The Walkmen

Music has followed The Walkmen wherever they have gone. From their very early beginnings in Washington D.C., to the underground success and collapse of their first two New York bands, the members of The Walkmen (organist Walter Martin, guitarist Paul Maroon, drummer Matt Barrick [previously of Jonathan Fire*Eater], vocalist/guitarist Hamilton Leithauser and bassist Peter Bauer [formerly from The Recoys]) have had their own, independent-minded music in their hearts, heads and ears. With the recent release of the band's second full-length, Bows and Arrows, and a full tour of the U.S., The Walkmen have taken their music to new levels and will be taking it to more places than ever before, including tour stops at Michigan State University on March 4 and Detroit's Magic Stick on March 6. Recoil caught up with Barrick just after Bows and Arrows hit shelves last month.

Recoil: From what I've heard, your new album captures more of your live sound than your last album, Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone. How would you describe that sound, and how has it evolved over the last two years?
Matt Barrick: When we recorded our first record, we hadn't played very many shows together and weren't quite used to playing together, so it took some touring for us to get better. By the time the record came out, we were much better and people began telling us that the live show was much different from the record, so on our second record we tried [to] capture the energy of our shows. So I think we did a much better job of capturing that energy, although it probably would have been better if we hadn't waited so long after writing the songs to record them.

R: How was the songwriting process for your new record different from your last album?
MB: Things weren't that different, though the first record was mostly a studio record: we'd write a song and pretty soon record it, experimenting while we were learning how to record as well. This time we were playing together as a band while we wrote the songs and made sure to record them this way as well. We also brought in an outside engineer, Stuart Sikes, for much of it so that we would be removed somewhat from that side of things, though we inevitably got involved.

R: Were more of the songs played live before they were recorded?
MB: I'd say about two-thirds of the songs were played a lot live before they were recorded. A few songs, like the first one, were recorded right while we were writing them. I think we'll be doing a lot more of that in the future, as we tend to be most excited about songs right after we write them.

R: What was the whole process of setting up and starting your own recording studio, Marcata Studios, like?
MB: It was very difficult, as we did not know much about construction, running a business or even engineering. In New York things are especially difficult with the cost of real estate. Paul Walt and I knew we wanted to make music together, but The Walkmen weren't formed yet and we didn't really have a singer, so we decided to build the studio and take it from there. It played a huge part in the development of The Walkmen, because we had unlimited time, after our day jobs, to experiment. However, we're still not very good at business and still owe the majority of the money that we borrowed to start it. Also, we learned engineering in a bubble, so whenever another engineer asks us a technical question, we usually have no idea what they are talking about, because we have our own names for everything.

R: Why did you ultimately decide to not go back into that same studio to record the second album?
MB: On our first record we got a little carried away with rerecording things and being very involved in the engineering aspect, so this time we wanted to take away a little of the control, so we could focus more on performing the songs than getting the tones. However, we ended up using our studio a lot anyways for overdubbing and remixing songs we weren't happy with. In the end I think about half the album was done at Marcata. I think we'll probably do most of the next one at Marcata, perhaps bring in an outside engineer to help.

R: How do you think releasing all of your music independently has influenced what you've written and released so far?
MB: We tend to do what we want musically no matter what. We focus on writing songs that we think are good and we try to make them not sound like our old songs as much as possible, so we don't really worry about anything else during that. And I guess independent labels let you do whatever you want musically. But our new record is on a Warner subsidiary and they didn't get very involved either, so it wasn't much different, except we had a little more money to record at other studios.

R: Many bands that have had their music in TV commercials look back on it with a very mixed reaction. Do you look back on the inclusion of your song "We've Been Had," in a Saturn commercial in the same way?
MB: The whole thing seemed pretty harmless and we needed any money we could get at the time. It seems that because record companies, whether independent or major label, don't pay their bands even when they do sell records, a lot of these bands aren't rejecting such commercial offers. It's kind of difficult to make any money in a band and we would like to cut down on hours at our days jobs. And I think we are not alone.

R: Do you think Sony will ever approach you to contribute music to its commercials for its Walkman portable music players?
MB: I doubt it, but when they approach us with a lawsuit over our name, we've got a backup plan: 'The Valkmen.'

March 2004