Was there always tension in the band, and if so, how did that contribute to or inform the musical output of the band? With Brent gone, the tension would be released slightly…

Seim: A little bit, yeah. We’ve always had pretty big gaps between records. We’ve been together for 12 years now. I guess there’s five albums in that, which I guess isn’t horrible. But, when I think of all my favorite bands, didn’t Zeppelin record three albums in a year or something like that? Stuff like that. It’s depressing no matter how you look at it.

As far as the conflict influencing our music or anything, sure. I think that a lot of the songs on those older albums were based on this interpersonal relationship. I think with this new one, Justin and I definitely made a point to avoid the obvious “we’re free” kind of song. And that’s not even it. I think that focusing on parenthood and our personal experiences with our folks, and our mothers in particular, was a great way to kind of shift the focus onto something else. We’re not writing about the old band stuff again.

Harris: I think we focused on other things. We did that because there wasn’t the inter-band turmoil anymore. It just wasn’t something to focus on. When we were getting together to work on stuff, it was merely to get together to work on stuff. There weren’t these thoughts of “I know this is going to be axed” or “This is going to be a battle. Now I have to battle Brent and Danny to get my idea heard.” The negativity was severely decreased. And I want to be careful how that comes across. I don’t mean [that] because Brent quit, all of a sudden it just wasn’t negative anymore, and we’re happy as clams. That’s not the case either. But it did eliminate… talking about dynamics again, the dynamic we had built over ten years, together, the three of us. It definitely feels like a new… I hate to use the words “new chapter.” It sounds very adult contemporary, but it is. It’s kind of the next phase for us, and in that phase, things are not quite as dismal as they had become when it was three of us. It wasn’t conscious. We just weren’t dealing with other stuff getting in the way of the music or the focus on the songs.

It was said that using the Digital Looping Recorder [aka Deeler] was the only way to keep the songwriting process democratic. Will you still use Deeler, or will you approach your songwriting differently now?

Harris: Um, no. Deeler… we haven’t actually used that that much since our first album, really. It was kind of a thing initially that we used because we didn’t really have a direction. All three of us knew we wanted to write, so it was like we could just contribute equally this way when we’re just fooling around and jamming and stuff. There were a lot of misconceptions about that program in general. People thought it was like this matrix that we just put little loops in, and it kinda figures out an arrangement for us, and that’s what the record becomes. But that was never how we used it. We just used it more as a sketch pad, essentially, for getting ideas out quickly and storing them.

Yeah, quite honestly, we haven’t used that program in that way for many years as it is, even with Brent. Ironically, he’s the one who developed the program, and probably most of his contributions for this band didn’t really utilize Deeler that much. The way we do things now is not much different than the way we’ve been doing them the last six or seven years.

Danny and I, on this last record, we got together very early on and played around with some ideas, off-the-cuff jamming like we always have. But this time around, rather than throw a mic up haphazardly, we set things up as if we were recording them for real; that way, down the road in the future, when we wanted to use those loops, they’re actually record quality, and we didn’t have to re-record a lot of stuff. We did things a little different this time in that regard. But we also spent a lot of time just developing our own songs on our own and then bringing them to each other once there’s kind of a fleshed-out idea. So, not all songs were born through a collaborative jamming, necessarily.

You’ve added more instrumentation, though. 

Seim: We’ve now added two more people to the live lineup. We’re now a five-piece, because there’s so much instrumentation everywhere, and we’ve always tried to resist the karaoke, to pre-record a track, as much as we can. There’s no shame in that if that’s your thing. I really like seeing bands that fuck up a lot live, just make human mistakes. It’s always reassuring that these are not robots up there. So, Joe’s no longer doing it with us. It’s Paul [Alcott] and our friend Matt [Dabrowiak], and our most recent addition is this guy named Holcombe [Waller], who sings backup really well and plays saxophone.

Will there be any difference to the way the older material is going to be played, such as new arrangements for a five-piece?

Seim: Not so much. I mean, we might not leave out as much stuff. I think our records have always been fairly fleshed out. We don’t really try to release music that can only be played by three people that would be replicated exactly onstage. There’s always a lot of little bells and whistles that get left out of our live shows. We’ve been kind of happy with that, like a punk rock thing, I guess. We did a lot of the touring without Brent for Mines; we went on an Australian trip as a four-piece. Adding Holcombe now gives us more chance to try and pull off more this time.

I recently spoke with Anand Wilder of Yeasayer, and his band’s performance on a Take Away Show came up. I saw that you did one in 2007. What was your experience like?

Seim: That was wild. For a band like us, we always just kind of wince when asked to do live radio shows where they say, “Oh just bring an acoustic and do a little unplugged version.” I really envy the bands that can just pull off songs with just a guitar and voices. It just seems so ballsy. The percussion usually in our songs is such an important factor to the song that they’re always so loud and over the top, and there’s the saxophones and keyboards and stuff. It’s always very daunting to think of doing any sort of stripped-down version. So, when that Take Away thing happened, he had just shown up in France with cameras, and we had never heard of him before. They were, “We want to just walk around the block and film you. Don’t worry, it will all be fine.” [Laughs.] “Okay, let’s do it.” Sure enough. I don’t know if you saw our thing, we were in this weird alley we’ve never been to in our lives, and these little cute kids just start dancing. It was just really bizarre how well it worked out considering we were scared shitless going into it.

The Yeasayer guys said the magic was in the editing and that what you watch is nowhere as daunting as what went into making it.

Seim: For sure. Maybe that’s true. Since 2007, it seems like so many people have tried to do that thing around the world, the Take Away thing. “We’re just gonna film you in a dumpster behind McDonald’s, and it’ll be cool because it’s artistic.” I don’t mean that everyone that does it is a hack. There are definitely some other good ones, but they were on it. Whoever, Vincent Moon, or whoever that guy was, he had a pretty good vision back in the day.

I’ve got a tongue-in–cheek question now. Justin, you’re from Portland. In season two of Portlandia, Carrie Brownstein said something along the lines of how the majority of Portland residents are actually from Brooklyn. Are you afraid the new Real World will have a negative effect on your city, or has Portlandia already unintentionally begun that?

Harris: I perhaps am one of the few Portlanders. I’m not a native Portlander; I’m originally from California, but I’ve lived here 22 years now, so I consider myself more from here. I actually really like that show. I think it’s funny. It’s definitely an exaggeration of the city.

Is the dream of the 90s still alive?

Harris: Yeah, it is. Or, more importantly, the 1890s. That might’ve been my favorite skit of the last season. But I’m not too concerned about it, especially due to the Real World, because as I’ve learned from people who have been part of that here, there is nothing real about that world. Everything is staged. I just heard the other day… there’s a grocery store called Zupan’s; it’s a locally owned grocery store, a yuppie grocery store, but I like it; it has good stuff. Apparently, they wanted to shoot in there. They closed the store for hours and made all the employees wear MTV-related clothing, and they staged employees. The whole thing was set up. As I’ve been hearing from more people who work in that industry, in television, the whole thing is staged. They stage everything. I had no idea. Not that I’m that shocked, but it’s ironic that that show’s called The Real World.

And Danny, are you still involved with the Portland skate culture or skating in general?

Seim: Oh, man, I wish. [Laughs.] Okay, so all I wanted to do with my life was be a pro skater, and between my freshman and sophomore year in high school, I grew about seven inches. And this is like the worst excuse ever, but now I’m like 6’8”, size 15 feet, and I can barely look at a skateboard without it just breaking in half. In spirit, that’s all I’d be doing every day of my life, but in reality, I am a tall, uncoordinated guy with bad joints. So, I’ll be living vicariously through Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

Watching the old Bones Brigade videos.

Seim: Oh, my god! You know that shit?

Yeah, dude, I grew up in the ’80s.

Seim: Oh, thank god. I thought you were going to say you’re like 20.

Nah, I’m 41.

Seim: That’s such a relief! Okay, so I’m so excited. This is hilarious. Do you skateboard regularly?

Not anymore. My knees wouldn’t allow me to look at a skateboard nowadays.

Seim: I’m the same way, pretty much. With all ties to our childhood nostalgia, I just remember when eBay first came around, the first thing I eBay’ed was the original Bones Brigade video series. I was so excited. It was VHS only, and I got the original. I paid, like, $100, and probably two months later, the entire thing was released on DVD, with bonus footage and all that stuff. I was really pissed. For sure I still dream about skateboarding. It’s the most recurring dream that I have.