The Shins' James Mercer: TAS In Session
For nearly five years, The Shins' return seemed unlikely. Frontman James Mercer had disbanded The Shins' lineup in 2009, following 2007's Wincing The Night Away, and was focused on his new project with Danger Mouse, Broken Bells.
But last summer, Mercer announced on Facebook that The Shins would return with a new album and lineup. He has fulfilled that promise with Port of Morrow, The Shins' fourth album and the first on Mercer's own label Aural Apothecary and Columbia Records. The Shins, featured on "Saturday Night Live" on March 10, have also lined up a slew of tour dates and festivals, including stops at Coachella, Bonnaroo and Sasquatch!
Port of Morrow won't be released until March 20, but earlier this month Mercer visited WFUV and The Alternate Side for an intimate acoustic session. Listen to that interview and live set on TAS' sister station 90.7 WFUV on Tuesday, February 28 at 9 p.m. ET and below, check out Mercer's performances of "Simple Song," "Australia" and "New Slang."
Alisa Ali: Port of Morrow is the fourth and latest album from The Shins. Last time I saw you was for the Broken Bells project. It’s been five years since the last Shins album so a lot of people might be wondering — what have you been doing?
James Mercer: What haven’t I been doing? The Broken Bells thing was two years knocked out with writing, producing the record and then touring for it because it was a proper band. We took it seriously. My wife and I had two kids, so that’s a distraction!
Alisa: At the same time? Did you have twins?
James: No, pretty much as Wincing The Night Away was winding up we had the first one and a second child as well. Two little girls.
Alisa: Have you started writing songs for them yet?
James: No, well, yeah. Little silly songs.
Alisa: You actually did a [song for kids], for [Spongebob Squarepants].
James: Which is one of the coolest songs I’ve ever written, actually (laughs). It’s one of my favorites. That was an old little bit that I’d recorded on a four-track a long, long time ago and I never knew what to do with it. But for Spongebob it was perfect and I just wrote some lyrics. I’m really pleased with the song (laughs). It should have been in the movie!
Alisa: Do you think this is the next phase for you, now that you have kids? Maybe you’ll start getting into doing Curious George soundtracks and things?
James: Um, no (laughs). I don’t know. Those type of things, those projects, are fun because it’s a challenge. Can you write something for a child’s movie? You have to get your head around something new. But when I’m thinking about songs and what I’m writing, that’s not my drive or where I go.
Alisa: I feel like a lot of your music from The Shins and even Broken Bells is a little bit dark.
James: Life is dark.
Alisa: Some people would disagree with you.
James: Life has both. Therefore if you’re honestly writing and willing to put reality into it, you’re going to have some darkness. Sometimes I feel that people think it’s a “thing.” That dark “thing” or that melancholy “thing” that you put in your songs is a “thing.” And it’s not my thing, it’s the universe’s thing!
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B2RCxuY8f4]
Alisa: “Just give me your hand and let’s jump out of the window” is my favorite line [from “Australia” from Wincing The Night Away]. Although you did say, “jump through the window.”
James: Did I? I just improvised, I guess!
Alisa: Who did you get to produce that third album? It was Joe Ciccarelli, right?
James: Joe Chiccarelli and I worked together to do that. I originally hired him just to mix it and it ended up that we re-recorded a bunch of stuff so he produced it with me.
Alisa: I feel that you have a strong bond with producers. Obviously, Brian [Burton] is a producer, but you seem to do good work with Phil Ek as well.
James: Phil’s a good friend of mine. I think I work with people who I like to be around. I’ve yet to have to go through a long project with someone [I didn’t like].
Alisa: This time you worked with Greg Kurstin on Port of Morrow.
James: Very different personality than a lot of these other guys. They’re all hard-working people, that’s one of the main things that makes for a good producer, but Greg is a very considerate person. A polite and genial guy.
Alisa: As opposed to?
James: As opposed to other people who I know who are more strong-willed. It’s different aspects of the personality that shine.
Alisa: Did you record this in your studio in your house?
James: I started the project up in Portland but pretty quickly moved down and started working with Greg.
Alisa: You had all of the songs written?
James: Sketched out, pretty much. That was kind of the writing process for me. I’ve got the parts and I know what I think is the chorus and stuff. Some of it’s done but a lot of times during the recording process I can really get a feel of what the structure needs to be. Sometimes it’s cool, but we need a bridge and we hear it repeating itself for three-and-a-half minutes. Writing and recording are kind of combined.
Alisa: When you’re writing at home do you take tons of time, but if you’re in a studio you’re like, “Let me write a bridge real quick?”
James: I do that a lot.
Alisa: Do you find that the things you write real quick end up sticking?
James: Often they are. It seems somehow that when you’re in the studio and you’re in that moment, you really realize what it needs and I think that drives the creative process for me. You fit the bill for what’s required there and they do end up working. You’re like, “Why didn’t I think of that two years ago?”
Alisa: You’ve been working on some of these two years?
James: Like “Simple Song,” which I’ll play in a bit, is right around the end of Wincing, right when we were having our first kid, that was something I came up with pretty quickly. The chorus is something I came up with in the studio when I was trying to get the structure right. I knew it needed some extra part.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_VMJMxP8DE]
Alisa: There’s always at least one line in every song of yours that gets me.
James: You like the last lines, don’t you?
Alisa: End on a high note! When you’re actually writing lyrics, what is the writing process like? Are there a lot of revisions?
James: Yeah, a lot of revisions. Like the line you were talking about, [“When you feel like an ocean being warmed by the sun”] came to me on the bus touring, I had written both verses in 10 to 15 minutes, but that specific change was the revision of an older line and it came to me on tour.
Alisa: I was wondering what your sketchbook for lyrics is like. Pen?
James: Yes, it’s pen. Lots of doodling. Wasted time doing stuff like that. And honestly, a lot of bad lyrics that I’ve scratched out! A lot of revisions.
Alisa: Have you ever recorded a song and then revisited it?
James: I’m always revising. Even when we go on tour and we’re playing stuff live, I’ll be changing parts, even chords sometimes.
Alisa: Do you get tired of the old songs?
James: When we go out this time around I think we will re-approach some of the older material and try to make it fresh and new. One of the cool things about having [the backing band of] Richard Swift, Jessica [Dobson], Yuuki [Matthews] and Joe [Plummer] is that they’re really a great help in that. They can help me rearrange the songs and make them fun. What I end up doing, which is kind of strange, is that I’ll constantly still be writing songs. So “Simple Song,” I might think of an extra chord to go here or there. I’m open to doing that.
Alisa: Do you never stop? Do you write on the road?
James: I don’t write on the road very much. I don’t have that much of an appetite for playing, sitting and thinking about music. I do it when I feel like it and when you’re on the road, you’re soundchecking, performing for more than an hour, you’re surrounded by music, watching bands and I don’t feel like going to the hotel and playing guitar. So I don’t. The writing stuff, for me, starts a couple months after being home.
Alisa: When you start missing it.
James: Yes, and I need it again.
Alisa: What do you do when you’re on the road?
James: Drinking. That’s a distraction. Not a healthy one. You always bring a book, your computer.
Alisa: Do you explore the cities?
James: Once in a while you can get one outing in. But it’s unfortunately something that rarely happens. Alisa: Do you have a spot in New York that you really like?
James: I love Katz’s Deli.
Alisa: A great, big pastrami sandwich?
James: And the pickles! Those half-pickled pickles? Those are awesome! It’s been a while since we’ve been there, but we drove past it and I thought, “Man, we’ve got to hit that place!” I’m a little spoiled by Portland. We’ve got a lot of good restaurants.
Alisa: You were on “Portlandia!”
James: It was kind of cool. It was pretty easy because I was a straight guy just [trying not to] get hurt by those two! That was the main thing, dodging bullets.
Alisa: Do you know Carrie Brownstein?
James: Yes, I’ve known her for a while and I got to know her a little better when we did Matt [McCormick]'s movie, Some Days Are Better Than Others, together. She’s super cool and talented. I remember emailing her after doing that show because I’d never been in a situation where someone was just doing improvised, comedic acting like an acrobat. I never realized Carrie could do backflips!
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z_pIGtW_7Y]
