By Josh T. Landow & Joey Odorisio
The New Pornographers
The New Pornographers have been making impeccably crafted pop songs for close to two decades now, merging vocal harmonies and hooky melodies over the course of eight albums. On tour supporting their latest, In the Morse Code of Brake Lights, band leader Carl “A.C.” Newman sat down with FMQB’s Josh T. Landow and Joey Odorisio backstage before their Philadelphia show to discuss the new record, the construction of their unique sound, the impending 20th anniversary of their debut album and more.
FMQB: Let’s start by talking about the single “Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile.” The lyrics have a lot of clever juxtapositions throughout… was that the crux of writing the song?
Carl Newman: Some songs have a very clear narrative to me but a lot of the times it just feels like the songs are self-explanatory. It’s something it’s just to be taken all as a piece. Like the production and the melody and the chords and the lyrics, they’re just all part of this art piece. I think of going to MOMA and looking at a Van Gogh or a Jackson Pollack. I don’t want to sit here and understand it, I just want to be in its presence and get the vibe from it. I think that’s how I feel a lot about songs.
A song like [“Falling Down the Stairs…”], it just felt right and I know I was trying to say something in it, but I’m not sure what it was. And when I try to break it down into me speaking in my blank prose of my voice, I never find a good explanation.
FMQB: Do you find that with a lot of your songs?
Carl: Older ones, definitely. I feel that my lyrics have become a little more direct as I get on… It’s always about something. Even when I didn’t think a song was about something, I realize, “oh, it always is.” It’s hard to just say something and not have it mean something. It all comes from somewhere, I’m not just opening up the phone book or a dictionary and pointing at words, going, “that’s the word” and putting it in [the lyrics]. I know it all means something, sometimes it’s a little vague. Some songs I have an answer for, some songs I don’t have an answer for.
FMQB: The last few albums had more verse-chorus-verse poppier songs, this album has more elaborately constructed songs pieced together from different parts. Especially the vocals, since the band is known for its stacked harmonies. How do you go from just you and a demo to adding the other singers’ voices or string instruments, for example?
Carl: It’s a lot of experimentation. Sometimes you add things that you don’t want to add and you pull everything away and go, “OK, that works.” And sometimes you just want to have a juxtaposition and have it very minimal, but then have it open up and be very choral in the next section. I’ve always loved the part of music that is going off in tangents.
For example, “Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile” technically only has two chords, but it’s the way they move between the two chords and the different melodies and you can use the different rhythmic ways they work together. That’s stuff I find fascinating. Your song can have a lot of chords but it doesn’t need to have a lot of chords because there’re so many places to go musically within just two chords or a single chord.
L-R: Joey Odorisio, Carl Newman, Josh T. Landow
FMQB: In a recent interview, you described Neko Case’s voice as her “superpower.” How do you decide where to deploy that “power” in a song?
Carl: Some songs I think, “OK this is going to be a Neko song,” and other times I just think, “sing this chorus, you’re here, sing that… This chorus only has 8 words, sing those 8 words and let’s see what it sounds like.”
It always comes down to doing it. I wish I had it all mapped out but I don’t. There’s a lot of moving pieces. I’m not just a singer-songwriter who sits down with his bass player and his drummer and knocks out songs quickly. There’s something else at work. I don’t want to be a singer-songwriter, I’d rather be someone like Brian Eno. I know I’m not Eno but I find that more interesting.
FMQB: Speaking of other band members, Dan Bejar has stepped back from the band for the time being, correct?
Carl: Yeah, he wasn’t on this record or the one before, although we did kind of write one song together on this record. And we’re friends, we talk… he’s just doing his own thing. It’s always been that way, I’ve been telling people. About a month after Mass Romantic came out, he called us all together and said, “Hey I’m moving to Spain.” And I remember thinking, “Of course, at the exact moment when it seems like something might be beginning to happen…he’s gonna go to Spain.”
So the idea of Dan going away and not being in the band is such an old idea to me, that I don’t really think much about it. I think maybe he won’t do anything with us again but maybe he will? It’s not a question for me to answer.
FMQB: He’ll just magically materialize on stage one night with a plastic shaker that looks like an apple…
Carl: Yes – exactly!
FMQB: Has that changed the dynamic of how the band works in general?
Carl: No not really, because the way I work on my songs has always been the same. When Dan was playing with us, he’s never in the studio working on my songs. I was in the studio working on his songs. So the dynamic has changed is that there aren’t three Dan songs…this is all mine. It’s not that the dynamic has changed, it’s just subtracted. So for me it doesn’t change, it’s more about how people perceive us without Dan. But it doesn’t really affect the way I make music.
FMQB: At this point in many bands’ careers, especially in one with as many moving parts as yours, releases and touring might be less frequent but it almost seems like you’ve sped things up and been on a more regular release schedule.
Carl: I guess so. The reason there were four years between Together and Brill Bruisers was basically because my son was born. I put out a solo album so I was busy I guess. I didn’t want to be drawn away too much. But now, we put out a record in 2014, 2017, 2019…maybe we’ll put out another record next year. It’s what I like doing and I just want to keep doing it, so I figure I might as well while I’m alive. So I haven’t really got the luxury. Maybe LCD Soundsystem and Bon Iver can put out a record every five years because they can afford to. But I can’t really, I have to keep working, like most musicians.
FMQB: “The Surprise Knock” is one of the best songs on the new album – tell us about what’s going on in there, because it’s a bit darker than it seems at first.
Carl: It’s basically a song about being alive right now and being a little anxiety-riddled over the state of politics and the world, and not knowing when a day is going to be better or worse. So there’s a lot of back and forth in the song about thinking we have it figured out, [then] “no no, it’s getting worse.” At the moment you think you have it figured out, there’s that surprise knock on your door, which is not good. But also I know it’s not for me.
Or metaphorically, it’s just that when you think things are going better all of the sudden you get that surprise knock and you find out, no, it’s not.
FMQB: Next year is the 20th anniversary of the New Pornographers’ debut album Mass Romantic. Are you going to do anything to mark the occasion? So many bands do the anniversary tour where they play the album through, is that something you’ve considered?
Carl: I don’t know, maybe? If we could throw it together, that might be something worth trying, but we don’t really have any plans. I’d like to do something but I don’t what it is…I’ve still got some time.
I think about bands that have been around for 20 years and there’s quite a few of them. Spoon’s been around for close to 25 years. It’s strange, all these bands have been around for a long time, but think about somebody like The Lovin’ Spoonful. The New Pornographers being around right now is the same thing as if The Lovin’ Spoonful were still around in 1985. By 1985, [John Sebastian] was already a “rock legend from way in the past” … and younger than I am now!
I’ve had this conversation with people before about how technology is moving so fast but culture isn’t. Culture is moving fairly slowly and I think that’s why bands can stay around for a long time.
It is a milestone, Mass Romantic was a pretty big milestone in my life. It changed my life so I think, “OK, it’s been 20 years, I should think about what we’re gonna do.”
