Download: The Veils “Three Sisters”

(from Sun Gangs out now on Rough Trade)

American rock critics, after their oft-coldblooded fashion, took note of the battered heart of frontman Finn Andrews—son of XTC keyboardist Barry Andrews—since The Runaway Found first blipped the indie radar back in 2004. The Veils have undergone significant line-up shifts, but the band’s impressive energy and Finn’s ever-maturing lyrics and magniloquent vocals pay off superbly on Sun Gang, their third album now out on Rough Trade. In this interview by Ron Garmon, Finn gives up a glimpse of characteristic romanticism while putting discreet end to some rumors.

You stayed for a spell in the Flaming Lips’ hometown of Norman, OK. Tell us about that.
Finn Andrews (singer/songwriter): We slept in a classic car garage most of the time. That town is strange. We were all pretty curious about the Bible Belt and that stuff and we met a lot of really interesting people. The police followed us and raided the place a couple of times. I think we stuck out a little. That was in an interesting period. We were literally swamped and didn’t know where we were at any point. We would return there in between touring and that was our first encounter with America, really. We literally did not know where we were after a while. We didn’t know if it was east or west or in the middle or down the bottom or near the top. I found it really interesting, for we knew we’d stick out a bit and people in England talk about the Bible Belt and all that. I didn’t know what to expect, but we had a lot of fun. It was about three months on and off and we’d leave and drive either to L.A. or New York to do a show and do more shows on the way back.
The crits are talking up Sun Gang as a difficult listen, but the melodies are certainly spare and sweet enough for popular consumption, with just the right amount of heart revealed in each one. This is rocket science?
Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? Everyone has a different palate.
‘Scarecrow’ implies an emotional transformation. Tell us about ‘not being made for these times.’
The record is still kind of coming into focus for me a little bit. There’s a lag time and I’ve begun to think on it and I still think I’m going through it. I just hate having spent the majority of my young life in a decade known as ‘the noughties.’ That makes me want to puke. That might be a kind of pretentious answer.
One gets an impression of a kind of record kept or a scrapbook of an interior state.
I love writing and it feels like everything all at once. I was never very good at keeping a diary and I’ve tried getting up at night to write my dreams down and you feel like a wanker. It’s kind of all those things all at once.
Since critics are scrabbling to get a handle on Sun Gang’s place in the Veils’ evolution, why not tell us its place yourself?
I think we’re probably in the ‘land invertebrates’ stage’—awaiting ‘social insects’ and mass extinction. It’s hard to predict what will happen next.
What was it like working with Graham Sutton as a producer?
It was good. That record kind of came at the end of a pretty relentless period. We’d been on the road for a very long time and finally fell off the road and into this weird little wooden chamber of a studio in West London. All my memories of that period are red. We kind of needed someone to pull us together and he was very encouraging.
I imagine at that point most of the band activity was comprised of staring off into space.
There was a lot of that, yeah. We always thought it was a real privilege to make records and that kind of slapped us around a bit. I was kind of hesitating going back into the studio until we could do it right and that time felt just perfect.
The album comes to a kind of ringing emotional climax with ‘Larkspur,’ the penultimate track. Did Sun Gang have a kind of formal structure going in or did the shape come later?
I always thought that song should be where it was on the track listing. That’s a strange song. We’d never played it before we recorded it and we did it in one take. That’s very precious to us. I’d only written one line lyrically before we went in. I kind of told everyone I’d had this song and wanted to play and record it once and that’s what happens. It is as it was.
Drummer Henning Dietz has left for good?
Yes, he just left after the show in Berlin two weeks ago and a new friend is filling that out.
Have you ever played Spaceland before?
Yeah. We played there on our first tour. I think that was the last show for our keyboard player as well.
One Veil comes off after another.
Yeah. It’s like revolving Doors.
Address the rumors you were being courted as a solo act.
I dunno what people are thinking. It’s nice to be talked about.
It’s not surprising, being the kind of offer that was dangled before, say, Jim Morrison.
No, I wouldn’t want to give this up at this point. We’re a band and I wouldn’t want to run away from that now.
How do you like the title ‘21st Century Romantic?’
As what?
As a title. Try it on for a while.
Whatever makes them smile.

THE VEILS WITH FOREIGN BORN AND OTHER GIRLS ON TUE., JULY 14, AT DETROIT BAR, 843 W. 19TH ST., COSTA MESA. 9 PM / $12 / 21+. DETROITBAR.COM. AND WITH LUKE TOP AND OTHER GIRLS ON WED., JULY 15, AT SPACELAND, 1717 SILVERLAKE BLVD., SILVERLAKE. 8:30 PM / $12-$14 / 21+. CLUBSPACELAND.COM. THE VEILS’ SUN GANG IS OUT NOW ON ROUGH TRADE. VISIT THE VEILS AT THEVEILS.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/THEVEILS.

Download: Chairlift “Bruises”

(from Does You Inspire You out now on Columbia)

Chairlift are from a haunted hotel in Colorado but moved to Brooklyn to pursue music more intensely and to be intensely pursued by people who recognize them from an iPod commercial. They speak from Paris in between kissing graves and delivering DJ sets. Their album Does You Inspire You has been re-released on Columbia. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

Have you visited the Paris catacombs yet?
Aaron Pfenning (vocals/electronics/guitar): No. I went to Père Lachaise, the big cemetery where Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried.
Whose grave did you kiss first?
Randomly, Oscar Wilde’s because I got to it first, but it’s a great place to explore and get totally lost in. I was there at 6:30 AM and there was definitely a group of four teenagers at Jim Morrison’s grave. I can’t imagine what it’s like later in the day.
What is the most ostentatious grave you’ve ever visited?
Well, I think probably Hunter Thompson’s. I wasn’t really that close to it. I was going to school in Boulder—right when we started the band—and my friend Kyle was also in Chairlift before Patrick was and we drove up for the celebration where they shot him out of a cannon. We weren’t there—we were on the outside. You could definitely hear it. There were fireworks and everything.
What was it like when Hunter S. Thompson was blasted into eternity right before your very eyes?
It’s like hearing the new Grizzly Bear album. It punches you in the stomach.
I heard you’re handy with a Ouija board.
Yes, but only in the wintertime. We don’t play in the summer months. It’s not really appropriate. Spirits come out more in cold weather. There’s more electricity in the air when the weather is colder. And it’s easier for spirits to travel when there’s more electricity in the air so they just naturally come out more in the winter.
What’s the most profound thing you’ve learned about yourself from a Ouija board?
Probably just how true a Scorpio I really am.
Like in the story about the scorpion stinging the frog who carries him across the river? That was one of Philip K. Dick’s favorites.
I should know that because I love Phillip K. Dick. Well, actually the only one I have is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? We’re really into sci-fi—the whole band is into sci-fi, Western and goth things. Dune by Frank Herbert and the Phillip K. Dick one are my top two. Caroline’s reading Necromancer so I get that after her. I have friends with library cards.
But you don’t have library cards? How easily could you disappear from society?
Oh, I think we could disappear pretty easily. We’ve traveled so many places that we’ve actually scouted towns and said ‘This is the place we would come if we needed to disappear.’ It’s gotta be a place where you can stay healthy so it at least has to have some organic source of food. Clean water and a place to buy records. There’s about seven places.
Would the same things that make you work as a band make you work as criminals, too?
Yes, I think so. It’s possible that we are criminals. Just in a basic pop music level. My new favorite pop criminal is this guy called the Dream. He produced songs like Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” but just came out with his own album a few months ago. We’re DJing tonight in Paris and basically, we put his record on and have a dance party. You can play any track from his record and it would work.
Can you imagine a situation where you would have to say, ‘No, Kate Bush—no, absolutely not!’?
I almost could never say no to Kate Bush. I would trust Kate Bush with almost anything.
Describe the bond you guys have with the Crystal Antlers.
The last time we were in Paris, we had a really great DJ dance party with them and I think they were filming part of their movie. We’re in it somewhere but we don’t know what roles we play but I can’t wait to see it. We vibe well together. We can be in a room and dance or we can be in a room and nod our heads. I love them; they’re one of my favorite bands to see live. We were in a coffeeshop in Stockholm a while ago and they had their record up on the wall and nobody there knew what it was. For some reason they had Crystal Antlers vinyl framed on the wall and no one knew why. It was so weird.
What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever come across your record?
I heard ‘Evident Utensil’ in the JFK airport. I think I mentioned it to the waitress and she gave me a free coffee.
What kind of things are you going to take advantage of with this new record on Columbia?
We were actually just talking about making the new record tonight and I think it’s going to happen sooner rather than later, hopefully this winter. We’re talking about going to one of the seven disappearing towns and recording it there. We’ll be bringing along a special guest to help engineer with us but I can’t say.
Is it Steve Albini? Did you refresh yourself with his essay about not signing to a major?
We were approached by a lot of labels and we signed to Columbia because we met with the head people and we told them exactly what our plans were. And they said they would not interfere with anything we wanted to do and the reason they liked us is because we generate our own ideas and carry them out on our own. They said ‘Keep having the ideas that you have and we’ll give you the resources to do it.’ And they haven’t at all tried to force us to do anything.
Do you think the independent vs. major distinction is still relevant?
It’s hard to say because the way Columbia’s working—in the U.S. at least—is that they’ve totally restructured. I think it’s a survival mechanism and record labels like Columbia are working with smaller PR and radio promotion companies so we’re still sort of trying to do our own thing.
What’s your favorite Columbia record?
I think when it comes down to it, probably Jeff Buckley’s Grace.
How do you want history to remember Chairlfit?
I’m worried history will remember Chairlift as either a joke or an iPod band because we have some silly aspects that we embrace but personally, that’s not what I like about us. I want us to be remembered for putting on a good live show and having some sort of powerful presence in a live setting. And being able to tie album themes together, visually and fashion-wise and musically.
How do you rehearse for interviews?
We don’t rehearse. We had to do four interviews in the hotel today and we rehearsed by taking showers and we all wore our bathrobes in the lobby.
What is your favorite album of all time that is not Air’s Talkie Walkie?
I would say John Lennon Imagine.
What is your personal vision of the end of the world?
I personally think that it’s going to be a massive planet quake and severe electrical storms and we all fall into the ocean and become orcas.
When you were living in Boulder, did you ever go to Casa Bonita? Even though it was in Denver?
I did and I left within ten minutes because I was born in Oklahoma and there was a Casa Bonita there. I always went and they had these puppet shows. I loved those puppet shows. It was way smaller than the one in Denver and there’s no cliff diving. It was really creepy. It’s a creepy place to go. What I loved was the music they played during the puppet shows. I still think about it. It’s like dulcimers—it’s like the Fiery Furnaces composing for a puppet show in Oklahoma. The one in Denver was lame and it was just kind of sad for me to walk into a place that had such a profound affect on me and feel nothing.
Is that the moment you realized you were a grown man?
I have not realized that yet.

CHAIRLIFT WITH LUKE TOP ON THUR., JUNE 18, AT THE ECHOPLEX, 1154 GLENDALE BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8:30PM / $10 / 18+. ATTHEECHO.COM. CHAIRLIFT’S DOES YOU INSPIRE YOU IS OUT NOW ON COLUMBIA. VISIT CHAIRLIFT AT CHAIRLIFTMUSIC.COM OR ON MYSPACE AT MYSPACE.COM/CHAIRLIFT.

—Erik Ehlert

Download: Fleet Foxes “Mykonos”

(from the Sun Giant EP on Sub Pop)

Fleet Foxes finished 2008 by overwhelming many best-of-the-year lists and scheduling a set on Saturday Night Live, during which they were wearing at least one smelly shirt. Singer Robin Pecknold speaks before decamping to a creaky new home studio to work on their new album. This interview by Thomas McMahon.

Where exactly is Port Townsend, and what’s it like there?
Robin Pecknold (vocals, guitar): If you’re coming from Seattle, you would take a ferry north. Port Townsend is kind of like on the other side of Puget Sound from Seattle, so it’s on the peninsula. It’s pretty slow moving. It’s nice, because it’s secluded, but it’s not like you can only go to the Wal-Mart or the Safeway. There’s a couple of good restaurants and a good food co-op. And Washington’s first independent record store is here—Quimper Sound. So it’s kind of a sympathetic environment.
You’ve been recording up there?
Kind of writing and setting up a better home-recording situation than we had last time. We could only record two tracks at a time at home, which is cool, but the more you do that—the more you’re layering that many tracks—it starts to sound more like a fake environment. Nothing has any relationship to the other instruments. So now we can record more tracks at once, but it’s still a pretty basic set-up. So mostly getting all the home recording stuff together and learning how to use it, and then kind of working on writing more than recording.
Can you tell us anything about this album in the works?
It’s tough to say at this point how it’s going to all pan out. We’re not in any big rush to get it done. I think people would appreciate us going away for a while as much as getting something out right away. And maybe none of the songs we’re working on right now will be on it if we do spend a long time on it. But I feel good about where the new songs are going. There are elements—maybe more the EP and a couple of the LP songs—elements of that kind of style in it. But it’s a little more, like, manly. Like Nickelback manly.
So you’re going to be a contender in the modern-rock realm?
Yeah, screw this! There’s not enough dough in this indie-rock game. We’re going whole hog.
Did someone call Fleet Foxes ‘The Styx of the late ’00s’?
I did!
And is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Oh, I think that’s a bad thing, right?
Your dad was in a soul group in the ’60s?
Yeah, the Fathoms. I think they recorded one 45. He was like 17. I don’t think they lasted very long. I remember I would look up my dad on Google, just to see what his Internet presence was or something, and there was this thing where he had put out a message on something that was like—‘Looking for my old bandmates in the Fathoms.’ I don’t know what happened.
Are they thinking about a reunion?
That would be awesome.
Maybe they could open for you guys.
Yeah, totally! But he’s been helping out a lot with getting this whole place up and running.
So is it like a cabin that you have there?
It’s not so much a cabin. It’s kind of barn shaped. But it’s two levels. And, honestly, I have a sinking feeling in my gut that we won’t actually be able to do much recording here, as much as I would want to. Because the house itself, it’s one of those houses where it’s all put together with joined pieces of wood, but then bolts or braces—it’s all this conjoined timber. So at like noon, the whole house creaks. It starts to kind of expand because it’s getting warmer. And then at like 8, the whole house starts to contract. It’s the noisiest thing—these ripples of the wood contracting. It’s actually kind of a huge disappointment.
So we might be hearing some house creaking on the next album?
Yeah, it could be like making beats out of the crazy pops and cracks. But between like 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., it’s kind of a silent time. Usually. Unless it’s raining. That’s the other thing. If it rains, there’s a tin roof, so you can hear the rain. I should have spent a few days here just sitting around before deciding this was the spot. But I think we’ll be able to get something done here. I wanted to have it so that we wouldn’t have to go to a studio at all, but maybe that won’t work out.
Did you play guitar and sing from a young age?
I started playing guitar at 13, so not that young. I just started learning Dylan songs. I’m kind of a remedial guitar player. I always wish my parents had forced me into violin lessons or something, so I’d have that knowledge base.
Did you do any singing in school, like choir or anything?
I did school plays, like Annie and Oklahoma!, that kind of thing—which was fun.
What was it like doing Saturday Night Live?
I honestly almost feel like that was a weird dream still. The process of doing it was really fun. They seemed excited to have us there. I think Andy Samberg and Bill Hader were gunning for us to the music bookers. So that made the whole thing feel better than something where you’re just kind of thrown into it. Some TV things can feel like go-go-go and then you’re done, and then it’s like, ‘Get out of here.’ But that felt more like a friendly experience. But the main thing that I still think about: I wore this green shirt that I didn’t get a chance to wash before we did it, and that was the only shirt I brought. So I just am worried—do the cast members think that I’m really smelly? And do they tell people that I was smelly? But there was also a feeling afterward that there was something kind of final about it. Because it was like the last thing we did of all the touring and promotion stuff for the record. But it also kind of … I almost felt kind of guilty about it. To play Saturday Night Live is a big honor, and kind of a dream, but it’s like what do you do after that if you’re … you kind of have to stop defining the experience of being in the band by the individual things that you’re doing, or something.
Like milestones?
Yeah, because if it’s all milestones, at some point it will just run out, and then what are you left with? And I think because we were so busy doing all that kind of stuff the last year, it’s almost like we stopped being a band that was worried about music because we were never having a chance to work on music. So I’m kind of glad that all of that stuff is over for the time being because now we can just work on music and be an actual band again.
In the liner notes of the Sun Giant EP, you wrote, ‘Music to me is just as awe-bringing as the world maybe once was.’ What did you mean by that?
Well, one of the things I love to do on tour is if we’re driving through the Southwest at night, and you’re just on these totally barren roads, and if it’s a clear night, and you get out of the car at like 2 in the morning, it’s like you see the stars so much more vibrant—like you can see the whole Milky Way. There’s no light around for miles. So I’ll just turn the lights off in the car and go stand out there and stargaze or whatever. I love doing that, but it’s also like, at one point in time, that wasn’t something that you were choosing to do—to put yourself in that situation. That was your situation. And I feel like sometimes I’m having to manufacture experiences in that way. It’s almost like how someone that would dress up as, like, a count and go to a renaissance fair. It’s kind of like manufacturing this experience that they want to have but isn’t actually their experience. I almost feel that way, because even if I’m out there in the middle of the desert looking at the stars, I could still pull out my cell phone and call 911 or something.
And you have the car there.
Yeah. It’s still a beautiful experience, but there’s an element to it of tourism or escapism, even though you’re just in the natural environment. I think in connecting that to music, I was just meaning that, to me, music can be really evocative in a really pure way, in that there’s no, like, intellectual barrier almost. When you’re having to put yourself in the middle of the desert at night, there’s an intellectual leap there that you’re having to make from your normal life experience to this old experience. And I feel like music lacks that, or is able to pass that intellectual center of your brain and into just a place of feeling, you know? I’m just as easily transported by a song as I am by that experience, and there isn’t that kind of guilt about it.
One more question about liner notes: In the album, you mentioned not trusting photographs. Why is that?
I think I had been reading or listening to something about memory, and it was weird to think back on all my childhood memories and then be able to look at a photo album that my mom had and see that they were all the same as those photos. It’s like, oh, I remember when I was two, going to the beach with you and your friend and your friend’s son, and then there’s like five photos of that experience, and they kind of matched my memory. But I found that just in the same way that a certain smell can take you back to a place, a song can, too. Almost easier. I feel like a photograph is something that’s guiding your mind or influencing your memory. But then a song, it will evoke something or stir something in you, and because it has no visual quality, it’s not influencing the memory. It’s just bringing it to the surface.

FLEET FOXES’ SELF-TITLED FULL LENGTH IS OUT NOW ON SUB POP. VISIT FLEET FOXES AT MYSPACE.COM/FLEETFOXES.