Musical palette shifts in time for the holidays
Q: There have been so many changes in the band’s aesthetic and live lineup. Do you go into those with a plan?
A: In the past, we spent a hell of a lot more time on the idea than actually practicing. It came out of a real insecurity. In Stillwater, there aren’t really any venues you just walk into and play a show. We thought, “If we’re going to do this, we can’t assume people will know who we are. We have to make them remember.” We coerced people into liking us.
With the “Pink” record, we decided not to do it anymore. That record didn’t lend itself to theatrics. We wanted less focus on us as a band and more focus on the music. We can be 13 people, we can be two people, we can be five people. It’s kind of freeing. In the past, we had to be able to tour with three people and do everything ourselves. It’s kind of fun working with different people now. We’ve continually confused and changed and tricked our audience. It’s a wonder that any of them are still around or that a label still wants to work with us.
Q: Who’s on the upcoming “Purple” record?
A: It’s mainly the four of us. I doubled or tripled drums a few times, which is where the double drummer (live show) came from. When we were in Europe ... we had two bassists in- stead because we had so much bass on the record. We figured out that we don’t have to play by whatever the rules are supposed to be. When you’re working with so many professionals, it’s kind of beaten into you to do it this way or that way, but we tried it that way and weren’t very success-
Q: How did this Christmas record come about?
A: When we started writing music together as a four-piece after the “Orange” period, we decided to be purely collaborative. This was a departure from that a little bit, testing the waters before we did that. Everyone produced their own, and each song is our little version of what Christmas is to us. I wrote my song in 2007 or 2008.
It was an experiment for how we worked together, but we never did anything with it. During the “Pink” period we were still really worried about what people thought. Now we’ve had a little distance, and it doesn’t feel as gross. All that theatrical stuff, we had to depart from it, but now we can go back, and it’s actually really fun.