Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Behind the Beat: of Montreal

Of Montreal’s newest album features a full band and a style influenced by Sylvia Plath’s poetry and San Francisco. POLYVYNLRECORDCO
Of Montreal’s newest album features a full band and a style influenced by Sylvia Plath’s poetry and San Francisco.
POLYVYNLRECORDCO

With the release of their twelfth studio album, Lousy with Sylvianbriar, of Montreal have created one of the most celebrated and cohesive records of their career. Frontman, founder and only constant member Kevin Barnes took a new approach when it came to this album, and it has paid off.

Instead of holing up in his house, Barnes decided to take off to a new place, and that happened to be San Francisco.

“I’d been there many times, just playing shows, but I’d never really spent a lot of time there,” Barnes said in an interview with The Hoya. “Just visiting, taking in the city and some of that had me drawn to San Francisco, which felt like the place that I should be to work on new material, so I kind of just listened to that inner voice.”

While reading and exploring in San Francisco, he ended up coming across Sylvia Plath’s poetry and did a good amount of research about her life, which led him to the creation of the album’s title.

“I felt like her spirit was strong; it was a sort of inspiration for the record, for the songs, so I wanted to include that,” Barnes said.

The blending of the light of the city and the dark of Plath is one of his signature moves and one of the only constant threads between all of the of Montreal releases.

“There is upbeat-feeling music, but lyrically, I have it be more introspective and sometimes a bit of a downer. It’s kind of a cross between the two sides of my mind. The side that can see the joy and beauty in the world and the side that is a bit more pessimistic,” Barnes said.

On this newest release he points to “Fugitive Air” and “She Ain’t Speaking Now” as great examples of this musical and lyrical paradox.

After his time in California, he headed home to Athens, Ga. and decided to change things up again by switching his recording process.

“I knew I wanted to make the record the way they used to make records —where they would just get a group of people in a room together and have everyone focus all their energy and concentrate during a period of time,” Barnes said. For the past few records, he had recorded them mostly by himself, but this time, he utilized analog recording techniques and an actual band.

They had only about two weeks to record the entire record and he had never worked with two members of the full band before .

“It was really just rolling the dice and hoping it turned out okay and trusting my instincts. I do have this strange, I don’t know what I’d even call it, but there’s some sort of thing that happens organically that spiritually, artistically leads me in one direction or another direction, and I always just follow it blindly for better or worse,” Barnes said. “I am always happy with whatever I accomplish after following that voice.”

This album acts not only as a throwback in musical style, but also in recording technique.

“I used to always work with an analog tape machine and then I went, because of the music I was making, to working out of a computer and doing everything by myself, so I kind of wanted to get back to that sort of experience of working with other people,” Barnes said.

In addition to the album release, the band is now on tour. Next week, they will be in Washington, D.C., playing two nights at the U Street Music Hall (Oct. 23 and 24).

“I know a lot of bands just go on stage and play their songs and feel in some way that it’s just more honest,” Barnes said. “I do think there’s something to that of course, but I think that it just gives it more dynamics if there’s moving on stage and new things happening,” There will be no static feeling in the live show they bring to D.C., which he says will be influenced by Mexican art and culture.

Of Montreal have never done things by the book, and they continue to do their own thing with this newest release. Kevin Barnes’ inner voice has yet to lead him wrong, and when they come to D.C. next week it will be interesting to see where it leads him. What he and his band do for their live show. This will be a performance you don’t want to miss.

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