Some of your longtime fans have expressed disappointment that a band they see as having been staunchly anti-corporate in the past has signed with a major label. Was that a tough decision to make?
It felt really comfortable, like the natural progression, a logical next move to make. Picking what label out of the labels that were interested in us was difficult because I felt like there were a lot of good options available, and we wanted to make the best choice, but it wasn’t a stressful process or something that we regretted afterward. People have a lot of misconceptions about the way that it works—thinking that you sign to a major label, and they end up changing your sound or the way you write songs, which I honestly don’t think is very often, if ever, the case. I think that how records come out sounding on a major label has totally to do with the producer and the desires of the band. That doesn’t mean fans will be happy with it, but it’s not a record label guy being like, “This is the way it has to sound.”
What did producer Butch Vig [Nirvana’s Nevermind, The Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream] bring to your latest album, New Wave?
Working with him was a great experience. We looked forward to going into the studio every morning and didn’t want to leave at night. He gets really involved, really takes on a project. Because we were writing the record on tour, we would write five or six
songs and demo them and send him a copy of the demo, and he would give comments about what he thought and kind of divide them up into an A-list and B-list and C-list. Then we’d write five or six more songs and keep going like that. And once we felt like we had enough songs to really work with—about 25—we went to LA and narrowed that down to 12 or 14 contenders and went through those songs every day for two weeks, thinking about the strong parts and week parts of each song. And then we went in and started recording.
Ben Lee posted a song-by-song cover version of New Wave on his blog. Have you heard it, and if so, what did you think?
I’ve heard it, and it’s completely flattering. I’ve never met him before, had no idea that we were even on his radar, so it was completely out of the blue. When I heard that it was up there, I didn’t expect there to be as good a production on it. It’s not just him in front of a boombox singing the songs. It’s an actual studio recording ... pretty impressive. His music is obviously kind of different than ours, so for him to appreciate our music is flattering.
With Matt and Kim, David Dondero. September 14, 7 p.m., $15-$18. Jillian’s, 759-0450.