I got a chance to have a lengthy discussion with Aaron Pillar of the Appleseed Cast last week as he made the drive to his day job. The band kicks off its April tour at Jake's on Wednesday, beginning a string of dates in the US with what's sure to be a great show in Bloomington. With a stellar new album, a new bassist and drummer, and the Cast's second-ever Bloomington show fast approaching, we had a lot to talk about.
Live Buzz: Why did you name the new album Sagarmatha? That's the Tibetan name for Mt. Everest, right?
Aaron Pillar: There's a book I read a few years back in Europe called Into Thin Air, so I just got this whole interest in mountain climbing and what-not. I had remembered that name and basically it was just something to sort of stimulate visuals and ideas. I thought the Sagarmatha thing could just mean a lot of different things. There are a couple different translations for it too--I'm using it more as allegory for some imagery. We were drawing this sort of ambiguous story about zombies and an apocalyptic future and I was watching a lot of television at the time. It just sort of gave us something to put to the music that turned out to be a bit darker than we had a vision of the songs being. It was just a starting point, a weird name we could call the record and write about.
Continued interview after the jump!
LB: So, was that concept something you wanted to build the album around: zombies and an apocalyptic future?
AP: We wanted it to have maybe a precise direction like,"this is the story, and this is how it goes." Unfortunately its one of those things where, at least from my perspective, it's a very difficult thing to pull off the concept record and actually have it make sense. I think that's something that we're working on now--we 're already looking to the future, and something we've discussed already is working more from that perspective as opposed to working from what we've been doing, putting lyrics in later. We have no problem being an instrumental band, but at the same time we're not sold on anything. Next record we thought would be really cool to have the story, have what the song was about, even if we don't have a concept.
LB: Even when there are vocals, it very much has the feel of an instrumental album. Is this a new direction, and were there any specific influences on the record's sound? Was the album meant to be more instrumental?
AP: In honesty, one of the initial thoughts we had on the record was having it as an instrumental EP. In the real world of having to pay bills and work and all those things, we just didn't have the time to just do that and knock it out--it ended up being a full record. We did start with some very instrumental songs that ended up actually having lyrics over them. With the initial 4 songs that were going to be on the EP, only 1 stayed instrumental--we've always been that way when we're writing. Me and Chris just start geeking out on guitar tracks, say,"we could put a backwards xylophone track over this," etc.
As far the vocal itself goes, I think Chris and I have always wanted to treat it as an instrument. If it works and it's super important and it's great it'll be more dominant, if it's just a part of the song it's just part of the song, just another instrument. Maybe with some of the effects we chose to use this time, I would agree it's a little heavier than we've gone in the past. We had some new toys and we just wanted to play with them
LB: Do you have a favorite song on the album?
AP: I'll tell you my favorite moment on the entire record is the transition in "A Bright Light" from the last heavy chorus to the quiet outro. That transition was something I thought was a cool juxtaposition, and the way Ed mixed the guitar part into it--that 30 second moment just makes me really happy. As far as an entire song, there's something to be said for "The Road West", I was really happy with that song, and it's really fun to play live
LB: You worked with a former producer on this album, Ed Rose--how was that, and what was recording like this time around?
AP: It was fun--we definitely all love to tinker and play with things. There really seems to be a kind of working with Ed where he gets almost kind of giddy again, like, "Oh these guys again, now we're going to break out all our toys." He always enjoyed that part of it. There's also a level of frustration that we aren't as prepared as we'd like to be--there are always loose ends we're going to figure out at the last moment; it drives Ed crazy.
LB: We've heard a little bit of electronic experimentation from you guys in the past ("Mountain Halo"), but songs like "Like a Locus" show you exploring it a bit more on the new record. Is electronica something the band is interested in, and what role does electronica play in your band's music?
AP: From my point of view, I don't really listen to it much, but Depeche Mode is one of my favorite bands of all time. Since we don't have a full-time dedicated keyboard player, there's a juxtaposition between what we play live and the studio thing where we're like, "look at all the cool noises we can make on a keyboard." I think a lot of that is on this record just because we're really feeling comfortable with saying we can't really ever do that. That "Like a Locus" song was really Ed having this old British drum machine--he was just like, "hey look at this thing," and before you know it we're looping a bunch of drums.
I don't want to say I don't care about we do--obviously I do--but we could never try to build on something like, "on that last record that song seemed to be the hit, so let's build on that." Anything that makes cool noise, we'll fuck with it, and we'll use it, and we'll be excited about it.
LB: This is your second record on Militia--how has the label been working out for the band?
AP: It's working. I guess I'm not in a very favorable frame of mind as far as anything sort of industry-related goes. I work in the food industry; it's a pain in the ass. I'm also affiliated with the record industry and it's a pain in the ass. Things get so complicated that it's kind of frustrating to me: it's not real; it's not true; life can't be that simple I guess. Everybody's trying to do the best we can, but sometimes I wish things were a lot simpler.
Right now my main focus is next Wednesday at Jake's in Bloomington. That day: getting there, making sure we're on time, and when that show's over, the next night. When we get home and there are no more shows, we can worry about the next record--I want the focus to be about the music. When I get caught up in all that other stuff it makes it weird and not what it should be: it should be fun.
LB: You guys have a new bassist and drummer for the new record--are they as good live as they are on the album? How have they been working out?
AP: Really well--just some people we knew in town. It worked out luckily that we all kind of mesh, but there are maybe some different rules we have now. Everybody knows what they need to worry about and what they don't; what's expected and what's not. A little more structure I suppose.
The west coast part of this tour was great, we had a really good time--no wackiness whatsoever. The only issue we had was getting pulled over by the border patrol.They're definitely really cool guys who really like to play music, and there's kind of a nice vibe of wanting to want to fuck around a little every night. More experimentation, a looser interpretation of the songs--the reins are off a little bit.
LB: Are you excited to get back out on the road? How do you think this spring's tour will be?
AP: I have so much fun; it works out with my job at a good time to be doing this. At the end of the last tour it kind of made us all feel like we're really lucky to be able to do what we do. If we can keep putting fun music out there, that's good; we can stay busy and keep playing shows. I have a blast, man. I'm excited to get back.
LB: Ever played in Bloomington before? What was last time like?
AP: I know we played there with Murder By Death, but it was only that once in 2007, so it's been a while. It was good--a lot of people were pretty into it. I would expect us to bring some rock.
LB: What's next on the Appleseed Cast agenda? Any plans for side projects, solo albums, or collaborations?
AP: Chris has to finish the Old Canes record first, and I've got some stuff that's more kind of random bits and pieces of soundscape kind of things I've been wanting to work out. Chris has some more riff-rock kind of stuff; we were proposing a solo split record kind of thing, and we have a friend in Chicago who might want to put it out. We want to hang out this summer and make music and see what happens, and from my vantage point it's going to be definitely more sonic experimentation stuff. To kind of put it out there: some weird stuff. I always say that and then I'm doing some flamenco guitar or something really wacky. Maybe I'll start a death metal band or something.
