christine hale

Download: The Cave Singers “At The Cut”

(from Welcome Joy out now on Matador)

Pete Quirk and the Cave Singers are touring with Lightning Dust—whose Amber and Ashley Webber contributed to the Cave Singers’ new Welcome Joy—and recovering half-written songs from dim memories og singing into phones in 7-11 parking lots. Quirk speaks now about riding bikes into rivers and Kid Rock’s lackluster Myspace discipline. This interview by Rachel Rufrano.

I’ve heard that your new LP, Welcome Joy, is named from the Keats poem ‘A Song of Opposites,’ about loving both the good and the bad, especially when they juxtapose each other. Is that sentiment something you try to achieve with The Cave Singers?
Pete Quirk (vocals/guitar): I guess that’d be appropriate. I mean, I think that it’s kind of inevitable that you address both and I think we try to do that.
Welcome Joy seems to be a lot more optimistic, whereas in Invitation Songs—even where the songs were upbeat—there was something darker laying just beneath the surface.
Pete Quirk: I think we were in a brighter and more positive place while writing Welcome Joy. A lot of the songs were written in the summertime as opposed to the winter—we did write outside a lot more instead [of being] stuck inside the house because of the rain.
The song ‘At the Cut’ sounds so influenced by Lindsey Buckingham, even the way you project your voice. Who do you hope people will hear in your music?
Pete Quirk: Well, I don’t know. I’ve always listened to Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac and stuff like that. It’s funny because I never thought my voice sounded much like his, but I get that a lot, which is definitely a compliment because he’s got a great voice. But he’s an influence for sure. That’s just what I sound like.
Even the little ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ on that song though…
Pete Quirk: The little yelps and everything—it’s just something to do instead of singing words or sitting through breaks, using your voice more for rhythm than carrying a message. I don’t really try to sound like anybody because I think if you try you just end up sounding bad, you know? I think in other bands it was different because I was trying to sound like someone else, whereas now I’m just trying to sing as honestly as possible.
On ‘VV’ there’s a really simple and sweet chord progression but your voice is so gritty that you’re able to hint at something more. Do you think you utilize your voice as an instrument?
Pete Quirk: I try to! For me, the writing process is a lot of me and Derek just kind of riffing. He’ll start a guitar melody and basically I’ll just try to figure out another line where my voice can be an additional melody instead of singing exactly what he’s playing. I want to somehow carry a message, but I also want it to sound good so it can be its own line without words—it can sound like an instrument. It’d be nice to just read some amazing poem, but it’s got to sound good, too. It’s hard to fit a lot of words in there, but that’s the fun of it. Trying to figure out something that’s half comprehensible.
Your songs seem to build as they go along and it’s almost as if they’re becoming complete as you listen to them. I was wondering what the songwriting process is like for you guys.
Pete Quirk: On Welcome Joy there’s a lot of different approaches. Usually Derek and I or Marty and I will go downstairs to one of our bedrooms and Derek will play something. I’ll just basically scat over it, for lack of a better word, and just kind of make up a melody which is usually half-English, half-gibberish and then I’ll go back later and write out lyrics that kind of go along with the melody I found.
Is it important for you to have the melody before you write the lyrics?
Pete Quirk: Yeah, usually. Maybe I’ll have a couple lines written, but I find that when the whole thing is written out it just sounds like it’s being read. I like to find different words or settings when we’re just kind of jamming.
I’ve read that growing up in New Jersey has really influenced your songwriting, but how do you think Seattle has influenced you?
Pete Quirk: Seattle has changed me a lot in terms of songwriting. I’ve lived here for way longer than I thought I was going to. I met Derek here. Seattle is a cool place because it feels free and mellow and you can kind of just do what … do what you feel like. That doesn’t sound right …
You can do whatever you want in Seattle!
Pete Quirk: [Laughs] I don’t know, yeah. Some people do! I just like it here. I feel comfortable here. I lived in Philadelphia before I lived here and that was rad, but I was in my twenties—total mayhem, you know? Jumping into garbage cans and riding our bikes into the river. Which I guess we still do here but, I don’t know, I just like it here.
When I saw you guys at the Echo in December 2007, Derek was playing bass pedals. Why did you guys choose the pedals over a bass?
Pete Quirk: It fits better in the van! No, Derek just found them on Craigslist and one day he just had them on the table and I came home from work and was like, ‘Whoa, we should try and use those.’ I like them because I like droning sounds and it adds a sort of big bass pulse. For me, it’s nicer than just a bass.
It’s been two years since Invitation Songs. Did you spend a lot of that time writing the new songs or did they just kind of come to you over time?
Pete Quirk: We just always write because that’s what we like to do. It’s not like a chore. We really enjoy writing songs because we’ll just hang out and play music, but then we’ll go outside and drink beer, go to the bar and have a shot and bullshit, and then go back and keep playing. But over the two years we wrote about 80 different things. Not all those were songs, but they were ideas like, ‘Oh, remember when we recorded that thing in the 7-Eleven parking lot on your phone?’ and stuff like that. But we’ll go record and narrow those things down to an album’s worth.
You guys have been ‘up-and-coming’ for a while now. I think I even saw ‘Elephant Clouds’ on a Starbucks mix.
Pete Quirk: Really? That’s cool. As long as we’re not on some U.S. Army compilation.
You mean you guys don’t want to be in those recruiting commercials with Kid Rock and Three Doors Down?
Pete Quirk: [Laughs] We’re trying to get some kind of thing going with Kid Rock, but I don’t think he answers his own MySpace messages, which is a problem. So we’ve been having a hard time.
Are you happy being the ‘buzz band,’ or do you look forward to playing bigger venues in L.A. at some point?
Pete Quirk: Well, I’m happy and I try not to think about it too much. In terms of ‘buzz bands,’ I don’t feel like we’re very buzzed—not that I can tell—but it seems like people are slowly [catching on]. Hopefully the people that come to our show want to come because they have a connection with our music and that way we can connect back and forth. That’s the way I am with music—I like to go see a band because I know and like their music and not because they’re some huge band I’ve been hearing about. It’s fun to play in front of a lot of people and I’m not against that, for sure.
What are you listening to right now?
Pete Quirk: I’m listening to that Fever Ray album, which I think is really good. Her lyrics are really amazing. And it’s really creepy. I’ve been listening to that at nighttime a lot. I’ve been listening to Tinariwen, which I guess came out a couple years ago. And I’ve been listening to John Lennon’s Mind Games, which is one of my favorite records.
Are you where you want to be as an artist? I know all three of you seemed to move on to the Cave Singers for something more acoustic, so are you looking to do anything different now?
Pete Quirk: I just want to keep making albums and find out how they differ from one another. As far as playing music and being an artist, I couldn’t be happier where I’m at. I never thought I would be at this point. Starting in the bedroom with Derek and one guitar I bought at Salvation Army on a whim to now where we’re going on tour and we have two albums out. It’s pretty crazy to me.

THE CAVE SINGERS WITH LIGHTNING DUST AND BIG SEARCH ON THURS., OCT. 1, AT THE ECHO, 1822 SUNSET BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8:30 PM / $12 / 18+. ATTHEECHO.COM. THE CAVE SINGERS’ WELCOME JOY IS OUT NOW ON MATADOR. VISIT THE CAVE SINGERS AT THECAVESINGERS.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/THECAVESINGERS.