Built To Spill
06.15.05
Profile
words: Whitney Sweet
photos: Official Site

It seems that, for one reason or another, humans love to classify. To have everything in its right place makes us feel comfortable and supplies a faith that we can grasp things larger than ourselves. And I think I like that. To divide things between good and evil, excellence and mediocrity, treasure and trash is simply a way of understanding, among other things, art. But it is genres that I don’t particularly care for. There are inherent boundaries between good and bad, but genres are nothing but the formation of separate boxes based in relativism. As followers of the music scene, we can spend all day saying that one band sounds like another and therefore they somehow belong together, but in the end, there’s really no point. And what’s even more dangerous is when bands follow these genres themselves, willfully putting their music into these boxes. Because then they are only looking backwards, and ultimately they fall into the traps of plagiaristic unoriginality.

One undeniable sign of greatness is when a musician is able to escape all preconceived genres. Of course the music itself also has to be wonderful. These are two of the reasons why I like Built To Spill so very much. This band’s sound seems all at once organic, hard, soft, progressive, jammy, rocky, and folky, all without being distinctly or definitively any of those. It was to my overwhelming delight that I had the chance to speak briefly with Built To Spill’s Doug Martsch during his West Coast tour about this aspect of their music and a few other things.

Located in Boise, I wondered what it meant to Doug to be considered a Northwest band? Personally, I always thought of Built To Spill, Modest Mouse, perhaps The Shins and a few of others as NW bands. But was I falling prey to that tendency I disliked of limiting bands to genres? Thankfully Doug cleared this up by illustrating that their likeness is actually bound in being unlike others. “Similarities that we have with Modest Mouse would be that they also just kind of make whatever music comes naturally to them. That’s something that we try to do and not really be concerned about what kind of music it is, or if it fits into any category. Not trying to be similar to anything else.”

Yet, with my distaste for genre-fying in mind, when I prepared questions for Doug, I found myself almost wishing that BTS fit into one. It would have made my task a lot easier. Inquiries about direct influences, current favorites and similar sounds would have been simple. Fortunately, Doug Martsch proved to be a very kind and amiable individual, which made the process a stress-free one. Within the first few minutes of our conversation it became quite clear that Doug is simply a man making great music, not someone who lets the things that so often hover around great music (e.g.,attention, fortune) make him.

That disposition became apparent when I asked if, on the tail-end of a successful East Coast tour, the band had ever thought of releasing a DVD of live performances. After all, the Built To Spill live album was met with much enthusiasm from their fans. “I’m not too interested…I think if anyone is really interested in seeing a live show of ours they can probably find some pretty decent things on the Internet.” This is refreshing in an age where many artists loathe seeing anything of theirs available without a price tag, perhaps forgetting that, although what they create will always be their own, a piece of it also belongs to the fans. It seems that in the face of extended profits, Doug Martsch does not forget this.

This sincere and down-to-earth quality was also evident when Doug commented on Built To Spill’s touring experience. I asked if the romantic notion of a well established rock band on the road, living with no true responsibilities, consequences or concerns, while others behind the scenes made sure that all ran smoothly, applied to BTS. I was surprised to find that the band actually travels without a tour manager, preferring to take responsibility for the abundant duties themselves instead of leaving them to someone else. Further, he stated that he did feel the weight of many concerns while touring, namely, “being away from my family for such a long amount of time and worrying about driving and that something might happen to us.”

For those who caught Built To Spill live over the last few months, you may have heard a handful of new songs. The new record was originally planned for release this fall but has now been pushed back to what will probably be early spring, 2006. Doug said that pushing back the release date was a bit of a disappointment, as he is rather anxious to make it available. But he also acknowledged that it would require more time to create the record he wanted. When asked about the studio experience for the band, Doug praised everyone that he worked with, saying the production crew was “mellow and easy to work with.” Yet it was evident that the band takes this part of the creative process extremely seriously, remarking that they can spend hours making sure even the smallest sound comes out right.

One aspect of this band that intrigues me is that when you hear a song of theirs, say randomly from a jukebox, you immediately know it’s Built To Spill, due to their unique sound. Yet each of their five previous studio albums carries with it a very unique resonance. From my conversation with Doug about the new album, I got the impression that BTS fans can expect the forthcoming album to once again claim a different sound from its predecessors. He did comment, though, that the process in creating these new songs “was often based on jams with the band, and in that way [the development of the album] felt a lot like Keep It Like a Secret.” That makes me very excited.

So next spring is far off. With any luck you might be able to catch Doug Martsch and Built To Spill during a handful of dates they will be playing in the meantime. But on that Tuesday of next year, when you go into your local record store to buy the new album, if you are confronted by an out-of-the-know sales clerk who looks at your purchase and asks, “What kind of band is this?,” don’t ramble on with tongue twisters like, “Modest Mouse, but a little more jammy, meets Dinosaur Junior, with more of an alt-folk sense, mixed with Neil Young’s harder side, all wrapped up in a late 90’s indie rock/post organic sensibility.” Just say, “They’re really, really good.” Please and thank you.

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