Black Mountain: Putting The Rock Back In Indie Rock

Black Mountain's In The Future was built to blow doors off their hinges. It is quite possibly the most epic piece of indie rock you will hear in 2008.

The group — Stephen McBean, Amber Webber, Matt Camirand, Joshua Wells and Jeremy Schmidt — put aside their myriad other bands (Pink Mountaintops and Blood Meridian among them) to hole up in a couple of different studios to assemble sprawling tracks like "Stormy High," "Tyrants" and the 16-minute, four-part "Bright Lights."

ChartAttack caught up with McBean when he was laid up in a haze of cold medication to talk about the group's sophomore effort.

ChartAttack: The production on In The Future is a lot crisper than on your debut.
Stephen McBean: Yeah, but it's weird, because we still recorded the bed tracks on the same really old eight-track, half-inch machine.

So did that shift come mostly in the mixing?
Yeah, there were some better mics lying around, but it was essentially done the same way. But there was a bit more time, a bit more finesse, a bit more knowledge. But there's also the element of Jeremy being more in the picture on this record, because he joined the band as the first record was finished. His keyboards were an afterthought, but we didn't realize they'd be so special. And then we had to let him into the band.

On the songs where you and Amber sing, how do the vocals get arranged, and do you both write the lyrics?
Usually I write the lyrics. Certain songs, like "Queens Will Play," when I wrote that, I specifically pictured her voice in mind for it. If I sang it, it would sound like a Smog song, you know? So it's kind of a neat, different element to work with. Other times, we'll both have a lyric sheet at practice and we'll both try singing parts. Our voices both pretty naturally — as far as harmonies are concerned — fall into place. It's pretty easy to tell.

For years, Victoria was B.C.'s "it" city. Now, in no small part because of the Black Mountain Army, Vancouver has taken over out west. Is that shift something you can tangibly feel?
I dunno. It's kind of weird, because usually whenever a scene or some art form is really bubbling in a city, that's when nobody's paying attention. But then it becomes sad because everyone's off touring and stuff. I'm not home as much any more, but a few years ago there would be an all-local show with, like, any band, and there would be hundreds and hundreds of kids there. I think the neat thing about Vancouver is that a lot of those kids are going to those show. They've kind of opened up an alternative art scene with all those tiny pirate galleries. I think it's thriving in different ways. I wouldn't say it's thriving musically right now. Also, the venues here always seem to get shut down. They'll get a new owner who'll want to make it better, but then just fuck it over.

The Black Mountain debut was a big success, but you guys stayed with Jagjaguwar for In The Future. Did you get offers from bigger labels?
There was lots at first from the major label world. We talked to lots of people. They're all nice. A lot of them were music lovers, just like anywhere else. But that whole world's just kind of out of their control. They might love the band, but they could get fired the next day. Then no-one gives a shit. And with Jagjaguwar, it's like, it's just home. And we work with Scratch, which is home in Canada. Blood Meridian was on V2 in the States and it just collapsed. At least with Jagjaguwar, you know that's not gonna happen. And they have a good thing being from Indiana where they have their huge warehouse and offices and it's pretty low overhead, just from living there in that part of the country.

Are you all happy with how In The Future turned out?
I think we're all pretty proud of it. I haven't actually sat down with the record. I think maybe when the vinyl gets here, I'll sit down and listen to it. That was the other thing, too. We sequenced it in sides, like a double-record.