Issue 507

New Pornographers Who said 'pop' was a dirty word in music? The New Pornographers - an indie rock quasi-supergroup with three songwriters of incredible strength within their ranks - have, over the course of five albums, made some of the most gloriously uplifting power-pop this side of Big Star, where harmonies and melodies are key components of their sound. While alt-country chanteuse Neko Case is a key factor for the group - her vocal turns on the band's fifth album, 'Together', on songs such as Crash Year are much more insistent than on the preceding 'Challengers', and more in keeping with her contribution to the first few albums by the group - she is not traditionally a songwriter when in this guise. Instead, the bulk of the material falls to Carl Newman, alongside Destroyer's Dan Bejar contributing a smaller number of tunes on each record. "We were getting back to more of a rock thing," says Newman of the lighter and more uplifting tones on the new album. "With 'Challengers', we got about as mellow as we were going to get. "I think it was (deliberate)," he continues, explaining why the band have returned to a more positive vibe for their fifth release. "I never know what kind of record we're going to make, but I usually have a vibe for what it's going to be. I think I knew when we started this one it was going to have a different feel, but nothing is ever that deliberate in the New Pornographers world. We just make a record and see what happens." The sheer abundance of material that Newman, Case and Bejar have produced in the ten years since 'Mass Romantic' in 2000, is nothing short of astonishing. In that time period there has not just been five albums by the group, but also six albums (and a slew of EPs) from Destroyer, four solo releases from Neko Case, and two from AC Newman, Carl's solo guise. When it comes to saying 'it's time to make a new New Pornos record' and get the group back together, unsurprisingly it falls to Newman to make the call. "A record starts with me starting to write songs," he explains. "It usually becomes very evident after I start working (as to whether it's material for a New Pornographers release or not). Sometimes the touring cycle for an album ends and I think 'what am I going to do?' and I think I should be writing. There were a few records that I did very close together - when we finished (sophomore success) 'Electric Version', we toured for 6 weeks and I immediately started working on my solo record and went from there." 'Together' comes only a year after AC Newman's 'Get Guilty', and he says that more and more he has to adapt a different mindset when it comes to the solo material and the band-orientated ideas. "I don't want to really talk about it that much, but I'm now thinking about writing the next record. I've got an idea of what it's going to be but it's all very (...)," he pauses. "I hate to talk about what the next record's going to sound like because it invariably ends up sounding like bullshit!" The album also features vocal contribution from Kathryn Calder, Newman's niece who joined the group in order to replicate Case's vocals in a live setting, before becoming a permanent member of the group in 2006 when she sung the lead on Failsafe. As is the same situation for Case, any material that Calder sings is for the most part penned by Newman, who puts himself in the female perspective to write material for the girls in the group. "For My Shepherd on 'Together' I was deliberately trying to write a 'torch' song - something that suited Neko's voice," he says. "But other times I just write a song and think to myself 'this would really work for Neko or Kathryn'. But My Shepherd was different in that I actually wrote it thinking 'this is going to be a good Neko song.' Her voice works really great for a certain sort of song; something like Dusty Springfield." The New Pornographers' 'Together' is out now through Matador, with the group (Neko Case included) playing at Fowlers Live on Sun 14 Nov. By Andrew Weaver