I had the chance to speak with Jenny Conlee from the indie rock band The Decemberists yesterday. She is touring with the band to bring the imaginative new album Hazards of Love to stages across America. Conlee has been making music all her life, starting with classical piano and then playing rock bands in college. She is the keyboardist and accordian player for The Decemberists contributing the beautiful melodies that help make their music one of a kind.
PBPULSE: What is the theme or themes of Hazards of Love?
JC: Do you mean what’s the storyline? When Colin (Colin Meloy – leader singer, guitarist and song writer of indie rock band The Decemberists) wrote that and he was and still is very obsessed with British revival folk music. So he’s seen some patterns in those folks songs like in a lot of mythology there is the heroine and the hero, so that’s the Margaret and William character in the story, there is the bad villain which is the Rake in the story, and then there is the witch, the witch fairy queen in the story which is another archetype. In a general way it’s a love story between two star crossed lovers who fall in love but the hero’s mother who is the witch queen doesn’t want her son to be with this mortal woman. The girl gets captured by the Rake and then William has to go and rescue her. At the end of the story they drown together in the river. So that’s the most basic description of the storyline but there’s really a lot more to it.
PBPULSE: Do you set upon an album with certain themes or plots in mind?
JC: Colin is our song writing and he had this whole thing … the story behind the whole thing is that he had been hired to write a musical and he sat down to do that and what came out of that was this record that was not very stageable because there were a lot of scenes that would be able to be made on the stage. So he said let’s just make a record from this music so he had this concept already in his mind. When it came to us he had already demoed it with acoustic guitar and vocal – most of the record, most of the songs. And then we all helped it gel together and place our parts that we play. He writes all the lyrics, when talking of plot and words he’s the one that constructs the whole thing. He had the intention of writing the whole concept record.
PBPULSE: What is the creative process?
JC: I think it starts out where you take the music home and learn the chords, do your homework and you’re prepared. Then you come in and start playing. At that point it’s a team effort, where we’ll be like I think that would work, or I don’t think that works very well. We kind of do our thing and just talk about it as it goes.
PBPULSE: Do you write the lyrics or the melody first?
JC: Colin, when he demos the songs it’s usually all the chords with guitar with the vocal and the melody. I’m not sure how he write, I think he kind of writes together like sings and plays and creates, I don’t think one comes before the other. But when it comes to us band members it’s already been constructed
PBPULSE: When do you start making music?
JC: Music in general, I’ve done it my whole life. I was a music major, classically musician. I started playing in bands when I was in college and now I am 37 and still doing it. I went to Oregon State.
PBPULSE: How did growing up in Portland shape you as a musician?
JC: I don’t know. It’s a great town. It wasn’t the music scene that we think of today – it wasn’t the case when I was a kid; it was a much smaller town. But we had bands like Quarter Flash coming out of Portland which is definitely not like the music scene today. Now we have Modest Mouse, The Shins and those kinds of bands. I don’t know how it influenced me, that’s what I am going to say.
PBPULSE: You still live in Portland? Maybe the weather or the mood has an impact?
JC:You have a lot of time to practice your instrument having it be crappy outside. In terms of Colin’s words, I mean yes maybe he writes more songs about ships and sea faring vessels, and sea faring people because we‘re close to the ocean and we have a port right there in town. Probably has something to do with it.
PBPULSE: You play a myriad of instruments. What is the first instrument you go into?
JC:I played the piano first for years and years and years and then I got the other keyboards and finally grabbed the accordion about ten years ago now.
PBPULSE: Do you have a favorite instrument?
JC: I like the accordion right now because it’s my newest instrument and I’ve been taking lessons and playing some new styles of music with it like French music and Italian music which I really enjoy. But I still play piano. I host a classical music group and we play classical music and that’s been really fun.
PBPULSE: When I listen to your music I feel transported to another time in the past. Do you have to put yourself in a certain frame of mind to play a certain way?
JC: I think for the Hazards of Love which we are performing on this tour there’s a little bit of trying to focus a bit. When I come out and play the prelude which is the big long introduction. It’s a really slow moving, chortle, sort of spooky – playing that part puts me into a space – okay now we’re going into the fantastical world of the Hazards of Love and it kind of sets the scene. But back stage we are just all joking around. I think it’s just become so much part of my daily life that I can just pop into The Decemberists world pretty fast
PBPULSE: Tell me more about Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized.
JC: We were trying to think of a way to come up with a visual component of this record. This is basically form different animators who have created animation that go with the four quadrants or the four pieces of the record. They made a concept… it’s a literal translation of the story; it’s more like a mood or art pieces that move behind the music. So we’re going to play a show in LA in a couple weeks in which we will be playing live in front of the animation and then you’ll be able to buy that on iTunes and you want to turn the lights down and trip out.
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