Interview: The Walkmen On The Joys Of Recording In Depressing Little Rooms

We’re big fans of The Walkmen here at Ragged Words, and their latest album Lisbon, out now on Bella Union, is another wonderful example of why. Its eleven songs all speak of a band comfortable both with their status as relative elder indie rock statesmen (this LP is their sixth) and the simplicity of their own musical aesthetic. Good songs, well performed and beautifully recorded; this has been The Walkmen's modus operandi for several years now, and these working methods have helped them come to occupy a place in many listeners' affections as a band (not unlike Spoon) capable of a rare and treasured level of long-playing reliability. We spoke to frontman Hamilton Leithauser - whose literate, world-weary lyrics contribute so much to what our own Shane Murphy called Lisbon's "elegantly dishevelled" mood -  to learn a bit more about how the album came together.

 
Hi, Hamilton. We'd like to start by asking you some questions on the songwriting processes for the latest album. We've read that Paul (Maroon, guitarist) often starts off writing riffs, and then the vocals are layered on top: has anything changed this time ‘round? Do you email demos around, or meet up and jam the songs out?

Well, in general it mostly works best with certain individuals at a time, small groups; its hard doing it with everybody, you know, too many cooks in the kitchen! With email now, it’s great ‘coz half the guys live in Philadelphia - when we were younger you'd always have to meet someone on a subway platform and hand them a cassette tape, but now you can just email it.

 
What stage would your songs generally tend to be at when you start recording? Do you use deadlines to get stuff done?

Well, whenever we get a batch of stuff that seems like its gonna come together we might book a studio date, but you always end up working ‘til the eleventh hour. It all depends... it’s great to be able to play the finished song live, which always gives a new perspective on it – you can see what's working and what's not – but most of the time, honestly, you're just doing it at the last minute and you don't have a chance to go out and play it. Sometimes you can write as you record, and it can work out that the thing will come together and your first take of it will be the one that's on the record. 

 
Are there times when you might capture something spontaneous in a demo/sketch you create, and then later find yourselves wanting to recapture it when you go to do it for the record?

Yeah, it’s exactly like that – we’re very aware of doing proper demos, because there's always something you can never quite achieve when you're in the studio. We'll all do our bits and we'll end up with a huge batch of parts, where, like, Walt (Martin, bassist) will be playing drums and Paul plays guitar and I'll be singing. Then when something seems like its gonna work, we'll either just leave the recordings alone or somebody will try to remember which parts go together before we get in the studio. But we don't ever wanna do the song in its entirety before we go in, because it just never helps - in the end it only becomes this obstacle.

 
You've recorded yourselves for earlier records – considering your ability to record these kind of high-quality demos, would you think of going back down that road in future?

Well, yeah... I do a lot of recording myself anyway. I try and do a lot of the recording live with the band, but, you know, I don't always get the right take when they get it right...

 
So you have your own setup in the house then? Do you take recordings home and generally work from there?

Yeah, ‘coz I don't need that much equipment any more. We also do some overdubs, where Paul will do some trumpet a lot of the time. Like, for example, we have this new slow song where we recorded the whole thing and it really sounds great, so maybe we'll do it more that way this time.

 
You mentioned that you have a few new tunes on the go; is there a new sound or new approach this time around?

Yeah, we have that one slow one we recorded on our friend's tape machine that's really sounding great and I'm really into, and then there's this one really bashy rocker song that we haven't recorded yet. It makes you a bit nervous ‘coz you never know quite how it’s gonna go, but right now it’s sounding great, very exciting.

 
When you're writing lyrics, do you work with a narrative or a specific image in your head that you want to create? Or do you go for trying to create more of a feeling, and leave certain things up to the listener?

It's more like it comes along with the music; it’s always based on the musical idea first, and then a lot of the time if that's right then the lyrics will follow immediately. When you hear the music you just try and think of stuff that you think sets the right tone, and then you gradually fill it in as the song takes structure and shape.

 
Do you tend to have a story in your head, or multiple stories going on, or...?

No, because every time I've tried to start with a set idea, like a story or whatever, I just can’t do it, it never really works out. It always seems very contrived and ends up becoming a totally different thing. I find it quite easy to just get lost at that point; I also find if I fight it too much it never ends up being that great. There's a point where you've just got to let stuff go if it's not happening like you really want it to.

 
Where do drums come into the process?

Well, Walt does the drums, and usually they have to have a new angle. Honestly, if you ask me, the drums provide the fun for the song... Like, you can get melodies you really like, but it'll often be something really gloomy or dark, or else too pretty or something. Walt tends to just come up with the groove and adds a tap, and it really frames a song very differently when the drums have been added.

 
Do you have any habits when you’re writing songs, or methods you use to disrupt the repetition?

Yeah, I dunno… it’s hard. I guess you just have to keep trying to fake it or trick yourself into being interested in doing it. Nothing ever really works twice: it's real annoying but true. The only thing that works for us is just hashing at it continuously; like, you just go in on the weekdays, and you get in there by yourself in this depressing little room we have in New York and just try to hammer it out.

 
How did recording with John Congleton (Texan producer who's worked with Modest Mouse, Antony and the Johnsons and many more) go for you? Did you go in with your demos, or with no expectations at all?

Yeah, that was us trying a new direction there, one which really worked out well I have to say. John wanted to work alongside us as a producer – which we'd never really done before – and we'd always been very wary of the idea, because we already have enough opinions in our band! But we just wanted something new. We'd been in this great studio in New York for a long time, where we’d recorded a lot of stuff that we thought was really great, but... it's really hard at the time to see it, but looking back it's pretty obvious we were stalling out there, and just getting too comfortable in this room. I mean, it's a great place and we were working with a great guy, but it was all just getting a bit too repetitive.

So we ended up going to this place in Dallas, and that was a completely different experience. We were introduced to this guy our manager had recommended, who we'd honestly never even heard of. New York has all the high-end gear, and you're hanging out in Tribeca and all, but it was completely different here. We were on his turf in this wee town in Dallas that none of us knew, so it kinda made us a little uncomfortable and I think that's what got it going in the end. That's what finished the record, being pushed outside our comfort zone.

 
You mention that there are a lot of opinions in the band... Would you say it’s a democracy, or how exactly does the dynamic work?

It's tough sometimes, but you gotta be willing to let stuff go. It's not a matter of conflicting opinions watering things down – it’s more that when you’ve got thirty songs, everybody has to agree on what goes in. Everybody has had to cut something at some point: there's times that, if you're in love with something and somebody's really against it, you just gotta be willing to let it go. I mean, it sucks, but that’s just the way it is.
 
 
The Walkmen are currently on tour throughout The UK with The Black Keys. The band will then embark upon a run of headline dates elsewhere in Europe, stopping off at Dublin's Tripod (November 15th) & Galway's Róisín Dubh (16th), before returning to The UK again in January. Tickets for the two Irish dates can be purchased here.