Silversun Pickups: TAS In Session
Although Silversun Pickups has seen its share of indie rock mainstream success, thanks to singles like "Lazy Eye" or "Panic Switch," the Los Angeles quartet isn't content staying on a predictable path.
For its third album, Neck of the Woods, out now on Dangerbird Records, Silversun Pickups strayed on a darker, dreamier road, influenced as much by frontman Brian Aubert's affection for scary movies and contemplative late-night walks as by its new producer, Jacknife Lee, who has worked with U2, Editors and Bloc Party.
"I've always found the band's music to be a combination of tension and intensity, exemplified by Aubert's guitar style and vocals," observes The Alternate Side's Russ Borris who spoke Aubert and bassist Nikki Monninger when the pair came by Studio A for an acoustic session. "But, as people, Brian and Nikki weren't the least bit intense. In fact, they're actually quite funny. We joked about the band showing up to their very first gig with no songs as well as what it was like to record the new album in his hometown of Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles. The duo played a few songs from Neck of the Woods, plus the favorite "Panic Switch." Don't be fooled by the acoustic setting. These songs were still intense and definitely rocked."
Below read interview highlights and watch videos of the set which included "Bloody Mary," "The Pit" and "Panic Switch."
Russ Borris: [You have a] third record just out called Neck of the Woods. How did this one differ? Obviously there’s changes and differences; you worked with Jacknife Lee on this one. [Were there things] that you know you want to do differently?
Brian Aubert: Yeah, when we started writing it, with our second record, Swoon, we thought we were pushing ourselves further than we probably were. Songs were coming out and they were odd. Instead of trying to roll with them, I think — inadvertently — we put some safety blankets on it. Sonic things that [made] it feel more normal to us and brought it down to the Silversun universe in our heads. This time we thought the songs were coming out strange and even if we didn’t understand them, let’s leave them alone and not try to squish them into something that makes them more palatable for us. Hopefully we can catch up with them ....
Russ: It doesn’t feel that anything is limited at all.
Brian: They’re head-scratchers at first. Eventually we learned to love them. We knew they were coming out differently and we weren’t trying to strangle them in our own little way. We knew it was time for different battles in the studio. Dave Cooley, who was our producer the last couple of records, is like a brother to us, [but] we knew it was time to move on. I think we’re the only band in existence that called their other producer for a blessing before we moved on to Jacknife. [Dave] was cool. He knew that was the way to go and we just wanted to be nice. We’ll probably work with him again. But Jacknife offered something, besides his insanity, that we love. We met him through some friends of ours and knew that his approach and style was how we wanted to make this album. We [didn’t want] to be overrehearsed and pre-produced prior to going in and making it. We wanted it to all to happen, all at once.
Russ: Does he push or pull back?
Brian: All of it. When someone pushes, the other pulls back. When we both push, it’s great. It was the shortest amount of recording we’ve ever done, in a garage in the middle of Topanga Canyon which is where I’m from: in Los Angeles, up in the mountains, in the woods. It was like a little clubhouse for 10 insane weeks.
Russ: Almost like being home.
Brian: Unfortunately, a little bit.
Russ: Did that come into the writing a little bit?
Brian: Oh, completely. I went through my whole life all over again. In the beginning it was fun and then somewhere in the middle, like a teenager, it was like, “Get me out of here.” It got weird. I walked around my neighborhood a lot at night to try to inspire myself like an idiot. I did inspire myself and I was shocked when I was playing with fire like that. It came. I just think the weirdest part of it was the neighborhood watch doesn’t seem to work because it’s weird that there’s this guy walking around at one in the morning, staring at houses with headphones on.
Russ: On the album, that song ["Bloody Mary"] starts kind of sweet with a shimmery vibe to it and it builds into that intensity. A really cool effect.
Brian: That’s one of those things that happens when you’re pretty deep into an album and there’s a song that’s working pretty well. You like it, but you have to root for it and convince others. At that point you’re pretty locked in the album and you see what the album needs, more than anything. It was kind of acoustic and mellow and we didn’t know how to get it in there. I think Jacknife decided let’s go whammy bar crazy, big distorations, really big and pretty. It worked perfectly. We were inspired on all cylinders at that moment. Right away, we got it.
Russ: How does the process work as far as a song starting out? Do you grab a pen and paper and figure it out? Ideas in your head?
Nikki Monninger: My perspective is that I can hear Brian working on certain guitar parts, even at the end of touring. You can hear ideas coming up. He’ll come back to us with some recordings; he’ll do basic recordings.
Brian: Which was a big deal this time, actually. I think it made the record have the sound it has. I’d never demoed anything out for anybody. Since we’ve been left alone and had some dumb luck, we’ve had some success and everybody’s afraid to come near us. Management and the label just hope there’s a record being made and they’ll hear it when it comes out. They don’t want to screw with it. We didn’t want to stare blankly at each other and trying to describe what’s going on in my head, so I demoed for the first time ever and it had a quality to it that had a negative space and angular things. We fell in love with it. So did Jacknife. There’s stuff on the album that we just used the demo version because it wouldn’t get better than that. It really shaped the album in a way that we didn’t see coming.
Russ: One quality is this element of groove. With the electro-vibe, even a little dance-y. Like “The Pit” is totally like that.
Brian: I think the electronics are more obvious at this time. Again, with the drum machines, it was something that came up in the demo that we really liked. We used to mess around with that stuff a lot more when we began. Even our EP Pikul has these little moments of adventure. Somewhere along the line I felt that we lost that a little bit and wanted to reclaim that and be afraid. We started becoming afraid of doing things which is a terrible place to be.
Russ: Do you do it as far as the fans are concerned?
Brian: No, no. If you start worrying about things like that, adding different equations in the mix, you’re in trouble. You just have to try making music that’s as strong as it can be. Be the best band you can be. You can’t make a record by committee.
Russ: The thing about the acoustic version of “The Pit” is that there’s been kind of tension and intensity to the band. Musically and in your singing, Brian. You don’t strike me as an intense guy.
Brian: I probably would be.
Russ: If you didn’t have the outlet.
Brian: Yeah, I think about that a lot. It’s something that changes you, no matter what. It’s an intense experience doing this. I feel really relaxed and it makes me happier.
Russ: You have a song on the album called “Simmer,” but it really doesn’t seem to do that at all.
Brian: It depends on who you talk to, I guess! One thing we’ve already been happy about, as far as our band, is the music is really important to us and precious to us. We’re really guarded with it sometimes in a way that’s difficult for others to come in and work with us. As people, we don’t put that same thing on. We don’t see ourselves as precious at all. We’re just goofballs. We know how lucky we are. We were prepared when luck showed up. We don’t know why. We’re doing well. And we’re grateful for it. I don’t know how being in a band that does well doesn’t level you completely. I think we had more of an ego before we started this band. I know I thought I was cooler.
Russ: You get through the whole recording process. You write everything, it’s mastered, sequenced, everything. Do you listen to the record at that point?
Brian: It takes me awhile because even listening to it, in a way that’s super alien. You’re solving some puzzles soundwise and it keeps coming back to you. It starts to become ones and zeros a little bit, a little binary, and you’ve got to step away from it and then hopefully come back to it when you start rehearsing. When we start taking the songs and putting them in their live universe, it becomes real and fresh again.
