New Pornographers Prefer to Stay Indie As They Ponder Their Fourth Album

The New Pornographers are at a crossroads. The Vancouver-based pop-rock collective have completed their contract with Mint Records and, given their critical acclaim and burgeoning popularity, could easily sign to a bigger label.

But as the band embark on a tour to celebrate Mint's 15th anniversary, chief songwriter Carl Newman indicates that they aren't necessarily itching to jump ship.

"Most of us really do want to stay indie," he says. "This is a good model.

"As an artist, I think there's something of great value to have a label behind you that's saying, 'We'll support you in whatever you do.'"

The band are preparing to record their fourth album and seem to be half-seriously setting high standards for themselves.

"We're such music fans and students of rock history, we're always asking, 'What did the classic bands do on album three, on album four?'" explains Newman.

"What was R.E.M.'s fourth album? Life's Rich Pageant?"

Err, yeah, if you ignore Chronic Town.

"Yes, let's ignore Chronic Town. This will be our Life's Rich Pageant.

"For some reason, I feel we should make a double album, but the world will be spared. Has there ever really been a double album that's good from beginning to end? I think the White Album [The Beatles] is amazing, but... we're of the school that you should keep your album at 45 minutes tops. Our last two albums were 46 minutes and 48 minutes, and we were very aware of it. I remember we were recording songs and I was thinking, 'Oh, this outro is going on way too long.'"

Newman will even sacrifice lyrical clarity in order to keep a song musically concise.

"Sometimes I'll remove a verse to make the song flow in the way I feel it should flow," he explains. "Then I'll look at the lyrics and go, 'This doesn't make a lot of sense to me now.'"

However, in the end, Newman is less concerned about the depth and coherence of the lyrics. When he listens to music, he rarely listens to lyrics first, but focuses more on the overall sound, feel and melody.

"When I look back at so many bands that I love, so many of their lyrics are nonsense," he muses."'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' one of the all-time classic rock hits, those lyrics must have been written in about 10 minutes. The lyrics are pretty much just terrible. But it doesn't matter, because it's the fucking greatest song."

Newman hopes that the new album will involve some stretching in new musical directions.

"I kind of want to make the next record a little more lush sounding," he says.

"String arrangements, more instruments, more songs closer to 'These Are the Fables.' There's still going to be a few of the boppy New Pornographers songs that we really can't escape, because they're wired into our DNA.

"It makes you nervous. You go in and you don't know what it's going to be like. It's both exciting and nerve-wracking. You know something great might come out that you didn't quite expect. You also know that there are things that might not come together the way you wanted them to. I guess that's just life."

The New Pornographers, Novillero and Immaculate Machine are playing these shows as part of Mint's 15th anniversary celebration:

Oct. 9 Ottawa, ON @ Capitol Music Hall
Oct. 10 Montreal, QC @ Club Soda
Oct. 11 Toronto, ON @ Kool Haus
Oct. 14 Winnipeg, MB @ Marlborough
Oct. 15 Regina, SK @ Distrikt
Oct. 16 Saskatoon, SK @ Odeon Event Centre
Oct. 17 Edmonton, AB @ Red's
Oct. 18 Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall Ballroom
Oct. 20 Victoria, BC @ Sugar
Oct. 21-22 Vancouver, BC @ Plaza Club