The Decemberists are one of those “Indie” bands that has been overhyped by all the music blogs in the past year or so. The difference? The Decemberists ACTUALLY deliver on the hype. I am totally in love with this band at the moment. Awesome songwriting, both technically and from the perspective of a casual listener (a deadly combination!).

So imagine my delight this morning when I find this great extended interview with Colin Meloy – lead singer of the band.

Here is Colin on maturing as a songwriter and the evolution of working with a full band:

The first record was essentially my songs with a backing band. That was really what the Decemberists were early on, and that’s because everybody had day jobs and had other projects they were working on and they couldn’t spend that much time in the studio. People would pop in every once in a while and rehearsals were once a week for a couple hours. So, as a consequence, I had to pick up the slack by being a central leading figure. Now, I’m able to cede that authority more to the other people in the band. Now I think we are much more of a cohesive unit and we all have a good sense of what we should be moving towards. You know, like when I say, with the collective voice, you know, a writer develops a voice and I think a band develops a voice and I think we finally might have hit at it, like we’re all little cogs and we’re working together. (Link)

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