TVHH Q&A pt.5

the very hush hush

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with eye contact and body language. In that respect, the creative process remains honest and is not entirely unlike fucking.

PETER:

Sometimes we'll write a song and step away from it and be like, "Well, this is going to make our exes hate us," or, "This is going to make someone dance." But that is pretty much the extent of us discussing emotional content as pertaining to how it could cause reaction in someone.

What is more important to us is how the feelings of the songs themselves are sketched out. And our plan so far has been to present musical ideas followed by a hook that ends the song. This is our pull-and-release sound that is so satisfying for us to listen to. Emotionally, there is a small epiphany at the end of every song we write. Some are more obvious such as 'That Look', and 'Love, Like Love', or 'Green'. There are a few modern bands out there that have really honed in on this somewhat, 'transcendental sound'. Esp. groups like Interpol (on Turn on the Bright Lights) and people like Jeff Buckley (on Grace).

You also spoke of Mourir C'est Facile as an album that aspires to de(con)struct, unlike Washingsongs which voices aspiration and hope for change. Is Mourir C'est Facile, then, an expression of futility, a realization that the aspirations of the previous album were not drastic enough for this world?

GRANT:

I wouldn't say Mourir C'est Facile is an expression of futility. Washingsongs does express a hopeful expectation of change, but change will come whether you hope it to or not. Where Washingsongs is an expression of part of the cycle of change, Mourir C'est Facile is a more complete emotional construct. The first four songs are an angry deconstruction of Washingsongs' hopeful tone: seeing forever, drowning, spiritual vampirism, ripping one's own eyelids off--it's all imagery of destruction, but necessarily so. However naïve they are, when you're hopeful aspirations get kicked in the gut, are you supposed to be happy about it? To quote Lillard's character in SLC Punk, "What are you supposed to do when your foundation falls apart? They don't teach you that in school."

With the exception of the last track, the rest of the album picks up the broken bits of the first half and attempts to make sense of them. 'Coup de Main' is a synthesis of cynical destruction and cautious creation. The 'concrete' emotional content fits best under the implications of the title--dying is easy...it's living that is difficult- If you are to do it with compassion and dignity.

PETER:

Emotionally, Mourir C'est Facile's brethren would be Kate Bush's, Hounds of Love - an album also split into two parts to guide the listener through a metamorphosis.

Through playing out live and finding a sound that worked for jaded audiences, we became increasingly excited about transferring this new energy into our recorded work. While in the studio we found we had two very different voices. One was the hateful, reactionary, despondent 'live' voice. The other was a more compassionate side that wanted only to show how the anger was misguided- or could also be considered beautiful if seen in a better light. These two lines of thought were reintegrated and helped compose the emotions within the framework that help support the ideas hanging from Mourir C'est Facile.

You are right in believing that Washing Songs was not drastic enough for us. Even after the EP was done I was already thinking about how there needed to be something to justify such a tender response. So, finally, we get justification in our new album.

I think that Colorado has an interesting musical history, but with very little to show for it. It's certainly not in the ranks of the most fecund artist-gardens (like, say, Nashville, Kansas City, Austin, New York), but there's a certain Western machismo quality to the Colorado music scene--at least it seems that way to me. When I started going to punk shows at the Raven back in high school, I got the sense that if you were a musician out of the mainstream (a la Opie Gone Bad, Chris Daniels and the Kings, The Samples, Leftover Salmon, and other such blues/funk/jam band fusions) it was easy to be looked over. Furthermore, I remember watching Pinhead Circus a number of times and thinking that they had such an arrogance about them purely because they were the most revered punk band in the Metro area, with a song on some national punk compilation.

So what are your readings on the Colorado music scene, particularly in such a time when independently produced bands are acquiring more power and circulation than they have before? What's it like being a musician in Colorado? Is there a gritty underbelly or a competitive edge? Or is it a very positive environment in which to make both music and a business out of music?

GRANT:

First, it's important to note that we are no longer in Colorado. We moved to Oakland earlier this year, in part to live in an area that seems a bit more nurturing to the ideal of independently producing your own music. There is competition and a 'gritty underbelly' both in the Denver music scene. I don't think it's fair to say that Boulder has a music scene. Unless washed-out potheads making noise is a scene. I always seem to return to the same central idea when...

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