The Decemberists, for those who are not in the know, are one of the most interesting outfits in rock today. Their sound is challenging yet accessible, identifiable yet indescribable. For their most recent release, The Hazards of Love [Capitol], the band turns in an hour-long, continuous song-cycle that has inevitably been tagged a “rock opera”. Truthfully, the 17-song suite can be thought of more as a ‘mini-symphony’ with its many repeating motifs and themes.
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The band’s music, especially on the new album, is quite challenging and almost epic in feel. How has the band grown over the years?
Well, I think we’ve had a chance to explore lots of different directions - I think we’ve always been adventurous that way. A lot of the directions that we went on this record are things we dabbled in, especially the heavier stuff, a bunch of years ago with an EP we did called The Tain. We’ve always thought it would be fun to do more of that heavier, riff-ier rock stuff. I think that as the band has grown as musicians and as a group, Colin (Meloy, vocals & guitar) challenged us in different ways with his songwriting and it has always been fun to try new things. Those things have sort of egged each other on to the extent where we now have this rock opera with more guitars than we’ve ever done before!
It’s pretty crazy because I’ve mostly played in bands that were songwriter oriented and not very heavy but I’ve always loved harder-edged rock so it’s fun to get the chance to do some of that. I would have never thought that The Decemberists would be the band where I would start using fuzz pedals and rocking out as hard but it’s been awesome (laughs)!
How did that relate to your growth as a bassist?
With every new crop of songs, some are clear in terms of the approach I’m going to take. Sometimes, the bassline is practically there; you just have to play it. But Colin is a really interesting songwriter, so there are always new challenges with every record. I think with this one there was a chance for it to be more of an exploration in tone and precision in the performances. It wasn’t like any of the lines are particularly difficult but when you are playing riff-y rock stuff you have to be extremely precise to get the right effect. I don’t think sloppiness works for this kind of stuff.
On some of the upright stuff, like the first song, The Hazards of Love 1, I had to put on my “Jazz Odyssey” hat (laughs) and do this sort of improvised stuff that was really, really fun but kind of a stretch because it was so far outside of what we usually do. Some songs I play really subdued, laid-back stuff and sometimes I really get the chance to push the limits of what I’m capable of or know how to do.
As if the music weren't challenging enough, Nate is playing this song on his back. With an upright!
The album took three months to record - what was that process like?
It was similar to how we did the last record which is to rent out the studio for three months and then move in there after we were able to sit with the demos for a little bit on our own. At first, we set up in one big room in the studio to rehearse and there was a bit of work on getting our sounds because we did move to tracking before we were done rehearsing. This record was technically challenging because it was recorded in so many different pieces and then assembled afterwards into one continuous piece. So we’re creating arrangements, figuring out instrumentation and recording all at the same time! We would basically try to keep a regular schedule by working 10-6 each day with Sundays off. So it is three months of pretty steady work but we try to keep those normal hours so we don’t completely destroy our personal lives!
How complete were the demos that you had beforehand? Were there vocals with some accompaniment or were they more complete?
It was a little bit of both. Colin does most of it in Logic and he can put in drumbeats, bass lines, and fake horns, whatever. If he has an idea for something, he’ll usually put it on the demo if he has time. If he doesn’t have a specific idea that he wants in there, he might just give them to us as vocals and guitar. The songs are pretty complete ideas when we get them but there’s definitely a lot of room for interpretation of the instrumentation and performances and stuff. Sometimes we change the arrangements a little bit but this record, because it was one continuous story for the whole thing, he had it pretty much put together when he presented it to us. When we all get together, we figure out who’s going to play what, which instruments and how it’s all going to fit together.
You were also involved in arranging the strings for the album.
Yeah, Jenny (Conlee, keyboards & accordion) and I did the string arrangements. Both of us got scoring programs recently and we decided that Jenny and I would take different songs to arrange and then bring in a real string quartet rather than bringing our friends in and trying to figure it out! Jenny and I came up with pretty straightforward, simple arrangements and it’s just amazing the difference between having a violin and cello and then having a real quartet – it’s such an incredible sound!
How has it been adapting the new material live?
We’ve only performed it once at SXSW and it’s really a monster to achieve live (laughs)! There are so many different instruments on it plus all of the songs go one into another! Switching is so much harder when you don’t have time to do it and I switch from electric to upright quite a bit. I also use more effects than I ever have before so I have to remember which song uses which pedal which isn’t that big of a deal except with all of the songs going continuously, you really have to have everything set up so that you can switch fast. Once we get used to it, it will be easier but it was a monster to figure out! There’s even one switch where I let the upright ring out while I hand it off to the guitar tech so that the note is still ringing when I put on the electric and then start the next song!
The Decemberists onstage with a 'special guest'
You are using your AG 500 and GS 410/GS 212 rig correct?
Yeah! I actually have two AG 500’s now – one is the single and channel and the other is the dual and I run my upright through one of them and my electric through the other. For cabinets I have the electric going through the GS 212 and the upright through the GS 410. I added the second head about a year or two ago which is great because it is a lot easier to just keep the electric and upright in completely separate rigs than to try and combine them. I used to combine them and run them through the whole stack.
Yes, I remember in our last interview with you that you used a mixer to blend the two.
Right and also at that point I was playing cello so I had a custom-made, three-channel mixer so that I could control the levels onstage without affecting my D.I. sends. Now I just run the electric and upright separately and it makes it a lot easier to control the overall tone.
Are you using a separate D.I. or the one on the AG 500?
I’m actually using it out of the amp now. When I was running that mixer I had everything going to another D.I. but I started using the Aguilar ones and our sound guy loves them so it makes things easier and takes another item out of the signal chain! I usually run it on ‘Pre-EQ’ but if I use the amps distortion, I run it on ‘Post EQ’ obviously.
Thanks Nate for taking time out of your busy schedule to share your creative process with us! Hazards of Love has been getting plenty of spins here at HQ!
For more on The Decemberists, check out: http://www.decemberists.com/ or http://www.myspace.com/thedecemberists
Also, be sure to check out or previous interview with Nate here: http://www.aguilaramp.com/artist_of_the_month_nate_query.htm
We recently had the chance to chat with Nate about the new album and the difficulty in performing such a work live.