Back in the ‘Peg

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This article was published 06/07/2017 (3350 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been more than 15 years since American indie-rock band the Shins have played in Winnipeg.

Back in 2001, they played an opening slot for Preston School of Industry at the Pyramid Cabaret, the same year they released their debut record, Oh, Inverted World. That record was just the first in a line of critically acclaimed releases, but it wasn’t until their song New Slang was prominently included on the soundtrack to the 2004 film Garden State — in which Natalie Portman’s character Sam famously tells Zach Braff’s character, Andrew Largeman, the song “will change your life” — that commercial success fell into their laps in a big way.

The band released another record, the Grammy-nominated Wincing the Night Away, in 2007, before some major lineup changes left frontman James Mercer as the sole surviving member working on the next record. That was before he took a break to focus on a different band, Broken Bells, which he formed with with artist/producer Brian Burton (otherwise known as Danger Mouse).

After a five-year gap, the Shins released their new record, Heartworms, earlier this year; it’s the first record that has been largely self-produced by Mercer since the Shins’ 2001 debut.

It’s been a long path from the Pyramid to where they are now — a headlining gig at the Winnipeg Folk Festival’s Main Stage tonight.

Shins frontman James Mercer took some time to chat with the Free Press last week from his home studio in Portland about the band’s new album, Heartworms, gathering influences from other projects and nostalgia.

Free Press: The Shins have not played Winnipeg for more than 15 years, and I know it’s probably unlikely, but do you have any memory of playing Winnipeg for the first and only time as the Shins back then?

James Mercer: It would have been 2001 or something, maybe? Maybe with Preston School of Industry?… I can’t recall! I’m really bad about that, though. Especially… it’s funny, when I was touring early on it felt so extraordinary and strange to me that I have these vivid memories and then just a lot of it that I just don’t remember at all because I was so inside my head the whole time (laughs).

FP: But you were also here not that long ago with Broken Bells…

JM: Yeah, we had a good tour up there.

FP: So with that Broken Bells project being done between Shins records, did that impact or influence your work on Heartworms, sonically or maybe in the creative or production process?

JM: I mean I think working with Brian (Burton) taught me a lot in a lot of ways, and I mean I think there’s an approach to recording that I learned a bit from Brian – I was just thinking it’s unfair to say I took a lot from Brian’s sound because it would be so difficult to do… Mainly I think it’s an attitude that Brian has that I think is really healthy about recording and about art in general and it’s that you shouldn’t let yourself get bogged down overthinking things, you need to start doing shit and get something up there to listen to and to critique. Just start going, don’t sit there and overthink it, I guess, is one of the attitudes I’ve taken from Brian.

FP: And previously you were a bit of an overthinker?

JM: Yeah… it’s partly because the process was changed, it’s interesting… I mean when I first started playing in bands it was before you could really have a ProTools system in your home so I was working with 4-tracks or else we would hire an engineer who owned a proper tape machine and we would all practice and rehearse and go visit that person somewhere and we would do our best to perform it and record it. And then I think, as I got into… one of the things that made the Shins possible as a project was buying an early digital recorder and empowering myself to take over that engineering and recording role. Brian sort of started initially in that world, therefore he kind of thinks about songs as collage in a way and he just works in the digital world really well and really efficiently, and I think I’ve just learned more to take that approach because first of all it’s more fun — I used to just sit there and I would work really hard to create the song as a whole as if I were to go and tour it traditionally or something, like James Taylor playing or something (laughs) and then I would record it and add all those bells and whistles.

FP: When you started working on this record did you have a pretty clear vision of what you wanted it to be and what you wanted it to sound like?

JM: I had ideas. I wanted to step away from the sort of high-end, modern sound that we had on Wincing the Night Away and Port of Morrow and I wanted to get back into the engineer side of things mostly. I wanted to be able to take my time and get back into the craft of recording because I think as I looked back on that material I had done in the past, I sort of wanted those quirky little weird things that end up happening when you’re alone in the studio for hours on end (laughs). And so, yeah, I wanted that and I wanted it to just feel very… god, what is the word? I don’t know, I’ve used the term handmade, but that’s weird because all records are handmade. I wanted it to be my aesthetic and allow things to be a little janky sounding and just go with it.

FP: I feel like Shins fans are pretty loyal – they’ve stood by you through various artistic decisions and lineup changes, but is there still apprehension when you take a turn, musically, that they may not follow you down that path?

JM: Yeah, totally. There’s certainly apprehension amongst people in my camp; be it label people and management people, those things come up, because I do try and push it. I can hear myself writing and it never feels like I’m straying too far as far as the writing goes, so those more adventurous things happen in the production and that’s where I’ve experience a little bit of comments… and you know what, it’s mainly not my label or management, it’s friends of mine. I ask… maybe they used to be a Shins fan and we’ve become friends and they’re just expressing that feeling of, ‘I wish it sounded like the first record,’ and I’m like, ‘Do you really? Or were you just younger and happier when that record came out?’’ (laughs).

FP: Wincing the Night Away is 10 years old this year, which blows my mind a bit – are you a nostalgic kind of guy? Do you look back at your work or prefer to just keep pressing forward?

JM: Um, I guess I’m not nostalgic about 10 years ago, but I do have moments of being nostalgic about my childhood. It’s a weird thing, but once you become an adult… I don’t know. I feel like I will be nostalgic for this period of time in my life right now because I’m happy right now, I’ve got some wonderful kids and a wonderful wife and I think we will look back as a family on this period as sort of the golden years for us. But musically, no, I don’t look back nostalgically, like longing for a sound or any of that stuff.

FP: I know it’s kind of a cliché question, but what are you most proud of with this album?

JM: I know it’s kind of a strange thing, but I’m really proud of Yuuki (Matthews) having mixed it and done such a great job. And I’m proud that I was able to navigate that and have that happen, because on a label like Sony that has so many resources and a track record of success doing things in the more traditional way, it’s kind of an odd request to have one of the bandmates be the mixing engineer, because they would have been fine footing the bill to have the top names in the world do it. But, we were able to kind of make it happen and we’re really happy with it. And I think it’s really good for Yuuki, he’s extremely talented and it was just a perfect little team that we made.

…You know, you reminded me of Broken Bells playing in Winnipeg and I remember now we had a blast and a wonderful meal there and stuff.

FP: Yeah, it was an awesome show.

JM: Cool, thank you. We’ll try and beat it, how about that? (laughs)

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @NireRabel