The Days of Lore

I’ve got a good story that includes almost everyone on your list. Last spring at the end of our West Coast tour we came home to a Portland night with lots of show/bill competition. The list of headlining shows in town included Colin Meloy, Norfolk & Western, Laura Gibson, Dolorean, Jose Gonzalez, Laura Veirs, etc., etc., and WEINLAND. We were playing a pretty small club and were a bit daunted by the other shows taking place that evening, but it was our coming home from tour show, so we went in full force. Just as our show was finishing, which ran later than the others, all the folks from town that had shows that night started filing down to where we were playing—just because everyone wanted to get together and hang out. We finished our set and began the process of saying “hey.” Chris Funk (The Decemberists) asked me what I thought about getting a “jam” going. Within a few minutes we had formed a supergroup consisting of Colin Meloy and Chris Funk, Rachel Blumberg (M. Ward, Norfolk & Western), Dave Depper (Loch Lomond, Norfolk & Western), Scott McGaughey (R.E.M., Minus 5), Laura Gibson and, of course, WEINLAND. We played some very rambunctious and completely off-the-cuff covers, from John Lennon to Neil Young songs. It was an absolutely amazing experience.

In the live setting do prefer to stay true to the recording, or is that a place to allow things to become more unhinged?
We tend to blow things up a little. It really depends on the venue. When we’re playing a sit-down theater, we’ll be pretty true to the recordings. A few weeks ago we did some dates with Neil Halstead and we even brought things down a few notches from how they were recorded. But in general, we let it out quite a bit when we play live.

Our music is really sincere and intentional and sometimes somber, but we have a ton of fun playing and performing and that shows in how we interpret the live versions of the songs. I have definitely finished a few shows hoarse from screaming—not on purpose, but I just get carried away in the moment. I think that’s one of the reasons our live audiences have been growing so steadily over the years—every show is different and filled with good energy.

How different was the approach to Breaks In the Sun from La Lamentor?
La Lamentor was recorded over the course of a year. Every month or so we would spend a few days in the studio working our partially finished songs and committing them to tape. La Lamentor was also our first label album, and when we started we hadn’t signed anything yet, so we were conscious of that.

“Autumn Blood” has sort of a ’70s AM radio feel to it. What was the influence behind that?
When I was coming up with the chords and the vocal line, I certainly didn’t expect Ian [Lyles] to lay a disco beat over the verses. But when he did it just sort of fit, so we stuck with it. That song has more of a concept than most of the songs I’ve written. The lyrics aren’t entirely personal, though I connect with them. It’s written from the perspective of someone else. It’s easier to be more experimental with a song when you don’t have to protect yourself in its arrangement. I think that’s what gives it that feel—we were were not bridled to any specific approach and we just played what came out. We were all excited because we thought the verse and the hook were reminiscent of Tom Petty. Even though I don’t listen to a lot of Petty, I always appreciate his hooks and the drive of his music.

And you’ve fully embraced the band approach to writing songs?
Things always have to start somewhere and often the songwriting starts with me. But on this record there’s a song that starts with Paul [Christensen, piano] and two more that he brought to life with his additions to the writing. I feel like everyone is finally completely comfortable with the fact that we are a unit and it shows in how people played and arranged their parts for Breaks In the Sun. Live and off stage we are very much equals through the process, so it feels really comfortable to have that translate to the recordings.

What can people expect from the upcoming tour?
People can expect all sorts of things, but we won’t be handing out any promises! We feed off the energy from the audience and if you come looking for a rowdy time, I’ll be you’ll get one. If you come looking for a quiet, introspective listening experience, we can deliver that as well. We have enough instrumentation in our arsenal and enough variation in our songwriting to play the kind of show the audience wants, and we never make a setlist before we can get a read on what people are looking for that night. We enjoy all aspects of our dynamic, so it’s another fun level of getting to be creative to try and tailor our sets … sometimes we miss the mark, but we’re getting pretty good at it.

“Autumn Blood” - WEINLAND

“Sunken Eyes” - WEINLAND