EXCLUSIVE! Interview with John Roderick of the Long Winters!

We here at Cut the Chord have been obsessed with the new Long Winters album Putting the Days to Bed (released by Barsuk Records) for the last couple months now. So, we figured we would get in contact with Roderick so that he could answer a few burning questions that we had about the band and the new album.



CTC: Putting the Days to Bed struck me as a very confessional album. I think the best albums, where the songwriter really connects with the listener, share something in common, and that's a feeling of embarrassment on the part of the listener. Maybe embarrassment isn't the perfect word. Uncomfortable may be a better word to illustrate that feeling you get when you listen to Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Tori Amos's early albums, everything Elliott Smith recorded. Those artists and albums I just mentioned, and I would include Putting the Days to Bed with them even though its more of an up tempo endeavor, are uncomfortable listens. And that's a good thing, not a bad thing. You almost feel while listening that the artist has exposed themselves perhaps more than they intended to and that really creates an intimacy with the listener. Do you ever feel that way about records, and do you feel like your new one fits this description? What albums in your collection give you that uncomfortable-but-great feeling?

JR: That close familiarity is what I want from any art. The first time I saw Francisco Goya's Maja paintings I was embarrassed for myself, at how engrossed I was and how exposed I felt. Likewise the first time I read Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson, or heard Elliot Smith's Either/Or.
I'm flattered that you feel that way about the Long Winters record. It's not something you can aspire to in your own work, you know? You just have to make the records that you're here to make. But it's great to hear people respond to them the same way I respond to the things I love most.

CTC: I'm struck by the vast difference between "Ultimatum" as it was on the EP, its richly layered acoustic approach, and the intense rock version on the album. Did you plan from the beginning to record and release two version? Was the music on the Ultimatum EP recorded at the same time as the album? Was there a different stylistic approach to each?

JR: There was absolutely no plan to make two versions. It was a very whimsical decision to rerecord it. I was playing a rocked up version one day in my basement, just to amuse myself, and thought "why not?" And why not indeed? It's funny how many people take that decision very seriously, some are almost offended while others are thrilled, choosing sides, pitting the one version against the other in a grudge match to the death. Redoing it as a rock song doesn't take anything away from the EP version, it's not a declaration of war against beauty, it's just a little bit of conversation between myself and myself.

CTC: This is your first album without Sean Nelson as a regular keyboardist (although I notice he still sings back-up on some tracks). I suppose he's focusing more on the much-welcomed revival of Harvey Danger. What kind of influence has he had on the band, and did going from a four member band to a three member band change the dynamic?

JR: Well, Sean was never a "regular" keyboardist, to be sure. He always asserted his influence much more in a live setting than on the records. He didn't appear at all on Ultimatum, and was by no means on every track of either of our first two records. None of that is to diminish his contributions, but only to point out that, in recording terms, he's on the new record pretty much the same amount that he's on Pretend to Fall. Sean was and continues to be a huge personal influence on me, and when he was in the touring band he absolutely transformed the experience for all of us, but he's always had tons of irons in the fire and was always careful to budget his time between many many projects. He doesn't tour with us now because of the reformed Harveys, but in most every other respect his involvement is unchanged.

CTC: It seems like the Long Winters are getting more exposure now than ever with this new album. What are your hopes with the success of this album and your long term goals in terms of your music and your career?

JR: I just want to the band's popularity to grow naturally, without any crazy or false surge of notoriety that brings a lot of doofuses into the tent. I'm afraid my "insult-comedy" style of on-stage banter isn't going to play very well to a bunch of soccer hooligans.

Lastly, we asked John to list a couple of favorites...

Albums: ZZ Top's "Eliminator"
Novels: Stendahl's "The Red and the Black"
Films: "Red Dawn"

If you want to download some Long Winters MP3s, you can visit the Long Winters website.

Things You Might Not Know About the New Elliott Smith Leaks

So, late last week, four more unreleased Elliott Smith songs turned up on the Basement Demos page of www.elliottsmithbsides.com, labeled as so; “True Love,” “From a Poisoned Well,” “Let’s Turn the Record Over” and “Talking to Mary.” It should be noted that when Elliott Smith B-Sides’ site runner received these tracks, they were not labeled and the anonymous leaker did not provide song titles.

Blogs went abuzz straight away, and even Rolling Stone and Pitchfork caught on, but there’s a lot of misinformation floating around. So we’re going to tell you absolutely everything you need to know about these tracks.

First of all, we have discussed the track referred to as “From a Poisoned Well” here before. Elliott performed it live only once as “First Timer” before he updated the lyrics and recorded a more rock-oriented version. It was David McConnell who first mentioned to the unreleased track in an interview with MTV. However, despite the way he referred to it, the title is actually “From a Poison Well,” as it is sung in the song.

“True Love” was the holy grail of unreleased Elliott songs up until this point. I remember being the first person on the Sweetaddy message board to point out its surprising omission when the From a Basement on the Hill tracklist was first announced. As it turns out, those who were working on the release (Rob Schnapf and Joanna Bolme) were not able to find the finished vocal track until just soon after the Basement deadline had passed, and the family has since been unable to convince Interscope to release the song in any form.

Reportedly, this version of “True Love” is the one that Elliott recorded with Jon Brion, and given the rough mix and inconsistent lyrics of the vocal tracks on this recording, this leads us to believe that this is not the final version of “True Love” as it was completed by Rob and Joanna.

(UPDATE: Less than twenty-four hours after this article was posted, the final version of True Love leaked.)

“Let’s Turn the Record Over” had been the subject of much speculation since it was once referenced on Sweetaddy as an original song that was near completion at the time of Elliott’s passing. At the time before this leak, it was the only remaining Elliott Smith composition that fans were aware of but had not heard in any form. After the leak, one person on Sweetaddy revealed that “Let’s Turn the Record Over” has also been referred to as “Bonnie Brae.” It is unclear for now which is the final confirmed title.

Lastly, there is “Talking to Mary” which, despite being included among the Basement Demos, was not recorded during Elliott’s Basement sessions. Live performances of the song date back to 1995 when fans first began recording Elliott's shows. As you can hear on the studio track, once it ends, the first note of “Riot Coming,” also an Elliott rarity from around the era of the self-titled album, begins to play right before the track is cut off. It is possible, though there has never been any evidence or confirmation, that Elliott may have considered using this newly leaked track on From a Basement on the Hill, but it's clear that “Talking to Mary” is one of Elliott’s earliest recorded rarities.

There’s still plenty of Elliott Smith recordings that we have yet to hear, and that we hope to hear in the form of official releases rather than the result of further internet leaks. Kill Rock Stars, who released Elliott's self-titled album as well as Either/Or, is taking the cue by planning a Spring 2007 release of rarities that Elliott recorded in his years with that label. However, the bulk of his material recorded after that time is owned by Interscope, who have yet to publicly announce their intention for any further Elliott Smith releases.

We hope that Interscope will move forward with a release soon, because we are all eager to purchase a release that gathers the completed versions of songs like “True Love,” “Dancing on the Highway,” and “Stickman.” There’s still so many recordings from his last years that we have yet to hear, and we look forward to the opportunity to own them all.

Finally, for all you loyal CTC readers, here's an exclusively edited version of one of the newly leaked tracks...
MP3: Elliott Smith - Let's Turn the Record Over