Spring Break
Bishop Allen on recording
by Andrea Fineman
Managing Editor
Arts | 11/18/08
Posted online at 11:05 PM EST on 11/17/08
/ Last updated at 2:48 AM EST on 11/17/08
Cambridge's own Bishop Allen may not have been around for decades, but the band can already boast 12 EPs in addition to a handful of other studio releases. The band's last album, 2007's The Broken String, came after a project in which the band released one EP a month for an entire year. That year was 2006. Now, the Cantabridgians-turned-Brooklynites are gearing up to release another album at the beginning of next year. Bishop Allen will appear Thursday at the Middle East in Cambridge.
JustArts: Can you talk a little bit about the EP-a-month project, and was it as difficult as it seems it would be?
Justin Rice: Originally, [my bandmate] Christian and I had been working on our second full-length, and for some reason we just couldn't finish it. It turns out, I think, in retrospect, we just didn't have enough songs, and the songs weren't that good, and we were really frustrated with music and kind of trapped in a rut, I guess. And so we started just sitting down and forgetting about the songs we were actually working on for this record ... and as we were doing it I started playing on the piano, and he was playing guitar, which was new for us. I'd never really played the piano before. And we started just goofing around, and as we ... ended up having a conversation, like a double-dog-dare conversation, where one of us said, "We should put these out as an EP," and then it was like, "No, how about a series," and then it turned into an EP a month for a year.
It was definitely hard at first. We didn't even know if it was possible because we'd definitely never produced anything at that rate, but it wasn't impossible. ... We had to work constantly … and it seemed like it wasn't going to happen, but in the end it was possible.
JA: And you reworked some of those songs for The Broken String. What was it like reworking them, and did you wish you'd had more time to work with them at the beginning before they'd come out?
JR: In the end, it turns out to be really, really frustrating to rerecord songs you've already recorded. The songs were not really slick or produced on the EPs, but we did think they were finished … and so when we had to go back and rerecord them a lot of the times it was like we had to make something for the second time that we'd already finished once. And there's something about that where you get all the struggle that's involved in making a record, because there's the process of making everything come together [which is] really difficult, but none of the reward is there. You don't get that feeling that you get when you make a new song, of having laid something entirely new to the world. So it was pretty frustrating in the end, but I'm glad that we did it, because I think we learned a lot about how to work in the studio and I am glad for a lot of the songs that there is a more slicker version. As far as having more time to work on the songs, there were definitely some songs on the EPs where I'd wished originally we had more time to work them out, but there's also something where, in order to finish a song, what happens is you have to make a lot of minute decisions … and doing those quickly doesn't necessarily mean that you make worse decisions.
JA: Is the Middle East the most fun place to play?
JR: Yeah, the Middle East is awesome. It's only a few blocks from Bishop Allen Drive. … I've seen a thousand shows there, and the first time we played downstairs at the Middle East I couldn't believe it. I remember going to shows there and thinking how huge it was, and it seemed so different now. [There's] just so many memories I have there. ... It does seem like a homecoming to play there.
JustArts: Can you talk a little bit about the EP-a-month project, and was it as difficult as it seems it would be?
Justin Rice: Originally, [my bandmate] Christian and I had been working on our second full-length, and for some reason we just couldn't finish it. It turns out, I think, in retrospect, we just didn't have enough songs, and the songs weren't that good, and we were really frustrated with music and kind of trapped in a rut, I guess. And so we started just sitting down and forgetting about the songs we were actually working on for this record ... and as we were doing it I started playing on the piano, and he was playing guitar, which was new for us. I'd never really played the piano before. And we started just goofing around, and as we ... ended up having a conversation, like a double-dog-dare conversation, where one of us said, "We should put these out as an EP," and then it was like, "No, how about a series," and then it turned into an EP a month for a year.
It was definitely hard at first. We didn't even know if it was possible because we'd definitely never produced anything at that rate, but it wasn't impossible. ... We had to work constantly … and it seemed like it wasn't going to happen, but in the end it was possible.
JA: And you reworked some of those songs for The Broken String. What was it like reworking them, and did you wish you'd had more time to work with them at the beginning before they'd come out?
JR: In the end, it turns out to be really, really frustrating to rerecord songs you've already recorded. The songs were not really slick or produced on the EPs, but we did think they were finished … and so when we had to go back and rerecord them a lot of the times it was like we had to make something for the second time that we'd already finished once. And there's something about that where you get all the struggle that's involved in making a record, because there's the process of making everything come together [which is] really difficult, but none of the reward is there. You don't get that feeling that you get when you make a new song, of having laid something entirely new to the world. So it was pretty frustrating in the end, but I'm glad that we did it, because I think we learned a lot about how to work in the studio and I am glad for a lot of the songs that there is a more slicker version. As far as having more time to work on the songs, there were definitely some songs on the EPs where I'd wished originally we had more time to work them out, but there's also something where, in order to finish a song, what happens is you have to make a lot of minute decisions … and doing those quickly doesn't necessarily mean that you make worse decisions.
JA: Is the Middle East the most fun place to play?
JR: Yeah, the Middle East is awesome. It's only a few blocks from Bishop Allen Drive. … I've seen a thousand shows there, and the first time we played downstairs at the Middle East I couldn't believe it. I remember going to shows there and thinking how huge it was, and it seemed so different now. [There's] just so many memories I have there. ... It does seem like a homecoming to play there.
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