5 September 2008 :: there's no hiding from the nuclear apocalypse, but at least we'll all get to hang out

:: Interview /⊙ Features Home

In anticipation of the Sub Pop release of his fantastic Woman King EP, I called up Iron & Wine frontman Sam Beam at his home in Florida to talk about his plans for the year, the problems of balancing touring and family, and job security in the world of rock 'n roll.  

Every once and awhile during the interview, one of Beam's daughters interrupted with a question, which he always quietly answered in the background; they all seemed to have beautiful, slow, quiet southern accents.  Even in conversation Beam seems hushed, never quite reaching full volume, even when excited.

Interestingly, Woman King seems to be the release that will break the mold of Beam as quiet also-ran to Will Oldham's crazed preacher.  Brian Deck's production is fantastic, his sound is fuller than on any previous Iron & Wine release. The percussion is like nothing Beam has ever tried before, and two of the songs, "Freedom Hangs Like Heaven" and "Evening on the Ground (Lilith's Song)," stand amongst his finest to date.

==

CMG's Peter Hepburn (CMG): Are you at home right now?

Sam Beam (Beam): I sure am.

CMG: Where do you live?

Beam:I live in Miami.

CMG: If I’m not mistaken, did your family just have another child?

Beam: Pretty soon.

CMG: How do you enjoy touring?

Beam: I like touring. I mean, it’s kind of a pain leaving the family, but I think anybody likes to go and do something creative. You know, put it out there and have people respond.

CMG: You’ve got a wife and two children, right?

Beam: Yeah.

CMG: I read an interview with you from before Our Endless Numbered Days was released where you talked about cutting back on some of your touring and even going back to work.

Beam: I did go back to work for awhile. It was a necessity at that point. Luckily then I kind of left, and I’ve been able to boost off. At that point I didn’t really know what my boundaries were as far as what was a good amount of time to tour and, yeah, just given the family situation. We sort of figured it out.

CMG: At this point you’ve stopped teaching all together?

Beam: Yeah, that’s right.

CMG: And do you see yourself going back to that eventually?

Beam: Not if I can help it.

CMG: You taught cinematography, right?

Beam: Yeah, among other things.

CMG: This spring are you going to be doing more of a U.S. tour?

Beam: I know I’m gonna be doing about two weeks in the Midwest and then another two weeks on the east coast. Then, after that I’m not really sure. I’m sure we’ll do a west coast thing at some point.

CMG: How much of a band do you tour with?

Beam: It depends. In the spring it’ll probably be like a five or six piece band.

CMG: How does your new EP, Woman King, differ from the Our Endless Numbered Days stuff?

Beam: Well, it’s not really a concept record, but it sort of has this loose theme of women characters. I kind of had all these songs laying around that were either historical characters or just personal characters.

CMG: Any specific historic characters?

Beam: Jezebel, this old queen from the biblical story. Mary, from, you know, Jesus and stuff. Lillith, this mythological first wife of Adam. And then these songs were laying around, and this “Woman King” song came about and I just sort of got the idea to give these other songs a place. There’s this sort of loose theme that runs through it, but it wasn’t specifically developed.

CMG: The songs aren’t coming out of the same sessions as Numbered Days?

Beam: The Jezebel song, well that song is actually significantly older than Our Endless Numbered Days. I did a version of that one when we recorded that record, but we didn’t like it, so I just went back and did it again.

CMG: Brian Deck do the production work on this one, right?

Beam: Yeah, this one was pretty much exclusively me and Brian. My sister came and sang some, and my bass player, E.J., came and did some stuff and then we had a fella’ named Jim [Becker] who plays a lotta different instruments in a band called Califone. He came in and did some violin stuff. But for the most part it was just me and Brian, which was fun.

CMG: The other big project that’s coming out pretty soon is the Calexico EP [tentatively titled Lays in the Reigns]. When can we expect that one?

Beam: That’s probably in the fall. We’ve been trying to do that for awhile, and we were finally able to clear the schedules and so we did that about a month ago. We have a few more things to do on it.

CMG: How did it come together?

Beam: There’s a fellow that runs a label that’s called Overcoat Records, this guy Howard Greynolds. He’s a mutual friend of ours. He’s doing this series of EPs with coupling bands together.

CMG: Sort of like In The Fishtank?

Beam: Kinda. Definitely like that but not with all the parameters. Not like you have to go and perform it all in one day. Come with nothing and end with a bag of shit. But yeah, it’s a sort of loose series like that. I know Will Oldham and Tortoise have already done a record together. He’s got some other people.

CMG: Overall was it a good process? Did you enjoy it?

Beam: Yeah, it was great. Those guys are amazing. There studio is real cool.

CMG: Do you still feel slightly out of place in the studio or is it now pretty natural for you?

Beam: Actually, I love the studio. I mean the first experience I had in the studio I think I enjoyed being in the studio, it was just that I was trying to do too much in too little time. Once you learn how things go, it’s a lot of fun. I’d say I prefer it to touring honestly. I mean a recording is a recording, whether you’re recording at home or with the big toys. It’s still kinda the same process, and I find it a lot of fun.

CMG: Are there any other bands or artists that you’d really like to work with?
Beam: Well, there’s lots of people I’d like to work with, I dunno.

CMG: As far as a follow-up to Our Endless Numbered Days, have you started writing songs for that or are you working on that at all?

Beam: Well, I’m kinda always writing. The way the other ones came about was well. The first one obviously they just said, “Let’s put a record out,” so I just grabbed some songs. The second one was kinda the same. So, I’ll just go through the vaults, see what’s there. So, it’s sort of this ongoing process. I don’t just start writing for a record.

CMG: Do you envision the new album taking on a particular character?

Beam: Well, each one I try to evolve in a certain way. The second one I thought it was important that I go into the studio. This EP is quite a bit more playful in terms of percussion and lots of buried instrumentation. I don’t really have a strong bead on it yet it should be quite a bit more playful.

CMG: Just kinda going into general music stuff, what were the albums you really like last year?

Beam: Honestly man, I didn’t really hear a whole lotta new stuff. I mean, I hear about new people, but I don’t really have the time to jam out to music like I used to. I just got that Joanna Newsom record for Christmas, I think that’s amazing. Most of the stuff that I actually buy is quite a bit older: I like a lot of African music and old blues music. My tastes are kinda all over the place.

CMG: One of your guitarists, Patrick McKinney, had an album [the entirely instrumental As Upon the Road Thereto, out on Soft Abuse] come out last year.

Beam: Yeah, Langtry. I think he’s getting ready to record another one too, like in the next couple days.

CMG: What albums were really formative for you growing up?

Beam: I kinda grew up on the radio, really. My parents’ record collection was full of a bunch of old R&B/Motown kinda stuff. Soul records that I really liked. Which I think sorta had a big impact on me as far as song structure. I did have this buddy in middle school who’s dad had a lot of records. He had all these Velvet Underground records and Rolling Stones records, New Order and all this stuff. That was a step into a bigger world. But honestly I sorta listen to all over the place. I grew up in the Carolinas, so it’s sorta hard to get away from country music. The radio was just kinda a big thing for me.

CMG: So this kind of quiet, subdued folk music that you’re playing now, is that an offshoot of the radio culture that you grew up in?

Beam: Yeah, it’s kinda just something that I gravitated towards. Paul Simon was a big influence on me. Townes Van Zandt. And so I started writing these songs that it didn’t make a lot of sense to do a big metal jam-out fit, so I started to do these quieter songs. It kinda made sense given the subject matter. Plus it was more fun to play. You know when you’re playing by yourself it’s not all that fun to, like, get out the wah-wah pedal. And so it just kinda developed that way.

CMG: One last question, the rapper Buck 65 once [as fellow CMG writer Aaron Newell can attest] referred to you as “the nicest guy I’ve ever met.” I’m just curious, how did you meet Buck 65 and are you, indeed, the nicest guy he’s ever met?

Beam: I dunno, did I meet him? I didn’t know that he said that. That’s flattering.

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