If he had to do it all over again, Carl Newman would have left his band's name—The New Pornographers—off his credit card. The moniker often elicits snide remarks and sidelong glances. They don't tour often these days, so they are looking forward to their upcoming shows and to bringing audiences a live experience that, Newman says, "no one can download."
The New Pornographers, often labelled a Canadian super group for their inclusion of Newman, Neko Case, and Destroyer's Dan Bejar, coalesced in Vancouver in 1997, and they have released four critically acclaimed albums since, including the recent Challengers. The Advocate spoke with Newman via phone from his home in New York about our country's economy, making a living off indie rock, and the upcoming tour, which includes a stop in Northampton Aug. 7.
Advocate: How does life in New York differ from life in Vancouver?
Carl Newman: The obvious difference is that there's more happening, I think. It's New York, a big famous city with a lot more stuff going on. More good restaurants—in some genres, not all of them. But overall.
You're an anomaly: A lot of folks I know want to head the other way, to Canada, these days.
When I see how much medical insurance costs, yeah, sometimes I think there is something wrong with this country, but there's so many good things.
Do you run into problems crossing the border with the band?
Not really. I have the work papers, to work as a musician. That's all I really need to do. I am going to file for a green card, but at this point there's not a big rush. I don't really need one. At this point, for me, it's more about solidifying my status than anything. Not because I want to get a job here. God forbid when I have to get a job, I don't want to think about that day.
They don't look at you sideways when you tell them the band name?
No, not really. I try to tell them about my solo project first, to try and deflect some of the attention. 'Well, I play as a solo artist, under A.C. Newman.' Most people just don't say anything. Although, when I go into Canada, I get quite a few people, border guards, going, 'Oh, yeah, I've heard of you guys. You guys are doing pretty well.' Then you have the guys who—I remember one guy who was pretty creepy, saying, 'Yeah, I really like the name.' He wasn't a border guard, though; I think he was a guy at the car rental place. We have a New Pornographers Amex card that says 'Carl Newman, New Pornographers Inc.,' so I think that's confusing to people, and kind of embarrassing; and looking back, I wish we hadn't had written it, written those words on our card. Guy's looking at me saying, 'I like the name.' And I'm trying to tell him I'm not a pornographer. I don't make pornos.
Do you have plans for another A.C. Newman solo album?
Yeah, actually I start mixing it in about eight days. The album is due to come out in January. My record label Matador's schedule is pretty backed up, so it got pushed. I think '09 is going to be a very busy year for me—with the solo record in January, and I'm also shooting for the next Pornographers record to come out in October. That's what I'm shooting for. It's a real Robert Pollard move. I've got to try and do my 69 Love Songs. One up Magnetic Fields, put out 70 Love Songs. Instead of 69 Love Songs it'll be 70 Songs That Don't Make Much Sense.
Do you feel compelled to keep the band going because it's a career now?
No, it's just like, I just like doing it. It's—everybody in the band are my friends, and I think it helps that we've gotten to a level where it's what we do for a living. We still don't tour like nine months out of the year, and so we don't really get a chance to hate each other. Like, there's a lot of times when you're on tour you're seeing people that you don't see that much anymore. Especially now that I live in Brooklyn. And so I think that helps keep the band together. Plus, I just like making records. You know, there's the touring, and other things, and having your regular life, but I like making records. Because a band's not supposed to put out an album every year, I think it's why I did this solo album, because I just wanted to keep making records. And then, next month this record's going to be finished and I'm thinking about the next New Pornographers record. At this point, I'm so close to mixing, I'm already thinking about the next Pornographers record. I don't know why that is, I'm just compelled, I guess.
It's a luxury to be able to compartmentalize and move forward.
Yeah, definitely. I feel like it's a luxury to just be able to focus on that—it's the only thing that I have to do, and I have to remind myself that, you know, it's such a privilege to be able to do that, that I have to have a work ethic about it. Like, when I don't have another job, there's no reason why I should only be putting out an album every three or four years. You know, I would just feel lazy. Because really, it's not that difficult making rock music. I mean, some of it is. If you're going to take four years on a record, it had better be the next Pet Sounds or something.
There was a story in the Toronto Star recently about the difficulties for Canadian bands with fuel costs, as the cities are so geographically spread out. Have you experienced this? Are friends of yours feeling it?
We've gotten to a point where we don't feel it that much. I know the thing that has hurt us is that we make most of our money in America. I mean, the American dollar goes down and it really sucks for the other guys in the band. It's a pay cut for them. That and the fuel costs. It makes it harder to tour, and that sucks, because touring is the main source of income for a lot of bands. It's kind of maddening. There's not a lot of ways of making a living where you have to haul around this massive machine with you. To make a living, six people have to travel around in a van or bus, with tons of equipment, and assistants and it seems so primitive in a way. But the great thing is that it's the one thing they can't take away from you. Your presence on the stage—no one can download. No matter what happens, no matter how much downloading is changing the industry, we'll always have that.
Does the tour feature a lot of Challengers material?
We haven't learned any new material—the new New Pornographers material is very much in the embryonic stage. We try to do songs from throughout our career, in a descending scale, you know. We'll play seven from Challengers, and six from Twin Cinema, and four from Electric Version, and three from Mass Romantic, or something like that. It always bugged me when I would go see bands and they would only play the new album.
How did the Challengers Executive Edition box set work out, with all the extras available for download?
I think it worked out well. I liked the fact that there was all this extra stuff that we made available to people, if they wanted it. It's good to give people a reason to buy the record, as opposed to downloading it. I mean, I think it's a gesture of trying to change with the time. It always pissed me off that the major companies, the RIAA, are out there randomly suing downloaders, like this is the way to stop downloading—pick a few people out at random and ruin their lives, it makes me so angry. You really need to look at the situation honestly and go, well, let's adjust with this. If people don't want to buy records, let's give them a reason to want to buy a record. And that's what I think Matador's Buy Early Get Now program is about—I think it's a great idea.
New Pornographers appear Aug. 7 at the Calvin Theatre with Grizzly Bear.
