Horse Feathers: TAS In Session

Oregon folk collective Horse Feathers released a fourth, exquisitely crafted album earlier this year, the wryly christened Cynic's New Year. Despite the title, there's far more optimisim that makes its way into singer and songwriter Justin Ringle's thoughtful and often tender lyrics.

Horse Feathers embarks on a fall tour next month and a stop at Brooklyn's Knitting Factory is set for November 14. Over the summer the band — Ringle, violinist Nathan Crockett, cellist Lauren Vidal, second violinist Angie Kuzma and drummer/pianist Dustin Dybvi — dropped by Studio A. Read the interview and watch the three-song set of "Bird On a Leash," "Fit Against the Country" and "Where I'll Be" below.

Cynic's New Year is out now on Kill Rock Stars.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xaym1tRsgo4]

Alisa Ali: What an interesting image you conjure up with “Bird on a Leash.” Where did you come up with that?

Justin Ringle: Free association. I think I was drunk, maybe! It was one of those things that kind of came up one night. I just thought it was something I’d work on and a song came out of it.

Alisa: I understand when you first began recording this record, you built a studio in your attic?

Justin: That’s true. We recorded the majority of this record in the house that Nathan and I live in.

Alisa: Did you build it from scratch?

Justin: We didn’t build too much, but it was basically rearranging what was an attic space, almost a studio apartment, and then my bedroom became the control room. Privacy was gone.

Alisa: Are you going to keep it like that?

Justin: Actually, I’m moving from that place. It’s cool. Part of the problem was that it’s in southeastern Portland, pretty close to Hawthorne. You’ve probably seen it in “Portlandia.” It’s probably a block from that and it’s really loud so it was actually a pain to record there. We might find a different spot.

Alisa: Did you guys get into building your own little space?

Justin: We did out of necessity. We normally record in a studio that’s in Washington State but I wanted to have more people come and play on this record. I decided to do that pretty early in the process and that way it would facilitate people just dropping by.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4Haynrr8Hw]

Alisa: You picked up tons of local musicians. Eleven of them. Did you know all of them?

Justin: Pretty much. Skylar Norwood, who worked on the record with us and has done tons of records, he recommended a number of people. A lot of them were just people I know, just playing in Portland for a long time. We just called people and told them to come over. If they were available they could come over and record at a drop of a hat. Me and Skylar and Nate would sit down and figure out what kind of stuff we wanted and say, “Oh, this needs clarinet! Let’s call Scott! I just saw him walking to get coffee!”

Alisa: What was it like when these guys were coming in? Had you written their parts?

Justin: No, that was the beauty of it. We would collaborate. There were all different things that we’d do in that scenario; we’d have them come in and play. Sometimes it was fast and furious, do whatever you want and keep it really casual and fun. They’d get attached to something and then [ask them] to articulate it differently. We’d sit back later and curate it and take the best parts. That was one method we had when it was fast. But a lot of the string arrangements were me starting with a song and Nate and I working on a basic string part. His part was the template for us to expand into the other harmonies.

Alisa: So you spent a lot of time listening to tapes and pulling out parts? Or was it a bunch of musicians in a room with long jam sessions?

Justin: It was kind of both. Sometimes it was just playing [and tracking it live]. Dustin did a lot of that in which we’d have him come over and do the drums or piano we’d play the song live. We’d practice it for a few hours and then track it. There’s a number of songs like that, that weren’t as crazy with the arrangements. That’s was recording at home lends itself to; it’s more casual. There’s not 10 dollars a second going out the door.

Alisa: Did you pay all of these people?

Justin: It varied. Most of them got paid. There was one guy - Nate recorded on his band’s record and it was a trade. I’d pay [musicians] for as much time as they put into it. It wasn’t about the money, thankfully.

Alisa: When you have 11 musicians, that could get out of hand. You’ve got five [as your touring crew]. Wouldn’t you want to bring everyone?

Justin: Yes and no. There were never 11 people in the room. It’s a pretty subdued 11-piece band. There are some songs that are really minimal. But it was us pretty much cherry-picking people’s instrumental talents on some of the arrangements. [For the arrangements] it’s a question of the importance of the parts. The core of most of the songs is guitar, so it’s a question of what is the other instrumentation doing to add to the core? The song “Where I’ll Be” has a very prominent French horn part in it. But because we have two violinists, the string section can allude to what the French horn or viola part does. We try to pick out the most essential elements and see if we can translate.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWritH3DDoI]