Last year, I sat down with Carl Newman, the principal songwriter of Canadian pop sensation The New Pornographers, and discussed the ins and outs of the making of their first album, Mass Romantic, as well as such esoterica as toques, Can-con, and "buzz with one zed". This last was courtesy of band keyboard player Blaine Thurier, who joined Carl last year and very kindly reprised his role for this year's Q&A. He was joined by bassist John Collins and drummer Kurt Dahle. We gathered in their Bowery hotel room and discussed the similarities (and differences) between the genesis of Mass Romantic and the lovely new Electric Version, Destroyer and studio-only-Pornographer Dan Bejar's decidedly odd position in the band, and...um...Narduar.

Splendid: You guys are showing up in some far more mainstream publications (CMJ, Spin) than covered your last albums; I noticed that these are making the same sort of jokes, as in the "Canadian Supergroup" joke that all of us in the indie press already drove into the ground on the last album. Are you finding that you have to talk about the band in a different way when talking to, say, Spin, than with a publication that's been following you for a while?

Blaine: No, it all depends on the writer. I doesn't seem to matter who they're writing for; some writers are smart, and some aren't smart.

Kurt: But we love them all. (Laughs)

Splendid: Kurt, you do the vocals on Dan Bejar's songs live. How did that job devolve to you? Does it have to do with the fact that of the group's vocalists, you sound the most similar to Dan, or what?

Kurt: Yeah, I don't know how it happened. I think it's because I have a lower range than Carl does (and obviously, Neko can't sing them, they're way too low for her). I think that's how it happened. I don't try to imitate him or anything; I just sing them the way I hear them, and I guess we kind of sound alike.

Splendid: I'd bet that there are people who have the albums, and have seen you live, and assume that you sang the songs on the records.

Kurt: I'm a different style of singer, but it's in the same register, so it sounds close enough.

Splendid: He seems to sing differently on the New Pornographers records than he does on the Destroyer records.

Kurt: Yeah, I think so. On both [Pornographers] records, I think we disguise his voice a little bit. It's not on purpose, but we were trying to get the sound of more people singing at once, so when you hear Dan singing, it's almost always with Neko or with me. Especially on the last album, just because we knew that I would be singing the stuff live, so it should sound a little bit like me.

Splendid: Mass Romantic seemed to have more songs with a solo vocal, while the second album has Carl, Neko, and Dan singing more dual-vocal tracks. Is that because this is how you played the Electric Version songs when you were trying them out on tour?

John: We played about half of them on tour, but I think it's more just the way that Carl wrote the songs. What we were partially doing on the first record, figured out that it worked, and trying to do more on the second record, was have the two people singing at the same time to keep it interesting. "The Laws Have Changed" is an example of where you have everyone singing on one song.

Kurt: Yeah, but there's more taking turns and less tripling and doubling of people at the same time. I don't think that was a conscious decision. It just happened.

John: Lots of vocals is the main plan. Just featuring different people as much as possible. We're kind of trying to do the same thing that we were doing on the first one, but the first one was kind of pieced together in a way.

Splendid: How did the recording of this album differ from the last one? Was it easier getting everything down, since you've done so much more touring?

Kurt: Equally slow, I think.

Blaine: But in a more compressed time.

John: Actually, in a weird way they were both really similar. With the first one, we were trying to do a single, and so we recorded four tunes ages ago, mixed and everything. That was when Neko was still in Vancouver, before we had even played a song. A year-and-a-half later, the album became a possibility, and we just sort of sprinted at it. We did all of the bed tracks in a week, and then just overdubbed and overdubbed and overdubbed and edited for three months or so. But we'd been playing around a lot by then, so we really knew the songs. The same sort of thing happened this time, too. When we came in to do the bed tracks, we were really well-rehearsed this time, too.

Splendid: What's that term you're using?

John: Oh, "bed tracks": that's like drum, bass, and whatever guitar.

Kurt: The style of recording was different. We did the bed tracks in a hi-fi studio this time, and we actually mixed in a big studio as well. The first album was all mixed on a computer.

Splendid: So, you've recorded two albums, you're touring again, and once again Dan Bejar isn't touring with you. Is this because of his Destroyer schedule, or is it just because you've locked down this lineup as the touring unit of the New Pornographers?

Kurt: He's just not really into touring.

Blaine: He doesn't like it.

Kurt: He does it with his own band, but I don't even think he likes doing that.

Blaine: We don't know why.

Kurt: He doesn't really say. He kind of skirts around it.

John: He's not really looking to become part of any sensation. He's just...early on, when it looked like it was going to get busy, he just relocated. He's content to work on his own songs, and have his other band, which he's more in control of. He gets what he wants out of us; he likes to collaborate, and he does hang around a fair amount when we're recording. His songs get realized, and that's fine with him.

Kurt: This isn't his cup of tea, either, I don't think.

Splendid: You don't see this happening very much in bands -- someone who comes in and records, and does some songs. It's not like Brian Wilson, where he writes everything and then sends the band out on the road without him.

Kurt: Yeah, I don't know why people don't do that more. It seems to me that if your friends can help you, then everybody should be helping each other. That adds another dimension to our records; it's just better to have more than one writer. Dan's songs sound completely different, so you have this other flavor that's thrown in. It makes the record better in the end. Splendid: Everybody talks about the pressures of recording a follow-up to a successful record, but I'm more interested in the pressure of coming up with a cover for the second album, since the first album's cover was hysterical. Now, you went with a monkey inside, like, a hubcap, with a microphone.

John: You'd have to talk to Carl about this stuff.

Blaine: It's a monkey inside a spaceship. It's the first space monkey. It's just one of those pictures that you look at that's compelling, but you don't know why.

Kurt: That stuff's none of our business. We don't really ever have an idea, and then right before the record comes out, we get a book, or someone's painting that they have hanging on the wall, and say "Let's just use this."

Splendid: You could almost believe, looking at the first album's cover, that the whole point of recording that album was getting to put that painting on the cover. It just kills me. Carl mentioned that he might auction it on eBay last time we spoke.

Blaine: No, he should hold onto that.

Splendid: Who gets picked on on the road?

Kurt: Blaine.

Blaine: Hey!

John: I think Todd gets picked on a bit.

Kurt: No, I don't think he does, does he? I think it's, mostly, because Carl and Blaine have known each other for so long, Carl picks on Blaine, and Blaine is too nice a guy to pick back. He just gets mad at Carl.

Blaine: I don't want to go for the jugular on Carl.

Kurt: You don't have that killer instinct.

Blaine: Why would I want to do something like that to Carl?

Kurt: That's what I'm trying to say.

Splendid: Do any of you guys feel sort of protective of Neko?

John: She can take care of herself.

Blaine: She's pretty protective of us.

Kurt: She could kill any of us.

John: Yeah. I mean, I'll walk her through a dangerous area, but man, she's in control of her surroundings.

Splendid: I was just kind of assuming, based on the guys that I've seen at the shows, that she might be getting a lot of marriage proposals.

John: She does, yeah. She can tend to draw some pretty intense sort of interest from people, so we're always watching for that.

Blaine: I can't remember where we were playing, but there was this...creep...hanging around outside, and we knew he was a Neko fan...

Kurt: That's really normal, though.

Blaine: Yeah, it happens.

Splendid: Blaine, last time I talked to you, I asked if you had gotten any Canadian attention before the album had really hit in the United States, and you said, in effect, that you didn't care about Canadian attention, that "Canadian buzz is like buzz with one zed."

Kurt: That's pretty hot.

Splendid: Yeah, that was a pull quote. But I was wondering if that did work the way you had predicted, that Canadians would start liking you more once you were successful in the States.

Blaine: Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, American buzz will flow over to Canada and do a lot there. The reverse never happens.

Splendid: That cover you played last night, "Everybody Wants a Piece of the Action": is that a Billy Joel song?

Kurt: Nope. Try again.

Splendid: Who, then.

Kurt: Sweet. You don't remember Sweet, eh? Their first single was "Little Willy"? At first they were The Sweet. Later, of course, they had "Love Is Like Oxygen". Destination Boulevard had "Ballroom Blitz" and "Fox On The Run", didn't it?

Splendid: I think the only one I knew was "Ballroom Blitz".

Kurt: You know "Fox On The Run". How old are you?

Splendid: Twenty-eight.

Kurt: Oh, maybe not, then.

Blaine: I think I've heard "Fox On The Run" at sporting events.

Splendid: American sporting events?

Blaine: I'm not sure.

Splendid: Anyway, I assume you're touring with that cover.

Kurt: Every night. We do it to please Carl. He loves that song.

Splendid: And then, last time you were touring, you were doing a Donner Party song. I'm just wondering how, based on these two very different choices, how you go about choosing what song to cover.

Kurt: Somebody just comes up with one that everyone agrees with.

Splendid: Have there been rejected covers?

Blaine: Someone's always going, "Hey, we should cover this one!"

Kurt: The ones that we end up covering are the ones that make everyone go "Yeah!"

John: Yeah, I'll listen to a record in the van, and every third song I'll say "Man, we have to do this one. That would be awesome." And we never, ever do.

Splendid: Kurt, is it as hard as I think it its to play the drums and sing at the same time?

Kurt: No, I think it's easier than playing something else and singing. I probably shouldn't say that.

Splendid: Yeah, you're losing mystique right here.

Kurt: To me, playing the bass and singing is the hardest thing to do.

Splendid: (To John) Do you sing?

John: Not while I'm playing bass.

Kurt: Piano, too. It's hard to play piano and sing. With drums, it's just to uniform. You're not changing chords and stuff, it's just the same thing on this (mimes hitting snare) and the same thing on this (mimes hitting ride).

Splendid: I guess it's also partially because it looks like you're exercising.

Kurt: That's really the only trick. You're trying to sound like you're not shaking, and you have to tone it down a bit.

Splendid: Aside from Neko, whom I know still tours with Her Boyfriends, is anybody else still involved in the other projects they were in when all of this got started?

Kurt: This is my main thing, and it's Carl's main thing, but he (indicating Blaine) still makes movies, and he (indicating John) still has the Evaporators. His band from high school still makes records.

Splendid: Your band from high school is still together?

John: Yeah. It's a little embarrassing, I guess.

Splendid: Longevity isn't something to be embarrassed about.

John: Have you heard of our singer? Nardwuar?

Kurt: The human serviette.

Splendid: The human what, now?

Kurt: Serviette. That's what we call a napkin in Canada.

Splendid: Ah. So, why is he the human serviette?

Kurt: You know, the punk rock thing, where people would spit on the singer? I guess that's it.

John: No, I think he's just fascinated with the difference between American and Canadian...

Kurt: Colloquialisms?

John: Yeah.

Splendid: Last time, the only Canadianism I had do muddle through was "touque".

Blaine: Nardwuar was the first guy to wear a touque.

Kurt: You should really look Nardwuar's website up. He's interviewed every person in the world. Gorbachev, Henry Rollins...

(After a brief digression on a comment by Carl regarding Henry Rollins from the previous night's show...)

John: You know, according to Nardwuar, who knows everything, the original singer for Black Flag lives in Vancouver and works in a flag shop.

Kurt: No way.

Splendid: Rock irony in action.

John: Yeah.