The Decemberists
The Decemberists will return in style June 14 with As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, their ninth full-length and first new release since 2018’s I’ll Be Your Girl. Colin Meloy has led the Portland, Ore., purveyors of literary indie-rock-meets-chamber-pop since they came together in 2000, and he describes the upcoming project as their “most empathetic and accessible” album to date. He also notes that the gap between records was a “natural break,” as he didn’t feel the same pressure to release new music that he has before.
“Particularly in the early part of our career, I was so consumed by everything that was happening around us,” Meloy says. “I was in such a hurry and working constantly and focused so much on writing music. As the band has gotten older and we already have this massive body of work, I’m in less of a hurry and I am much more circumspect about the stuff that I’m writing, and let it gestate a little longer. And I’m also trying to diversify my creative life with other projects.”
Set lists from the group’s North American tour — which kicked off in late April and is called A Peaceable Kingdom — suggest that about a third of the band’s famously energetic show will feature songs from As It Ever Was when they stop at the Ryman on Friday, May 24. Among them, expect to hear “Burial Ground,” in which two characters find respite from the ills of the contemporary world in a cemetery. It’s a jaunty jangle-pop tune that might put you in mind of The Shins’ James Mercer, who appropriately enough sings background vocals on the recorded version.
Also listen out for the epic album closer “Joan in the Garden,” a 19-minute fantasia about the destruction and rebirth of the world. That’s not something you expect most indie bands to pull off. But it’s not likely to come as a surprise to fans of The Decemberists, who made their major label debut in 2006 with The Crane Wife, on which Meloy & Co. somehow manage to weave Japanese folk tales, The Tempest and historical events from WWII and The Troubles into a comprehensible whole.
Meloy enjoys downtime before a Nashville show, which he can spend trying local restaurants and looking around the city’s myriad guitar shops. The historic Ryman — the site of every non-festival Decemberists show in town since 2009 — is revered by many, Meloy included.
“[The venue has such] history,” he says. “The people that have stepped foot on that stage. … It’s such a concentration of legendary people who have been there and are associated with that venue. And just the fact it’s unchanged — they haven’t tried to change it into a rock venue, it still feels like a church.”
The Decemberists
The Decemberists taking a pause didn’t mean Meloy just kicked back in the meantime. The multihyphenate has been busy writing novels for children and young adults, and he says his propensity toward folk songwriting made it a smooth transition to prose.
“I’ve always been attracted to narrative songwriting, and there is something that feels universal with folk storytelling,” says Meloy. “Even though it follows patterns and can be immediately recognizable, it can feel surprising and strange and unsettling. That’s what has drawn me to it.”
As a marker of his success as an author, Meloy’s 2011 fantasy novel for children Wildwood will be adapted into a stop-motion animated film. Set for release in 2025, the adaptation is set to have an A-list cast including Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina and Richard E. Grant. The movie will be produced by Laika, the team behind stop-motion hits like Coraline, ParaNorman and Kubo and the Two Strings. It can never be easy for an author to hand over their art to be adapted, but Meloy has complete faith in the team’s vision.
“The studio making this will have their own approach and their own aesthetic,” he says, “and it will be its own movie to a certain degree. Of anyone taking it on, I trust that they are doing it for the very best reasons and that their heart is definitely in the story.”
Meloy isn’t anticipating quite such a long gap between As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again and the next album. However, he is making no promises and plans to let things develop naturally.
“There are a handful of songs that I still want to try and get down. We ended up culling a lot of the demos to narrow it down to the 70 minutes that we ended up putting on the record. But I have other projects that I’m working on. I’m writing another book, so that will definitely take precedence when we are done.”
