Photo: Autumn DeWilde

Nate Query leads a simpler life than the polysyllabic lyrics of The Decemberists might suggest. After touring much of his life, Query knows what he wants when he reaches his Portland home. He wants some food.

Query relaxes at home by cooking, and says he’s a bit of a food nut. He published a recipe for pork loin with poblano chiles in an '07 indie-rock cookbook titled I Like Food, Food Tastes Good: In The Kitchen with Your Favorite Bands. Although Query likes to spend some free time at home relaxing and making meals, what he likes most about being home is it allows him more time with his seven-week-old baby.

“I’m just trying to get through each day,” he says. “When you have a little kid like that, you just want to enjoy every moment. It’s easy to get caught up in the shit you have to do each day, but with a kid it’s better to try to enjoy the moment.”

Although he says he’s no expert on the subject, Eastern philosophy influences the life of the Decemberists' bassist. He started reading the Tao De Ching in high school. Reading the words of Lao-Tzu, he realized the difficulty of evoking spirituality with words. To him, spirituality is something felt, not spoken. The book taught him to be calm and accept what happens to him in life.

“One of my good friends is a Buddhist - he’s somebody I go to for advice a lot,” Query says. “And a lot of times his advice is along those lines: accept the way things are, instead of forcing things into your idea of the way things should be.”

Query agrees with band member Jenny Conlee, who once said The Decemberists are set up like the branches of American government - sort of a system of checks and balances:

“We are a band that is led by a singer-songwriter, Colin. But we’re also a band, not just hired guns. So there are a lot of things where Colin provides the leadership, but there are also a lot of things that we have a lot of input.”

Fans disagreed about the band’s move in 2005 to major label Capitol Records. Some called the band's indie cred into question, while others thought they earned the right to sign to a major label. Yet Query says he doesn’t think there should be constrictive rules about what bands do. He says the band didn’t sign to Capitol to become the next Coldplay; they signed to the label since the label seemed excited about their music, and were ready to work hard on it. Which is what he says really matters.

“The transition for us from being on an indie-label like KRS Kill Rock Stars to being on a major label like Capitol has worked out pretty well,” he reasons. “We did get hit pretty hard at the time of their corporate restructuring, which was right at the time The Crane Wife came out. But, in general, they’ve been super supportive of the record. And especially this record, which is a lot to swallow, and is difficult to market.”

He says the new album, The Hazards of Love, is the kind of record that even some indie labels would listen to and say, “How are we supposed to sell this?” The album centers around a young woman named Margaret who enters a forest. In the forest, she meets a debauched rake and forest queen, and falls in love with a shape-shifter. Query says listeners should not expect an album of singles.

“If listeners can, they should sit down and listen to it straight through,” suggests the bassist. “Turn the lights off and turn on iTunes’ visualizer. I think that’s the best way to listen to [Hazards] the first time. That’s what we made our management do, and the record label.”

Musically, he approached The Hazards of Love more electrically than previous albums. Query, who plays electric bass in addition to the classic stand-up, liked the look of all his effects pedals laid out during the making of the album. For his upright-bass songs, he likes the “Jazz Odyssey”-type approach he took on one of the album’s songs, a reference to one of his favorite movies, Spinal Tap.

“I think every musician, anybody that plays rock music on tour, has to see Spinal Tap, like, five times. Gotta go back to basics,” he says.

And one thing rock bands know about is fans. Query likes meeting people at shows, but says it’s rarer for the band to meet people at gigs than it used to be.

“I sort of miss the days when we used to play bars and hang out and meet a lot of people,” he says. “Now, we don’t really meet that many people on the road.”

However, he does manage to meet at least some fans all over, usually before or after concerts. One group of fans is very easy to spot: the members of the band’s website message board. Large groups of the board’s members show up to concerts wearing matching shirts. He says he makes sure to get time to talk with these fans, since many of them have been supportive since the band’s early days.

Maybe a fan could have helped him out with some advice on biking in Florida.  After riding around some cities in Florida, he says people don’t seem to care about biking very much in Florida, and that the state may need more bike advocacy groups:

“Being from the west coast, where most cities are bike-friendly, biking around Orlando and Tallahassee, that was scary. As. Shit. It was like everyone was trying to kill me.”

After 15 years of touring for different bands, Query is used to being up on stage. Although it is Colin Meloy who sings that “He Was Meant For The Stage,” when Query is performing, he equates his experience back to Eastern philosophy - he is in Zen mode.

“I like to be on stage and just to listen,” he says. “Just hearing the thing as a whole, and just playing my part in it, and I think that’s the way I play best and react best to what’s going on.”

So what does he think about when he’s up there?

 “When you’re playing like five, six shows a week and you’re on tour for weeks on end, sometimes you’re up, and you’re like, ‘I wonder if we’re going to get after-show food today,'” he admits.

So you could say Query knows what he wants. And it’s not too difficult to give it to him either. He wants some food.

The Decemberists in Florida:

September 29 - St. Augustine Amphitheatre, St. Augustine

September 30- Hard Rock Live, Orlando

The Decemberists By The Numbers:

Years touring: 15

Query's baby's age (in weeks): 7

Length of The Hazards of Love (in minutes): 48

Number of Decemberists: 5

Shows The Decemberists play in Florida this month: 2

Age of The Tao De Ching (in years): 2500

myspace.com/thedecemberists