Built To Spill: Perfect From Now On
The last several years have been a bit weird for Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch. After the band’s 2015 album Untethered Moon, the singer/ guitarist split ways with Warner Bros.— and, for the first time in decades, found himself without a label. Then, in 2018, Martsch announced a lineup change, keeping good on an old promise to rotate members. That led him to bassist João Casaes and drummer Lê Almeida, both of whom hail from the Brazilian band Orua; he toured South America with the rhythm section and ended up writing and recording with them. Those songs, and sketches of some other numbers that he fleshed out with the duo, eventually became the basis of the band’s eighth album of original material, When the Wind Forgets Your Name. The set was finally released in September.
And with When the Wind Forgets Your Name, Built to Spill have fully entered their next era. It’s the first LP Martsch has released for indie stalwart Sub Pop, a label that has always felt like it belonged in the Built to Spill universe. The sound is pure Built to Spill, meaning that the songs are built around Martch’s crunchy guitar tones and rich melodies. Rhythms often pound, setting up a juxtaposition with Martsch’s rather high-pitched voice—a voice that sounds as fresh as it did 30 years ago. Songs like “Fool’s Gold” and “Gonna Lose” retain that classic Built to Spill sound; Martsch’s lyrics are often self-deprecating and he continues to wrestle with the foibles of his relationships. Other tunes like “Rocksteady” and “Spiderweb” dip into other familiar sounds, like reggae and ‘80s R.E.M., respectively. It’s a wide palette anchored, as always, by Martsch’s singular vision.
“I feel there’s been a common thread of Doug’s melodic and lyrical sense throughout the catalog, so I don’t necessarily notice a huge difference— especially diving into the newest songs on When the Wind Forgets Your Name,” says Teresa Esguerra, the band’s current drummer. “It’s still Doug’s timeless songwriting and that sound that we love, album to album.”
Live shows have always been Built to Spill’s not-so-secret weapon. Martsch has long been known to gush about the power of jamming. An indie act with a flair for improvisation well before that was fashionable, the band has remained a force on the live stage, with Martsch and whoever he’s playing with gelling instantly over the group’s vast back catalog. (They’ve only released one live album to date—2000’s aptly-titled Live—but check out the 20-minute version of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer” on it sometime soon.)
Current Built to Spill bassist Melanie Radford agrees with Esguerra. “I think we’ve just been trying to have as much fun together in this collaboration as possible so we’ve been pretty tight musically, but we’ve been letting ourselves be more silly and ‘loose’ for the physical performances,” she says. “I’d have to agree with Teresa in terms of still hearing a common thread within all of Built to Spill’s releases. However, it’s definitely been fun to delve into other musical styles and genres that Doug explored on this new album.”
Ultimately, at 53, Martsch still talks like a teenager who is first discovering his instrument. There’s a marvel in his voice that’s infectious, yet at the same time, a vast humility that stretches into his consciousness. He loves touring and wants his tour manager Isabella Georgetti in Brazil to join as his U.S. tour manager as soon as she can. His albums, 1997’s Perfect From Now On and 1999’s Keep It Like a Secret, have become part of the classic indie-rock canon, yet he is still moving forward with new songs and embracing new challenges. He’s not exactly sure why people have connected to his tunes for so long, and thinks he’s still learning like he did on day one. But, Martsch is still on a lifelong mission of figuring out what works, a student of music, melody and improvisation.
“I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing,” Martsch says. “I feel like a teenager, like I don’t know how to write a song.”
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When the Wind Forgets Your Name is Built to Spill’s first collection of new material since 2015. What led to such a long lag between records?
Mostly, it’s stuff that I’ve been working on with Jason [Albertini] and Steve [Gere]. And a lot of those songs were ready to go quite a while ago, but then different aspects of life kind of kept it from getting done. We were busy touring, there were a lot of things going on with people in their own personal lives. It took us a while to find a label. And then I started playing with the Brazilians [João Casaes and Lê Almeida]. We had a lot of touring to do, and the pandemic happened. And then it took a long time for me to finish the record by myself, and it took a while for the label to release it. So all these things sort of slowed down life, but it feels like it happened more quickly than it did.
When you’re working on a record and it’s taking longer than you expected, do you feel anxious at all?
Not too much—I feel like there’s a lot of music out there. And we’re a pretty well[1]established band where it doesn’t feel like time is against us in that way. It seems like it can kind of happen at any time and make sense. It doesn’t have to be out at a certain time for people to understand it or relate to it. So it’s never been much of an issue for me.
That’s one thing that makes you sleep easier at night.
Yeah. When I was younger, I was more in a hurry for stuff to come out.
Speaking of when you were younger, has songwriting changed at all for you since the ‘80s and ‘90s?
I feel like the technique hasn’t changed too much. I write different kinds of songs. But even that doesn’t change a whole lot. Now, I write simpler songs because I like simpler songs more. But, it’s mostly stumbling into things, messing around with ideas until something pops out at me that sounds interesting. And then I spend lots of time of listening back to little ideas and piecing them out—there is always lots of editing to do. And eventually, after I’ve come up with a lot of ideas and melodies, I have to make up some words. And that’s always been the hardest part since the beginning for me. So it’s kind of the same. Also, anyone can write a song. There are really no rules to it or anything. So, it feels like I haven’t really learned anything all this time.
The simpler approach can actually be harder.
Yeah, because you’re really just trying to capture an essence or something. You can always work on stuff, write chords, put things into it and build stuff up. But just being able to find the right stuff—that doesn’t make good music. The thing that makes good music is what’s elusive.
Have you thought about why your fans have resonated with your songs so much?
I don’t know. I have pretty similar tastes to a lot of people. A lot of my favorite music is a lot of people’s favorite music. There’s a handful of things that I love the most that people don’t love. And that is only because they don’t know about them—my friends, bands and stuff. They could be as big as any band if they had the right publicist or something.
How much of a role does improv play in your writing these days?
That’s how every idea begins. Every chord progression starts as just some chords; I am just trying to see if it sounds nice. So everything is based on improv because I’m not really a music theory person. I would never say, “I think this needs this kind of thing here.” It’s always about trying ideas over the top of other ideas and then, on the record itself, there’s a certain amount of improvisation in there.
Your latest lineup consists of Melanie Radford on bass and Teresa Esguerra on drums. What do they bring to the band that’s different?
I feel like mostly I can’t even really tell. To me, I’m just concentrating on what I’m doing up there. Those two are providing a base for me to not even think about them. That’s the greatest thing you could do. I can’t say enough good things about them.
Does your mind wander onstage or are you usually completely focused?
My mind wanders a little bit, but I still have to work pretty hard at this stuff. I can’t look at people in the audience and stuff; I have to think about where my fingers have to go and hitting the notes. Sometimes something doesn’t sound right, and I’m a little annoyed by that. But, you try to overcome the technical aspects of something not being right. But if it’s all sounding good, and we’re all playing together, it’s fun. I love it so much. It’s fun to feel like we’ve worked hard on this stuff and it feels good to perform for people. I guess if my mind does wander, I think about the people listening to the music, and I imagine who I’m singing to—if I’m singing to one of my friends, or if I’m singing to some fan who’s at their first show and has never seen us before. That’s the kind of stuff that I like.
This is your first album for Sub Pop. How did you arrive there?
Actually, the publicist Frank [Nieto] was the person who approached me about it, and he’s an old friend of mine. And I’m also friends with [Sub Pop CEO] Megan Jasper. Those are the two people that I knew there, and I talked to a couple of other labels. But Sub Pop was definitely the most interested and it seemed like such an obvious thing. Once they were in the mix, it seemed like a no-brainer to me. I’ve been psyched about it. And it’s been incredible.
What When the Wind Forgets Your Name songs do you currently enjoy playing the most live?
Well, we’ve been doing “Gonna Lose” for the longest. “Fool’s Gold” sounds pretty good. We just recently started doing “Spiderweb” and “Rocksteady.” I still want to play all the old songs and I think people want to hear our songs from the ‘90s. And I still like to play them.
You’ve played some of your classic albums in full on tour a few times. Do you think that you would ever do a full-album tour again?
I’m not against it. I don’t know what would make sense to do and it doesn’t sound very fun or exciting to me. I just like to play music and, really, I don’t remember ever thinking like, “Oh, fuck, I got to play these songs again.” I’m not against it, but I’d rather play whatever we want.
Do you record your live shows these days?
For a while, we were recording all of them. I’m not sure what’s happening now. I like the idea of doing it. But it’s just so much stuff to sift through. One time, I did go back through and mix like two years worth of stuff. And I just couldn’t wrap my brain around what was happening— what was good. I couldn’t tell what was useful. And I gave it to some super fans to see if they would be able to deal with it. And they were the same way. Even they couldn’t make it through the shows. I try to remember each night and make notes, but I couldn’t even get to this interview on time. So that’s how organized I am. [Laughs.]
Is there anything percolating for a new album yet?
Well, there are still a few songs leftover that I’ve kind of been working on and another little couple of things out there. There’s a bunch of stuff that needs lyrics. I haven’t really been feeling too inspired to write many songs recently, but I can still come up with some words when I need to.
