Built To Spill
Indie rock
Twenty years on from first
signing to Warner Bros. Records, Built
To Spill is set to return in 2015 with its eighth studio album, Untethered
Moon. That's now two complete decades that one of America's leading
"indie rock" bands has happily made its home on a major label, and in the
process redefined that clumsy descriptor of independence by operating wholly
and consistently under its own steam, taking the proper time to craft timeless
songs and playing endless, epic shows to a growing grip of fans each year.
Under the command of its constant leader, Doug Martsch, as well as a new
rhythm section, Built To Spill's creative process continues to ebb, flow
and evolve in its own orbit, reemerging on record for the first time since
2009's There Is No Enemy with ten new songs that fit at once into
the band's resonant catalog while infusing fresh energy into that signature
sound.
In the summer of 2012, Martsch
and his longtime bass player Brett Nelson and drummer Scott Plouf recorded
an album's worth of new songs and then went on tour. Martsch was unsatisfied
with his performance on the recordings, feeling that he had had too few "eureka
moments" in the studio and planned to tweak his parts after tour. Then, citing
tour burnout, Nelson and Plouf quit the band, leaving Martsch to scrap the
recordings and essentially start over. Adding longtime musical comrades Jason
Albertini on bass and Steve Gere on drums, and along with guitarists
Jim Roth and Brett Netson, the new Built To Spill emerged
a month after reforming to play more shows in 2013 than any other year in the
band's existence. Energized by the new blood as well as marathon rehearsal
sessions, Martsch decided to revisit the recording process as a trio, without
the other guitar players. "With fewer people it's easier to focus and
communicate during the songwriting process," says Martsch. "Also we wanted to
make the record a little more stripped-down, a little rawer than our last one."
Over much of the next year, the
band would travel to Portland, Oregon, to record with producer Sam Coomes,
the Quasi founder whose keyboard playing appears on several earlier Built
To Spill albums. "Working with Sam was awesome. He would come to rehearsals
and take notes and record us on various little devices. He had ideas for the
songs, structural changes, and things like that, but most importantly, he was
enthusiastic. We had rehearsed a ton and were maybe losing perspective a
little, so to have someone we admire and trust telling us we were on the right
path was huge. He also shared our vision of leaving out shit that's not
necessary."
Acknowledging the intricate,
bombastic drumming from Gere and Albertini's effortless ability to "keep it in
the pocket and move the song along," Martsch found inspiration and confidence.
He completed the songwriting with his usual method of piecing together scraps
of guitar and instrumental parts from tapes of jams from previous eras of
creation, along with the easy cohesion of the trio on new material, which they
had practiced and demoed endlessly before setting foot in the studio.
"When we get together and pick up our instruments, I always
believe that something magical is going to happen. And it often does, but it's
a magic that maybe only we can feel, in the moment, and doesn't necessarily
translate to tape or to other people. So we keep messing with it until it feels
like real music to us. The songs evolve over a long period of time through
trial and error. There's a lot of ideas that don't go anywhere, and it's just a
matter of leaving them out and including the things that work." Whether a call
by Coomes to abandon a trumpet in favor of a tripped-out guitar, or a killer
drum beat evolving from a simple exercise pattern, or even a coincidentally
connected artistic inspiration from Alejandro Jodorowsky, the
tarot and a photograph of pets, there was no shortage of eureka moments during
the making of Untethered Moon.
The album begins with the
hard-hitting trio of "All Our Songs," "Living Zoo," and "On
the Way," songs that are as complex and compelling as anything on previous Built To Spill outings. Ripping solos,
warm tones, vague and familiar Martsch themes of subconscious connection, human
commonality and memory, Neil Young influences-it's all there. "Never Be The
Same" is a song from Martsch's past, redone and encouraged by Coomes, while
"C.R.E.B." is a meditation on the scientific process of forgetting. The
album ends with the eight-minute standout "When I'm Blind," with solos
echoing in and out of a drum-tight jam held down to perfection by the new guys.
All in all, it's the unmistakable sound of Built To Spill, but with a
new energy that hearkens back to Martsch's beginnings all those years ago in
Twin Falls, Idaho.
Two
decades on a major label and even more as a successful musician, the fire and
focus haven't changed for Martsch in the least. "We like making music and
that's why we do this. Of course if everyone else hates this record, we'll be
bummed. We are trying to make music that people will enjoy."
- website:
- http://www.builttospill.com/