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Austin City Limits preview: Interview with the Walkmen’s Peter Bauer
All five members of celebrated post-punk band the Walkmen grew up alongside each other in Washington, D.C., but their paths to indie rock stardom were long and tortured. Three members rose to prominence in Jonathan Fire*Eater, a mega-hyped, Dreamworks-signed act that collapsed in 1998, while two served a brief stint in aborted Boston garage rock band the Recoys. Following the dissolution of both bands, the five high school friends united as the Walkmen with a self-titled EP in 2001, just in time to ride the burgeoning New York City rock scene to prominence. 2002’s “Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone” garnered comparisons to the Cure and U2, while 2004’s “Bows + Arrows,” and particularly its propulsive single “The Rat,” landed the band on prime-time soap opera “The O.C.”
But the band careened wildly off the beaten path, first in 2006 with “’Pussy Cats’ Starring the Walkmen,” a track-by-track cover of Harry Nilsson’s 1974 album “Pussy Cats,” and then with 2008’s “You and Me,” a darkly intimate gem that won kudos from Spin, the Guardian, Rolling Stone and others. The Walkmen’s bassist-turned-organist Peter Bauer spoke to us by phone from his Philadelphia home to discuss the group’s latest honor, why they sometimes hate their own albums and which indie band’s got game.
American-Statesman: “The Rat” recently landed at No. 20 on Pitchfork’s list of the 500 best songs of the decade. Was that a surprise for the band?
Bauer: (Record producer and engineer) Chris Zane was with us in the studio and he’s very up on the Internet, so he saw it first and was like “Hey, you guys, you’d better check this out.” It’s great and we thought it was a huge surprise. It’s funny cause you look at that list and we’re kind of the only failures on it. Everybody else is OutKast or Missy Elliott or Radiohead or somebody huge like that. And here’s this bunch of wash-ups at No. 20. It’s nice to have a song live up to standards like that.
It’s been about a year since the release of “You and Me” — what’s the band up to now that the post-album release barrage of publicity and touring has subsided?
We’re recording another record right now and hopefully that’ll be done in a timely fashion as opposed to two years from now. It’s coming along now so we’ll see how it goes. We’re hoping for a release early next year.
“You and Me” was very distinct from every other album you’ve released, with a greater focus on atmosphere and mood and more straightforward lyrics. Has the new record similarly taken on a certain direction?
It definitely doesn’t have a shape yet. We’ve recorded a lot of stuff, a lot of it very quiet, some of it somewhat country-ish. But I don’t know what it will end up sounding like when it’s done. You can do a lot of recording but not really know quite what it is you’re working on until something just clicks. There’s always a moment where things become a little more obvious. Last record, just after we did “I Lost You,” I felt like we finally got a sense of tone and were able to progress naturally from there. And we haven’t quite hit that moment yet for this record. But it’s just a matter of time.
Were you happy with the way “You and Me” ended up?
We really love that record. The whole band likes it a lot. Which was kind of a new thing for us — usually by the time we’re touring behind a record we just absolutely hate the songs. There would be maybe three songs on an album we wouldn’t dread playing. And you come to realize which songs are b-grade by playing them so many times. But this time was different. We set out to make this big record full of hits, and we wanted to make something that had a romantic, grand tone. So it was a surprise what we ended up with, since there’s really not a single on that album, but we still felt like we were successful at making something that we liked and something that wasn’t cheesy or trite. It definitely felt like a big step forward for us. I’m just hoping we can make another one that good.
Is it challenging to sell those slower, moodier songs at big outdoor festivals like Austin City Limits or Outside Lands?
It’s a bit of a problem, yeah. But I think we’re learning our lessons in terms of making them work. Of course, the fans want to hear the slow songs as much as we want to play them … my wife is now shaking her head and looking at me and mouthing “No, they don’t.” Well, we want to hear slow songs, anyway. I can’t stand rock ‘n’ roll music. But you can figure out different ways to do things, at least, ways to make the songs louder. And as long as the passion is there, that energy and intensity is going to come out in the performance.
In April, you chatted about the NBA season with readers of ESPN.com, for their series of online conversations with musicians. The worlds of indie rock and professional sports fandom don’t overlap often. How’d that come about?
Our manager asked me if I ever wanted to do sports radio, kind of out of the blue. And I told him that that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life. But what he was actually eying, and eventually got me, was an Internet chat. But I had a blast doing it. Me and (guitarist) Paul (Maroon) both love basketball and we both play quite a bit. I’d much rather be a sports star than a rock star. It’s definitely strange how it came together, and I’m still not really sure why exactly they wanted me on ESPN. Although sometimes you’ll read it and one of their commentators will talk about Interpol and you’ll just be like “That’s strange.” So obviously it’s something that some of their people are into. But it’s not like they ever talked about the Walkmen. Nobody ever does.
Touring offers a lot of opportunities for impromptu hoops sessions. Can any of the bands you’ve toured with play ball?
I would say that the Built to Spill guys were really good. They would be the ones I would remember. They cleaned our clocks. But other than that I don’t think we’ve ever played with anyone particularly good. The Kings of Leon are supposed to be pretty solid. They’ve talked a lot of trash. But I don’t know if I buy it.
The Walkmen play from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2 on the Xbox 360 stage.
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