Low make the sort of music that, you suspect, Chris Martin or Thom Yorke secretly wish they were able to.

Since their formation in 1993 - sort of as a joke, wondering what would be the reaction among the grunge-loving rock audiences of their hometown of Duluth, Minnesota if they were to turn the volume on all their instruments down to a bare minimum - the trio have been perennials of the US independent scene, releasing several albums of deceptively understated, gorgeously realised music. Often, the songs are centred around the trance-inducing harmonies of husband-and-wife team Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker. Low get credited with starting the entire 'slow-core' movement, a genre as dumb and ultimately unrewarding as its name suggests, but that's not fair. Rather, their intricate, reverb-laced songs belong to a canon of US rock music populated by figures such as Red House Painters' Mark Kozelek and the sadly-missed Sparklehorse. Songs of singular beauty and intimacy. Robert Plant would agree. He's covered two of their songs - 'Silver Rider' and 'Monkey' - on his new album Band Of Joy (both taken from Low's 2005 Sub Pop album The Great Destroyer).

Low also do a great line in Christmas songs - their 1999 Christmas fans-only album is still a favourite at True Mansions every holiday season, particularly Mimi Parker's enflamed ennui-laden version of 'Blue Christmas' - while Sparhawk has been known to front noisy Duluth-based punk- and classic rock-influenced bands (most notably the blues-roots band Black Eyed Snakes, and Retribution Gospel Choir), just because he can.

The Vine spoke to Alan Sparhawk ahead of Low's appearance at the Melbourne Festival next week.

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Robert Plant covers two of your songs on his new album.

That's pretty exciting. I have no idea how it came about. Near as I can tell, he heard our stuff at some point and obviously owned The Great Destroyer. I read an interview where he said he was a big fan. His versions are pretty cool. 'Monkey' is more of a really driving blues riff that moves along, and he ends up taking it some place really mellow, very eerie. And I think they do a phenomenal job of 'Silver Rider'. It's beautiful. It's actually very similar to the way we do it, but he's a great singer. It'd be hard to find anyone else now who's got that much credibility. Barbra Streisand, maybe? It was a huge honour. I hope at some point we'll see the show. He's doing us a favour. It blew me off my seat.

Low are in the process of recording a new album. There's a great quote on your MySpace blog, "Recording is as humiliating as writing, and twice as confusing"...

We're at the last stages, mixing. A lot of the work's been done. Writing is humiliating, I guess. You only see the results of the one per cent of time when things are good. Most times, writing is very frustrating and you have to work on it and you constantly shoot yourself down. It makes you realise how little you know. We're self-deprecating people. Part of it is cultural. We grew up in a region where it was natural - 'Oh, it's not so cold out there, it could be worse'.  I'm probably a little more... I don't know. Maybe to a fault I'm a little more aware of my own faults and flaws.

Your last album, Drums And Guns [2007], focused on murder and death. What can we expect from this one? Does it have a title yet?

I'm pretty sure it's going to be called C'mon. There's a lot of love, unfortunately - fortunately, I guess. It's maybe a bit more intimate, I don't want to say sappy, but it's all about intimate relationships - fear, hope, love. It's a very large and gorgeous sounding record. It's very pretty. We've been recording at Sacred Heart Studios here in Duluth [an old Catholic church, which is now a community centre - the studio is large and vaulted, with a working 100-year-old pipe organ at one end] and its sound seems to seep into the recordings.

Various song titles have already come to light - 'Especially Me', 'You Can See Everything'... '20', 'Al Green', 'Try To Sleep'... 'The Stone'...

Actually, when people hear '$20' they'll say it should probably be called 'My Love Is For Free', because that's the refrain, but the title is an inside joke. 'Al Green' is a song about wanting to be a man, about how we all wish we were Al Green when the shit hits the fan. 'You Can See Everything' is a song that Mim sings. It's one we've had for a while... I don't know... she's more cryptic than I am about her lyrics. 'Especially Me' is Mim singing and it's really good. 'Try To Sleep' is a very jangly, chime-y song about trying to sleep - it's not so much about the crying child that won't sleep, but our daughter who is very dramatic. She doesn't want any bad dreams, and is worried about what will happen if this and this and this happen. It's more about how our minds keep rolling when we're dreaming.

Are there any banjos on it?

We have a banjo on it. It's sort of become a running joke in our town. We joke about how there are a lot of banjo bands in town, so the joke is that you can't make a record without a banjo without alienating half the community. The guy who was mixing it [Eric Swanson] suggested it and it didn't take more than two minutes to find a banjo-player.


Low - 'Murderer'

Does being parents affect the way you listen to music?

You have to accommodate your kids. You end up being exposed to things you wouldn't expect. Someone else's choices. You don't play loud music because it gets them all fired up. Our boy who is six gets really fired up by music - Billy Squire and David Bowie and the Ramones. Kids love the Ramones.

What are Sacred Heart Studios like to record in?

It's not that there's so much of a big hall sound, but there's something about that big vaulted ceiling with pillars and stained glass that sort of imposes itself on you, a static beauty or energy that's really interesting. That, and there's this old pipe work hanging over us, hinting at us while we we're recording. There's a bit of organ on C'mon, more so than the other records, just because that was the sound the room wanted to make.

There's another reference to the recording process on your MySpace blog... "After today we'll have a week off - plenty of time to completely change my mind and start from scratch again". Are you a bit of a perfectionist?

I'm actually not that much of a perfectionist. Meticulously fixing things and making sure everything is right, I'm not like that at all. I do get extremely neurotic, and up inside my own head, when there's a creative decision to be made - it's not done until everything feels just about right. It's probably not that uncommon, but I find the most satisfying works are the ones I was most confused on at some point. Maybe that's the humiliating part of the process. You have to trick yourself into finishing. Having to stop time and in some ways be dishonest, because it's not really you at any given moment, it's you going back and trying to present what you had.

It's got to be hard to know when you're finished.

Being an indie band, on a low budget, that's normally the defining factor - OK, you have two or three days to make a record and then it's done. But now it takes three weeks it's a complex process and you have to fool yourself into finishing.

This year, your old label Kranky are finally reissuing the vinyl version of Christmas. That's always been my favourite of yours.

Probably in the long run that's going to be my favourite too. It never got reissued on vinyl in 11 years. We've been wanting to do it for several years. I'm not as much of a fan of Christmas songs as Mim is, and her sister - who's a ridiculous fan, who starts before Thanksgiving. I'm not necessarily a Grinch or poo-poohing the idea, but it's too complicated for me. There's too much emotion and complexity. It can be overwhelming... you can see your life flash before your eyes. It's one of the last incidences in our culture where you can get that many people to sing along - at sports games and in church. Having 100,000 fans singing along with one of your songs, and every one of them can kick your ass - now that would be fun. There's something about having a nice universal [song].

You're appearing at the Melbourne Festival next week, right?

I know Sinead O Connor is going to be there, or is it Bjorkl? If so, awesome. Either way. I love that reggae record Sinead made with Sly & Robbie [Throw Down Your Arms, 2005]. Bjork's soundtrack thing four or five years back was one of my favourite things [probably 2005's Drawing Restraint 9, which featured ancient Japanese instruments]. We've been to Australia four or five times, it goes really well, it's always been solid, the promoters are usually really smart, and put us on in a room they know we can fill up.

What continues to motivate you?

Probably mostly ignorance and selfishness. I love doing this and we want to do more. Music has been very good to us, and every few years I seem to find another dark corner of music that inspires me and keeps me going. I don't know, I don't have many other skills. I jumped ship in the early '90s when everyone else was switching over to computers, so I have no longer have any idea what's going on.

Everett True

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LOW - AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2011

Oct 21 - Melbourne International Arts Festival, The Forum - Melbourne
Oct 22 - The Factory (Enmore), Marrickville - Sydney
Oct 23 - Artrage - The Bakery (Northbridge), Perth