Interview: Peter Bauer (of The Walkmen)
During this past weekend’s Outside Lands Music Festival, our own Allison Franks had the opportunity to sit down with organist and bassist Peter Bauer of The Walkmen. Coming of a performance the night before in Los Angeles, Bauer was visibly a bit worn down, but still found time, in between sips of beer, to answer a few of Allison’s questions. Discussing everything from the The Walkmen’s newly released album, You & Me, to Bauer’s after-performance plans during Outside Lands, the conversation turned out to be particularly fascinating…
CoS: You & Me is breaking big. Very big. Could you tell me a little bit about what’s been going on the past couple of weeks?
Peter Bauer (PB): So far as we know the reviews are looking really great which is good, but it’s kind of hard to tell this early what that means. You can get a good review on a record and then people tell you it’s crap later. It’s a good start though and we are really happy. We worked very hard on this one and put everything we had into it, so we’re hoping we got the best of luck. It’d be a real let down if we didn’t.
CoS: And how did things work out with the Sloan-Kettering benefit?
PB: They worked out great. Well, everyone who was kind of involved in that said so anyways. I mean I don’t know how many that’s supposed to sell, but it really worked out better than we expected it to, so that was exciting. It was cool for me because my friends were there and happy to do it. And all the doctors there were really excited, so it’s great.
CoS: When you eventually started recording You & Me, did you have a clear idea of what the direction of the album was going to be like?
PB: Well we had several plans probably just in terms of whatever came up. Some different main ideas coalesced at the end of it, but you don’t really go in with like a set of this kind of thing or that. Once you have a little part you really like then the other parts kind of reflect that part a bit. At first, we definitely wanted to use different instruments. Paul started learning how to play the viola, which was a big part of it and then we added the trumpets. We also definitely wanted to make the words either make sense or kind of mean something, while sort of coming off differently than they did before. Things like that. We definitely wanted to make a different kind of record than we had, one that was hopefully a lot better that the other ones.
CoS: Well, You & Me sounds really awesome. How do you see it compared to your previous work?
PB: Well thank you. I think it’s just miles better. You know none of us have really been like big rock band fans. We aren’t really like a rock band. We’ve always done this really heavy stuff and probably some of the best stuff we’ve done is from that, but it was always sort of something that was less sure than everything else we did. And so we sort of embraced the slower stuff while aiming to be the best, which made things a lot harder. I think it made a big difference for all of us. It sounds like the kind of music I actually like. I mean I like the other stuff we did a lot, but it wasn’t ever in the vein of something that I would normally come upon because I don’t really like new rock music that much. So this sounds to me, more like something I could see myself picking up at a record store, which I was really excited by.
CoS: The last three years have been very kind. The band’s found itself on everything from soundtracks to video games, with several of your own releases. When looking back, how do you feel about everything that’s happened since 2002?
PB: It’s been big ups and downs, but we’re very proud of the stuff we’ve put together. I never thought I’d be a part of making 4 or 5 records, so that was exciting. That’s the stuff that I think I’ll remember. I like playing the shows and there’s certainly times when we play really great shows that I’ve loved. We are certainly hoping that we can do this. We have always kind thought we’d do this our whole lives and we are really hoping that we can. That’s what we are looking forward to more than being happy with anything outside of that. And all that soundtrack stuff is just a way to make money. It’s not something we really like doing. Playing the shows and putting out the records, like when you actually master the record and copy the stuff over, are definitely the most exciting things by far. It’s really great to have that feeling of something accomplished.
CoS: What kind of ideology went into 2006’s cover album, “Pussy Cats“ Starring The Walkmen?
PB: Well we didn’t really have one. We were just sort of doing it for fun and we sort of thought it was very funny. Clearly no one else did, but I still think it’s very funny to just do that. It was just a very cool thing to do. We didn’t really think things through or anything, we were just having fun with it and we figured other people would think it was funny too; you know doing a note for note cover of a record like that. We got to meet Ben Nilsson, Harry Nilsson’s son, last night and his sister Annie a couple of months ago and they liked it, so that’s good. As long as they think it makes sense, then that’s a good sign. And it was really neat because we all really love Harry Nilsson.
CoS: Could you explain the band’s processes for me? What goes into an album and how has that process changed over the past six to eight years?
PB: Yeah, well we started out definitely trying to do everything at once, like all five guys together. Every night we’d get together after work and just try make up a song. That certainly finished off starting on A Hundred Miles Off, because we started living in different cities and things like that and then every time we would get together, there’d be this sort of bad vibe. So, on this last record especially we were in like a lot of small groups. We’d all generate of lot of parts, and then we would put those parts together. It wasn’t like five guys bashing our heads against the wall or anything, which was nice. We just focused on working in small groups all the time. Walt started handing Hamilton a lot of words this record, so they’d do it together, which I think was good for both of them. It’s really solid what they we’re doing now, so I think it worked out great. It’s a different way of doing things for us, which is a lot better.
CoS: Well, I’m excited to see your show later. Do you have anything special planned?
PB: No, actually I don’t even know what we are going to play. I haven’t thought about it at all. I’m usually the one that thinks about these things, but I haven’t thought about it at all. On these last sets we’ve been doing, we’ve been trying to make an effort to play longer and include more stuff. So we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to play 20 plus songs and make that work. The thing about that is, now we have to play 10 songs so it’s like what are we going do! So yeah, I don’t know what we are doing, probably just condense what we’ve got and play all the good ones and less of the bad ones.
CoS: And how do you plan to spend your time at Outside Lands this weekend? Are there any performances you plan to catch while you’re here?
PB: Well we just pulled in a few minutes ago, but we’re definitely going to watch Tom Petty tonight. I brought my son and my wife with me today, so they are going to come over in about 20 minutes and I’m going to hang out with them the next few days. I don’t know what we’ll do. It’s been great so far though. We went to Malibu yesterday and went to the beach. It’s a great place to go for the beach, very secluded. We had this loft and all the beaches are public right, but then there are these like 10 million dollar houses up the street. It’s really very pretty, not a lot of people there. You go past Zuma beach or whatever and that’s where we were. It was very nice. You could turn a road and then you weren’t even on the beach anymore.
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