by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
Polyphonic Spree is not a cult. Tim DeLaughter is not a cult leader. I asked him how I could join. I asked him if their compound was like a Branch Davidian thing or maybe more like an Aztec temple somewhere in Dallas, Texas, where the band calls home.
"I don't think I'm a cult leader. Hell I might be, I don't know. I don't think you really know until you see yourself on the front page of the paper. If I am then every rock band out there could be considered a cult."
Calling Polyphonic Spree a "rock band" feels like a wild understatement. Their "choral symphonic rock" is concocted by bringing together dozens of people playing several different instruments and a ten-person choir. They also have a pair of keyboardists, a percussionist, a drummer, a bassist, a guitarist, a flautist, a trumpeter, a trombonist, a violinist/violist, a harpist, a French horn player, a pedal steel player, a theremin player and an electronic effects person. Their 25 piece band makes Skynyrd look like a trio.
In the past, when they opened for David Bowie on his tour, they wore matching robes that made them look like moonies with too much hair. Although they looked like a New Age sect that traveled in a time machine from the sixties, their sound is more like The Flaming Lips and the Electric Light Orchestra writing heroic anthems for unseen heroes.
Tim DeLaughter and two of his Tripping Daisy bandmates, Mark Pirro and Bryan Wakeland, started Polyphonic Spree back in 2000. On their new album, The Fragile Army, the group appears in black military-like uniforms. EU caught up with them the day after their Halloween performance at the Filmore in San Francisco
EU: What made you decide to start playing music again after Tripping Daisy?
Tim DeLaughter: It was something that I was thinking about in Tripping Daisy all the time and I thought I would end up doing this later on in life. Once the dust settled from Wes departing, I started to want to play music again and this is one thing that I wanted to do, so I decided to go for it.
EU: Before you started getting Polyphonic Spree together, what were you doing during the downtime?
TD: I was working, doing some set building, whatever I had to do to make some money. I was working for a photography studio that did photo shoots for catalogs. I'd build sets for them and painting and all that jazz.
EU: Was it nice for a little while to not have your life and your career so intermingled, as they are when you're a professional band?
TD: Yeah, it was a nice break. I had a good time doing it and it actually was something different and I was still able to be somewhat creative and work, so it was pretty cool.
EU: Is there something that modern music has been missing that Polyphonic Spree provides?
TD: Yeah, musical texture. We definitely provide that. We have the best of all of the world of music in our band. We can be as subtle as a feather and as powerful as a volcano. With the musicality of the group it's an amazing experience.
EU: Why the outfits?
TD: To unify the group. I thought street clothes were a bit too distracting. People try to sum you up by what you're wearing and I thought if we're all wearing the same thing then we can dispel that distraction and listen to the music.
EU: The uniforms for this album are much more institutionalized than the flowing robes of the previous albums, what spurned the change?
TD: It's kind of mocking our environment, where we're at right now. The spirit of the war here in our country and being streamlined for the future, it seemed appropriate for right now. We still have the robes, but it was just something interesting, something different.
EU: Every song is so anthemic, is that intentional or a by-product of writing such enormous songs?
TD: I love choruses and I love a big payoff. It's more an internal desire that I need as a songwriter, I need that payoff in a song. It is by design, but it's a natural instinct for me.
EU: How does a song begin and how does it evolve?
TD: It usually begins with just improvising. I write lyrics and melody all at the same time and I just start with a feeling and sit down and go for it and craft it with my wife Julie and then bring it to the rest of the guys and work on it and bring it to the next level.
EU: Who are the permanent members of the group?
TD: They're all permanent until they leave. There isn't a pecking order, per se. Unfortunately not everyone can hang in there. We've been a band for almost eight years and we've gone through some people. They start their own bands, life changes, having a kid, you know.
EU: How many are in the group now that have been there since the beginning?
TD: I'd say there are ten of us.
EU: How do you find your other musicians?
TD: Now they find me. I don't have to really go out looking for them anymore. Usually at a show they'll say what they do and I take their number and names and if I ever need anybody, I call them up and try them out and go from there.
EU: Are you done with low-fi minimalist music?
TD: I wouldn't say that. I'm thinking about doing a solo record, which I've never done. That'll probably be pretty stripped down and it will be self-produced in my home studio, so that quality will probably still be there.
EU: What distinguishes Fragile Army from other Polyphonic records?
TD: It's a very urgent rock record with short sonic blasts of our songs rather than the fourteen-minute, taking-our-time-to-take-you-around-the-block songs, these are little sonic bursts. I think it's the most rock record we've put out. Those characteristics are different.
EU: What's your religion?
TD: I put a lot of faith in the universe, my wife and I do, we try to live in the flow of that. We try to constantly stay in the flow. I get constant reminders in the environment that give me a section of hope. So I'd have to say my religion is life at this point, just living it and putting my belief in it. It seems to serve me well.
EU: How does Quest for the Rest (questfortherest.com) work? Can I get a hint?
TD: No hints. You have to just stay with it. It's an awesome experience. That's a fun game, man. I can't give you any hints (Laughing) you'll just have to keep doing it. You'll figure it out.
EU: What does the term Jesus Hits Like an Atom Bomb mean?
TD: We were in the Bahamas mixing that record and we were at Compass Point in Chris Blackwell's studio and it was a residency studio, we actually lived there for a month and the apartment we stayed in, when we came in there it was all clean, the apartment had just been cleaned and everything was in real nice order, fresh flowers on the table. In the kitchen there was a vinyl record just laying there. It was kind of odd because there wasn't a record player there, but it was The Pilgrim Travelers, which was a gospel group from back in the day and they had a song on there 'Jesus Hits like an Atom Bomb' and we just decided then and there that was the name of the album and that was that.
EU: I always thought of Tripping Daisy as a lo-fi drug band, because at the time me and my friends were always listening to Tripping Daisy and The Swirlies and getting high. Polyphonic Spree seems distinctly not that, is there a personal change or is that just a perspective change on my part?
TD: Yeah, Tripping Daisy was a lot more experimental. We were trying to get sounds that were outside of what a normal guitar, bass, drum outfit puts out. You want to explore the sonics of that and that's what it was for me and once you become experimental in that, you're off and running. This band isn't really like that because the songs are just different. I've got the sounds, I don't have to experiment to find them anymore. They're at my disposal. I love the aspect of playing with the texture and having them accompany a feeling. It's still a bit psychedelic to me, but in a different way. I mean I'm not doing drugs like back in the day, and I'm sure you're not doing what you did back in the day, I think what initially made us that sort of band was trying to get something more out of what we had, and that's what happened. Now I've got it, so I don't have to experiment to get it.
EU: What do you enjoy about the immensity and communal aspects of Polyphonic Spree?
TD: It's a necessity [to have so many musicians], the songs wouldn't exist without it, that's the point. It is what it is. It was built by design and it operates exactly how it's supposed to and I love it. It's like talking about the big choruses (laughing) when you get all of these things all running on all eight cylinders, it's undeniable, and I love that aspect of the group.
Polyphonic Spree rolls into town as part of the Talleyrand Festival on November 10th, their set will happen on the main stage at 5:45 pm and Tim feels that it is really important that you see this show.
"Polyphonic Spree, in my opinion, is a band you gotta see. You gotta take care of them, because I don't know how much longer I can do this…It really is a remarkable show and it's a huge force that people shouldn't miss. I implore them to come on out, get a kick in the pants and have a good time."
|
EU Critic’s Choice Awards
