Issue No. 2

The Simple Majesty of Low
Trout

In 1994 Low were formed in Duluth Minnesota. Drifting onto the scene as a slow, hypnotic enigma they have in the past eleven years evolved into a major musical statement. Never compromising their elegant vision, but constantly confounding their listeners and critics they have recently released their seventh record, The Great Destroyer on Sub Pop records which just may be their most challenging work to date.

MP: Zak, aside from the times I have seen you play with Low, I also caught you two summers ago here with the Dirty Three.

Was that a really insane show?

MP: There was a lot of heckling.

Yeah…that was a fun tour. I miss those guys. Maybe some years down the line they'll get the credit they deserve for being one of the better bands out there. Each one of those guys….well….they just don't make bands like that anymore. I could go on and on. I love those guys.

MP: How did you get the chore of being the spokesperson this time around?

Well, we wanted to make a concerted effort this time around. A lot of the calls were coming to Alan and Mimi's place and they were getting pretty overwhelmed.

MP: I was wondering, because much of the band's public identity is rooted in their status as a couple with children. In fact, the last two shows I saw were either interrupted by a cell phone call from a nanny, or the last time when they were frazzled because the kids had the flu.

Aw yeah, they were puking all over the place.

MP: I understand you just started a publishing house called La Mano. Publishing comic art if I am not mistaken?

Well, I don't want to think of it in just that way. It's me publishing things I love. Some of it just happens to be comics. One of my favorite artists in the world is John Porcellino, and he has done amazing work over the last bunch of years, and I think more people should be able to read it. I have a couple of art folios coming out. I don't know. Whatever's good, I'm going to work to put it out so that people can see it. It's pretty serious to me as is Chairkickers. It's nothing fancy but we don't take lightly that we are lucky enough to make a living making the music we love.

MP: I think it's evident, not only in the execution of the music itself but in the packaging and identity surrounding it.

Well, thanks.

MP: Looking over your discography, some of your records get me right away like Secret Name and others are really difficult like Trust. I think The Great Destroyer falls directly in the center of this notion. This time around, you worked with Dave Fridmann. How did that relationship come to be?

We met Dave at a show. I think it was the Bowery Ballroom in New York. He heard of us and we heard of him. There was a mutual respect there and we said 'Let's try working together sometime.' So either he was busy or we were busy and we decided with this record we were going to track everything ourselves. So we tracked it in Duluth at Alan's house with a friend named Tom Herbers and we got to a point where we said 'Are we going to finish this ourselves?' It turned out Dave had a week open so he said 'Why don't you come out, and we'll hear your tapes and see how it goes, no strings.' We went out and…I think we were looking for something pretty specific. I think there was both a rawness and directness that we were looking for. It was definitely going in a new direction for us. We brought it to Dave and right away he could hear it and had a sensitivity to us and it was obvious that Dave could help us make a really good record, do what we set out to do and really bring some things to the table that we probably couldn't if we were to finish it ourselves.

MP: When your first record came out it seemed the press had already sealed your fate for you, claiming you had such a specific sound that there really wasn't much else for you to do. Generally when something is so unique it's hard to picture another direction for it. But I think what has elevated Low from merely being an indie band to watching art unfold is that with each record you make new rules, break them, and make more new rules to break. Does working with celebrity producers like Steve Albini and Dave Fridmann ever make you feel like the attention is being shifted away from Low and being pointed towards listeners seeing it as "Low's record by Steve Albini?"

No. When you work with someone they become a valid part of it. But with this record we understood that a record is nothing more than capturing a moment in time. In the past we have tried to put so much scope into a record and make it everything we are in this moment. You can look at it as a new record or a piece of a body of work and when you work with someone they become a piece of that, and if you aren't interested in working with that person then your record is going to suck. I can go back to any record and think that I wish we had done something differently, and you can nitpick, but you have let it be what it is or what it was, because that's where you were at that moment and that's who you were working with at that moment. Given that, I'm…I'm pretty happy. I don't think we have ever been overshadowed. I mean Steve Albini is a celebrity in my world and your world, but we don't live in the same world as the rest of America.

MP: No we certainly don't. So what is the songwriting process like for Low?

We all bring ideas, but it usually begins with Alan. Sometimes he'll have whole songs and we'll sit down and arrange them as a band. Which can be very easy or it can be very difficult. Sometimes we'll have a melody or some chords and we'll sit in the basement and bang away at it. Alan's the songwriter. I mean we're all a band and it is very much all about the three of us figuring out how to do this. Alan writes good songs. He really does.

MP: What music inspired you to pick up the bass and join a band?

Well I think it was probably wanting to play the guitar line from Neil Young's 'Like a Hurricane' and then mid 80's Midwestern punk rock was in my life.

MP: Who did you like from that era?

Big Black, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr.

MP: I just finished Our Band Could be Your Life by Michael Azerrad

Great book.

MP: Made me think about seeing the Meat Puppets at City Gardens in Trenton, NJ in 10th grade. Made me misty.

The Jesus Lizard in a room full of 30 people in Pittsburgh, that's one I am taking to my grave with me.

MP: Speaking of 'Like a Hurricane' do you also dig the Roxy Music version?

I'm pretty Roxy Music illiterate.

MP: They do a pretty interesting cover.

I've never spent much time with them. Sometimes I have trouble with music that's interesting (laughs).

MP: Check it out sometime. They turn it into a quite bombastic glam rock blowout.

That actually sounds fun to me.

MP: What's the last record you bought?

Metallica's St. Anger…no wait I bought two CDs last night. I meant to buy the first Napalm Death but got the wrong one. Our sound guys listen to a lot of metal and they all say that the first Napalm Death is a classic and Metallica's Master of Puppets.

MP: I love Master of Puppets! 'Orion' is such a beautiful song.

I saw the documentary and it really kicked my ass. Amazing. I also really like Isis right now.

MP: You guys have done some great covers in your career, my favorite being your version of Pink Floyd's 'Fearless', do you approach them thinking 'this would be interesting if Low did this' or are they songs close to your heart?

I don't think we try to over analyze it too much. I think it happens in all sorts of different ways. As far as the Pink Floyd song goes…well you probably remember…before punk rock hits you spent a lot of time sitting around with Pink Floyd. And then you find punk rock and someday you go back and say 'My God, Floyd was really an amazing band, they were ridiculously good.'

MP: Right, and if you look back over punk rock in that period one realizes there wasn't that big of a difference. Considering the lyrics on Animals, everyone is pretty much saying the same thing.

I went back and I listened to the song 'Fearless' and it sounded even more beautiful now and I went back to the band and said 'We have got to do this song.' They looked at me like "What?" and then I played it for them and they were like "Absolutely."

MP: Getting back to your artwork, what was the medium used for the cover of The Great Destroyer?

Watercolor on a piece of wood I found in the garage.

MP: Was it always to be the cover evocation of the material on the record?

Yes, absolutely. That's why I am so happy with it. It looks like the record feels.

MP: We are based in Philadelphia and I was wondering if our city had an identity for you?

It's hard, there's are so many places, so many times. But yeah, we love coming to Philly.

MP: For some reason you tend to be booked in churches here. I've seen you at the Ethical Society, the Unitarian church, etc.

Yeah there was a spate of that. Sometimes churches are great to play though. In Europe we get to play in a lot of really nice old churches. Churches have nice acoustics and you don't have to deal with people getting too hammered.

MP: How are you received in Europe?

Pretty well. I think the last record did a little better there than it did here. Just like here it's been a slow build. People kind of listen to it when they come across it and then they stick around.

MP: What's next after the tour? Back in the Studio? Taking a break?

Taking a break. We used to not do that and now we're going to try to. They've got two kids. I'm married. We're trying to have a balance and have a life. We've found that when we do that the band benefits. We write better songs. We're more excited.

 

Low's latest record The Great Destroyer is out now on Sub Pop records. Currently the remainder of their spring and summer tour have been cancelled due to illness. Keep an eye on www.Chairkickers.com for updates.