A Real Barn Burner
The Decemberists retreated to a country farm to record their new album

By Jeff Niesel

Just over a decade ago, the Decemberists emerged from Portland, Oregon as an indie folk act with a distinctive sound. Unlike, say Bright Eyes, the Decemberists opted for lush melodies to buttress singer Colin Meloy’s lilting voice. After several acclaimed indie albums, the group signed to Capitol Records in 2005 and made its major label debut with The Crane Wife and followed it up with the heady concept album, The Hazards of Love. Now, the band has returned to its folksy roots with The King is Dead, an album of restrained folk and pop tunes that feature contributions from R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and alt-country chanteuse Gillian Welch. It’s a beautiful disc that benefits from the rural setting in which it was recorded. Decemberists’ accordion player Jenny Conlee recently spoke about the new disc via phone from her Portland, Oregon home.

Let’s start by talking about the new album. You recorded it in a barn, is that right?

We did. We went out to a farm about 20 miles outside of Portland. It’s really close. We recorded there for about six weeks. We all set up in one room and did a lot of jamming.

What was it like to record in that atmosphere?

The goal was to be able to get a big enough space that we could all play together and do an older style of recording where everyone plays at once and you get the best take of everybody. In the end, we’re so nitpicky, we didn’t do the whole thing that way. A couple of songs came out that way, but we tried for that ideal rock ’n’ roll recording process. It was nice to be out there because you could go out and sit in the trees and have a nice mellow experience. It was fun. We went out there and set up the gear, and it was like a party. It didn’t feel like going to work. It felt like going to play with your friends.

Is this your country album?

I guess so. It’s got country elements and a friend of ours plays fiddle and that adds a country feel and singer Gillian Welch adds some country-ness. But there are still a couple of poppy tunes on it. I think we had explored the prog rock part of our music a bunch. Colin especially was ready to write some nice, concise pop songs. We wanted to get back to the roots of what we started out doing -- nice little packages of little stories instead of the big long song cycle. It was time for a change.

Is the album title a reference to the Smiths’ The Queen is Dead?

Yes, it is. I know it’s not very subtle. Colin named it. I know it’s not a knock on the Smiths. There might be some other meaning to it, too. The Smiths are his favorite group. I don’t think he’s trying to sing like [Smiths frontman] Morrissey, but I don’t think he can’t help it because he’s listened to them so much. People always ask me if our singer has a British accent. I’m like, “No, he doesn’t.”

You’ve shifted away from the concept album now. Were you happy with the way the Hazards of Love turned out?

We were very happy with it. You can’t do the same thing over and over. After the Who did Quadrophrenia, they did Who’s Next. I guess you could keep doing prog concept records. That’s what Genesis did. But that’s not our future. We wanted to do something a little different. Making that record and playing that record live was really fun.

R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck contributed extensively to the album. Talk about what he brought to the table?

The songs that he played on were the ones where Colin had said he was totally ripping off R.E.M. He said he thought he could justify it if he could get Peter to play on it. Peter does his 12-string arpeggio thing. He made it even richer. He has a girlfriend who lives here who is a friend of ours. And we know Scott McCoy who plays with R.E.M. a lot. Peter Buck is in Portland about half the time. He splits his time between here and Seattle. Peter is such a nice guy and so mellow and used to people being nervous around him. He’s fun to play with. He’s such a fast learner. He’s so experienced. He’s a real professional.

What’s your favorite R.E.M. album?

It might be Life’s Rich Pageant, which is the first album of theirs that I bought.

Talk about the documenting of the making of your new album. There’s a short film available, right?

It was a fun project. They filmed the entire process. Almost every day we had someone in there filming with a video camera. We cut it down to a 30-minute DVD. We were trying to figure out a way to make our boxset very special Our manager wanted to do Polaroids with photographer Autumn Wilde. We kept having to do short photo shoot weekends to get them all done. They’re really nice. There are 2500 of them, one for each boxet. She is also going to do a photo show at a gallery in New York. We had to order the film from an old warehouse that had a bunch of old film. Some of the film was ruined, and we didn’t know it. Some of the colors weren’t what they should have been. That was a challenge, definitely. They’re all unique. The camera Autumn used was one of the early Polaroids. She could do some cool things like double exposing. She could take a picture and then turn the camera upside down and take another picture. It would come out as me on top of myself.

Could you go back to the band’s beginning. You started about ten years ago. How did you meet everyone?

Colin left his band in Montana and was doing solo stuff at bars around town. He met a friend of ours who ended up being our first drummer. He knew my friend, bassist Nate [Query]. They had played one or two gigs. Then, Nate told me I should join them. I played accordion, and Colin wanted me to do a soundtrack for a film. Then we became the Decemberists and decided on the name and made an EP with guitarist Chris Funk. There were some personnel switches, and we went through three drummers. But the music community is pretty small here so we just met through mutual friends.

What things did you have in common, musically?

It’s funny because Colin is such a college rock guy. He loves Husker Du and the Smiths and Guided by Voices. That’s great, but I was more of a roots rocker. I liked the Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin. But Colin also has this love of classic rock. He has folk music he likes and grew up on and so do I. We had some mutual interests. I’m also kind of a sci-fi buff. I love Lord of the Rings and Star Trek. Colin and I have read lots of the same books and I had helped him get a job at a bookstore.

Portland seems like a city that encourages adventurous musical endeavors.

I think so. There are a lot of venues here, and it’s not that hard to get a gig. It’s not very expensive to live here. A lot of houses have basements so you don’t have to rent rehearsal spaces. It’s a creative city with lots of cool stuff happening.

This is your third album for Capitol. Have things changed drastically since signing your deal?

It’s going good. We got in at the right time. Labels still had some resources, and the band was established enough that we could put our terms down. We wanted to have final say on the production of the record. We have full control over our creativity and how the record looks and whether it’s on vinyl. They were bummed that we wanted to print on vinyl but that’s a big deal for us; we wanted to have that option. It’s been really great. We’re really lucky we made it through the buyout with Virgin. People have changed in the company, but we’re still one of their respected bands.

What is going to happen to the music industry?

I used to say that people will still buy records, but it’s just too easy to go on Pandora and YouTube and listen to stuff. I think there will be still be records to be bought in small amounts. That’s why we made the boxset. The future will be smaller music companies and musicians will be working on getting their songs licensed for movies and commercials. There is a lot of cash in that. And people still want to see live music.

Talk about what your tour is going to be like.

We’re just going to do our thing. We’re going to play a lot of new songs. We have so much material to choose from, it will be hard to choose which songs to play. We won’t be going anything special. We did the rock opera last tour, so this should be more upbeat kind of show, probably.

Tour Dates

1/25 Beacon Theatre New York, NY

1/26 Beacon Theatre New York, NY

1/28 House of Blues Boston, MA

1/29 House of Blues Boston, MA

1/31 Olympia De Montreal Montreal, Canada

2/1 Sound Academy Toronto, Canada

2/2 Royal Oak Music Theatre Royal Oak, MI

2/4 Riviera Theatre Chicago, IL

2/5 Riverside Theatre Milwaukee, WI

2/6 State Theatre Minneapolis, MN

2/7 Uptown Theatre Kansas City, MO

2/9 Boulder Theater Boulder, CO

2/10 Ogden Theatre Denver, CO

2/12 The Wiltern Los Angeles, CA

2/13 House of Blues San Diego, San Diego, CA

2/14 Fox Theater Oakland, CA

2/18 Paramount Ballroom Seattle, WA

2/19 Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Portland, OR