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Murder By Death Interview

On April 6th, Murder By Death released their fifth full-length album, Good Morning, Magpie. The Indiana rock band is currently headlining a three month tour in support of the album that will take them throughout the United States and then on to Europe. Last week I spoke with Adam Turla (lead singer/guitarist) about their tour, new album and the future of the band.

Hi Adam, good to talk to you. First of all, I wanted to say that I really enjoy “Good Morning, Magpie.” It really seems like a natural progression for you guys.

Thanks, we’re really happy with it so far and it seems like the crowd has been digging it as well.

I think part of the reason that the album has struck a chord with me is due to my jealousy of the way you went about writing it. I’ve always thought that I’d be able to write the next great novel if I just went off into the woods and did nothing but write, as I’m sure many, many others have. But you actually did that. Could you explain your experience?

Well I went off hiking for a couple of reasons: For one, I knew it was time to start thinking about writing the new record. And two, I felt it was a good time for me to just get away and, you know, just kind of get myself together and reflect. Being a guy who does a lot of outdoors type stuff, it came together really well, I got to spend long hours just writing without anything at all bothering me for a couple of weeks. It was something I’m really glad I did and I think the result was something I’m very proud of.

That’s great. Now do you see yourself making a habit out of this in the future?

Well I don’t think so. I don’t generally like to repeat myself creatively, even though it was such a good experience. The process was something that I felt is really tied into this particular record and really helped to shape the overall feel of it. I plan to do some more camping in July, but with a few people, and maybe some stuff will come out of it but I don’t want to get too concerned with having to produce something every time I’m out there.

There are a few songs that really seem to reflect your time out in the wild, obviously “You Don’t Miss Twice (When You’re Shaving With A Knife).” But to me, “The Day” is the one song that really seems to bring me into that world. Though there are a lot of religious sentiments, possibly about the apocalypse, there’s a real respect for nature in this song, and overall the record gives the feel that you’re optimistic about nature’s resiliency against mankind. Is there some truth to that?

Definitely, I like the way you phrased that: resiliency. I’m someone who’s always had a strong respect for nature. I’ve done a lot of hiking and camping in my time and feel a real fondness for the outdoors. With “The Day,” that’s a song that I couldn’t have written if I didn’t make the trek that I did. It’s sort of about an old world god who completely usurps the Earth and all of those who inhabit it, whether they are from the human or animal kingdoms. It was just something I wrote having felt a real connection with the area I was occupying at the time. It was just torrential rains for a large part of the time that I was out there, so there was a lot of feelings of, I guess, helplessness, you know, being out in the wild and having to live in a very primitive state.

Your records have all seemed to reflect late 19^th century America. Is it the rustic Western imagery that’s really drawn you in for storytelling?

You know, that’s something I’m asked about a lot and read a lot about our music but I don’t really feel that way. We like to create stories that are more fantastical than really based in a particular era, you know? We craft characters or stories and like them to fit into the Murder By Death world, like it’s a place unique to itself that we’ve created. I’ve always been into magical realism, it’s may favourite genre of literature. You know, the idea that you can use a realistic type setting or experience, but inject certain fantastical images into it while maintaining a degree of plausibility.

Like One Hundred Years of Solitude, that kind of thing?

Exactly. That’s one of my favourite books because of that reason. You’re given a story that’s structure and environment seem to make sense but also have another layer to them: That’s the fantasy element I really love. There are a lot of images in our music that do fit a particular Western paradigm but really we’re not aiming to just make old sounding music. It seems to be popular nowadays to make music that revisits the past. You hear a lot of traditional Americana type music now, but a lot of it is really just copying rather than reinventing, which is something we’ve been more interested in. But really, what we’re trying to do is shape this Murder By Death universe that all of the stories are a part of.

Now I know you've said that, at least in terms of a narrative, this isn’t a concept record, but listening to it front to back, the different sounds and the way it rises and falls gives it a really cinematic feel, even more so than your previous records. Did you create a story arc in your mind to help shape the way the album flows or is that just how the songs happened to come out?

I've heard a lot so far about the sequencing of the album, and how it’s something we succeeded at in making it, which is awesome. We’ve never really been a band that will write a single that’s supposed to fit a certain spot of the record, or have, like, the big ballad close it out, or that type of thing. We want to make a strong record that flows from start to finish because that’s the way we listen to records. Sequencing is as important as anything else in production. With this album we tried all sorts of different sequencing ideas and we couldn’t really find a good fit. We’d all, including our producer Jake Belser, have different ideas for how we’d like to go about sequencing it but had some trouble making it sound the way we wanted. Then Matt, our bass player, and I each went through the tracks again to try to figure out a good order for them and ended up with pretty much the same sequence, nearly song for song, so we took that as a good sign and worked with that. We’re all really happy with the way it turned out.

Thematically, the album seems to wrestle primarily with loss and acceptance that I think absolutely everyone could relate to. Is that your way of working out something that you were struggling with while writing the record?

That’s a good question. I mean the one song in particular, “Yes,” is really about my learning to come to terms with death. I wrote that song about six years ago and have always wanted to put it on a Murder By Death album but we hadn’t figured out the right arrangement for it. We’d add and subtract different instruments or pacing and what have you, but it never really clicked until we started putting together this record. It’s mostly about how I had some friends die and it was really tough to cope with. I mean, at so young, like 28 years old, I had multiple friends pass away from degenerative diseases. It was really strange because you’re so young, it’s not something that you’re used to dealing with, or expect to have to deal with. I wrote that song as a way to help me get through that loss. It’s a really positive song about doing what you can while you’re around to do it, and making sure you let your loved ones know how you feel because we really don’t know what’s going to happen

There are some tracks on the album like “Piece by Piece” and “Yes,” that seem to be quite hopeful, some like “On The Dark Streets Below” and “King of the Gutters…” that are more cynical , and some that fall somewhere in between, like “As Long As There’s Whiskey In The World”. You’ve always seemed to write about dichotomies between good and evil, or right and wrong, and the album bounces back and forth between light and dark moods. Would you say that there’s an inherent optimism to this record at least?

Yeah, great question, dude. Overall, I’d say as a dark as a lot of the stuff is that we’ve made, I’ve always tried to leave things with an optimistic feel. I’m an optimist myself. I really believe strongly in the power of the mind and always try to inject optimism and positivity into everything we do. Like you said, we do like to have a balance between dark and light moods because I’ve always been someone who loves extremes in literature and overall. We can write songs that are generally upbeat but at the same time you need to also have darker tones to it as well. It’s like you can’t know the good without experiencing the bad, right? I’ve always been a fan of the antihero in movies and literature. I love the underdog and like to write about those types of characters. With the song “On The Dark Streets Below,” that’s the type of story I really wanted to write. It’s about three girls who all end up living in this shitty town, with pretty shitty lives. They each have something that they feel they can really offer to the world, but for some reason or another, things just can’t seem to go their way. They’re basically tossed aside even though they’re good people with good intentions, and I wanted to elicit some compassion from people with this story. Like maybe subconsciously show that this is the type of thing that can happen to anyone, regardless of their situation, we could really stand to have a little more compassion in our society for the less fortunate.

Ok. Now moving on, you guys are a few weeks into the tour, how’s it going so far?

Great. We’re about three and a half weeks into a three month tour, so it’s a pretty long one for us. We’ve got most of the longer drives out of the ay so far, so it shouldn’t be too bad from here on out and overall it’s gone really well so far. We love playing the new music and the crowds have responded really well so far. We’re not a big band at all so we feel really fortunate to be able to do what we’re doing. The kids seem to be learning the words and responding well to the new songs so we’re looking forward to coming back to these places again to see what they think once they’ve had more time to digest the record. It’s just like any other record for us, being our fifth, the kids are really going crazy for Red of Tooth and Claw because they’ve had a couple of years to get into it, so we look forward to making our way out to these places again.

A lot of the tracks on Magpie have a very big feel to them, like they were built to fill an auditorium: how are they going over live?

Great. We’re having a blast playing the new songs live, it’s always a lot of fun to try new things on stage and see what kind of response we’ll get. We’ve been really getting into “As Long As There’s Whiskey In The World,” “Piece By Piece,” “Yes” is one that a lot of the kids seem to have fun singing along with, and “King Of The Gutters, Prince Of The Dogs.”

Ok, to give an example: Which of the new songs is the most fun to play?

Probably “King of the Gutters…” There’s something about that song that really builds up as it goes on that’s really great to play live. Plus I get to play slide guitar on it, so that’s always fun. All of the new songs have been a lot of fun though, we couldn’t be happier about the response we’ve been getting.

That’s great because, though it’s changed a couple of times since I first heard it, I’d say that and “Foxglove” are my favourite songs on the record and, not to overstate it, “Foxglove” is probably the most beautiful song you’ve recorded so far. Sarah’s cello really gives it a great flow. What song do you think turned out the best on the new album?

Awesome, I really appreciate that. The cello is very pretty on that tune. A friend of mine was actually telling me that he didn’t know my voice could be so tender. (Laughs) I was like, “Yeah, my voice is tender!” (Laughs)

Seriously, I played that one for my mom and she liked it.

You’ve always got to write one for the moms, right? But I’d say “As Long As There’s Whiskey In The World” is the one that I was most pleased about when we were all finished. That’s another song that we played around with a lot. It started out a lot smaller and then we’d add more drums to it and start playing around, having more fun with it. We really just kept on building it and building it until we came up with the final product, which we’re very pleased with. I think it’s a good way to start off the record and gives a good feel to it. Aside from that track though, I really love the way “Yes” came out. Matt used a slide bass, which is something really different for us and the sound came out exactly how we were hoping.

For sure. I mean, you’ve used alcohol pretty consistently as imagery in your music before but this is really the first straight up drinking song so far. It’s got a real Pogues feeling to it.

(Laughs) That’s awesome to hear. I love those guys. I got to see them finally last year and it was amazing, they’re so much fun.

Once again, I’m very jealous of you, Adam. But moving on: You’ve posted that you are looking for promoters to help you play in unique places that you’ve never played before. Where would you most like to go, and have there been some serious inquiries yet?

Yeah, every couple days we’ve been hearing back from people, some more serious than others. We asked our publicist and booking manager to reach out and try to find us areas in the world that we’ve never played before that a lot of touring bands don’t really get to see. I mean, we’ve played places like Greece, Alaska, Barbados, and Ukraine, and many others that are really unique for American rock bands. We all love to travel and that’s a huge part of why we do what we do, so we’re really just looking to be able to see new parts of the world and also bring our music to people who probably wouldn’t get the chance normally. It’s not going to be like a one-off tour. We’re hoping to get some places targeted and make our way there and different points over a number of years so we can spend a little time and really get to experience some different cultures.

Now, I first heard Murder by Death on an Eyeball Records sampler around 2003, that had a track from Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them on it, but didn’t manage to see you live until last year in Ottawa. Are we going to see you guys in Canada again any time before the end of the year?

I remember that show, it was a cool little venue.

Right, it was at Maverick’s. We had a great time, man. You were excellent live.

Well thanks. I think we’ll probably be around in either the fall or the spring. We did a headlining tour last spring and then opened up for Gaslight Anthem in the fall, so we don’t want to beat you guys over the head too much and make you sick of our stuff, but we definitely plan to tour Canada for this record, we seem to get a great response whenever we’re up there.

Great. I really look forward to it. I’ll have a bottle of Canadian whiskey here for you as soon as you get here.

(Laughs) Awesome, man. I can’t wait.

Well thanks for your time, Adam. And again: congratulations on the new record, I really enjoy it.

Thanks, dude. Good talking to you.

Radiohead + Regina Spektor

"No Surprises" by Radiohead from OK Computer (1997)

&

"No Surprises" by Regina Spektor (2010)

In support of Doctors Without Borders' effort in Haiti, Regina Spektor took to her piano to cover Radiohead's "No Surprises," the third and final single from their 1997 classic, OK Computer. Thematically, the song is a lament of modern life; monotony in the form of a dreadful job and a mundane existence is depicted by Radiohead vocalist Thom Yorke, as the rest of the band plays a dreamlike melody to counteract the nightmarish lyrics.

Regina Spektor's cover is beautiful and true to the original. Employing only a piano, minor strings, and Spektor's soft voice, this version's melody is consistent with Radiohead's recording, while the new arrangement compliments the original wonderfully.

Regina Spektor's "No Surprises" is available at the iTunes Store for $1.29. All proceeds from the song go to the Doctors Without Borders Emergency Relief Fund in their efforts to aide the victims of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.

Radiohead

Regina Spektor

A heart that's full up like a landfill,
a job that slowly kills you,
bruises that won't heal.
You look so tired-unhappy,
bring down the government,
they don't, they don't speak for us.
I'll take a quiet life,
a handshake of carbon monoxide,

with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
Silence, silence.

This is my final fit,
my final bellyache

with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises please.

Such a pretty house
and such a pretty garden.

No alarms and no surprises (get me outta here),
no alarms and no surprises (get me outta here),
no alarms and no surprises, please.

Queen

"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" by Queen from A Day At The Races (1976)

Queen is one of the best-selling acts of all time, but I feel that they are still underappreciated. I realize that the Beatles-Rolling Stones argument is the epitome of musical debate -- like most paradigmatic arguments, the side you choose generally says more about yourself than it does about the music -- but if we put those two bands aside, Queen is the only logical act to get a spot on the podium. In terms of musicianship, showmanship, experimentalism, and abundance of hit albums and songs, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are the only bands who could be considered capital-G Greater than Queen. Moreover, if you were to exclude external social conditions and the iconography of the acts, Queen easily makes a case to be included in the debate.

"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" is an example of Queen's unique style; it demonstrates the strengths of each band member and also conveys the comprehensive sound and attitude that the band became known for.