Beirut's Paul Collins on Goshen, DJ'ing, and Cover Art: An Interview

Kristianna Smith

While the band Beirut may be most well-known for their brass-heavy European influenced indie music, their latest album The Rip Tide is likely to change that opinion. Capturing more of a unique individual sound with no clear influence but obvious musical brilliance, the album serves as a possible new direction for the group led by Zach Condon. Austinist had a chance to discuss the record's origins, style, cover art and much more with bassist Paul Collins. Beirut plays Stubb's on Saturday with Ramesh.

The new album, The Rip Tide, is absolutely stunning. The song “Goshen” just blew me away the first time I heard it. What was your involvement in writing/creating it?

Basically, Zach came up with parts and songs, and then we work-shopped them as a band. So for example, with "Goshen", he had a piano part, and then it was up to the rest of us to come up with a string arrangement and the horn part. So I add color but I don't write any of the songs.

That's an interesting way of putting it about adding color. You guys have almost a wall of sound feel to your pieces, so it really is all about that color, in that it doesn't just have to be a strong melody or four-on-the-floor.

Yeah, totally, and along those lines, it's very much about creating a vibe for every song. Everything on this album had a live character. We recorded everything live so it had an atmosphere, a particular character, each time.

By recording live you do you mean that you record it all in one take, and if that is not right, you do it again in full so there's no overdubbing?

No, we did overdubs and such. But the rhythm section particularly, we recorded bass and drums together. We were trying to have every track as pure as possible. Yeah, there would be overdubs or little tweaks here and there, but really at it's core, it's a live sound.

That truly comes through the music, in that it has such a organic feel behind it. Do you have any thoughts on the comments that latest album has less of that Balkan/ European influence, and more of a "Beirut" sound?

One thing that has always been interesting about Zach's work is that he had a picture that he looked at for each album. For Gulag Orkestar, he had the photograph that's on the cover of the record hanging up in his room, and he would look at it while composing. And when writing the The Flying Club Cup he had this beautiful picture of a balloon race, The Flying Club Cup, that happened in France at the turn of the century. He would look at that all the time, that one picture. It really spoke to him and helped lock him in to that era, visually and musically. This album is the first one where he didn't have a picture on the wall.

Beirut - The Rip Tide

And that's reflected on the album cover too. There's no picture, right?

Yeah, exactly. We were thinking about a lot of different stuff for the album artwork and Zach was, like, you know what? There's no a picture so why have a picture?

Such a visual influence for an aural piece that you guys are creating. So what kind of future direction do you see for Beirut? I know that looking back it will be easier to see the evolution, but do you have any ideas as to where you guys might be going from here?

You know, not really. But I guess this album to me feels like the start.... Zach said that he really found his voice on this album, and I think the band has entered a point where we work together in a different way, in a very cool way that's devoid of outside influence. It's very much about us in a room creating something, you know? And I'd like to think that the next record will be us refining this pop sound, this group esthetic, just keeping that ball rolling. I don't think we're going to try and find another country or something at this point. That seems like a strange thing to go back to at this point.

Right, now that you've got your own internal motivation, you can use that and go from there.

Exactly.

Zach also mentioned in a recent interview that he'd rather headline the B Stage than open on the Main Stage. [Ed. Note: Beirut opened for Arcade Fire at Hyde Park this summer.] Is that true for you as well?

Oh, yeah. Hyde Park was like 60,000 people. At a point, you play a show like that, you're almost more nervous when you play for 500 people. Playing for 60,000 people, the vibe kind of gets lost. People don't seem to care as much. I think what Zach's talking about is that at those big places, being at the top is harder. Being right under that is the shit, because you still have a lot of creative room, you can take chances and and people don't know what to expect from us.

It makes sense - it's more an abstract thing opening for 60,000 people who are there to see the next band - they're all talking and jockeying their way forward instead of being into the music you're playing. Do you have a favorite song to play live then when headlining the B-Stage?

Right now, it's one of the songs from our Mexican record March of the Zapotec, a song called "The Shrew." That song is so much fun to play live.

Why's that?

It just goes off. First of all, technically I think that record is so interesting. It's like Ennio Morricone or something, but in fact he wasn't even listening to any of Morricone when he made it. The brass is blistering, the changes are kind of strange, and by the end of the song it goes off so big and the crowd just goes apeshit. It's also fun because that song is not as well known as, like "Nantes," which gets a similar reaction. I feel like "The Shrew" is just a song that we've gotten so good at playing that it always wins over the crowd, no matter where we're playing. That's fun for me.

You think you'll play it at Stubb's on Saturday when you're here in Austin?

Absolutely.

Awesome. I also saw a note on Beirut’s website about how you've been DJing some after-parties? Is there any chance that will happen here in Austin?

I hope so. Unfortunately I don't know right now. Last time I think I played at Lamberts, which was so much fun. Actually, my first real DJing gig was in Austin. I think I played some punk rock party the night before. So hopefully we'll come up with something. You should tell people to keep their eyes out.

For sure, because you and some other folks from the band have been playing in an experimental jazz quartet on the side too, right?

Yeah, we have. Zach is not into that sort of thing really, but a few of us are kind of obsessed with free jazz. I'm a big record collector, and that's a big inspiration for me in my bass playing. Those elements just don't come out in Beirut. It's so much fun to just have a crazy night where nobody comes to watch us play.

Since you're a record collector, what's the favorite record you've purchased this year?

Right now it's probably this Michael Hurley record, called Fatboy Spring. He's this strange man who wrote songs in the 60s, he's a big folk singer, but his career never really worked out in the traditional sense. Whenever he would get a break, he would get sick or leave the label or other weird things would happen. But because of that he created a really interesting career for himself.

Anyway, this record feels so pure. It's like a bunch of people got in a room and played these really good songs, so it's honest and fun. The cover art is terrible though. He always draws his own pictures for the cover, and I think some people really like that but they look so bad. He's just a crazy old man who makes good music.

Did you know who he was when you picked the record up, or did you just pick it up for the album art?

No, he reissued a bunch of albums on this great label called Mississippi Records. I actually got a record of his once before and I just couldn't get into it, I couldn't understand it at all. Then I heard his "Tea Song", and it just completely blew me away, and ever since I've been a huge fan of his.

It's amazing how one song can really hook you into a band and then you appreciate all the others from there on out.

Totally, that's my favorite thing as an audiophile collector. That is the sort of thing I search for - when something doesn't impress me right away but then it changes and finally grabs me, that's the ultimate high.

Agreed. I'll be honest with you, I didn't listen to Beirut before this latest album, and as I said, it was "Goshen" that really pulled me in, so now I'm listening to all of your back catalog too.

Awesome! When Zach first brought us that song he just had the backing track and a melody, but he didn't have lyrics. After he recorded the lyrics and I heard it for the first time, I thought it was the best thing he ever did, so beautiful. I'm glad that that's the track that really stuck out for you, it stuck out for me.

Anything else that you want Austin folks to know about Beirut's impending concert here?

Austin is a special place for us because South by Southwest is the reason why our band got together. Zach had been writing music, got signed, and then he only had two weeks to get a band together and get to Austin for SXSW. So I helped him get that original group together, and Austin was the first tour date for us.