![\"Issue39-The-Decemberists\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Issue39-The-Decemberists.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nIt\u2019s been four years since the Decemberists\u2019 sixth studio album,\u00a0The King Is Dead<\/i>, shot to the top of the Billboard 200 chart. Finally, the Portland, Oregon-based folk-rock band\u2014frontman Colin Meloy, guitarist Chris Funk, keyboardist Jenny Conlee, bassist Nate Query and drummer John Moen\u2014follows up with What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World<\/i>. Working with producer Tucker Martine, who\u2019s helmed a half-dozen projects for the band, Meloy spins some compelling tales on the new record, including \u201cThe Singer Addresses His Audience.\u201d It\u2019s not personal, says Meloy, but \u201c12\/17\/12\u201d\u2014a song marking the date and tragedy of the Newtown massacre\u2014most certainly is.<\/p>\n
Why so much time between albums?<\/b><\/p>\n
We had never afforded ourselves this amount of time before. Like a lot of musicians, normally you have a collection of songs and pick out five weeks in a studio and just do it\u2014and the record cycle continues. But there\u2019s something fulfilling about booking studio time when there\u2019s no expectation of finishing an album right then. Especially because we\u2019d never done it that way before.<\/p>\n
Was it less stressful?<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying the usual way we work is bad\u2014in fact, I prefer it in some respects. There\u2019s something about having time constraints that aids the process. This was really an arduous process. Having it open-ended, you don\u2019t see immediate results. It\u2019s a more meditative process, so it\u2019s also slower. There are merits to both ways of working.<\/p>\n
Did you have some songs ready?<\/b><\/p>\n
There was probably a year and a half between parting ways on The King Is Dead <\/i>record and beginning this one. In between, I was working on the Wildwood<\/i> [children\u2019s] books, but I was also writing songs. I can\u2019t not<\/i> write songs. It\u2019s so much a part of what I do, and has been since I was a kid. That was happening all along, so by the time we did get together there was a handful of songs we could try out.<\/p>\n
Why work with Tucker again?<\/b><\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been working with him for a long time now. We\u2019ve developed a great rapport. He understands our aesthetic, and we\u2019ve gotten to know how he works. So we can be a lot more intuitive working together. His involvement with this record was the closest we\u2019ve come to having a sixth Decemberist.<\/p>\n
How did you know when it was done?<\/b><\/p>\n
We got to a point where we had enough good songs, and there were several permutations of how the record could exist. We could have kept doing that, but at some point you have to realize, \u201cOh, we are making a record\u2014and a record has a beginning, a middle and an end. And the beginning and the end shouldn\u2019t be too far apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Was \u201c12\/17\/12\u201d hard to write?<\/b><\/p>\n
No, it was very easy to write\u2014it came out very quickly. It\u2019s a very simple meditation, and it was a relief to write it. It was some kind of outlet at a time when, like most people, I felt helpless.<\/p>\n
Why take the song\u2019s line \u201cwhat a terrible world, what a beautiful world\u201d for the album title?<\/b><\/p>\n
As we were putting the songs together, it occurred to me that it was a good view of the record, and also how I viewed the world. It was written two years ago, but I think it makes as much sense, if not more sense, now.<\/p>\n
\u2013Linda Laban<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE DECEMBERISTS The indie folk favorites take their time to create a compelling new album It\u2019s been four years since the Decemberists\u2019 sixth studio album,\u00a0The King Is Dead, shot to the top of the Billboard 200 chart. Finally, the Portland, Oregon-based folk-rock band\u2014frontman Colin Meloy, guitarist Chris Funk, keyboardist Jenny Conlee, bassist Nate Query and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[7623,1332],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14763,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14761\/revisions\/14763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}