Interview with Chris Rosenau of Volcano Choir
[group photo: (from left) Tom Wincek, Justin Vernon, Chris Rosenau, Jon Mueller, Jim Schoenecker, and Dan Spack]
Justin Vernon first met Milwaukee-based band Collections of Colonies of Bees in 2005 when his band DeYarmond Edison shared the stage with them. Shortly after the two parties crossed paths they started collaborating. Utilizing an FTP site to shorten the distance between them, they spent the next three years constructing the songs that would become the project’s debut album.
Even though Vernon was receiving a considerable amount of acclaim for his efforts in Bon Iver, the exchanges continued. When enough material was compiled the Wisconsinites realized they had something special on their hands and decided to give it a proper release. The album was recorded in November 2008 at Justin and Nate Vernon’s recording studio in Fall Creek, WI. On the 22nd of September Volcano Choir’s debut album, Unmap, was released via Jagjauwar.
Guitarist Chris Rosenau recently took time to answer a few questions for us about the recording process of the new album, his favorite song(s) from Unmap, and the future of Collections of Colonies of Bees.
Kip Gasparick: While the name Volcano Choir seems somewhat obvious, is their a story behind the selection of it? Did Justin bring it to the table?
Chris Rosenau: We started trying to come up with a name last fall when we got together to hang out and sift through everything we had been recording in different places for the past couple of years. We realized at that point that we had something that we all really loved, and also something that was deserving of its own name. Justin had been posting and sending us stuff from the start, a lot of the file names involving the word “choir.” That word was just kind of a constant the entire time. We came up with tons of names that weekend last fall, 99% of which were all unusable; just friends screwing around. The word “volcano” got into that mix of ideas, and Jon Mueller ended up bringing the two together in an email shortly after that weekend. It resonated with everyone immediately, and that was that.
KG: What is your favorite song from the new album?
CR: My favorite song on Unmap changes all the time. It’s really fun listening to the whole record now, after all of the critical mixing listening is done. I mean, that part of the process is fun for me for sure too, but in a different way. I guess if I have to give a current fave, I am digging “and Gather” a lot right now. That song changed so much over the years when we were constructing and deconstructing it; it’s really interesting to listen to the final product. It’s like viewing some kind of cross section of a geological process for me. I hear a lot of good times in that song.
I have probably called them all my “favorite” at one point or another though, and probably will again.
KG: How did the album actually take shape? I read that you utilized an FTP site to exchange ideas amongst each other, but did you start the process from scratch once you entered the studio?
CR: The record is really a culmination of a type of electronic “tape trading” that we did for a long time; since early 2007. Some of the initial recordings date back to 2005, before we ever met Justin. All of the ideas we had over all that time were traded back and forth, everyone adding and editing and subtracting and then adding some more, until late last year when we finally started to realize that we had a lot of material that we were all really digging, but that had never been aggregated or listened to in terms of the other songs, or a potential record. There are some songs, “Island, IS.,” and “Cool Knowledge” in particular, that were really fleshed out that 1st weekend when we all got together late last year for the sole purpose of what ended up being “Volcano Choir”, but those had also been being developed in their own right for a long time.
So, no, actually nothing was really started from scratch for the sake of “the studio.” The end result really is a culmination of the entire process.
KG: Do you think the success of For Emma, Forever Ago and now Unmap will encourage others to write and record in Wisconsin with hopes of untapping similar magic?
CR: For sure, I hope that Emma and Unmap encourage people to write music inspired by the feelings they have for each. If they want to do that in Wisconsin, that’s great too. We have lots of room for everybody.
KG: Is it too early to ask if there are plans for a sophomore release from Volcano Choir?
CR: Volcano Choir is about us 1) having fun sending each other new ideas, and getting subsequent emails and phone calls and IMs back from each other that basically impart how much we just kicked the others’ ass, and 2) getting together and having a great time kicking each others asses. I have already gotten the Volcano Choir itch, and scratched it with some new stuff I emailed to Justin and the rest of Bees recently.
As with Unmap, there is no goal, or time-line, but we have too much fun together to not keep doing this when we have some extra time here and there. It’s an amazing place to be able to make music.
KG: Are you considering playing any live shows in support of the new album?
CR: The short answer is yes, we would all love to perform these songs live. The more complicated answer is that, because of the nature of how this record was recorded, not a note has ever been played in the same place at the same time before. This is a huge challenge, but a really fun one. We just need the time to devote to doing it right. If we can get that time, we’ll be trying like hell to get this stuff ready for live performances.
KG: Collections of Colonies of Bees has collaborated with Justin Vernon and Maritime’s Davey Von Bohlen. Are there any other vocalists you’d like to collaborate with?
CR: All of these collaborations have always started from one place, friendship, and developed musically from there. It’s a very trusting, low pressure environment where, because of those aspects, a lot of good things happen. If situations like that arise in the future for us with other friends, that’s great. I imagine they will.
KG: What three albums have inspired you more than any others to create music?
CR: This is an impossible question to answer, so I am just going to go off the top of my head here, answering only for myself, of course.
Led Zeppelin. Houses of the Holy. This entire record has been stuck in my head, stem to stern, for half my life in one way or another. I appreciate it more and more all the time, not just the songs, but the production. This is probably a very typical “rock and roll” answer for this question; I don’t really mean it to be. Listen to this record (without, then with headphones) sometime soon, and be amazed at what the songs you think you know from a lifetime of hearing them in the background on the radio really sound like.
Jim O’Rourke. Bad Timing. I am picking this record because I think it is a good distillation of a lot of what I love about guitar (and because I can cheat here and mention some other influences): Everything from Gastr del Sol to John Fahey to Derek Bailey to Harry Chapin exists for me in this record, and all of this music has informed a big portion of how I have created music over the years. It’s sprawling and “experimental”, but simply beautiful at the same time. Amazing.
Don Caballero. What Burns Never Returns. Genius, and insanely innovative, the day it came out as well as today. I have spent a long time trying to rip Ian Williams off in some way or another.
KG: What’s next on your agenda, Chris?
CR: We have 1/2 of the new Collections of Colonies of Bees record written and recorded. We’ll be finishing that up in the next months. Super excited. I’m playing with Justin at the NYC Guitar Festival in January 2010. That’s been a tall order for us, but has been really fun. And I really look forward to seeing what Volcano Choir has in store for us in 2010 as well. Should be a fun year.
[Interview by guest contributor Kip Gasparick.]
