The Decemberists on The Decemberists: Seven Outtakes from Paste‘s May Cover Story
After Paste‘s not-really-in-the-woods cover shoot with The Decemberists in early February, the band and I walked from the photo studio to the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub a few blocks away for a really late lunch. Over BLTs, we talked about everything from the writing and recording process of their new album, The Hazards of Love, to whether or not the cannibalism in the longtime fan-favorite tune “16 Military Wives” was metaphorical or literal. (For the record, frontman Colin Meloy says, “I don’t know if you could figuratively feed people to cannibals.” I agree.) The band is a funny bunch, and the insights of our hour-and-a-half long conversation are interspersed with bursts of laughter and telling asides. It wouldn’t all work for the story, of course, but here are seven of my favorite moments that I just couldn’t squeeze in.
1. On manipulating the Anne Briggs vinyl market
Colin Meloy: I think honestly, to be totally honest, having watched the Anne Briggs market through eBay and Popsike over the last three years, I think I was personally responsible for a spike in the market [everyone laughs, Funk claps] right around 2006, 2007… I swear to God, I bought The Hazards of Love [Briggs’ debut LP, after which the new Decemberists’ album is named] and then all these people put their copies of Hazards of Love on to eBay to try to—because all of a sudden it was, like, “Okay, now’s the time to sell!” And then that sort of went on for a while, and since then I haven’t seen an Anne Briggs record pop up on eBay in probably, like, six to eight months.
John Moen: All the new owners of the record are deep in hiding.
Meloy: But it was interesting, there was this, like, crazy flurry of activity, of which I know I was a big part of…
Paste: And now, of course, there’s going to be all the devoted Decemberists completist collection people who will go to find a copy…
Meloy: This is all just to raise the prices again so I can get mine back on eBay.
Moen: Sell, sell!
2. On embracing unexpected narratives
Chris Funk: People always mistake music for being, like, someone’s voice, but you take this to film and it’s yesterday’s news. There’s horror, this whole catalog of horror, that teenagers watch and it’s okay. I liken [The Decemberists’ narrative songs] to that—that it’s part of a film, it’s part of an obvious story, part of a narrative piece. It isn’t Colin speaking, and people cannot get it through heads, and it baffles me.
Meloy: It’s a custom among our peers to listen to music that’s an abstract monologue of their lives, and that’s what we tend to think of as being the norm for this kind of music. And so narrative stuff outside of the scope of the person who’s singing it seems sort of weird. And I think I had as much issue getting my head around like, “The Legionnaire’s Lament,” off our first record, as this one. Because it’s like, “What the fuck am I doing? I wrote a fucking song about like a legionnaire?” And playing it, of course, at the time, in little coffeehouses and stuff like that, it was just…
Moen: You also rhymed “Frigidaire.”
[Laughter]
Meloy: I was also expecting—I’d be like, “Everyone, this is really dumb, but I’m just going to play it anyway.” But then that was rewarding to have done that.
3. On tackling “The Rake’s Song”
Paste: Tucker [Martine, who produced The Hazards of Love] told me that you considered cutting the part of [of “Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)”] with the kids. But that was actually when it really clicked for me.
Meloy: That’s one of the most flagrant narrative pieces. That really is a flag letting you know what’s happening. I think that was the issue—was it too narrative? Was it too obvious?
Moen: I thought it was necessary because “The Rake’s Song” was really hard for me, and I thought that it really sort of, in the arc of everything, makes “The Rake’s Song” okay, because we this lighthearted moment with ghosty kids and stuff. And so I thought, “Okay, for me, that can make doing this a little easier.”
Meloy: It’s a nice pressure valve for “The Rake’s Song,” which is good.
Paste: And Nate, these were your neighbors?
Nate Query: Yeah, my neighbors across the street. I hang out with them all the time, and two of the kids were in choir, and we were doing recordings in March and needed a group vocal thing… So they came in and did it and were great.
Paste: Was it made obvious to their parents, “So your kids are going to be singing this part…”
Query: No, I’m good friends with their parents, and gave…
Paste: “Mr. Nate’s friend Colin is a little weird…”
[Laughter]
Query: I gave them the lyrics first and gave them the story-line and said, you know, “They’re dead kids singing about being killed by their father, but it’s a fairy-tale,” and [their parents] were like, “Oh yeah, whatever.”
Meloy: These kids were all raised on Lemony Snicket. Dead children is whatever.
Query: They were totally cool with it. I was more worried than they were.