Tortoise: Steady. Yet Never As Slow As One Might Expect: An Interview with Jeff Parker
Words: Shawn Goldberg
Photo: Jim Newbury
On their new LP Beacons of Ancestorship, the distinct sound of Tortoise absorbs even more genres into their repertoire of dub, jazz, rock and more. Be forewarned: It’s better than Standards.
REAX: What instruments do you play in the band?
Jeff Parker: I mostly play guitar, but I play a little bass guitar, and some keyboards.
REAX: What kind of guitar do you use?
JP: Gibson ES-335.
REAX: Do you think the fact that your music is instrumental makes it more open to receiving international attention and appreciation?
JP: No, I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I mean, it’s probably less accessible because we don’t have vocals. Most people, they relate to music that has a voice. They can see themselves in singers, as does everybody. Everybody can vocalize, not everybody can appreciate instrumental music.
REAX: You’re playing an upcoming concert with the set list decided by the audience. Are there any songs you hope you don’t have to play? Any you hope you do get to play?
JP: We just finished a new record and I think most of us are pretty amped to play the new songs. But no, there’s nothing we really hope we don’t have to play. We like our back catalogue and we’re kind of excited about visiting some of the old material that kind of got retired over the years. We expect people to want us to play their third release TNT. We haven’t played those songs in probably almost ten years.
REAX: It’s been quite a while since the last Tortoise album. What took so long?
JP: There are a few different factors. The band’s been around for a while. It’s a bit harder for us to make the records. It’s not getting easier, that’s for sure. In terms of creativity, keeping the ideas flowing, having momentum. But also, we all have so much stuff going on. The Sea & Cake which shares members with Tortoise released two albums in between the time that we made the new Tortoise record. Pretty much when The Sea & Cake puts out a record, it kind of means that Tortoise can’t really do anything for a year. They’re busy promoting their record.
REAX: Do you think the previous couple of Tortoise albums have been leading or building to the new one?
JP: Yeah, I would say. Not that this record is any better or worse than either of those records. It represents the forward momentum that we have in the band. We’re very concerned with progress as a band, moving forward.
REAX: There are lot of things going on in every track. Do you think it’s more complex than It’s All Around You?
JP: In some ways. I would also daresay this album is a lot more minimal than a lot of our other records. Because we came up with the material outside of the recording studio - that’s kind of different for us. The last two records were constructed primarily in the studio. And for this album, we learned the songs kind of how normal bands practice. We learned the songs at our rehearsal space and then went in the studio and recorded them. So there’s not a lot of layering, like we’ve done, especially on It’s All Around You, where there’s a lot of layering of instruments and textures on top of one and another, rhythms overlap. It’s all pretty much songs and ideas that one person would introduce to the band, and then we would work on them. A lot of the stuff was pretty fully formed before we started working on it. Learn the songs, then we went in the studio and just recorded it as a document.
REAX: When you perform the new songs live, how do they differ compared to the album versions?
JP: They usually evolve ... during the course of the tour. Right now we’re playing them pretty much how they are on the record. After a while they start to change. We’re not even to that point with this new material yet.
REAX: A song on the new album like “Yinxianghechengqi,” where does the desire come from to put out a song like that, so garage inspired, something that would in no way belong on It’s All Around You?
JP: Yeah I’m not sure why we did it. There is a sense of humor in our band. People kind of tag us as being cold.
REAX: Really? When I think of Tortoise I think of seriousness.
JP: Laughs We’re not like that at all, man. That one, it’s a fun song. We have a good time playing it.
REAX: And the next track, “The Fall of Seven Diamonds Plus One,” that could absolutely belong on any Tortoise release. Is there a lot of thought put into the song order?
JP: Yeah absolutely. We tend to look at our albums as a whole. It’s one long piece of music. Especially when we get to the phase where we’re mixing and sequencing. We want the album to feel good as a whole. It’s not even necessarily about the individual songs.
REAX: Are there arguments when songwriting? How do you all agree?
JP: Our band operates as a democratic entity. Everybody contributes and the final musical decisions that are made is stuff that everybody is happy with.
REAX: You Made an album with Bonnie Prince Billy of cover songs. How’d that come about?
JP: That came about because Howard Reynolds, who runs Overcoat Recordings, had an idea for Will Oldham to do a cover of the Bruce Springsteen song “Thunder Road.” He was already performing it at his shows. And Howard was like “man, this is great! I want you to go in the studio and record it and I’ll put it out.” And Will said, “the only way I’ll do it,” sort of joking, “is if Tortoise is my backing band.” So Howard was like, “OK” and he knew us already anyway. He asked us. We were like, “yeah sure, sounds fun.” That kind of set the whole project in motion. We had an idea to do an EP, four songs. Then we did the four songs, but it was so much fun we just decided to make a whole album.
REAX: Have you guys thought about doing a soundtrack to a film or have you been approached to do something like that?
JP: We would love to score a film. But unfortunately we haven’t been approached. Our songs have been in a lot of films. Like students making films will get in touch with the band through the label and ask to use certain songs, but as far as Tortoise composing an original score for a film, that’s not something we’ve been asked to do. But it’s one of our goals for sure.
Tortoise plays the Pitchfork Music Festival July 17, along with a handful of Stateside dates before heading to Europe.
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