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Built to Spill came out of nowhere. Literally. Boise, Idaho, to be more precise. Occupying a rather innocuous spot on the map, the town is known more for its majestic terrain and right-wing militias than its cutting edge music.
But guitarist/singer Doug Martsch's sonic pop project has been steadily churning out albums that have forced many to take note of the sleepy mountain town. Martsch has been operating on the periphery of the Northwestern grunge explosion for the past five years, blending lessons learned from classic rock, pop and stints in some of the most revered indie acts in the region (The Treepeople, Caustic Resin, the Halo Benders and Lync).
Martsch has emerged as one of the most inventive guitarists producing music today. He painstakingly constructs songs out of raw instrumentation and spartan lyrics with an astounding vocabulary of hooks. At times, his songs stretch to copious lengths -- snaking out in pursuit of the perfect note. Like Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Mac McCaughan of Superchunk, Martsch's guitar is used in a percussive manner, layering in thick, edgy patterns. His vocals are spare and keening, at home in loftier registers. It's an arresting combination that has drawn reams of critical acclaim as well as a contract with Warner Brothers. This unlikely union, indie icon meets industry titan, produced last year's Perfect From Now On -- a beatific album, flush with pop anthems.
In the course of four albums (not including a 1996 EP on Up Records), Martsch has been Built to Spill's only constant. The lynchpin in a maelstrom of bandmates and creative energy. The lineup has been hand-picked by Martsch to support each album's particular vision. This is not by accident. In a 1996 Spin interview, Martsch defined the Built to Spill aesthetic as volatile by design: "The idea of Built to Spill is to have the lineup change all the time. I thought it would be more interesting to make different kinds of music with different people."
This philosophy means shouldering the load alone, a romantic vision, but rarely practical over long stretches of time. Apparently, his tune has changed. Currently in the studio to record the major label follow-up to Perfect From Now On, the band has remained intact -- bassist Bret Nelson and drummer (ex-Spinane) Scott Plouf. Speaking with Martsch from his home in Boise, it appeared that his days as a lone impresario are over.
"In the past, I would show my songs to people and have specific things that I wanted them to do for the most part," explains Martsch. "I'd give them a general idea and then let them do what they wanted. Overdub-wise it was mostly myself. After Perfect From Now On, I was going to play bass and guitar and just have someone play drums. Then I realized that's not where I am. I don't really have a vision. I realized I should be collaborating. Most of these new songs are totally collaborative."
Built to Spill's songs are living organisms, full of motion and unpredictability. Each track has at its root a volatile melody that can move quickly in any direction. It's a sound that lends itself to collaboration.
"We'd just set up microphones and start jamming," continues Martsch. "Anyone could start the jam and play anything they wanted. So a lot of it was just created on the spot. It wasn't anything that anyone brought into it."
Spontaneity is the life blood of Built to Spill. It's the creation of the music, not the idea behind it that drives the finished product.
"Spontaneous stuff sounds better to me than other things I've done," says Martsch. " I can be a little more objective about it. My favorite bands work that way. Modest Mouse is a band that works that way. They each create their own parts. Or, Unwound -- that's a band that contributes equally. People play off each other in ways that a single person wouldn't be able to conceive of. Being aware of what the bass is doing confines you a little bit about what to do with the guitar. If I'm not looking at Brett and seeing what notes he's playing, just randomly hitting notes, then I'll stumble across something -- melodies, chords and such that you otherwise wouldn't think to create."
Martsch has spent a career moving to his own peculiar beat in a way that runs against the standard major label grain -- composing music in a relative vacuum, making music without motives, playing small clubs and bars and putting out albums on small labels run by friends. It was surprising to some when Martsch took BTS to Warner Brothers in 1996. It was a bold move for both -- potentially harmful to BTS's amassed "cred" and a speculative investment for a label that swings for the fence on every pitch. So far it has been a symbiotic relationship.
"To me they've been pretty cool. It's hard to say what they're saying when I'm not around. I still don't trust them as far as I could throw them, but they haven't disrupted my life."
Perfect From Now On was loaded with songs over six minutes, which poses a particular problem to labels with designs on radio rotations. "I don't really care about that," Martsch states plainly. "I don't know. I can see from a record label's point of view. I know it has a lot to do with record sales, but personally, I hate the radio. I think that our music would sound awful on the radio. I think you have to hear our music within the context of other stuff for it to make sense. I don't think it stands well alone as a single song."
Martsch and Co. played only a few songs from Perfect From Now On on their last tour, which is usually frowned upon by labels pushing their albums, but Warner seems to take it in stride.
"We get a little [flack]," states Martsch. "But, obviously they can't do anything. They did suggest that we play more songs off of [PFNO]. We told them that we would try. We didn't really. We weren't really able to."
What might sound like reckless impudence from most comes off as plain-faced and truthful coming from Martsch. He speaks in mild, rising tones and without irony. It's clear that he has come to grips with his role on a major.
"We do more [interviews] because we get a little more attention being on Warner Brothers," says Martsch. "I don't really mind that. And I don't really mind the touring that much aside from the fact that we all have families. I like to play in front of different people. And we've always had good luck on the road with people going to our shows."
Seeing Martsch, Nelson and Plouf is a slightly voyeuristic experience. They seem to be playing strictly for themselves, so much so that it can be a bit uncomfortable -- as if you have intruded in some way. It's this rare and admirable quality that sets Built to Spill apart from the bombastic performances of other bands that could be considered their peers. The band's extended jams could be defined as self-indulgent, but die-hard BTS fans (and there are many) pogo to the bitter end. Last time they came through Chicago, they ended their set with a 45-minute marathon song -- a tactic usually reserved for Dead cover bands and monks seeking higher consciousness. Before launching into the song Martsch issued a caveat: "We're going to play a song with lots of feedback. So if you're not into that kind of thing, you might want to leave."
"In the past it was even more so," laughs Martsch. "Every song would have a big, long jam at the end. This last tour we kept it concise and saved it for the end. That's fun for us to do. To improvise. There are certain nights that I would want to sit there and other nights that I wouldn't. I remember Chicago as being closer to off."
At the time of our conversation, Built to Spill was about to have another crack at Chicago. They had booked a single date at Lounge Ax, a small but storied indie bar on Chicago's north side, in order to work the kinks out of the material for their new album.
"We've always done everything that we could to play all ages shows," says Martsch. "But this trip is an informal show and basically because we're there to record. I just thought that [Lounge Ax] would be a good place for it. Sometimes it's better to play for 300 than 500."
The band has scheduled time in Steve Albini's new studio in Chicago to record their new album. "We're going to record about 14 tracks and of those pick maybe 10," says Martsch. "I have no idea what it's going to be called yet. It's probably going to come out in Spring or Summer, because we're not finished until January. "
Having recorded all of his previous albums in the Northwest, Chicago seems like a peculiar choice in the front end of winter. Martsch concurs. "I'm not really sure why [we're coming to Chicago] now," he admits. "A long time ago it seemed like a good idea. Just to go somewhere where we don't know people and go to a different studio because we've done all of our records at these two studios in Seattle. Just to have a new atmosphere might be good for our creativity in some ways."
Martsch immersed himself in the Beatles before going into the studio for Perfect From Now On, and though the Fab Four were nowhere to be found on the album musically, their influence was quite obviously inspiring. One wonders what has occupied Martsch's CD player of going into this next spate of studio work.
"I've been listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin," Martsch replies. "I'm not sure if [this album] is going to be like them. I just like the energy of it. It gives me some idea of how to record the album. But if I tried my hardest to make a Led Zeppelin album, most people wouldn't even recognize it as being influenced by them. It's sort of within my own abilities and limitations, even if I tried to rip something off, I couldn't."