The New Pornographers Try to Keep It Down on Challengers

It’s mid-afternoon on Independence Day in New York’s Battery Park, just a short boat ride from the Statue of Liberty, already an unusual Fourth since an imminent storm may possibly ruin the festivities. Instead of the usual throngs of early-bird fireworks looky-loos, the park is full of folks who have gathered to watch Vancouver’s New Pornographers — the group that led the way for Canada’s recent indie successes like the Arcade Fire. Today, the decade-old supergroup–featuring auburn-haired alt-country songstress Neko Case and Destroyer’s post-Ginsburg folkie Dan Bejar (absent at this show), among others–is performing songs from upcoming fourth album, Challengers (Matador), in celebration of the United States’ separation from Mother England. Thing is, the band is also celebrating a somewhat ironic coup themselves; they are, after all, Canadian. For the most part, the show runs well…right up until they reach one of their newer songs, “My Rights Versus Yours.”

Drummer Kurt Dahle pounds out some unusual rhythms in a panic as his setlist flutters in the escalating winds, causing singer/guitarist A.C. “Carl” Newman, also the group’s principal songwriter–known for his borderline-awkward between-song patter, red hair and now a full beard–to erupt in laughter.

“Would it help if I told you it’s the first song off our new record?” Newman asks into the mic.

“Yeah, no,” replies Dahle.

“Have you met our new drummer,” the singer quips, “Kurt’s evil twin?”

They nail the song on their second try, as the rain starts up, and Newman sings a chorus that contains the words of the day: “The truth in one free afternoon / A new empire in rags.” At this free show, the band’s newer, breezier material signals somewhat of a departure for fans of their first album’s bouncy AM-radio nuggets, and in all honesty, Challengers isn’t as immediate as its predecessors (although it matches their quality upon repeat listens).

“I thought we moved away from the power-pop tag with [2005's] Twin Cinema, but we didn’t completely, so we had to get more extreme with our methods,” says Newman, seated in a cafe near his Brooklyn home a couple of days before the show. “We put a lot more time into it than usual. I think that maybe affected the way it came out. I think sometimes our songs were kind of loud and garage-y [previously] because of laziness.”

Newman first noticed Challengers’ new direction while demoing the downtempo “Adventures in Solitude.” He had layered instrument-upon-instrument on the song, only to find himself stripping each off later. Inspired by older bands like Love, who also used unconventional pop instrumentation, he tempered it until he found the perfect balance of soft and loud. When he was done, “Adventures” consisted of harp, strings, piano and voice. Satisfied, he figured the rest of the album should maintain this sort of subtlety. “It’s kind of too easy to be a loud band,” Newman claims. “It’s a little braver to be quiet. I think you’ve got less to hide behind.”

The singer’s new locale also played an important role in the album’s sound. Having moved to Brooklyn a year and a half ago to be closer to his fiancee, he convinced his bandmates to fly to New York to record their parts. With access to some of the world’s best session musicians, the New Pornographers weren’t as “lazy” this time, tapping some orchestral string and flute players, the latter adding an important hook to the catchy “All the Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth.”

Moreover, the group has grown significantly as songwriters since Twin Cinema. Both Case and Bejar issued critically acclaimed albums in 2006, a quality benchmark that the New Pornographers must now surpass with Challengers. Newman–who wrote the majority of this album’s songs–doesn’t take the test lightly. “People are going, like, ‘Aren’t you worried? Both Destroyer and Neko put out two of their best career albums last year and you have to follow it up,’” he says with a nervous laugh. “And I’m like, ‘Yes, yes. It does worry me. Thanks for thinking about me.’”

But even with the band’s new direction, he shouldn’t worry so much. While the songs still boast the heavy ’60s power-pop influence that first attracted their fans, it’s no longer a defining element. To Newman, the New Pornographers were never too serious about that either, as they blatantly borrowed elements of that era’s music more as a tribute. “It’s funny when you get catapulted into this situation where people expect you to be this important, seminal band, when really we’re just kicking around and making a record… that we all thought was just kind of like a rock-and-roll love letter,” says the singer, despite the fact that debut Mass Romantic won the 2001 Juno Award, Canada’s equivalent of a Grammy, for Alternative Album of the Year. “I just thought we were screwing around with rock ‘n’ roll and then somehow people thought that was original, even though, to me, it just seemed like a pastiche of everything that we loved.”

Much like how visual collages become their own works of art, such is the case with the New Pornographers’ early musical paeans to bygone eras. Now that the group’s soaring, almost church-like harmonies sound as second nature to them as a backbeat (or lack thereof), they’ve surpassed the tag of “this band sounds like [insert influence here].” It’s just more of a feeling. And as with their New York show, their fans will weather any storm to be a part of it. “I’m always happy when people say, ‘You guys remind me of so many things, but you don’t exactly sound like any of it,’” Newman beams. “That’s what we’re trying to do… to remind you of something, but nothing’s actually stolen.”

This entry was posted by RNYK on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 11:23 am