Questionable Corner: Creaky Boards

It's been quite some time since we've talked about Creaky Boards, so lucky for us the Brooklyn band has a new album coming out on November 8th called Brooklyn Is Love. I had a chance to chat with main Board Andrew Hoepfner about the new album, the processes behind it, and calling out Coldplay as a bunch of plagiarizing Brits!

PTST: Your new album, Brooklyn Is Love, kicks off with a tune called "The Songs I Didn't Write", a song you accused Coldplay of ripping off of you. Was that all just a publicity stunt or do you really think Chris Martin is copying Creaky Boards? Is it a little bit flattering that, if they did plagiarize you, the song is huge?
CB: I think of that video as a little arts and crafts project more than anything. It was about the scenario of, "how do you react when you've been playing one of your favorite songs all year, and then you wake up one day and suddenly this massive rock band's huge hit sounds eerily close to your song?" My friend Dan Fishback and I had some funny conversations about it. The idea was there, and making the video seemed like a fun way to spend a few hours over the weekend. I liked what we came up with, and thought it was worth sharing. And to the extent that it was an accusation, it was just a prank I played on Coldplay. Some people took offense, but I say, what better band to play a prank on then fucking Coldplay? With their song being huge, it is flattering to realize I have the capacity to write something with that much mass appeal. Then again, ever since I've known about Coldplay, the main adjective assigned to them in my brain is "wallpaper", so maybe the similarity is bad news...

PTST: Beyond Coldplay sounding a lot like the Creaky Boards lately, you seem to have a lot of a Brian Wilson vibe going on this new album. Is that something you consciously strive for, or is it a matter of your adoration of his music finding its way into your music? Are there any other musicians that have influenced the sound of Creaky Boards or your writing style?
CB: I am a huge Brian Wilson fan. But the real influence on this album is Saturday Looks Good to Me's 2003 album, All Your Summer Songs, an album which was also under the spell of the Beach Boys. I feel like I've spent the last five years trying to create my own version of Summer Songs. I fell in love with the production of that album. Reverb drenched sounds. Warm loving sounds. I don't think I ever got it right, but hopefully what happened instead is its own pleasant
accident. This album is as close as I'm ever going to get. I'm going to stop now and finally move on to something else.

PTST: We've gotten the musical influences behind Brooklyn Is Love down, but obviously location had a lot to do with the writing of this album. What is about Brooklyn that is so musical? Was it difficult to come up with a whole album of songs about the borough or could it have been a
huge box set?
CB: Brooklyn is musical because it is so thick with adventure. Every building is crammed with stories. Every neighborhood is flowing with secrets and languages and creation and destruction. When you come from the suburbs of Detroit, there is no comparison. I think the title track is the only song that mentions Brooklyn. So it wasn't difficult at all to come up with the other ones. Still, I do think this album has a theme, that everything that you love the most also has the greatest capacity to hurt you. Whether it's a person, or making music, or the place where you live. When I moved to Brooklyn, I dove in head first. I was excited. I embraced it, and life here dealt me much joy and pain. It seems that's how it works.

PTST: Any plans to pull a Sufjan and try and do an album about all of New York's boroughs?
CB: No way. The other four boroughs are fine and good, but they each have their own boring quality about them. Brooklyn is the only one that is worth an album. Brooklyn is where I'll stay.

PTST: I know a good portion of Creaky Boards music is written and recorded by you, but who else collaborates with you on the album? Are there people that you try to bounce ideas or melodies off of before putting them to tape?
CB: When it comes to writing and recording, I'm a control freak, so, for better or for worse, most of the music that isn't played by me is dictated by me. Michael David Campbell did a great job with the drums. I don't have as much of a grasp on drums, so I gave him some loose Phil Spectory parameters and he went at it. Darwin Deez has his own special knack with guitar, so he plays on most of "Songs I Didn't Write." The album has three of my favorite girl voices ever, Lisa
Li-Lund with her accent and sighs, and Angela Carlucci (the Babyskins) with her sweetness, and Leah Hayes (Scary Mansion) with her ghostliness. My roommate, Shilpa Ray, plays harmonium for a bit. There's lots of little treats in there.

PTST: I know it's difficult as a song writer, but could you single out your favorite tune off the album? Is there a favorite to play live?
CB: The album process was very tedious, so by the end, all my favorite stuff was the interludes in between the songs. I was sick of all the songs! The music at the end of track 12, which i call "Say Aahh", is near and dear to me. As far as the actual songs, I like "Brooklyn" a lot. "Songs I Didn't Write" is probably still my favorite to play live. The melody floats and falls in such a way that it's just very satisfying to sing. On the production side of things, I like all the instrument layers in "A Low Level of Trust."

PTST: Speaking of live, are there any big tour plans to promote the album?
CB: We are booking a month-long February tour, half in Europe, half in the UK. Our music scene (the anti-folk scene) has a much easier time touring in Europe then the States. We're also going to play up and down the East coast as much as we can this winter.

PTST: So what comes next for Creaky Boards after this album?
CB: I spent all spring working on this approach where my performances centered around me singing and playing the glockenspiel. At first I was accompanied by my laptop, and now, by live drums. We performed in this style last weekend, and I video blogged about it. The song in the
last minute of the video illustrates what I'm talking about. There is an aspect of this performance that's kind of unlistenable, but there's another side of it that continues to fascinate me. I've also shifted my focus to different beats these days. I've been digging on M.I.A. a lot, and High Places a lot. I dig on the reggae ton beat a lot. So it's cool to get some new results with songwriting. I suppose the next direction is to bridge the disparate styles of Brooklyn is Love and the glockenspiel project, and come up with some kind of transition that makes sense. Or maybe I'll go somewhere completely different. The pressure to write and release is off for a while, and I'm glad about that. In the end you can bet I will continue to go with what feels natural.
Creaky Boards - "The Songs I Didn't Write"
Creaky Boards - "Brooklyn"
CD Release Party November 8th @ Pianos (tickets)