I recently spoke with Chris Freeman from Manchester Orchestra, a month before kicking off their UK tour in April. We discussed their highly anticipated, upcoming album "Simple Math," their Bad Books project, and what fans can expect from their upcoming tour.
Me: You've got a new album coming out, Simple Math, May 10th, I've heard it's a concept album. Could you give us an idea of what it's about?
Chris: It's about Andy's life, between the ages of 21 and 23, when he got married - and the struggle that happened in that first year of marriage and conversations between he, his wife, and God. Pretty much anything that people would go through in that period of the early 20's. Questioning some things, experiencing new things, discovering, figuring out yourself and trying to make better decisions. That pretty much sums up what the album's about.
Me: OK, so It's not a character, story affair then. It's more life through the eyes Andy and the things he sees, and affects him.
Chris: Yeah, and musically I think it's conceptual as well. As the record goes on, I think it gets better, from the start it's very introductory, setting the scene. It begins pretty, and then it hits you in the face, and then continues to build up throughout the rest of the album.
Me: What was the writing process like this time around?
Chris: It went easily. We had way too many songs for this record and whittling it down to the 10 that ended up on the record was difficult. Probably the most difficult part of it was trying to figure out what all came together, what seemed to fit on one album - the biggest statement we could make with the stuff we had. It was very easy, very chill. We wrote with 3 different drummers, because our drummer Jeremiah left. It brought out the core of the band, the four guys, closer together, and put us on the same wavelength, which made writing more fluid, and songs like Simple Math, the single, came out of that. Us sitting in our room together and playing music - if there was something that we liked, we stuck with it. It was really nice.
Me: Was Jeremiah involved with the album at all?
Chris: No, not at all. We have our friend Tim, whose now playing with us live, who played in a band called Waking Ashland, we wanted him to be in our band. Gwen, who played drums for Colour Revolt, and our friend Ben, who is drum tech for Brand New. It was interesting to play with 3 different guys, and 3 different styles of drumming.
Me: We've heard Simple Math - which is the only full studio version off the new album that we've heard. You've chosen to release it as the first single. I'm wondering how does the album compares to that? Is it more along that vein? Do you feel it's accurate representation of the album?
Chris: I think Simple Math is a representation of the growth of the band, and our ability to quieten down a little bit, and still be, I hate using the word epic, and but it's a bit cinematic I think. It's very pretty. The strings that we intermittently put on this record, on the single, definitely shows some sort of growth. I wouldn't say it's a total representation of the album, because the songs are so different throughout the record. I think they fit together, but they're all very different songs. The thing about releasing a single beforehand is that people think that's what the entire the records about. There's going to be a lot of surprises. It jumps about a lot of different genres, a lot of different perspectives musically, from really loud, heavy stuff to the very pretty, quiet, intimate songs.
Me: Is it more produced than "Mean Everything To Nothing"? I'm hearing strings, there seems to be a lot more things going on.
Chris: I wouldn't say more produced, but I think it's more layered than "Mean Everything To Nothing". That was pretty much a live recorded album. We did those takes live. With Simple Math, we did a lot live stuff, but then did a bit of meticulous overdubs. We brought all the stuff back to our studio, and sat with the songs, did vocal stuff, and we our orchestra come in and play the arrangements on that, that definitely added a lot of direction on the songs. But the core of the songs was there. Some of the extra stuff we put on it, there's a kids choir on one song, beefed it up a little bit. It's exactly what we wanted.
Me: Do you still have those heavy moments?
Chris; Yeah, oh yeah. On one of the tracks Andy played a metal, baritone guitar. It's the heaviest guitar tone I think we've ever had. It's called "Virgin". Song 6, I believe.
Me: Are there any other songs that you can pick out and describe to me? The landmark songs on the album?
Chris: I think Mighty, which is song 2, is a kick in the face. The first song is very pretty. and then track 2 just kind of punches you immediately, and it flips the thing on it's head. It's not the same from a musical standpoint. It's not an all pretty record.
Me: How does it compare it to the other two albums you've released?
Chris: I think it's better. That's what we always try to do, be a better band and grow. It's got moments from METN and Like a Virgin. Songs like "Pensacola" - It's quite a quintessential Manchester Orchestra song, it's quite dynamic, good hooks - there's like four or five hooks within the song. I think it's better, more of the music what we like, and we got better at it.
Me: You worked with Kevin Devine last year on Bad Books. Did working with him rub off on you as a band, and hence the new album? Did it change your perspective at all?
Chris: Well, working with Kevin was awesome. We've been friends for quite a long time. It was a lot of fun. I think something that people don't really know about Kevin, is he's an amazing guitarist, some of his soloing is amazing, he can make a riff, make it sound very beautiful or very badass. That probably rubbed off a little bit - we have our first guitar solo on this new record, which sounds kinda dumb but it's pretty amazing it's a really cool moment. Kevin's a very worthy songwriter, a very meticulous, grammatical songwriter. I know it rubbed off on Andy a little bit - but I think they always talk about songwriting, they always push each other songwriting-wise. That Bad Books album is really back and forth, that put a bit of inspiration in all of us, we like being in the studio - that whole experience was really nice. Something so good came out of it. Definitely got us pumped for this new record.
Me: Were there any major influences that rubbed off on you while you were making Simple Math?
Chris: The most obvious one for us was Neil Young. In our early twenties, he kinda spoke to us at this time in our life, and we fell in love with it. Neil Young is that for us now. He's a great songwriter, we discovered records like "On The Beach" which were a huge thing for us, hearing the album and thrashing out some raw sounding songs which were sounding very pretty at the time. Good stories, and the way he constantly changes. He made an electronic record in the 80's, like, that's insane. Hearing that, and then following his career was definitely a big influence on this album.
Me: "Mean Everything To Nothing" broke you guys into the mainstream. There's a lot of hype. Do you feel any pressure? Or are you still in the same frame as mind as from day one?
Chris: We definitely have the same frame of mind. But it is really scary having these peoples jobs at your fingertips. All the people that work at our management company, all these people at Sony. It's scary that these peoples jobs depend on whether we do well. I don't think that during the writing process or the recording process that really took effect - we're too worried about creating good music, and really keep our heads out of that in the studio. Our mindset is always just to make records that we like. If we don't like it, then we won't record it, then we'll just try harder next time. We stick with that, and hope it goes well. We're very proud of the music that we make and that's the only important thing. We've been working on this record so long, and if suddenly everyone hates it and we were fooling ourselves.. well hopefully that's not the case! That's the kind of anxiety that we do have at times.. If we don't put good things out on the record, then I'll look like an asshole! (laughs)
Me: I was asking about Bad Books earlier. Are there any plans to do that again with Kevin?
Chris: Yeah. I mean, we talked about it a couple of times. It was such a great experience, and that's a part of our job we really love. Touring is definitely the by-product that what we have to do in order to make records - we enjoy playing live shows, but we definitely try, most enjoy getting in the studio, work with people create something. We definitely have some plans to make another Bad Books album, and other a lot of other projects swell.
Me: Are you planning any full UK tours soon? Because you're only hitting two places this time.
Chris: It's because we're doing a little press when we're over there. I feel like this trip is about getting a bit more of a push with this album cycle, with Simple Math. We'll definitely come back to the UK for a full tour once the album is out.
Me: What do you find your response in the UK to be like?
Chris: Pretty positive overall. We've done all kinds of tours over there. From a headlining tour, to opening for the Kings (of Leon) and doing the Biffy Clyro tour. I think we've had a good reaction from every different reaction from every crowd. I think the thing about the fans is that they're very - if they like you they like you. The diehards fans are like, if they like it, they'll latch on to you - there's a lot of passion. That's why I enjoy playing over there.. I'm not so keen on the food! (laughs). It's just not that good! I've actually been craving an English breakfast for the past few weeks though, so I'm very excited to get over there and get a proper English breakfast. We try to make our own version here, but it's just not working as well. I'm excited to go over there and playing for people with a lot of passion. We haven't been on tour for a little while, I think being one of the first things we do off the bat, it's going to be very inspiring for the rest of the tours that we do this year.
Me: What can fans who come to see you on the UK dates, in April, expect?
Chris: Definitely new songs. We're dabbling with very old songs that we've never played live. Songs that we haven't played since we wrote "Like a Virgin", even songs that were even on unreleased albums, that are favourites of ours that we just never took this far, embarrassingly never had time to learn. Hopefully we'll sit down and learn those songs. A lot of different stuff. The new ones, old ones, some in the middle - we'll be playing the hits.. (laughs). So lame to say. And hopefully we'll be good at them!
Manchester Orchestra are playing the Ruby Lounge in Manchester on April 16th.
