imp: Fruit Bats (Shins side project) + Puzzle Muteson + Steven Milne @ Tunnels,15 Dec

[offramp]

Here's a couple of interviews with Eric, just to pass the lunch hour...

Q&A with Eric D. Johnson from Fruit Bats: Being in the Shins is like having a day job as an astronaut | The Volume | Time Out New York

As youll have gleaned from our preview of the Fruit Bats show thats set to take place on Monday, September 14, at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, were pretty keen on the bands rootsy, sweet songscheck out the groups fourth album, The Ruminant Band (Sub Pop), for evidence of this. So we thought wed shoot some questions over to main man Eric D. Johnson to ponder while the Bats are on tour. Click past the jump to hear Johnson on life as a full-time Shin, California Canyon jams and why theres nowhere quite like NYC (aww).

So How is your day going?

Pretty great! Im staring out at a sunny day on the frontage road of I-35 in Norman, Oklahoma. Theres a swimming pool and a bunch of semis. Its kind of weirdly comforting.

And hows the tour shaping up? Where are you right now?

Its shaping up nicely. Like I said before, Im in Norman, Oklahoma, sitting with a belly full of delicious tacos and looking at the freeway.

It sounds like you had a lot of fun making The Ruminant Bandsomething about the joyful guitar solos, loose drummingand the singing, of course. How fun was it, on a scale of one to ridiculous?

Im just gonna put it right to ridiculous. It was the most relaxed session Ive ever been on, and the main tracking took less than two weeks. So theres where the looseness comes fromit was both unrushed and yet spontaneous. It was the only time that my master plan for that kind of thing actually panned out.

Is being in the Shins more of a smooth, slick operation than leading Fruit Bats?

Of course it is. Which makes it pretty much impossible to compare the two. Having my day job as a Shin is awesome, but its kind of like having a day job as an astronaut or alligator wrestler or superspy. I get to do a bunch of weird, cool stuff that doesnt really have anything to do with me. Fruit Bats is way more low-key, but its my own thing so it feels good.

How has the band dynamic changed now you have more members?

Weve always switched it up a bit, but this is the first band where I really handed over the finished songs and then let them reshape said songs. That was a rambly weird sentence, yeah? I love the new guys. Theres no drama and everybody likes the roadat least they pretend to.

Where did you make the album?

At Clava Studio in Chicago, where wed recorded the first one nearly a decade ago. Its in the Bridgeport neighborhood on the South Side. Its kind of a blue-collar Italian-Irish enclave thats gentrified super fast in the last ten years. The food is stellar, but you cant find a decent coffee to save your life. Its right below Chinatown, though, so we ate like kings.

What were your musical touchstones for The Ruminant Band? It sounds totally like a Fruit Bats record, but echoes that sprung to mind for me: Neil Youngs Harvest Moon, the Strawbs and Pink Floyd

You pretty much called it on those three. I like the old California Canyon jams, the stuff from Laurel Canyon. And I love that Wizard folk out of 60s and 70s Britain. I grew up with my mom jamming a lot of soft rock in the car on the way to the water park or what have you, so thats wormed its way in there. Im trying to push ahead while still looking back. Hopefully people take from it what they like

Which records did you fall in love with as a little kid?

As a really little kid, I was actually pretty obsessed with the first Boston record. The cover was a guitar spaceship! And I would study the dudes on the back photo (you should just Google Image Search that photo) all day. I also was a pretty huge fan of Disco Mickey Mouse. My first album was Men at Works Cargo.

How long was The Ruminant Band in the works? Were there any big events that informed this one?

Ruminant Band was pretty fast and furious, even though there was a lot of time between it and the last one. No big events, really. Which is why I like it. Its not a breakup record or a growing-up record or anything. Its just a little compendium of my life in the last five years or so.

Your songs often sound very personal, rather than like storytelling songs, e.g., Beautiful Morning Light. Are your subjects always thrilled?

My subjects are pretty fictional, believe it or not. Most love songs are about my longtime (almost six years) girlfriend, so shes used to being sung about. She usually just says something along the lines of Awwww, thanks! when I unveil some ode to her. Shes a pretty modest lass.

I gather you also write screenplays. Have these seen the light of day?

No way! Im not ready to embrace a career in being a Renaissance man. Someday.

Exciting that youre playing New York. How do you feel about NYC? What do you associate with the city?

Ive spent a fair amount of time in NY, Im pleased to say. Theres nowhere like it. I pretty much plan on moving there every time I visit because it sucks me in. But then I get back to the mountains and Pacific and fir trees and realize Im kinda stuck out west. But New York is the most instantly enchanting place in the Western Hemisphere, maybe. My favorite New York time is that weird point in winter where the lights all weird by the end of the day and you can see your breath as you hoof it down the street. Seems like the living embodiment of a Simon & Garfunkel song.

This time next year, Fruit Bats will be

Probably playing some festivals and doing some small tours. Hopefully millionaires, more likely hundredaires.

Melodic Sensibilities | Music Feature | Tucson Weekly

In the four years that have passed since the last Fruit Bats album, singer-songwriter-guitarist Eric D. Johnson has toured and recorded with the Shins and Vetiver, projects that encouraged him to open up to more collaboration in his own band.

So when it came time to record the songs that would become The Ruminant Band, Johnson settled in with patience, focus and an eagerness to make creative leaps as a songwriter.

"I had what sort of seems like four years off, but we toured on that last Fruit Bats record for a year, and I did the Shins for about a year in a half in the middle there, so it's only the last year or so (that) I felt pretty urgent about doing something," Johnson says.

Recorded in the same Chicago studio as the Fruit Bats' first album eight years ago, The Ruminant Band is 11 songs of blissful, sunny rock music, the same sound that has earned the band descriptions such as "zoology rock," "bootgazer," and "rustic pop," all of which the band quotes in bio material.

"I actually like those, because they're so weird," Johnson says. "I like those better than something like 'indie pop.' I don't want to shatter categories. It's OK, but it's nice when you're creative about it.

"I tend to just write in a lot of major keys, and I come from a folk and bluegrass background, and it comes across that way. A lot of times, my lyrics aren't bright, but even then, I think it just comes out as sounding really happy. I just like those major keys. I can't stop."

Released this month on Sub Pop, The Ruminant Band has been met with largely positive reviews, which have fueled the band's excitement for the upcoming tour, which stretches from British Columbia down the West Coast before looping through the South and East Coast on the way back to their home base in Chicago.

"I try not to read too much stuff about the Fruit Bats. The little things I've peeked at, I've been pretty happy about how people are receiving this record. Not just because they like it, but because they get what we're doing," he says.

On Sub Pop since 2002, the Fruit Bats have evolved considerably from the four-track tapes that Johnson first recorded. Now with a solid touring and studio lineup for the first time, a more confident Johnson went for a richer and more diverse album.

A different set of ambitions guided how Johnson and bandmates Christopher Sherman, Ron Lewis, Graeme Gibson and Sam Wagster put together The Ruminant Band. Even the title reflects a more thoughtful and natural approach.

"The process for me was designed a lot more around having it be a full band thing and being more collaborative, giving things over to other people, and also designing things to sound good live," Johnson says. "Things used to be orchestrated in a studio fashion, and I wanted to get away from that and have things be more rock 'n' roll."

Before touring with the Shins, Johnson ran his own craft-service business, doing all-day catering at film sets, a distraction that he can now leave behind.

"The Shins gave me the financial stability to just be a musician full-time, which is huge. It made me be able to focus a lot more. It's given me more time, if anything," he says. "I have no interest in being famous or a rock star or anything, but I really do like being paid to play music."

The songs for The Ruminant Band started to come together as Johnson traveled with James Mercer and company. He describes being a Shin while onstage, and a Fruit Bat off stage.

"I was able to get up there for an hour and a half every night and be part of that world, and in the interim, you can completely just get that out of your head and do your own thing. I was writing on the bus, writing in hotel rooms," he says.

A song that nearly didn't make the album, "Singing Joy to the World," is a fascinatingly detailed story about a couple whose first date was at a Three Dog Night concert at the fairgrounds. The relationship is doomed to fail, but the self-delusion at the core of the guy's unrequited love is most bittersweet.

"It's very different from anything else I've ever written," Johnson says. "That song was me trying to do what Tom Petty does."

Johnson watched the Peter Bogdanovich documentary on Petty, Runnin' Down a Dream; he says he was inspired by how Petty sketches stories out of spare, intimate details, rarely seeking an easy resolution.

"He's great at writing stories that aren't so epic in their scope. Petty will write these stories that are a little bit more open-ended, a little bit more sad. They don't wrap up neatly. I thought that was a really interesting notion," he says.

Throughout The Ruminant Band are songs that leave a sweet and friendly aftertaste. "You'll always eat bread if you always have seeds to sow," Johnson sings on the title track. "You won't lose the beat if you just keep clapping your hands."

The Ruminant Band comes to an end with the quirky "Flamingo," and the song fades out just after Johnson sings the album's final refrain: "Everything's gonna be just fine."

It's the band in a nutshell, and Johnson doesn't shy away from his major-key, melodic sensibilities.

"Every song I write is always going to be a Fruit Bats song," Johnson says.

[offramp]

Well after a whopping 2 hour jam tonight were there!

Kind of.

We have now added a makeshift drum machine (keyboard acting as drum machine) to the setup and a cover (of my personal favourite song of 2009).

So set sorted for tomorrow:

three/four tracks solo (all new material)

one song is inspired by listening to too much ennio moriccone/ andrew bird

the other two are brand new and very finger picky/ tricky to play

one piano song

then four with michael chang on guitar, shaker and backing vocals (3 new songs / 1 cover)

listened to fruit bats all day too to get into the mood.

now to get the people down, whos coming?

Sounds awesome!

This is TONIGHT.

[emlyn_dewar]

SNIP

now to get the people down, whos coming?

Sounding good to me.

Mate and me heading down tonight, should be worth being there from the start.

[Christy]

Imma be there. Should be a humdinger!

[chilli]

Imma be there. Should be a humdinger!

Only Scottish date of the tour & leading members of The Shins playing

live & direct......The Fruit Bats are excited to be playing here.

[emlyn_dewar]

Excellent last night.

Snafu aftwerwards may have resulted in massive downfall though...

Good times!

[trippingflags]

Fruit Bats - video

Fruit Bats video - 1st encore

YouTube - trippinflags's Channel

Top notch stuff, really enjoyed that gig.

[Guest Tam o' Shantie]

yeah that was a really good gig

[trippingflags]

i redid the video for the 1st encore. this one is higher quality/resolution.

(anyone got a track name. I initially thought it was a Bob Dylan cover)

and here's the 2nd encore "Singing Joy to the World" of thier new lp.

[Andy Mulhern]

i redid the video for the 1st encore. this one is higher quality/resolution.

(anyone got a track name. I initially thought it was a Bob Dylan cover)

and here's the 2nd encore "Singing Joy to the World" of thier new lp.

first encore was Revolution Blues by Neil Young (I think)

Great gig, enjoyed it muchly.

[offramp]

first encore was Revolution Blues by Neil Young (I think)

Great gig, enjoyed it muchly.

Correct.

That was a top night. Cheers to Steven and Mike for opening up - brilliant set. Fruit Bats were tremendous. Really enjoyed themselves and hope to come back next spring - plenty time to as no Shins action next year.

Thanks everyone who came down.