Crumbler

“It just kept getting worse and worse. We did so many versions and ultimately we went back to a really early, rough version that just had the closest thing to the charm that that song needed to work. It’s a mystery why certain songs are really fragile—and especially a song like that, where, from a musical perspective, it’s not exactly high art. It’s one of the simpler songs. But maybe that’s exactly why the delivery of it had to be just right. Otherwise, it was going to feel heavy-handed or simplistic.”

“Bob Pollard is one of my favourite lyricists, but there are certain things he does that I try to avoid doing. I don’t want the songs to be abstract poetry or refrigerator magnet poetry. And that’s what Bob Pollard does. He does more than that, but he’ll put a street sign next to a Burger King slogan next to a Dylan Thomas quote. He’ll stitch things together in wild ways to see what kind of tension he’ll create by weaving those together. Sometimes what he’s doing, I think you can hear the randomness in it. And I guess I’m trying to avoid a little bit of that. That is where the weird energy happens, with the juxtaposition of types of phrases, but I scrutinize them to the point of the minutiae of those connections, and it takes a long, long, long time.”

“Getting on stage and performing and standing under lights is such an unsettling experience— in a good and bad way— but it’s the only place I can go to feel comfortable. It’s not hard to connect with the music on an emotional level and get inside the songs. It’s odd, very vulnerable, and slightly embarrassing to be standing and singing and playing music in front of a bunch of strangers. None of us are showbiz types, or entertainers or extroverts, so when we’re performing, we close our eyes, think about the songs, and just sink into the music.”