle them down – but even then, it was far too much for a typical 45-minute LP. Yet we’d been so curatorial about what remained that it made sense to put it all out. It also gave us the opportunity to experiment with sequencing, something I’ve always been a bit of a nerd about, growing up as a music fan. That’s why the album ended up with four distinct “sides”.