Peter Wolf Crier’s impressive debut album Inter-Be is a folk-tinged journey that sounds like it took place decades ago, but with plenty of raw energy and hooks. In a live setting, they take this energy even further, layering harmonies with vocal loops and warping songs with fuzzy, effects-laden freak-outs. Last week, they lit up Rock Island Brewing Company in Rock Island, IL for a Daytrotter show and singer/guitarist Peter Pisano and drummer Brian Moen answered a few questions about the album-writing process, playing with Freelance Whales, sex on a burning viking ship (?), and what’s coming up next.
About the album, the first thing I noticed from your bio is that you wrote it in one night, or you came up with the material in one night. How did that happen?
Peter: Yeah, um, it’s funny because you write something like that, it’s like, I’m realizing now that you have to answer to everything, you know.
I’m sorry.
Peter: No, no, no, no, no. Believe me, I think that’s the way it should be. You get so little information from an artist, that whatever you do get, like, you know, it’s worth taking the time to explain. I wrote about six songs in one night, in a single sitting, about four of which made it onto the record. So the record wasn’t made in a night. In fact, the record was made like over a year. It actually took a long time. There were a couple of songs that were written actually before, like the last song we played tonight, ‘In Response’, and the first song we played tonight, ‘Crutch & Cane’, which are also the bookends of the album, I never even realized that. Those two were actually written two or three years ago, or two years ago. Those were written even before I moved out to Minneapolis. So, as the story goes, I had these songs that I didn’t really, like, have a place for. And there was a single writing session that I had very late one night, in the middle of just a lot of shit that was kind of floating in during a summer away from teaching and what I wrote that night, all of a sudden these songs that I had written a long time ago had a place. They all of a sudden made sense with what I was doing in that moment, and I think that’s true of a lot of stuff. A lot of times, you pick something up, or like, you understand some piece of something, and you don’t really know what to do with it, and then like, you find yourself later on in life at a place where it’s all of a sudden of use, and that’s just kind of like how it was as a songwriter, as an artist.
Brian: And I think something important to realize, too, I mean, I think one of the biggest parts of the story of that night is not that he wrote all the songs that night, or something, but it came after, you know, a long time of feeling like you weren’t writing songs that, you know, like the creative dry spell, or what have you. I think that’s probably like, it broke free that night, kind of thing. I think that he as a songwriter found a new voice that night after searching for that voice for months and months and months.
You mention that in the bio as well, that it came after a dry spell. What was it like to be able to write, then, after such a long time?
Peter: It was just exhilarating. I can’t really…There’s been, like, similar things that have happened in that vein, for me, because I’m not a very consistent, fluid, fluid writer. Like I just kind of get shit bottled up, get it back. It’s kind of like a volcano, it gets backed up, and the pipe gets, like, stuffed and then it just, you know, whatever. And any time that something like that’s happened, especially in this, the process of writing this album, it just…I wasn’t even writing an album. I was just writing as I try to do, whenever it strikes me, and I was just like, “Ok, now I’m making an album.” So it was exhilarating in the fact that I realized in that night that I had written those songs, that I was loving the way this was going, and that I felt just good, and attached to it. I also realized I’m making a record. You know, it’s like falling in love and getting married, like, in the same night. It’s like sex on a burning viking ship, like, fuck, this is all, you know? And that’s how it was, so, it was amazing. I didn’t know at that time that I was gonna make one with Brian. I didn’t know that we were gonna go on tour. Had I known all of that, I don’t know if I would’ve been able to go to bed that night, you know, it would’ve been a little heavy. I came to terms with probably just as much as I needed to, because if I would’ve had a clear understanding of anything else at that point, it probably would have been overwhelming. I just knew that I was making an album and it was gonna feel the way it felt that night.
So the next question, then, is how did you two come to play together?
Brian: Well, Peter actually sent me an email. I think it was an email, wasn’t it?
Peter: Yeah.
Brian: Uh, just he knew that I had recorded my other band’s (Laarks) album, and he just, sent me an email and said, “Hey, would you be interested in recording my solo album?”, and I said “Yeah, I’d be totally into that”, like, you know, I had kind of limited recording experience having just recorded one full-length and just a handful of other things, so I was always looking for something else, just to, you know, expand my experience. And so he came over and we actually recorded vocals and guitar for the entire album just by themselves. Like, we did all the vocal overdubs and all the guitar tracks and everything by themselves, and really the album could have been finished right then. Then Peter had recorded demos of everything on Garage Band before, and he had added just a couple of percussive things, and he asked me, “Hey, maybe you could put some drums on them?”, and then I ended up putting drums on the whole thing. And then, you know, we started adding piano and vibraphone and organ and then, you know, it really started rolling and we decided we weren’t really gonna put any limits on how the record was gonna sound. And it was kind of like, if we need to get another person, or two, to play this live, that’s fine, you know, we just want to do whatever we’re gonna do. So, then Peter’s adding like Rhodes parts, and stuff…
Peter: It’s funny, it’s like…Do you make or record music yourself?
Yeah, a while back. I was actually a music major at Augie (Augustana College, up the street from where we were standing). I was actually a drummer for a while.
Brian: Nice!
Peter: Cool! Well, like, in my experience, or the way that I relate to it, for people like us who grew up listening to, you know, the music that we listen to, for people who love Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, it’s like, getting your hands dirty and then creating this sonic layer, that’s the fun shit of making a record. I don’t think it’s, like, people who were making music 20 years ago probably didn’t think of that as part of the recording process, like the Replacements just got in there and just banged it out. It’s like, let’s just get a kick-ass tape of all the energy, but you know, our generation’s mindset is different and the album that I was making before, I wanted to dress it up and I wanted all these layers. And I could do that with, like, vocal harmonies, like in a song like ‘Hard As Nails’, the second song we did tonight. I had already arranged all those vocal things, but because there wasn’t this percussive thing, the songs didn’t necessarily have the, like, foundation to hold up all of that weight on top of it. And, so, once Brian put drums on all of the shit, then all of a sudden I think it got a lot more exciting, because then it was like, ok now we can put pianos, and, like, we can pile a lot of shit on, because, now these drums are gonna hold it up. So, I don’t really know what I’m saying that in reference to, but that was a really important transition. Brian created something solid so that we could just lay as much shit on top of that as we wanted to, as much as those drums could hold up. And the drums are so solid, and the sound of ‘em are so solid, that, like, those things could support a lot more weight than I think that we even necessarily intended to put on top of it at the beginning of it.
Brian: Well, you know, another part of that too, is when I was mixing it, it was really about having these other textures and stuff to make the songs interesting without taking focus away from the song. I think you can listen to the album and still feel an intimacy despite the fact that there are, you know, what could be nine players on a song, or something. I don’t think it feels like a group of people. I think it still feels like he’s making these songs that are very personal, you know. And so, that was really the goal, to keep these, like, folk songs with that same intimacy.
You mentioned mixing it. Did you guys produce it by yourselves?
Brian: Yeah, I recorded the whole thing in my house. And, um, it was just kind of produced by both of us and then I mixed it all.
Peter: Yeah, the way we did our credits, if we had to take time talking about that was that it’s engineered by Brian, mixed by Brian, and then produced by us, and mastered by our friend and Brian’s bandmate Zach Hansen.
Brian: Yeah, so it was a very in-house sort of deal.
Well, the production on the record is pretty interesting, and you mentioned some of those things that keep it interesting. There are certain songs where it sounds like it’s coming out of an old radio…
Brian: Sure, yeah.
…or something like that. Those are cool touches that give you guys a unique sound that you expand up on live pretty well.
Brian: Yeah, well thanks!
You had mentioned the layers, and I think you get a lot more, the active part of that, than you do on record.
Peter: You mean, like, you experience it more?
Yeah, you do. You don’t necessarily think about that when you’re listening to it, like you mentioned the nine players. When you see it live, when you’re kicking the pedals around and looping the vocals, and things. That’s something that I thought was pretty active on your part to bring the listener into that process that you guys talked about.
Peter: I mean you’re still trying to, like, create that same rise and fall, like, the arc, like with all songs, and that’s pretty difficult to do if you’re not bringing new instrumentation into it. So, because we can’t pick up a different instrument…
Brian: Yeah, piano can’t come in on the second verse, or whatever, you know, so we searched for something else.
Peter: It’s something as simple as, like, Brian is playing then he grabs a tambourine and now he has a tambourine in his hand, you know? So it’s like there’s another movement happening in this, like, second part. So, we’ve taken a lot of time, given that a lot of consideration, because that’s a really important thing. This band isn’t necessarily, like the best singing band in the world, and we’re not the hardest rockers in the world. If we really wanted to do something to impact people, people are already doing that. I think that what we’re capable of doing is just trying to be smart about how we do it. We’re not, like, the biggest and we’re not the strongest and the fastest, you know, but we’re gonna try to be as creative as we can.
You guys have some of that force, some of that hard-rocking comes out a lot more in your live show than your album. Is that something that you’ve thought about, or planned on?
Brian: It’s funny, because that’s probably mostly my fault.
Peter: (Laughs)
Brian: Because I’m like, if you ever saw my other band, I’m a rock drummer. I’m a really loud, rock drummer. That’s something that, you know, on the record it was very purposefully toned down. It’s hard, because on an album you can, you know, like a couple of the tracks the drums are kind of distorted and you can…if like, “Oh, they’re too loud? We’ll just turn them down a little bit.” You can’t do that live. If it’s gonna have that same kind of sound, that same kind of force, it’s just gonna be loud. So rather than fight that, I feel like we’ve just kind of embraced it. You know, like, the live show for Peter Wolf Crier is going to be different than the record, and we hope that the songs stay true to the songs. Like I was saying, preserving that intimacy, you know, that people can still feel the emotion of the song behind it, but it’s just a little bit of a different take on it.
Peter: When you’re in front of people, and you probably know this yourself, when people are watching you play, and people are paying attention, and when they’re clapping and when they’re into it like they were tonight, that’s energy. And, like, when you’re up on stage and that’s coming at you, you have to do something with that. So, like, we’re gonna play a little bit harder…
Brian: (laughs)
Peter: Otherwise, we’re just gonna go nuts.
So now you guys have opened up for Freelance Whales. What were those shows like? I heard you guys sold out Schuba’s (in Chicago)?
Brian: Yeah…
Peter: I don’t know if we did…
Brian: Yeah, I mean the show was sold out, it wasn’t us. I think we played 4 shows. Was it 4 or 5? One or the other…
Peter: Columbia, St. Louis…
Brian: I think it was just 4 with those guys…
Peter: Indianapolis and Chicago.
Brian: And those guys were great. I don’t feel like our music is all that similar, and yet I felt like the audiences every night…it’s like, whoever their fans are are open-minded people that could totally take us in too, because I felt like the audiences were really receptive. And, like, all the Freelance Whales guys were super, super nice, too. We just had a blast playing with them.
Cool. Last thing, you guys mentioned the Replacements and you tried to end your set with a Nick Drake cover (the crowd asked for one more). Who else do you consider your influences?
Brian: It’s kind of funny you ask that, because I feel like Peter and I have dramatically different influences. More than any other band I’ve ever been in, I think, we’re coming at it from two extremely different places. I think that’s where it becomes interesting. I think that’s where the sound gets interesting because we don’t have the same reference points.
Peter: I’ve played in bands with other people that listened to the same music that I did, and had, like, maybe more of the same instincts, or at least they played drums the way I would play drums if I were a drummer, and it hasn’t been as exciting as this. Whatever artist both Brian and I can both, like, attach to has got to be something pretty incredible.
Brian: (laughs)
Peter: So, like, the people that kind of fall in there that we can, like, draw from is, like, a very special group of folks. I give them…I pay them a lot of respect. So, for as much as those disparate influences play a factor in how this works, there’s something common. Like, there’s a Neil Young thing there, where there’s some grit to it, but it’s just with this attempt to, like, strip things down and be as bare and naked and vulnerable as possible. We both listen to the new Damien Jurado record in the car, and I think that’s probably the most recent album that you and I were just like, “Yeah.”
Brian: Yeah.
Peter: And what it was for both of us, was, like, he just sounds so…he’s just so earnest and plaintive, like, with what he’s saying. I don’t know why when he says it, it’s just like he’s speaking his truth. It’s, like, undeniable, you know? So that’s not a sound, necessarily, but there’s, like, an attitude there, a way of carrying yourself that’s an influence to us. I think both of us listen to music like that, and in the same way the both of us listen to Paul Westerberg’s (of the Replacements) Monostereorecord, and it’s just, like, both of us are, like, “That is fucking real.” So, like, that’s something that influences us. Once someone does something that beautiful, you can’t make anything that’s bullshit after that, because you can just listen to that.
Right.
Brian: It’s kind of a universal. I feel like those artists that we both agree on are, like, “universal truth” artists. And I think that we’re both just really emotional people, really emotional music listeners, too, and so I think that plays a part in it, too.
How did you guys get hooked up with Daytrotter? You guys played a session a couple of months ago.
Brian: Yeah, down at SXSW.
Oh, is that where that’s from?
Peter: Yeah, with Freelance Whales and Pearly Gates Music. And I was just talking to Sean (Moeller, from Daytrotter) before the show, and it’s like, Pearly Gates Music ended up playing shows with Freelance Whales, and we ended up playing shows with Freelance Whales, and it’s like this bill that they put together, like, these bands start bumping into one another. And that’s happened with a couple of their ‘Barnstormer’ sessions, and shit, and we just kind of kept in contact with Sean after that.
So then what do you have coming up next? How much longer is your tour?
Brian: Well actually tonight is the last day for us of this tour. We go home for, like, five days, and then we go out for all of July with Heartless Bastards.
Oh nice!
Brian: Yeah, so it ends up being, like, seven weeks with a five-day break. So, we won’t get too comfortable at home.
Peter: I guess I should be excited about that.
Brian: Yeah, Peter’s gonna go cry himself to sleep now.
Peter: (Laughs, leans head against a fire escape)
Well, I’ll let you get going. Thanks for taking time out. Good luck with your (Daytrotter) session tomorrow.
Brian: Yeah, no problem.
Peter: Take care.
Interview conducted by Paul Bulow