The touring thing is such a huge time commitment. I'm really feeling like I want to start writing and recording music again. But I have to leave for tour tomorrow. That's kind of frustrating; at the end of the day, you're plugging into this lifestyle. It's the "band lifestyle," and that's weird! I would like for touring to be creative in its own right.

Robin Pecknold

Categorized in : Commitment Writing Creative

I don't really hang out with anyone. I'll hang out with my band ... but I don't have any friends aside from that.

Robin Pecknold

hanging-out band

A label is like a bank with all these really important relationships, and maybe an aesthetic or a point of view. But if you only want to release two songs, you don't need the guy who can talk to all the retailers, because they're not going to stock two songs.

Robin Pecknold

guy important song

I was raised up believing I was somehow unique.

Robin Pecknold

raised unique believe

The notes sound like they're coming from inside your mind... It was the closest thing to a psychedelic experience I've ever had.

Robin Pecknold

psychedelic sound mind

I think that's becoming more and more of a priority, letting other aspects of life take precedent over making music, or just approaching the whole thing more holistically.

Robin Pecknold

priorities thinking

The lyrics to me are a result of the emotional and creative climate present while making the record as well as personally going through a sort of mid-twenties stock-taking.

Robin Pecknold

emotional creative

You want to make music that reflects your ideals, but considering the isolating process of recording and the time and energy requirements of touring, there aren't a lot of opportunities to express those ideals anywhere but the music itself.

Robin Pecknold

time-and-energy energy opportunity

Our vocal harmonies started to feel like a cop-out: all group-singing, all the time.

Robin Pecknold

harmony

Speaking for myself I have influenced with lots of John Coltrane, Van Morrison, Joanna Newsom, Mississippi Records compilations, Simon & Garfunkel, Duncan Browne, Judee Sill, Sublime Frequencies releases, Ali Farka Touré, John Fahey, Flower Travellin' Band, Sagittarius, Toumani Diabaté, Philip Glass, lots of different stuff.

Robin Pecknold

sublime different flower

Our day-to-day lives recording and touring aren't that different from those of Metallica, even though the perceived worldview is totally different. So that can be a difficult thing to reconcile sometimes.

Robin Pecknold

metallica different sometimes

They even let me do the ads for the album. I definitely want it all to be presented right, but I don't want to be selling. I mean, people do deluxe editions, and I don't even really know how I feel about those yet.

Robin Pecknold

selling mean people

I like having the vinyl, but it's not like we're going to sell an umbrella or something. I don't like the idea of selling something that's not music - I mean, I like going to shows and buying the shirt, but beyond that, I don't know. There's a lot of crap in the world.

Robin Pecknold

vinyl mean world

We're covering all our bases so we can do whatever we want next time. That's how we're looking at it, rather than this just being an endless number of album/tour cycles.

Robin Pecknold

next-time

I don't know that we're really going to need a label for the things we're thinking about doing next.

Robin Pecknold

thinking

We definitely classify things in order to get closer to what we believe in - so it serves a purpose to really think about one style of music, and to understand the shades of delineation between similar artists. But yeah, it's really nice to listen to something the way most people listen to music! Just to enjoy it, without having to put it in context.

Robin Pecknold

nice artist believe

I've been listening to a lot of John Coltrane. I don't know if that would or wouldn't surprise anybody. I go through different phases - sometimes I want to listen to music that's just pummeling.

Robin Pecknold

different listening sometimes

I was listening to this Ngozi Family record, 45,000 Volts, and it's mostly this guy singing, and then for the choruses, he's doubled. And it's not even harmonized, it's all the same note! And I'm like, "Oh, that sounds epic." I don't know, it's just one of those arbitrary taste things.

Robin Pecknold

guy epic listening

At the end of the day, for people in this position, you just need to make something that feels like you're expressing yourself honestly, something that you'd want to listen to. The rest of the aesthetic is kind of bullshit, and I don't mean that in a negative way - just that it's a choice.

Robin Pecknold

bullshit mean people

There are personal topics on the record that have nothing to do with creativity but were maybe amplified by the demands of the band. I can't say that none of these things would be present without creativity as a catalyst, but it was definitely on my mind a lot while writing.

Robin Pecknold

creativity mind writing

We're going out to play all the places where people might want to see us, because next time we might not just think about hitting every market or how we can make the most money.

Robin Pecknold

next-time people thinking