Mat Brooke has been around the indie cliques, geeks, and darlings for some time now. From the obsessive-like following of his former band Clarissa’s Wierd and southern rock drone outfit Band Of Horses, he’s been seen as a restless soul of American indie rock. But not until his recent incarnation of Grand Archives has Brooke been taken so seriously. Perhaps it was because his first project never went past trendy. Or the fact that despite taking part in recording all of Band of Horses inaugural release, he never basked in its glory - leaving before the band would tour. So it’s no surprise that the industry, fans of his work, and the press that have followed him throughout, wait with baited breath to see how his latest manifesto pans out. With the release of their self titled debut, Brooke and company have made their case of never looking back and always pushing themselves for fresh things. He may finally be a rested soul thanks to Grand Archives.

We had a chance to sit down with Brooke as he packed on the eve of his first major tour under the Grand Archives name to discuss the days with BoH, intoxicated sessions and those Clarissa’s Wierd fans.

Pensatos: With Grand Archives did you find it difficult to distance yourself from the sounds you helped create? Like Band of Horses for example…
Mat Brooke: I guess I didn’t give it a conscious effort. I gave it a small effort. I feel like I still played the guitar the exact same way and I usually go with the same chord changes but the only difference was that we added a lot more vocal melodies and try to play in a few less minor chords and in a few more majors.

[We got] as drunk as we possibly could so we would sing terribly.

Is that why you incorporated so many instruments like the Fluglehorn or pedal steel guitar?
I can answer that in two answers. A rule that we kinda set up when we started recording was that we didn’t want to rely on any synthesizers. So, in that, we were forced to be more creative and actually get people to come in and play the saxophone, the flugelhorn, things that you could usually poorly imitate with a synthesizer. Therefore we decided to take a good three months to record the album and do everything as genuine as possible. So yeah - I guess that would be the answer [laughs].

Ben Kirsten produced the album and he’s worked with you in the past with Carissa’s Wierd. Since he knew your style, did he help steer you in this/that direction or did he just sit back and let you go at it?
One of the main reasons we like working with him so much was that he did a demo for us - in that instead of trying to steer us in any certain direction he makes himself part of the band. Once he knew exactly what we were trying to do, then he’d throw in some ideas. But he didn’t have any kind of set rules we had to follow. Another small little rule we set for ourselves though when recording the record was when a certain part of a song (or a song altogether) was no longer fun to record we would just abandon it altogether - immediately. We would then rewrite and re-record. We wanted to make it sound like we were always enjoying ourselves.

How did you approach writing a song about prisoner ‘George Kaminski’ or the megalomaniac ‘Louis Reil’? Sympathy? Association?
The songwriting approach on this record went three different ways. Its either topical; take George Kaminski for example. I was reading the paper one day and ready this article that the fella had the world record for collection four-leaf clovers while in prison - and that he had just been beat by another guy in Alaska. The story stuck in my head. Some of the other songs go past the autobiography thing. Some would be complete fiction.

Going along with the fiction portion: talk to me about ‘Breezy No Breezy’. It’s noticeably darker and the only instrumental song on the album.
We were done. All the recording was done, but we still had half a day left. So we’re in the studio talking about whether we should call it a day and leave at noon or see if we can whip something out. Of course everyone thought it was crazy; too much to try. I grab a cello and start plucking a base line and Rob, our piano player started banging away on the keys. Ben was there and he hit ‘record’. We played through it a few times and then grabbed as many instruments in the house and bag of tricks we could find. I think the song was written and recorded in an hour and a half. There was no structure. It must have been where our head space was after working on the record for three months.

I don’t want to say it weirds me out because the Carissa’s Wierd fans were - yeah very cultish - but very loyal.

That’s funny because I would have thought ‘The Crime Window’ would have been your song to blow off steam with. It’s so different than the rest of the album. Almost like you are all in a 60’s flick - a rumble in an alleyway. What’s the story with that?
You’re completely right about that. We recorded this record in a few different studios. We went out to the woods in a cabin to work on the vocal harmonies; to keep our heads clear. We knew we wanted to do the vocals to ‘Crime Window’ the absolute last day in the cabin so we could get as drunk as we possibly could so we would sing terribly. You know, to make it sound like a genuine party. We knew we’d be hung over the next day so we just went crazy. We eventually went back to another studio with it and added a few more bells, whistles, and tambourines. And that’s actually where we ended up writing ‘Breezy No Breezy’.

So you went back to the studio to mask the worst drunken moments?
We had to take a few days off after ‘Crime Window’. We had just blown our voices going crazy with that song.

I remember some similar drunken stories when you were with Band of Horses. What are your happiest memories of those days?
Oh! So many happy memories: those two great tours with Iron and Wine - those were a blast. Working with Phil Ek doing that Everthing All The Time record… Nothing but great memories, really.

Does the cult-like following of Carissa’s Wierd ever - well - weird you out? They still stick with the Archives even now, don’t they?
It does. I mean, I don’t want to say it weirds me out because the Carissa’s Wierd fans were - yeah very cultish - but very loyal. I mean, we could do no wrong in their eyes. The stuck around thrugh Band of Horses and even now with Grand Archives. We just had a CD release show in Seattle. I came on and did a surprise Carissa’s Wierd song and I was thrown back by how many people sung along and knew all the words. Truly amazing.

+ review: Grand Archives - Grand Archives
+ audio: Grand Archives ‘Torn Blue Foam Couch’