Interview with the Rosebuds

By Chris DeLine on November 13, 2008 in Music Features

Megafaun and Now Now Every Children will be opening for The Rosebuds as the duo returns to the Twin Cities, playing St. Paul’s Turf Club this Sunday. Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp of The Rosebuds recently shared a few thoughts with Culture Bully’s Chris DeLine including the success of Bon Iver, the passing of David Foster Wallace and the group’s blog.

Chris DeLine: Some have called the new album a return to Birds Make Good Neighbors. During the writing process, do you ever catch yourself thinking “we’ve been here before”?

Ivan Howard: Not really. I felt there were some similarities with the instrumentation we used, but that was about it. But it should sound a little like the songs on Birds Make Good Neighbors, we wrote those too!

CD: Last year the band worked on a Pixies covers project, this year The Rosebuds have contributed a Cure cover to another album. Why are you drawn to these types of releases, and how much fun is it for you to reinterpret music that you love?

IH: We just really love the songs we are covering. It is fun to learn how other people write the songs you love and what chords they use. Then try and flip it around and still keep that feeling of the original in tact. Also, our Salt-n-Pepa “Push It” cover was right on. Don’t forget about that one.

CD: Around here [Minneapolis] Bon Iver has almost become a household name, playing non-stop and receiving a ton of publicity since breaking out last year… how did the collaboration with Justin Vernon on the new album come about?

IH: Justin actually lived with us for a couple of months while we were recording Night of the Furies together in Raleigh, NC. The song “Border Guards,” which Justin played on, was taken from the Furies sessions. It just seemed to fit with the new batch of songs for Life Like so we decided to put it to use. Then after we finished Night of the Furies, he recorded For Emma in Wisconsin. Then came back to NC and he was actually our touring guitarist for our 2007 US tour and our trip to Russia. Watching him grow bigger and bigger in the music world has been amazing for Kelly and me. He is like our very own Larry Bird out there we helped unleash on the world.

CD: I am absolutely in love with “Bow to the Middle” – it is the most upbeat track on the new album and the chorus is wonderfully infectious. What inspired the song?

IH: I was on the couch playing chords and Kelly [Crisp] said, “I have an idea for a way to sing the song.” As soon as I heard heard her chorus melody I knew one day it would be awesome! She did a great job on it.

CD: A post on the band’s blog recently commented, “David Foster Wallace dead at 46. If the smartest man alive hangs himself, what chance do the rest of us have?” Why do you think we are especially drawn to news of an artist’s death in our culture?

IH: Well he was Kelly’s favorite living author and she actually just started a book club for his book Infinite Jest on the Merge Records website a few months before his death. It really hurt her… I think artists we love are really close to our hearts because we connect, as humans, with their work. It was a big loss.

CD: What compels you to work with the blog format? Why do you think that there is a growing fixation with publishing personal thought?

Kelly Crisp: I’m a writer first and I guess any writer has a compulsion to publish their thoughts. The blog appeals to me for the same reason being an independent musician appeals to me. The material on the blogs I follow is as well-written as material in any other medium but I think the “fixation” you mention comes with everyone thinking they need a blog. And why not!? Everyone should have one. If there’s an audience, and as long as there are like-minded readers there will be, publish it yourself!