TAS in Session: Hey Marseilles

Seattle septet Hey Marseilles self-released their vivacious, chamber pop debut To Travels and Trunks in December 2008. For over a year, they remained one of the Pacific Northwest's best kept secrets until this past summer, when their beautifully crafted album finally received its long-overdue national release through Onto Entertainment.

The members of Hey Marseilles -  Matt Bishop, Nick Ward, Philip Kobernik, Patrick Brannon, Samuel Anderson, Jacob Anderson and Colin Richey - have subsequently toured the country, landing in New York not long ago. They made their way to The Alternate Side's Studio A to play tracks from To Travels and Trunks, like "Rio" and "Gasworks," and also revealed their admiration for Lil Wayne and the perils of their dirty tour van.

If you happen to be in Oregon this November, you can catch Hey Marseilles play Portland on November 11 and Eugene on November 12.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOls86LwllE]

Kara Manning: Is it true that the title track of the album To Travels and Trunks was the very first song you ever wrote as a band?

Matt Bishop: That’s true! Philip [Kobernik] had just bought his first accordion, not the one he has right now, off of Craigslist or eBay and Nick [Ward], Philip and I sat on their front lawn in a North Seattle neighborhood, drank some brewskis and wrote the song in a rather short period of time.

Kara: You’ve all been together since about 2006, meeting as students at the University of Washington?

Matt: Yeah, the first contingent of us met while students at UDub - Phillip, Nick and I, and Jacob [Anderson] also, were UDub students.

Kara: Were you studying music at the time or different majors?

Matt: We were all over the map. I think Philip is the only one with a music degree. You had a minor, right?

Philip Kobernik: It isn’t even music. It’s a minor in ethnomusicology which is arguably for people who can’t play instruments. I really wanted a music minor and that’s pretty much it.

Kara: Since you were all at UDub and Seattle has such a rich music legacy, especially in the 90s when you were kids and surrounded by bands like The Posies or Soundgarden, what attracted you to make this expansive orchestral pop?

Matt: I think with so many folks in the group, we all bring different elements to the table and what happens at the end is not necessarily what was intended when we came together at the beginning. When we first started writing music, I was very much into folk-pop tunes that focused on a lyric and a catchy melody and really, that’s all I bring to the table. The arrangements and layers that are very much a part of our sound are a product of Nick’s vision as well as the skills of Jacob, Sam [Anderson], Phillip, Colin [Richey] and Patrick [Brannon].

Kara: Seven guys in one room is a lot opinions, so it can be tough forging all of that into one identity. Has been that a challenge or easy?

Matt: It’s always a challenge. I think we’ve gotten better in terms of understanding how to do that. Hopefully we’ve gotten better. We’ll see how the next album sounds.

Kara: To Travels and Trunks was actually released in December of 2008 locally. You just did this on your own?

Matt: Yeah, we printed it up on our own and sold it out of the back of pockets or vans, whatever we could put the CDs in. We had no idea what we were doing business wise. That’s kind of what we’re doing now, as a national release.

Kara: You’ve hooked yourselves up with a guy named Dave Meinert who has become kind of a music and political celebrity in Seattle.

Matt: He’s got his hands in a lot of pots in Seattle and certainly in the political scene and how that relates to the music scene. He’s a player in that certainly.

Kara: So going back to the legacy of Seattle and trying to resurrect that, do you think that bands like Hey Marseilles or Fleet Foxes or Band of Horses or the band you’re touring with, Ravenna Woods, that there’s a renaissance of sorts in the city?

Philip: It never really went away. Just the public focused shifted but the music history and creativity has always been there. It never stopped. It’s been a strong music town to start and we’re really lucky to play there.

Matt: It’s gotten more diverse, certainly with the folk pop scene and bands like Fleet Foxes and bands like Champagne Champagne, a favorite hip hop group of ours. Rock stuff is still absolutely alive.

Kara: And Bumbershoot, I think, is one of the best music festivals in the country.

Matt: There’s also another one that we play, the Capitol Hill Block Party that Dave Meinert runs. I think it’s gotten larger so I don’t think there’s one particular characteristic that defines [the Seattle sound] as much as it did in the 90s.

Kara: When To Travels and Trunks came out nationally, was it a huge relief to finally get these songs, some of which are over five years old, out to an audience?

Matt: It’s always really validating to know that there are folks who are your neighbors but also across the world who are appreciate what you do. It’s also really cool when you read really scathing reviews and those are important to make sure that the next record is better than the last.

Kara: Speaking of the next record, I know you’ve been doing new material in your live shows. But what is going on with the sophomore record?

Matt: We are writing more and more songs. Everything we had went onto To Travels and Trunks and it’s 13 tracks, but we want to do it differently next time. We’re hoping to get somewhere in the realm of 20 to 30 tracks and then really focus on the solid ones.

Kara: Would you self-produce this time or bring in a producer?

Nick Ward: Self-produce it.

Kara: There was a bit of indecision there! Matt, you looked at Nick and Nick, you sort of made the decision!

Matt: I just write the lyrics and the catchy melodies and let those guys make the decision!

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG4vvlPjSP0]

Kara: Is "Gasworks” your most recent song, just for the national release? You remixed this album for the re-release?

Matt: When we remixed and remastered this album for a national release, we added this track. So it’s a track that wasn’t on [the original CD] that we were selling just in Seattle.

Kara: It refers to where you used to play in Gasworks Park?

Matt: Yeah, Gasworks Park is a really cool park in Seattle on the north side of Lake Union and it’s not infrequent for us on sunny days to go play there.

Kara: Do you busk?

Matt: I don’t. Philip does.

Kara: So only one of you gets money?

Matt: Well, to those who need it!

Kara: What was your best busking day?

Philip: Cash money. I made upwards of $200. People love accordions.

Kara: You’re out of Seattle, but there’s a real Gallic sensibility to this record. A sense of wanderlust and yearning too. Where does that affinity to French pop come from? Nick, I know you have a French mother.

Nick: Yeah, I think we were attracted to the old world sensibilities.

Kara: There were touches, to me, that reminded me of Yann Tiersen's soundtrack for Amélie.

Nick: For sure. Philip and I have always been attracted to late romanticism composers. I grew up listening to grunge and so later, when I started picking up guitar, I started listening to classical music and really liked the feel of it. So we’ve been interjected it into our music.

Kara: Matt, is it true that you lived in Australia for a while?

Matt: I did, in high school for a bit.

Kara: So were you influenced by the music scene down there?

Matt: Not really. I was listening to Christian pop-rock when I lived in Australia. They have a sweet scene there for that, in the late 90s at least. Phillip is actually the one who lived abroad the most, in the Middle East, so there’s definitely a wanderlust to who we are, as individuals and that certainly plays itself out.

Kara: You tossed out some interesting band names before settling on Hey Marseilles.

Matt: Nick wanted to be called Marseilles. I wanted to be Hey Hey Marseilles and we came to an agreement right in the middle. There were some other really bad names, like Left Out Counties. That was some pseudo-political alt-country thing that I thought would be cool but it turns out we didn’t make that type of music so it would have been inappropriate.

Kara: Your arrangements on songs like “Calabasas” are extremely complex. When translating the songs to a live setting, has is been not as difficult as you imagined ... or worse than you ever thought it could be?

Matt: Both. I think we pull it off in a way that’s unique to the live show for us. Our strength is absolutely our live set. But we spend a lot of time agonizing over the opinions of seven different guys over how to pull that off.

Kara: Who is loudest and who usually wins?

Matt: Nobody ever wins. We are perpetual losers hanging out together (laughs).

Kara: Matt, you write all of the lyrics. Do usually come into rehearsal with strong lyrical ideas?

Matt: More recently it’s really been feeling out the song and getting a sense of how it speaks to me. “From a Terrace” was definitely one of those that spoke to me in certain way and the lyrics reflect that.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAVcYYsP8Y4]

Kara: The title "From a Terrace" reminds me of a John O’Hara novel. Are you influenced by a lot of novelists and poets?

Matt: I would like to say I’m well-read in that regard, but that would be a lie. I was an English literature major in college and absolutely, I’ve read a lot of contemporary stuff and was focused on contemporary poetry, but wouldn’t say that necessarily plays itself into my writing in any conscious way.

Kara: That song unfolds just like a movie to me; if you could write the score to any film, present or past, which would you choose?

Colin Richey: “Bladerunner.”

Philip: “Mad Max.” “Road Warrior.”

Kara: Are you guys greatly influenced by cinema?

Matt: I would say yes, but not because of anything I do.

Nick: I think we’re more influenced by film composers. Philip Glass in particular was a big inspiration to me and Philip. Minimalist, romantic composers. Yann Tiersen.

Kara: There’s a John Barry quality too.

Nick: Absolutely. Something that evokes a lot of emotion. I’m drawn to that.

Kara: There are a lot of orchestral pop bands, like Efterklang, Fanfarlo, The Mummers, Freelance Whales and there is a different shift in which these bands tour. When you were forming Hey Marseilles, were you very aware of other bands that made this kind of music?

Nick: I think so. We weren’t consciously trying to make this master plan of an orchestral sound. It just happened to turn that way.

Matt: Based on who we asked to start playing stuff and the instruments that Nick would find at the mall and want to buy.

Kara: Now that you have national distribution, you also have your first video for the single “Rio.” That was done in one take?

Matt: We had about 15 attempts but yeah, that’s one take. Hayley Young is the name of the photographer and now filmographer - that was her first video. She does a lot of band photos in Seattle and she’s brilliant in so many ways. She wanted to try this with us and because it was her first go, was willing to work on the budget we could afford which is “not much” since we have seven people in the band. It was just a cast of characters and friends who showed up and they practiced for a couple of weeks. A very organic, community based video. The final one was probably shot at midnight with crying babies in the background and unhappy wives and children.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG3s1h7Tjf8]

Kara: There are no women in your band either. Okay, how awful is your van?

Matt: How awful? Okay, let’s talk about this, actually. We have garbage bags that some people don’t use. And I don’t know if the video camera is catching this, but I’m looking at Jacob. It’s his family van so he can do whatever he wants with it. Starbucks cups everywhere. Yeah, I’m calling it out.

Kara: Now that you’re really out and touring, what have you all picked up about yourselves as live performers?

Matt: We’ve picked up that someone needs to not leave their Starbucks cartons in the van.

Kara: If you could choose someone to do a cover of a Hey Marseilles song, who would it be and what would you give them?

Matt: I’d want Damien Jurado to cover my songs.

Colin: Lil Wayne.

Matt: That would also be awesome.

Kara: A duet?

Matt: That would be the ultimate. On “Rio.” That little rhythm breakdown in the middle? Lil Wayne could pop some stuff over that.