“We just got back from a two-week tour down the west coast [of the USA] as a three-piece, but we’ll be coming over to Australia as a five-piece,” he says. “We’re going to do a bunch of stuff around the States as a three-piece for a while and then at some point be able to go back and forth. I think the five-piece is great and those two guys [Brett Netson and Jim Roth] are amazing, so it’ll definitely happen. But we’re trying a three-piece out for a little bit as well.”
The intricate layering of guitars form a central part of the Built to Spill sound, so the three-piece incarnation puts additional pressure on Martsch’s playing. In the context of Untethered Moon, however, it proved a fruitful alteration.
“Making a record as a three-piece was a creative decision. Well, it was more a logistical thing. It just went a lot faster,” he says. “You get a lot more work done as a three-piece and I kind of knew what I wanted to do; I was pretty focused on what I wanted it to be like. And then that stirred up some feelings about playing as a three-piece and the kinds of music we could make.”
On stage it’s been a somewhat different story: Martsch has been forced to work harder and in some cases completely rethink his approach to songs he’s been playing for years.
“I practised a ton to get ready for this tour,” he says. “It was a challenge, but it was also fun and rewarding. You don’t really know, when you’re playing, what it sounds like out in the audience. But with three guitar players you have no idea what it sounds like out there – you have no idea when you’re playing a guitar solo if it can even be heard by half the people. So the three-piece is so much more focused where you feel like what you’re doing matters and is being heard. With the five-piece sometimes I would get lazy and let the other guys hold down the fort. I think the whole band was a little lazy. You guys will get pretty good shows, because me and the rhythm section have gotten a lot tighter playing as a three-piece.”
Despite the diminutive setup, the guitar playing on Untethered Moon is still very playful. Each song contains a root riff or a chord progression with melodic lead parts or rushes of volume appearing throughout. That said, it’s all precisely managed, and never grows saturated.
“The main thing with this record is we wanted to keep it stripped down as much as possible. We’ve actually had the intention of doing that for the last few records. Definitely the last two records we wanted to make pretty much live, and then over the course of things just end up overdubbing a lot of stuff. Sometimes because the stuff needs it, sometimes because of insecurity; thinking ‘Is that even good enough?’ or even trying to bury my voice under guitars. So this time I wasn’t going to let any insecurities lead me to make those sorts of decisions.
“Sam Coomes [producer] was also helpful because he embraced the whole idea of keeping it simple. So he could keep us on task. We wanted it to be more visceral, more of an urgent sounding punkish record. I wanted it to sound like some kind of punk record from the ‘70s.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
