BIRDMONSTER
The SiS Interview by Mike Randall

Reader, have you ever met Birdmonster? If so, please reintroduce yourself because things have changed. If not, welcome, you’re sure to enjoy your stay. With the August release of their second full-length, From the Mountains to the Sea, the San Francisco quartet has pulled one of the great 180’s in indie-rock history, removing the abrasive freak-out-laden guitar assault of their debut, No Midnight, in favor of a more melodic, folk-and-70s-rock-based style. Think less Replacements, more Springsteen. Songs like “New Country” clearly lean more toward the Stones’ side of the track, and Ryan Adams’ Gold comes to mind in that the record is choc full of richly crafted songs that run the gamut of tight, heartfelt folk (“My Love For You,” “Lost at Sea” are highlights) and driving, straightforward rockers (“The Iditarod,” “Greenland Sound”).

In talking to Birdmonster frontman Peter Arcuni, one gets the sense that Mountains is the record he would have preferred to make all along. Arcuni checked in with Stranded in Stereo while driving the hills of San Francisco en route to rehearsal with his band to let us know why the sudden shift really wasn’t that much of a surprise, and how Birdmonster once was compared to Huey Lewis and the News.

SIS: How has the summer been treating you?

PA: Everything’s been going well, it’s been going by really fast. With a new record there are so many things you have to take care of and all these details – approving artwork, we’re redoing our Web site and getting new merchandise. There’s just so much stuff that goes on behind the scenes, I think it’s hard for people to even realize it.

SIS: Do you mind dealing with that stuff?

PA: Actually, I don’t mind it that much. If you get into it too much it takes away from the music. I’m having to do it right now for the next month or two but once the record’s out I’m kind of looking forward to just playing music and writing music again.

SIS: There is a clear, undeniable difference between this record and the last one. In your words, how would you say From the Mountains to the Sea compares to No Midnight?

PA: What I tried to do (on Mountains) is just kind of focus on writing songs, you know? Kind of following some of the ideas I had in my head and trying to realize them. On this record I’d play a song on an acoustic guitar, just by myself, or with minimal instrumentation, and with the integrity of that in tact, all the rock and roll and all the great layers that you add to it, there’s much more of a foundation there.

I think with the first record – on purpose, really – we tried not to over-think anything. It was the first time I played with a big, loud rock band so I was excited to just let go and not over-think it and have it not be refined and have it be as cohesive as it wanted to be. This time around I really wanted to write something that would hold up as a conceptual body of work.

SIS: Would you say this one identifies more with your roots than the last one?

PA: Yeah, probably. You know, I grew up listening to Bob Dylan and that kind of stuff and the Rolling Stones and that kind of stuff. And then when I was in college I discovered country music and Neil Young and all that kind of stuff. To me (the new record) is way more us than the last record. When you listen to them back-to-back I totally understand what people are saying (about the differences in sound), but at least for me it wasn’t like a big decision to pick up an acoustic guitar. That’s how I always write songs.

SIS: Even from the first listen, the new record sounds like it has less of a collision of influences and fewer twists and turns. Would that be a fair assessment?

PA: When you write songs and you arrange songs, what’s always been important to our band is that we kind of let the song be more important than us. So with the types of songs I was writing, the band was interpreting how they were and that’s one thing I love about playing with these guys - on no level are any of us trying to come up with things for our own purposes. You can write a guitar part that’s really cool but if it doesn’t fit the ethos or the philosophy of what’s going on in the song, then it’s gonna detract. So I think on a whole we were all on the same page about making this a less-is-more project. Not that we didn’t focus on details because we did a lot of work on that. The details are there and the layers are certainly there but on some level the amount of notes we’re playing are much more minimal and that’s probably why it sounds a lot less like putting stuff in a blender and seeing what happened.

SIS: Was it a conscious decision to be less aggressive this time out?

PA: It’s a conscious effort after you come up with it, I think. In terms of writing it’s not over-thinking it because the truest thing is what you’re inclined to do naturally and it was nice for me to get a break from the totally sham-bolic rock and roll we’ve been doing.

SIS: You guys are sort of known for your on-stage onslaught and intensity. How do you think the new record will translate to a live setting?

PA: You never know, but we’ve been playing a lot of shows and we just had a show last night and it felt really good. You never sort of know what people are going to respond to. People don’t want to see the same show every time. Of course, when you change and when you grow and things are different, you’re going to get people not wanting to go along for the ride. But if you don’t do this you just get stale and you get bored and you get to this point where it feels like an act and you’re just up there playing, going through the motions. Energy doesn’t have to necessarily always translate to standing around on one leg, I guess. It can be taken out of stillness, too. If it doesn’t feel right it’s not going to be good and people are smart enough to know that.

SIS: Are you still going to play those old songs?

PA: Oh sure. We’ve been working on some new arrangements for those old songs that are kind of in the style of music we like to play and that’s kind of a fascinating thing for me. I enjoy trying to make the show dynamic and trying to make the show different - making (older songs) more true to what you’re doing now.

SIS: “I Might Have Guessed” sounds like a slice of Ryan Adams Americana, while “The Iditarod” sounds like one of the warmest, most pop-friendly tracks you guys have recorded. I feel like that’s always been somewhere in the mix, especially on No Midnight’s title track, but never quite as much in the forefront. Was there something specific that brought that to the surface?

PA: When we were touring on No Midnight we did do a bunch of acoustic shows, either with radio stations or record stores and stuff like that. I think the band feels really comfortable in that setting and it was just funny that we never did that before. It’s almost more surprising to me that we made No Midnight than this record, in terms of the music we listen to. When we’re just hanging out or playing in a backyard we play acoustic music primarily, unless we’re in a rehearsal space. It just seemed to us like it was so obvious to explore that and make sure it translated to a record.

SIS: I’ve never met you guys but from what I’ve heard, this record sounds like it’s more fitting of your personality than anything you’ve done in the past. Is there any truth to that?

PA: Yeah, I think so. I’m not trying to justify the first record – I’m proud of everything we do. What’s funny is a lot of interviewers or a lot of people we talk to are like, ‘You’re so mellow, I just wouldn’t expect you guys to be like this.’

SIS: Is there any kind of deeper meeting in the album title? What was the symbolism you were trying to convey?

PA: It’s an elemental record with elemental themes and landscape and how that inspires you in a sort of way of looking at the world. The title, it just made sense to me, and it’s tied to a lot of themes on the record.

SIS: What effect, if any, does living in San Francisco have on your sound?

PA: The great thing about San Francisco is that it’s not an insular community. It’s not incestual, it doesn’t really feel like much of a scene. The advantage of doing something in San Francisco is that as an artist you’re sort of encouraged to do what you want to do and not be worried what the scene is. I think it helps you not over-think what you’re doing. Certain bands probably thrive off competition – for us it’s kind of nice not to feel held to any big scene or cultural movement or anything. It’s kind of nice to feel like you can do whatever you want.

SIS: A lot of bands have been thrown out as influences of yours or at least colleagues with a hint of a similar sound – Pixies, Modest Mouse, Grateful Dead. Certainly this record seems like more of the latter than the former. Who do you think is the most far-fetched and who do you think is the most accurate?

PA: It was meant as a complement (laughing), and it’s ridiculous but I think it’s great – Huey Lewis and the News. I had no idea what this person was talking about - they said this to me after a show. I think it’s great, I welcome that kind of stuff.

Our producer, Tom (Schick, whose resume includes Ryan Adams, Norah Jones and Rufus Wainwright) was really into Neil Young, and I think he was happy that we were, too, and liked the idea of making this record, at least some of the way, like an old Neil Young record. Those great Stones records, those great Dylan records, those great Neil Young records – the reason why those records are great – and this is why I have to give so much credit to Tom – they weren’t over-thought. The producer’s work was important, but it was never about production, it was about song performance. I think Tom just brought that out of us - just focus on songcraft and songwriting, which sometimes gets pushed out of the way for a good beat or a catchy melody. I enjoy pop music, so I have no problem with that, but what we were trying to do was a more traditional kind of approach. (Tom) wanted us to worry about making sure we performed the song well and were in a comfortable environment. There was sort of an ease about it.

SIS: You released your debut on your own. As you guys have evolved into more of a full-time national touring band, has it been tough to maintain that do-it-yourself mentality? Where have you lost it and where does it remain?

PA: I think what attracted us to work with Fader was at the end of the day you have to be realistic with the resources you’re working with, and at the end of the day they gave us a lot of creative control. It was just great - they let us pick the producer, the songs, the sequence – they gave us a lot of freedom. As much as the money they invested in the record was important, I think the most important thing was that they wanted to see us develop. On that level I don’t feel like it’s at all very different. It’s nice not to have to feel like you have to hoc everything you own to get the record made. It’s a different animal doing tours and having all this talk of getting bigger, but at the same time everybody’s working hard and you have more people involved. As long as you don’t feel like it’s inhibiting your product, from my perspective it’s all good.

SIS: You were courted by a number of labels and seemingly took your time waiting for the right one. Sounds like looking back you’re pretty happy you shunned all those other labels?

PA: Yeah, we learned a lot about the industry on our own, which is nice. There was a lot of trial and error and I think it was nice to be self-managed and sell some records – we really know what it takes to do that and feel like we have our heads around that. Now that we’re working with a label I think it kinds of sets us up for being able to have more input and know what’s going on.

SIS: So, what’s up next? Any future recording plans or is it all touring at this point?

PA: We’ll tour the record, for sure. In terms of more recording and more songs, I’m just about to go into practice with the guys and we’re probably going to be spending most of the practice working on new songs. We recorded about 25 songs for the record and there are only 12 on the record, so there’s a lot of old songs we’ve been working on and then we have some new ideas. I’m already thinking about the next record.