Since their inception in 2001, Portland's The Decemberists have channeled a unique and wide-ranging set of influences (be it R.E.M., Irish folkfore, or Russian literature) into classic indie-pop that has found a large and fervent fanbase. The group's 2006 major label debut The Crane Wife both amazed and shocked music critics, who loved the material but could hardly believe the band's audacity, as two 11-plus minute epics were featured on the disc. The bold strokes of the album certainly didn't keep fans away, as the album debuted at #35 on the Billboard 200 and has since sold over 250,000 copies. The band's higher profile has resulted in a summer orchestral tour of major markets, appearances at Coachella, Bonnaroo, and the upcoming ACL Fest, and even a comic feud with Stephen Colbert over which "green screen" video contest was best. The band also recently taped an episode for the 2007-08 series of "Austin City Limits," which will air on PBS in October. Just before dropping into Austin for both the ACL shoot and a secret show at The Mohawk, Decemberists' bassist Nate Query (pictured far left) called Austinist from California to discuss the band's ACL taping and upcoming Zilker Park appearance.

What attracted you to joining the band in its beginnings?

Well, at the time, I was playing in a couple of different bands in Portland and a guy I knew asked me. He said he was in a really cool band that wanted an upright bass player, and asked if I would want to come to a rehearsal and check it out. And I basically just really liked the music; I didn't know Colin or the other guys, and even the guy that asked me I barely knew. But I was really excited about playing upright and only upright in a rock band, and then just really loved the songs. I liked the drummer, I liked Colin's singing and guitar playing, so it was like "cool, I'll do it!" It was really that simple. And it was definitely music that was a little different that what other people were doing in Portland at the time; there was a lot of alt.country going on, and this was not alt.country.

We live in a very music-savvy town here in Austin, and there are some genres and sounds that are pervasive here. Does Portland's rather unique weather and atmosphere influence your music?

I think it's possible....I'm not sure. (Laughs) I think the thing about Portland is that it's a very laid back kind of city, like Austin, where it inspires people to be creative in an outside-the-mainstream kind of way. You don't feel this pressure to be mainstream, or be successful, and you don't have to work that much to pay rent and get by in a lot of cases. So I think in that sense, Portland was just a good place to start an outside-the-mainstream band. In the beginning, we'd rehearse once a week, and play out maybe once a month, and hardly anybody was coming to the shows...and we were just going farther and farther in this direction of songs like "Odalisque" and "July, July!" We were going out there and exploring tangents, which was really fun. I think some cities would be less conducive to doing something that...weird, basically.

The Decemberists are one of the few indie-rock acts in recent years to avoid the blogosphere insanity of a quick buildup followed by a backlash: while lots of bloggers championed the group, the commercial build of the group was very gradual and organic over a five-year period. Has that helped the band stay sane and grow in a nicer sort of way?

It's funny, because the last interview guy asked me: "Hey, you guys have had really sudden success!" (Laughs) I feel like in a lot of ways I'm surprised by the success we've had, and I appreciate how lucky we've been. But on the other hand, I really like our music and this band, and we've been working very hard since we started, so it makes perfect sense to me that we've grown every year. We've grown at a fast rate, but it's been really steady, and I appreciate that - I think you're right, we have been able to learn how to play bigger shows gradually, learn how to be a bigger band gradually, and I think it'd be odd to go from...say when we first started, and we didn't have any stage antics. We just crowded onto a stage and did the show, and Colin's banter hadn't really developed to a big extent. We didn't have that much physical interplay on stage, and it would've been funny to go from that to what we're doing now overnight, because we've learned a lot along the way about showmanship and sound and all sorts of things.

How is this orchestra tour you're doing shaping up? Is it a little daunting to face these gigs?

Well, the rehearsal is actually this afternoon, so we'll see. We did rehearse on our own, but the hard part is going to be playing with them, obviously. We've been working with the arranger to come up with things over the last few months. We had dinner with him last night, and it sounds like things are really coming together. We're all really excited to check this out, because it's going to be so different from anything we've done.

You will also be in town to tape an episode of ACL next week. Do you watch the show? Are all TV tapings the same, or is doing a show like ACL or the UK's "Later..." a good experience?

Well, the only TV that we've really done has been talk shows, which are really bizarre, because you're playing one song. So they're like "OK, go!" And boom, you do it. You get your rehearsal, but you're like a cog in the wheel that day, and you're playing with a time limit. I think that Austin City Limits will be really fun, because it's our show, and we actually get to do our show. That said, doing TV is always a little odd, even just having cameras around, because they're kind of in your face. But I think it'll be fun, and it sounds like a small audience, which could be really nice. So I'm looking forward to it, and I think we've done enough TV (say, a half-dozen shows) that we're used to some of the weirdness of it. I think this will be a much more relaxed experience than say, Jay Leno or something.

Well, it's the polar opposite of an ACL taping, but you're returning to play the rather huge Austin City Limits festival in September. Is the group getting used to playing more regularly in huge venues and projecting to larger crowds, or do you still prefer your regular theater shows?

They both have their positives and negatives. It's really nice to do the more controlled theater settings, just because musically you can do what you're trying to do. You have more control over the sound you're putting out there. So there's a different way you connect with the audience in a show like that. With the festival shows...I don't ever think we've had a festival where there wasn't something breaking and something wrong soundwise. At Coachella, Jenny's organ was tuned down a half-step, because the power was screwed up, and so she played accordion the whole set. So there's an element of making the best of it, and you just really go for it, and you connect with the crowd in a really fun way, where you just put all the energy you have into that one hour. So they're both really different, but I like doing both of them a lot.

When Colin brought two 12-minute epics to the recording sessions, were you ever alarmed by the grandiosity of the project? Obviously it turned out well, but that's a huge step in a new direction...

You know, we'd all been talking about it, so it wasn't a huge surprise when we saw that stuff. Most of the songs were a surprise in the sense that I hadn't heard them before, but we'd been talking about doing longer song cycles that were proggy, and connected songs, things like that. So when he gave us the demos for that record, mostly I was just excited. They were just such a great collection of songs. I wasn't surprised by the length - it just felt like this amazing blank slate that we could do anything with. So many of the songs were open to arrangement interpretations! So we'd been saying it would be fun, and Colin was talking about writing in that way. But considering that [Colin's] kid was born in the time he was writing, and there wasn't a ton of time to write, he was really buckling down...I was just amazed at how good the songs were. Sometimes you think that songwriters have to just sit there and wait for the muse to come to them, but Colin just sits down and starts writing. So - man, I really love the songs on that record! When we started the recording, we realized how out there this record was gonna be, with the long songs and such. So I think we were a little nervous about what the label would think, but they ended up getting more excited about "The Island" and "The Crane Wife" trio than about the pop songs! So, that ended up being unfounded fear.

That's a rarity in today's music business!

Well, EMI merged Capitol and Virgin and fired all of those people, but I don't think that's why!

Critics like to talk about sea shanties and such with the Decemberists, but we've always thought we hear some 80's XTC or R.E.M. threatening to break out in the melodies. Did either of those bands influence the group? And is there something else we're missing that's a huge influence?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, the guitar riff and drum part on "Oh, Valencia" are almost a rip-off of [R.E.M.'s] "7 Chinese Brothers." I think that it starts with Colin, who is heavily influenced by both the bands you mentioned, and [by] The Smiths and The Replacements. And to lesser degrees, the rest of us are as well. I think I was actually paying less attention to that stuff, but I was still sort of absorbing it. And so when you're going in to record a pop song or figure out a part, you hear it, and go "well, it'd be cool to do something like...," then sometimes you talk in terms of those influences. It's funny to me that [these influences] don't get mentioned as often. I think it's because it's not as much fun as mentioning words like "prog" and "sea shanty!"

The Decemberists will perform at The Austin City Limits Festival on Sunday, September 16th at 7:45pm. Their already-taped episode of Austin City Limits will air on PBS the week of 10/13.

[The Decemberists MySpace]
[The Decemberists official site]

Top image via The Decemberists' MySpace page. Photographer uncredited. Nate Query image via sfllaw on Flickr.