The band: Fleet Foxes
Key release: Ragged Wood (June 3,
2008)
Hometown: Seattle,
Washington
If the multiple references to rivers,
mountains, and woodland creatures on its Sub Pop debut Ragged Wood aren't enough
of a tipoff, Fleet Foxes is part of the new movement of roots-based bands embracing
the easy-listening aesthetics of '60s folk and antediluvian country, layering
breezy campfire harmonies over acoustic instrumentation with nary a distortion
pedal in sight. While young whippersnappers aping The Band and namedropping
Crosby, Stills And Nash usually raises hackles among those who see the hippie
revival as just another hipster pretense, Fleet Foxes has the power to stun
knee-jerk naysayers into submission with pure, unassailable beauty: Ragged
Wood and their debut EP, Sun Giant, are filled
with amber-dripping melodies that sound as old as time, but they're refashioned
with inventive arrangements that make predictability their enemy. Comparisons
to similar, zoo-minded groups like Grizzly Bear and Sub Pop labelmates Band Of
Horses are inevitable but limiting; Fleet Foxes is its own animal, one that
critics have been falling over themselves trying to classify.
Singer-guitarist Robin Pecknold on
trying to avoid conventional songwriting:
"I think it's still basically pop
music in the broadest sense—like how 'Good Vibrations' is a total pop
jam, but the structure is pretty unconventional. That's when pop music is most
interesting to me, when it doesn't have a big chorus, or a verse/chorus/bridge
structure. Even if the parts are cool, that format feels like the
blues—like how the blues is just one song, in a way. I have a hard time
with music like that. We'll usually just write little parts of songs that are
autonomous from each other, not even in the same key or time signature, then
combine them later."
On his first introduction to
creating vocal harmonies:
"I took some choir, but I was also in
a lot of plays when I was a kid. My grandpa was a big musical guy. I was in Annie, Oklahoma!, Snow
White And The Seven Dwarves—I played Doc in that one. I was Thorin in The
Hobbit. That was my first exposure to music, so a lot of it comes from
there."
On his lyrical fascination with
nature:
"In Seattle, it's always around you.
The environment is such a big part of the city, and it makes its way into the
music. And it's easier for me to write songs in a 'fable'-type construct.
There's always a personal meaning behind it, but it's easier for me to gussy it
up and put it in a different context than to come right out and say it. I hope
we don't come across as head-up-your-ass freak folks. [Laughs.] I like some of
that stuff—Joanna Newsom seems really from the heart—but most of
that just doesn't ring true to me."
On why there seem to be so many new
roots-rock bands:
"In some ways, it's cyclical. At the
start of the decade, The Strokes were a back-to-basics rock thing, and I think
that was appealing to people at a time when everything else was excessive. But
everything just gets more excessive, to the point where the music that people
like now is bordering on prog. Music builds itself up and then breaks itself
down again. I also think it's a confused time. In some ways, pop or rock is
culturally irrelevant."
On whether Fleet Foxes is part of
the "neo-hippie" movement:
"I don't identify with that cause.
That's not because I hate hippies. If you just looked at me, you'd probably
think I was a hippie. I don't use deodorant. I have long hair. I have a beard.
I love so much hippie music, like Crosby Stills And Nash, Neil Young. It all
still sounds vital to me, because it had a social message that had a chance of
getting through. 'Heart Of Gold' was a number-one hit—that's crazy.
That's an example of a time when you could have a cause aligned with music that
was actually popular. That was what gave the hippie movement credence, because
they were actually reaching tons of folks, and there was an innocence and a
reason behind that message. The problem with being a 'neo-hippie' is, there's
no message. It's just a fashion show. I think there needs to be something
different—something more realistic—for music to have that impact
again."
On whether Fleet Foxes has a
message:
"The message in our music is pretty
much just broad optimism. There's no direct ideology that we're trying to lock
into the music. And if we did have a message, in the way that those anti-war
and anti-Vietnam songs from the '60s did… That's what I meant when I said pop
and rock is kind of irrelevant: I don't think it would matter. I don't think
our music would have the reach to make it socially meaningful. Which is fine.
I'd prefer it not be popular. I'd prefer to keep it small-scale in terms of
exposure, because I think music gets worse the bigger a band gets."