EXPO ON THE MOUNT Wolf Parade
Jul 07, 2010
Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug return with a new album. It's almost as cool as Einstürzende Neubauten jamming with the Beach Boys on "Kokomo"!
BY HAL BIENSTOCK
For a band that has made three albums in five years, it still feels oddly like an event every time Wolf Parade releases something new. Perhaps that's because the group is notorious for taking long breaks as band leaders Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug spend time on their increasingly high-profile solo projects, Boeckner's Handsome Furs and Krug's Sunset Rubdown. While both of their side projects are worthwhile, Wolf Parade's latest album, Expo '86 (Sub Pop), is another reminder that they're far more powerful together than they are apart. We talked with Boeckner about the state of their union.
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BLURT: How did taking a year off to do solo work help the band?
BOECKNER: It gave us a little bit of perspective on the band itself and some time to clear our heads before we got back to recording. We had so many things happen during the album cycle for [our last album] At Mount Zoomer. Our audience doubled or tripled in size, even though the record didn't get as much press as our first one. That was exciting for us because it felt like we were building this audience on the basis of our live shows. But with extra people comes more stress and responsibility.
Then we lost [keyboardist] Hadji Bakara, which was another thing we had to bounce back from. It wasn't a totally smooth transition going from a five piece to a four piece.
Do you and Spencer talk often while you're out with your own bands - or is it really a clean break?
One of my favorite things about Wolf Parade is that we're all really good friends outside the band. I'll have Spencer over for a barbecue or go drinking with Arlen. A lot of bands who are around for a few years get sick of each other. That hasn't happened with us.
What do you and Spencer take from your solo projects that you then bring to the band?
The solo projects allow me and Spencer specifically to be almost narcissistic with our separate musical ideas. With Handsome Furs, I can get away with writing a one or two chord song. With Sunset Rubdown, he can get away with writing proggy multipart songs. It's a catharsis to write songs we wouldn't be able to get away with in Wolf Parade because in this band we all equally write the music.
How does that process work?
The only thing on me or Spencer specifically is the vocal melody or lyrics for a song. Besides that, every part has to go through everyone else in the band before it gets finalized. If Spencer writes a song, he'll come in with a chord progression, something rough or sketchy, and we'll flesh it out as a band. The same goes for me.
People tend to divide your albums into Dan songs and Spencer songs. Does that bother you?
We kind of invite that on ourselves because we have two singers with fairly different styles. One of the bigger sadnesses with me in this band is that extreme Internet fan elements seem to love debating the comparative merits of Spencer's songs versus my songs. When we started this band I thought people would take it for what it was - a band with two songwriters. It's not like that's unprecedented in the history of music. Look at the Clash and the Beatles.
How do you think each of you has changed as a writer since Mount Zoomer?
I can't speak for Spencer, but for me, I got rid of a lot of baggage I had about myself while doing the last Handsome Furs record. Any doubts I had about my songwriting left me. I became comfortable with my range and what I like to talk about as a songwriter.
What would you say those things are?
I have a few themes I like to come back to, like feeling restless and the theme of small towns versus big cities. Musically, I love a good power pop song.
Is there a song on Expo '86 that sums up your style?
"Little Golden Age." It has a specific chord structure that makes me happy and has a Sonic Youth style outro at the end. They were one of my favorite bands in high school. The lyrics are about nostalgia - the small town, last summer before the end of high school kind of thing.
You recorded the album live in the studio. Why did you decide to do that?
Every record we've done up to this point, a large part of the process involved looking at sound translated to visual information on a computer screen. That's standard now as people record on Pro Tools. Looking at what you recorded as color bars effects you psychologically. It makes you not concentrate on the song as a whole. You focus on specific parts. One of Wolf Parade's strengths is that we're a pretty decent live band, so we decided to get rid of the other element. We want to record something and listen to it back without being distracted by the visuals of sound files.
Why did you name the album Expo '86?
We decided to title the record that because we all realized we were at Expo ‘86 in Vancouver around the same couple of days and might have seen each other as children. We have an in joke that we decided to start the band when we were 9, 8, 6 and 5, respectively.
What do you remember about the Expo?
Some of my first clear memories of going to a city are going on a ferry from Vancouver Island to Vancouver to go to the Expo with my dad. I saw my first concert at Expo ‘86. I had a memory of scary dudes banging on metal, making scary noises, but didn't know who it was. When we Wikipedia-ed Expo ‘86 found out it was Einstürzende Neubauten. Apparently, the Brian Wilson-less "Kokomo" Beach Boys played there too. It was a weird lineup.
[Photo Credit: Meqo Sam Cecil]
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