When I first started writing these kind of songs that would eventually become Decemberists songs, I was writing them because I knew that nobody was listening at the time and that it wouldn't hurt to challenge myself and get weirder and see if I could alienate more people

Colin Meloy

Categorized in : Song Writing Hurt

An old bandit adage: A bell is a cup until it is struck.

Colin Meloy

bandits bells cups

We are the inheritors of a wonderful world, a beautiful world, full of life and mystery, goodness and pain. But likewise are we the children of an indifferent universe. We break our own hearts imposing our moral order on what is, by nature, a wide web of chaos.

Colin Meloy

pain beautiful children

As she walked, she breathed a quick benediction to the patron saint of sleuthing. "Nancy Drew," she whispered, "be with me now.

Colin Meloy

benediction nancy saint

I'd rather have a strong career, playing and selling records to a loyal audience, then having one record that exploded. That would be devastating.

Colin Meloy

selling loyal strong

Music has been already devalued by the consumer. There's an expectation that it should be free so the race to the bottom has already been won.

Colin Meloy

race should expectations

When you get respect from the people who are buying your music and coming to your shows, there's an expectation that you have to live up to your own standards.

Colin Meloy

buying expectations people

You can't really come into a concept record objectively, because you immediately associate it with Yes, stuff from the 1970s that punk rock kicked against, the pretentiousness.

Colin Meloy

records rocks stuff

I think the music should definitely underscore the sentiment of the song, and it can work for or against it. It has just as much power in creating a kind of perpendicular sentiment in the music, creating a nice friction that also plays up some of the tension in the song.

Colin Meloy

nice song thinking

It is better to live presently. By living thus, perhaps we can learn to understand the nature of this fragile coexistence we share with the world around us.

Colin Meloy

fragile share world

I don't feel like we're setting ourselves up to be exclusive. I don't want to set up an attitude where we're telling people 'You can't listen to our music if you don't have a college degree.

Colin Meloy

college attitude people

Early on I was a lot more unsure of myself on stage. When our band The Decemberists was getting bigger audiences I was more concerned about alienating them, so I wasn't as willing to take risks and do weird stuff on stage. But once you get more accustomed to it you tend to have more fun with it and not worry about being pilloried for acting out. Whenever you play in front of 400 or 500 more people than you're used to it's always a weird, transitional period.

Colin Meloy

worry fun people

There's some things there that you just have to draw the line. Some people are just not going to like it. We would hope that everybody would like it.

Colin Meloy

draws lines people

No-one wants to hear anything spoken in earnest anymore, unless it happens to involve unrequited, teenage love.

Colin Meloy

unrequited teenage want

My mother was a Chinese trapeze artist in pre-war Paris Smuggling bombs for the underground. And she met my father at a fete in Aix-en-Provence; He was disguised as a Russian cadet in the employ of the Axis.

Colin Meloy

mother war father

There's a little less pressure in doing a solo tour, in some ways a simpler setup. A little bit more relaxed. But then also there's also - doing the big tours is exciting, because you get to put on the big show and everything. But I don't know if I would prefer one over the other. I guess it's no secret that I just don't like touring in general, but it's sort of the reality of the business these days.

Colin Meloy

secret exciting reality

All instruments sound fantastic in a church.

Colin Meloy

fantastic church sound

And I am a writer, writer of fictions I am the heart that you call home And I've written pages upon pages Trying to rid you from my bones.

Colin Meloy

home heart trying

Prog-rock and concept records and some ambitious projects were kind of anathema post-punk. They were destroyed with the advent of punk rock. You don't necessarily need to have a degree in music composition to play in a rock band anymore, which is a great thing.

Colin Meloy

advent ambitious kind

I pretty much draw the line when people want you to do original music for commercials.

Colin Meloy

lines want people

It was a nice relief to be able to work on individual songs.

Colin Meloy

relief nice song