LOW INTERVIEW

Tuesday, January 25th, 2005, the sign hung from the door of the Electric Fetus in Duluth, Minnesota reads “Low – Great Destroyer CD signing party w/ Hollis Mae Sparhawk.” Inside is a banquet table manned by the delightfully exuberant 4-year old daughter of Mimi Parker (drums/vocals) and Alan Sparhawk (guitar/vocals). Armed to the teeth with multi-colored sharpies and homemade cookies, Ms. Hollis Mae scrolls her name on the new Low album, “the Great Destroyer” which she provides guest vocals on the song “Step.” She also gives some attendees a special gift of scribbles, bloodied dying monkeys as her visual interpretation of the opening track “Monkey” in which the hook eerily lofts from Zak and Mimi’s harmonized lips “Tonight you will be mine, tonight the monkey dies.”

Over the past 12 years Low has released a number of albums just slightly under most people’s radar. Labeled as “slowcore,” the band’s stark, austere, harmonious sound has become their auditory signature. On “The Great Destroyer,” the highly anticipated Sub Pop debut, Low slightly deviates from their consistency to jolt us out of the hypnotic spell they had put us under. Zak Sally (bass/vocals) described the emergence of this fuller, thicker sound as a “jump in boldness and constancy” for the band.

On February 2nd, a groggy Zak Sally, fresh off an opening night gig took time with us to reflect on their current tour (aside Pedro the Lion), Sub Pop Records, and Low’s new sound. It goes as follows:

Deek: For all those who missed the signing party at the Electric Fetus in Duluth, is there any way we could get my hands on a Hollis autographed copy of the album?
Zak: You know, I think that was a brilliant, brilliant idea. It wasn’t anyone in the bands idea but yeah, um Hollis will probably sign for you. She’s a pretty busy little girl but she’ll do what she can.

Deek: I was personally fond of the dead monkey drawings she had made
Zak: I know they were good weren’t they.

Deek: So you kicked off the tour last night at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland. How was it playing such in an intimate setting?
Zak: It was nice, a really good club. The past couple times we had been there we played at the club Speak in Tongues, which apparently closed down so in a more punk rock kinda choice booked at a Beachland, it was really nice.

Deek: You’ve done select shows with Pedro the Lion, how did this full tour come about?
Zak: We met them, they played a show in Duluth some years ago, stayed at Alan and Mimi’s house. I never heard them and they (Alan and Mimi) all thought they were a great band. thought they were nice guys and later on… I can’t remember what record it was but we did a tour with them with a different lineup but we’ve been doing dates four or five years now. Um, we just got out, he was out on tour and we were fired up so. Really good guy and I think it’s a really good show.

Deek: You did a few shows with Radiohead in 2003 what did you take anything away from that experience personally and musically?
Zak: It was such a strange experience for us in so many ways. We’d never played for crowds that size, and we’ve never opened for one of the biggest band on the planet. So, I don’t know, mostly it was fun for us. Just watching them go out on a limb musically every night to uh to the kind of crowd they play with, not only are they going out on that limb but all their fans are going out with them.

Deek: Did you have to do anything to gear yourself toward playing for their audiences?
Zak: I think we had to learn some new things like how to try and translate our sound to an audience that large … or if we even should and what’s involved with that. Doing shows with Radiohead, they’re a great band. It was pretty intense. And their catering was amazing.

Deek: Do you feel that the popularization of “indie” music as a whole and especially Sub Pop with bands like the Postal Service and the Shins has opened new audiences that haven’t heard your music until now?
Zak: Maybe … I think signing to sub pop will bring more people to Low. And their doing really well these days by just signing bands on like that bands merit. I don’t sign acts to be like they have great songs, what a great band lets sign ‘em and see what we can do get people to hear them. It’s just that they’re using whatever resources they have to get people to hear the music. That’s something we can be very comfortable with. Unlike a major label or something that is like hey they great haircuts, which we don’t. We’ve got really bad haircuts.

Deek: Along the same lines, it’s interesting how these bands have gotten commercial popularity thru marketing like The Shins on the Garden State soundtrack and even Death Cab with the show the OC.
Zak: It’s great to see all these bands that are different from the average band that sells that kind of crap. It’s like they came out of nowhere with all this great music and are making a large cultural impact. We’ve been around 10-11 years with this record we’re getting tons of press, it’s much larger than anything we done and I think it about a label who just tries to work with bands that it likes and make good music and really working on it. It’s strange for us, it’s strange for The Shins. It’s takes a lot for these small bands to hit the public constantly in such a small way. You don’t want every tiny little band to be the next White Stripes or Bon Jovi.

Deek: One thing that has really struck me is that everyone is writing that “the Great Destroyer” is such a large jump for Low sonically but when you sit down and listen to it after “I Could Live in Hope” (Low’s first album) or “Trust” (their previous release) is that all the essential elements are still in tact. Has the writing process changed at all?
Zak: No, and I don’t think the recording process has. What I feel exactly about this record and why we’re so happy with this record is essentially is that there was never any decision to make a rock record, which I don’t think this is, or a pop record which I don’t necessarily think this record is. We just try to be comfortable to say “Look all the pieces are in place” we’ve been doing this for a long time. We just have to … those original pieces aren’t going anywhere we just have to rely on them to step out and to be very bold and we have to use those things that we know about ourselves to be very bold and fearless and do stuffs that we have never done before. You know what I mean? … And be comfortable and make ourselves comfortable with that. The recording process is the same and I feel that the only jump for the band would be in terms of boldness or constance. Which has all been part of the progression for me. It’s something that we’ve been heading forward toward for a number of years. Ya know.

Deek: Over the past few years you’ve added an extra notch to the older songs and added some extra beef. Do you feel that working with Dave (Fridmann) on over the past few years and especially with this album has influenced you in any way?
Zak: I think it did. I think what you were saying about how we play our songs, in how we think about songs. I think Dave brought to was, we tracked a bunch of songs at home and was trying to figure out what to do with it and got a call and Dave had time and we had time so we thought we’d go in and try it for a week … and um, the thing that really worked with Dave is he immediately understood what we were trying to do. Ya know, we were trying to capture this song… [breaks up]… and he really… [drops out]”

Unfortunately the Appalachians had feasted upon another stray cell phone signal, and, with that, the conversation was over.