Interview - Grizzly Bear

Since the release of their Yellow House record in 2006, Grizzly Bear have staked a claim as the band linked to the 'freak-folk' scene to actually have longevity. This is due in no small part to the band's four members - guitarist/singer Dan Rossen, singer/guitarist Ed Droste, bassist/multi-instrumentalist Chris Taylor and drummer Christopher Bear - possesing a vocal range and hamonic ability that rivals Fleet Foxes for sheer jaw-dropping beauty. Not to mention traditional pop smarts. On the eve of releasing their gorgeous third record Veckatimest, we spoke to guitarist Ed Rossen about how important location is to their sound, writing as a four piece and their imminent jaunt to Australia.

Hey Dan, what's going on?

We're up on the coast of Massachusetts. We're rehearsing right now for the tour. Took a few days to get out of the city and work on some more of the complex, difficult songs that we're trying to do live.

Is that because it's impossible to do that kind of thing in New York or is that a special place that you go to?

It's not impossible but we kind of have a ritual of doing this. We did this before we did our first big tour together and kind've have always done this before big tours. Take a few days to get out of the city and work on things. So...part of our protocol.

Can you tell me about the feeling at the end of touring Yellow House and the process of preparing for the new album?

Well there's a lot of time between the two albums. I mean we even totally made a different record, Chris Bear and Chris Taylor and I did the Department of Eagles record which is a whole separate thing. So in coming to this record (Veckatimest)  was totally fresh. While we were away doing other things, Chris Bear and Ed would go off and take trips together and work on some songs. But for the most part, a lot of this stuff kind've came together while we were recording. And so this time a round it was much more of a process of being very comfortable with each other and kind've starting with a pretty clean slate for the most part. We had two weeks to move around but for the most part it was pretty open. Didn't know what was gonna happen. There was a lot of open spaces.

Was there a confidence from the way Yellow House was received and then playing shows and festivals and that sort've thing?

I don't know. We were certainly more confident as a live band I don't think we were overwhelmingly confident going in to this to do y'know, a great thing. And actually there was a lot of uncertainty going into it. Not even knowing what was going to happen because we haven't tried to do a record with the four of us for so long. I don't think we really knew what was going to happen. So, it was a little scary at first.  But because we were really able to take our time and let everyone do their own thing and record in the most comfortable settings that we possibly could, and stretch it out, you know we ended up with something that everyone was really happy with. And if we weren't happy with it we'd probably still be trying to do it now. Stretch it out as long as it took.

Was there a particular moment that clicked for you as to give you a direction as to what to do?

I don't know, there's so many different directions on the record. I mean everyone's contributing in their own way. There were various phases of the record too I mean, we recorded it in various places. In various spurts. There were breaks in between where we were doing it. It was great in a way to have three weeks in July and record a bunch of material and then take a month off to do the Radiohead tour and then came back to it again. So it gave us a perspective on the material we'd already done. We could revisit it and have a new perspective on it and even some new material, different material that we wanted to work on after a month of time had passed.

You know it was Fall instead of Summer and we were inside a smaller location so we were working on more quiet material instead of working on the more bombastic stuff which we did at first. So yeah that's the thing, recording in different places at different times makes you focus on all kinds of different things. And I think that's partially why we really like working in various phases. And also working outside of the studio. It's where you are, and the season, and the state of mind you're in. It changes what you work on and changes what you want to focus on.


Grizzly Bear - 'Two Weeks' live on Jools Holland

I could be wrong but it sounds like Grizzly Bear recordings are particular to a place or its acoustic sounds, rather than doing effects "in the box" so to speak.

It's certainly a big part of it. If you're not recording in a studio environment where everything's really controlled, and you know you don't have a drum room or an echo chamber or something, you have to deal - I don't even know what an echo chamber is (laughs) - but you know, you don't have a plate reverb in the other room, then you have to deal with the space you're in. And we kind've always worked that way. Somewhat out of necessity but I think that's a lot of where Chris Taylor's engineering aesthetic came from. Working with your spaces and using the room. So yeah, it's a big part of what we do.

It sounds like that that actually influences the songs. They're not particularly laden with effects but they sound more of a particular place and time and that's the music's own effect.

Yeah I mean to a certain degree. I mean some songs on the record have multiple rooms and some songs we would record in all the rooms we went through. It definitely does. It totally affects the kind've material you focus on. I definitely saw the way it changed what we would do on this record. Like something like 'Dory' we did primarily - we worked on some of the writing while we were upstate - but we did most of that song when we were up on Cape Cod in like a little, cottage-y living room. And there wasn't any reverb, there wasn't any huge hall. It was home-ier and quiet and we were sitting by the fire and it was Fall. So we did something more like that. And stuff like 'I Live With You' and 'Two Weeks' and 'I Live With You' and 'Southern Point' - well no not 'Southern Point' - and similarly, more bombastic louder stuff we did upstate when we had this huge room, to make an endless amount of noise. So yeah, it changes what you do.

Did Department of Eagles complicate the process or help it? (Rossen released the more solo orientated Department of Eagles record in 2008).

Not really, I mean we're trying to limit doing live shows. We don't really do live shows and stuff. Well we did some. But it's not really a live band, it's not a 'band' it was more like a project. So we're paring down those performance opportunities so as to focus on this, and focus on touring Grizzly Bear. And that's my main priority. I mean we kind've did that record while - not on a hiatus from Grizzly Bear - but there was a few months when everybody wanted some time off and didn't want to tour and didn't want to y'know, write so much. So that was kinda when we did that record. It ended up taking a little longer and taking up a little more of my time than maybe we had anticipated (laughs).


Department of Eagles - 'No One Does It Like You'
 
It was really great in a way though cause Chris and I learned a lot while we were doing it. Just in recording all these Yellow House songs and then touring. These Veckatimest songs, they were songs that we mulled over for a long time and in all kind of directions. You know I'm really glad we got them done cause they'd been sitting around. Fred (Nicolaus, Department of Eagles member) has all these songs that he wanted to do too and it was great to get it done. And then getting it out of the way and having the slate clear to work on Ed's and Chris Bear's new material and for us to be more collaborative and to just sort've try new stuff and keep it really fresh. That's one of my favourite things about Veckatimest and if it wasn't that way I don't know what we would do. So it was great in a way, I'm really glad it happened that way.

With Veckatimest, it seems like you didn't know what it was going to be until it was actually finished. Is that something you're proud of?

Yeah. I mean it's not as if none of it - and I'm speaking more for myself than everyone else in the band, and Chris Taylor and Chris Bear had done some stuff, some of the songs had certainly been worked on before and weren't just pulled out of thin air - but there was a lot of grey areas. Yeah, we were a little bit scared going into it as to how it would happen with the four of us. We didn't really know if we would like it and I think certainly it was really exciting. It's exciting to see songs that have no demos - we don't know too much what they're going to be - really blossom into a full recording first time around when you're doing a record. It's a really great thing that I'd never experienced before. You come up with a song and you just have this idea and then you see it turn into a full recording immediately. It makes everything so much nicer. I mean it makes touring really exciting it makes everything so fresh. All of sudden there's all these new songs and they're so new - that feels really good. Cause when you're a touring band you get so used to doing the same material. It's not like you don't enjoy it but the songs get really old really quickly.

This way you get to skip past trying to recreate those little things on the demos.

That's also definitely true. It makes it easier in a way.

So are we likely to see you in Australia anytime soon?

Yeah we're coming in January. I don't remember the name of the festival, it's in all different cities. We're gonna be there for like three weeks I think.

The Big Day Out maybe?

I think that might be what it is actually. I know it's Sydney and Tasmania and Melbourne and...it's a few different cities. I'm really looking forward to it. The only real travelling I've done has been touring and the farthest I've got has been Scandinavia. So that's very far for me! (Laughs). So we're really excited, really, really excited about it.

www.myspace.com/grizzlybear