Fifteen years ago, Eric Bachmann sang and played guitar on what was to become one of the most beloved indie rock records of the decade, Icky Mettle. The band was the Archers of Loaf, the town was Chapel Hill, and the sound was a raucous, skeletal, car-crash cloud of melancholy and unorthodox twin guitar tapestries. Best of all was Bachmann’s laser-guided melodic sensibility, which turned brief, driving, angry song sketches into unforgettably tuneful gems: “Web In Front,” “Might,” “Plumbline,” and “The Lowest Part Is Free!” rank among the most memorable songs of the 1990s.
These days, however, Bachmann is plying his trade with nylon-stringed guitar and voice. However, fear not: the melodic sense, intelligence, and heart-filled songwriting are still in ample supply. After the Archers broke up in 1998, Bachmann revealed a ‘weird’ Americana sensibility through his work with the band, Crooked Fingers, a musical project more Tom Waits than Replacements. In 2002, Bachmann struck out on his own with a collection of songs, Short Careers, penned for the film Ball of Wax. And in 2006, on Omaha’s Saddle Creek Records, Bachmann released To the Races, a gripping clutch of sparsely rendered songs accompanied by finger-picking and an occasional musical guest.
When Bachmann comes to town this weekend to open for Neko Case, Ithacans will have the opportunity to see two musicians nominally associated with indie rock, but whose solo projects provide rich and resplendent artistry fully self-sufficient on their own terms. We caught up with Bachmann recently to talk about the tour, his career a decade after the Archers, and the craft of the singer-songwriter.
Popcorn Youth: Hi! How are you?
Eric Bachmann: I’m doing fine, thanks!
Popcorn Youth: So how are you?
Bachmann: Well, everything is going fine, but we just got some snow (laughs), and I’m not used to snow. I’m from North Carolina and the southeast of Florida, and I moved to Denver about two years ago, and we get so much snow here.
Popcorn Youth: I see the area code for your phone is still for Seattle, though.
Bachmann: It is. I used to live in Seattle before this, but I just didn’t change my phone number when I moved, because it’s one that a lot of people know and it was just too much work and so I just kept it the same.
Popcorn Youth: So tell me, how did you tour with Neko Case come about?
Eric Bachmann: I’m really lucky that I’ll be able to tour with her for some of it. She’s doing this tour to rehearse some new songs, and I was getting ready to record, and they just asked if I wanted to do it. I’ve done some touring with her in the past, and we’re friends, so any time she offers, I say, “Yeah!” (Laughs) It’s a good bill to be on.
Popcorn Youth: So it’s just you performing solo?
Bachmann: This is the last tour I’m doing where it’s just me performing. I’m getting ready to record in February, and that will be with a band. So I’m only performing this last six or seven shows as a solo musician. I’m playing mostly songs from the new record [To the Races], plus some old things. But this is the last little bit of solo touring that I’ll be doing.
Popcorn Youth: So this band that you’re recording with, is that Crooked Fingers?
Bachmann: Yes, I think so. I never make up my mind until the day before. (Laughs) But I think it’ll be a Crooked Fingers record, though.
Popcorn Youth: Do you see yourself making another solo record like To the Races?
Bachmann: Yes, I’d like to do that again. I just think it’s a constant battle to keep yourself interested, to keep yourself moving forward and to find new ways of doing something.
Popcorn Youth: So live will just be your on the guitar?
Bachmann: I’ll probably have an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, and sometimes John will come around with some lap guitar — he plays pedal steel for Neko Case, and sometimes he’ll help out a little bit. It might just be me and a guitar, but sometimes there’s a little twist in there, somewhere.
Popcorn Youth: How different is the experience of performing solo versus having a backing band?
Bachmann: They are very different, and I think it’s exactly what I mean when I say I need to keep myself interested. Like, I’ll go on tour with a band for a year, and it’s a really rewarding to do it by yourself, after that. And if you tour by yourself for a year or six months, for a long tour, all of a sudden you miss the camaraderie of a band, and the sounds of the support of a band behind you. So it’s good to go back and forth, it keeps me entertained the best. Like, the last tour I did was with a cello player and a violin player and a drummer. I just keep trying to change it around so I’m constantly hearing the songs in different ways.
Popcorn Youth: Definitely. Had you ever toured by yourself prior to To The Races?
Bachmann: I had done it a few times before, yes. And actually, when I toured for To the Races, it was as a three-piece, with two women, one played violin and one played cello, and I sang. So most of that tour was not completely me by myself, ironically enough, given the kind of record that it was. But I have done others tours before that were just me. And those are good to do when they’re shorter, like a week or two weeks, or when you’re opening. It’s easier to open solo because it seems like the dynamic of one person up there playing the guitar, well, it may only be interesting for 30 or 40 minutes, but after that, it’s not so interesting. I like to headline with a band. (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: I see that a lot of this tour is in stately venues like theaters and ballrooms. How much does the venue matter when you’re performing?
Bachmann: I know that it is true that you have to consider the room that you’re playing in, and if you’re going to play in a big loud bar opening for a loud rock band, and you have an acoustic guitar, it’s probably not going to work, if no one knows who you are. No one wants to hear a guy on a guitar, in a drunk bar.
Touring with Neko has been really great, because generally the crowd doesn’t talk too much and they really listen. Sometimes they’ll talk but theyre at a music venue and not to drink and talk to their friends. Which is also a great thing to do – that’s not to say that I don’t like going to shows to drink and talk to my friends. But I don’t like to shush the crowd if I’m at a bar. I’m not offended if people aren’t listening because I’m at a bar! (Laughs) I’m not more important than someone’s friend, you know? In theatres like these, I like playing solo because I know it’s going to be a more polite, quieter, music-listening crowd.
Popcorn Youth: People will be more likely to pay attention.
Bachmann: I hope so. People generally do, so it’s easier to pull off. When people are quiet, it’s easier to pull off the whole solo acoustic thing.
Popcorn Youth: Well, I suppose the music will speak for itself, because if the people really like it, then they won’t feel the need to talk to their friends while the music is happening.
Bachmann: That’s right. That’s right. They’re there to listen, they’re not there to meet with friends and talk about the week at work or whatever, over a few beers, which is a completely fine thing to do, I mean, that’s what bars are for. (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: Will you be playing any new material you’ve been working on?
Bachmann: Yes, I think I will. It’s going to be a little hard because they’re so band-oriented. I haven’t really put together my song list — I have quite a few songs, and I need to pick just 20 that I can do, because my brain only holds so much. I need to put a cartridge in my head so I can remember it all. Someone will ask me to play a song, and I literally can’t play, I won’t remember the song or the words. My brain is pretty much…. at capacity at this point. (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: Have you heard any of Neko’s new material yet?
Bachmann: I haven’t, no. I’m really excited to hear them, though.
Popcorn Youth: When Crooked Fingers came together, people saw it as quite a departure from the Archers sound, although you’ve said that it’s a clear continuation from your previous projects. Your solo material, however, is aesthetically pretty similar to Crooked Fingers. Do you also see your solo work as a natural progression from Crooked Fingers?
Bachmann: I do, I do. It’s a weird thing, though, because that was not the intention. I was not intending to write a record like that, but I was in between places to live, and I knew I had to work, and within a month or two, these songs just came out. I tried to make arrangements and have drums and other vocals, but it sounded best to me — probably because of where my head was at — to have it as sparse as it was. With my mindset at the time, I just wanted it to be voice and guitar, and maybe occasionally a female vocal or a piano. Something slight. But it was still a surprise to me. It was obviously a natural progression because, well, that was what happened, but I definitely didn’t intend for that to happen. Looking back, I’m glad it happened that way, because it makes sense, but I don’t know… I almost feel like I never really have control over these things. They just happen.
Popcorn Youth: Was there a conscious decision not to have any percussive elements? Like, did your fingerpicking already create its own rhythm and pace?
Bachmann: I don’t know, that’s tough…. I just don’t think too much about it. There’s two technical issues with that: When you play complicated fingerpicking patterns and then you put stuff on top of that, it clutters the guitar. That’s a technical thing when you’re making the record, like “ I can’t put that there, because it clutters the guitar.” The guitars already doing it, so why add it again? But at the same time, it’s just a decision you have to make. And I think with my mindset at the time I didn’t want it there, I just wanted it to be voice and guitar. I just wanted to do that and occasionally a female vocal or a piano or something slight.
Popcorn Youth: What was the impetus to release your first official solo record with Saddle Creek?
Bachmann: Well, I’ve just known those guys for a while. I’ve worked with Azure Ray, a band on that label, and I know those guys are some incredibly cool people. And they offered, like, “Oh we’ll put out your record.”
And I like change. Even though I love Merge and those guys — I was on Merge before that, and I might be on Merge again — but I don’t know. They’re still good friends. I just feel very fortunate and have a lot of gratitude. I have all of these friends on labels, because I’ve been doing this for a while. And they just want me to do well, so they don’t get offended (laughs) if I go somewhere else to release something (laughs). And they understand, they’re my friends. I balance my musical friends; I sleep on various musical couches, you know? (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: That’s great that you can say that about your experiences with record labels.
Bachmann: Well, sure, and I would argue that it’s why I’ve been able to eke a living out of the music business for 15 years, too. Merge are great people, Saddle Creek are great people — they’re not out to screw you, they’re all in bands, and they understand how it is.
Popcorn Youth: As a songwriter, have you ever been interested in writing creative fiction or poetry?
Bachmann: (Laughs) Yes… I… it’s hard to do that, it’s hard to write novels or shorts stories. I’ve written a bunch, but they all suck, you know? (Laughs) It’s so hard, but I would love to do that. It’s so much easier to write a song. I talk to people who write fiction and they’re like, “Man, I can’t write a song,” and I’m like, “Well, I can’t write books,” you know? (Laughs) That why I stick to songwriting. I dabble in that stuff, but I never put it out or try to publish it because it hasn’t reached a standard that I feel is wort putting out.
Popcorn Youth: With To the Races did you use alternate tunings, like you did with Archers of Loaf?
Bachmann: You know, I’ve never used a normal tuning, to be honest. When I learned how to play, I didn’t take guitar lessons. I was a saxophone player in college, and a music major, but I never played the guitar. So when I realized that I wanted to be in a rock band, I went out, bought a guitar, and strung it really weird — and I never went back. For To the Races, I just tune it up a step for my voice, because my voice gets torn up. Most of the songs on To the Races are just D-A-D G-A-D, up a step to E-B-E A-B-E.
Popcorn Youth: Have you found that the quality of your voice has changed over the years?
Bachmann: I haven’t been very kind to it before, but I’m being very kind to it now, just in terms of the kind of habits I have. I would see an ENT doctor about my hearing, you know, but then he discovered that my throat was a mess, with all kinds of nodes on it. And I was obviously singing ‘wrong.’
Popcorn Youth: Was that a result of singing too much?
Bachmann: (Laughs) Well, among other things, it was from eating and drinking and smoking and cocaine and all that. (Laughs) But, uh, everybody in rock bands did that stuff, so I’m not trying to say that it was this big hard thing or whatever. But if you don’t sing for a month, then it kind of heals… but if you’re still doing those other things, too (laughs), then it dries out pretty badly. Alcohol dries it out pretty badly, so does smoking, those kind of things.
Popcorn Youth: What else has changed over the years?
Bachmann: I think, also, just what I like and what I am influenced by has changed as I’ve gotten older, as everybody changes, I would hope. I listened to Mission of Burma and Television when I was 19 or 20 and in Archers of Loaf, but now I would say I’m more influenced by people that sing quieter, whether it be Woodie Guthrie or Bob Dylan or Kris Kirstofferson, or even Townes van Zandt.
Popcorn Youth: Maybe bands like Television and Mission of Burma will always influence you, subconsciously or otherwise, regardless if you listen to them anymore or not.
Bachmann: Yeah, I mean, I listened to Marquee Moon yesterday. They’re still influences, yes — your world just gets bigger, it doesn’t change. It just gets bigger.
Popcorn Youth: Well, speaking of Mission of Burma, and I’m sure you get asked this all the time, but they’re currently enjoying a very successful reunion. Would you consider the possibility of an Archers of Loaf reunion?
Bachmann: I don’t know. Well, first of all, Archers of Loaf — and not to be overly humble — are not Mission of Burma. And I am proud of doing that band, I’m proud to have been in that band, but I don’t know if the Archers were as good as Mission of Burma, so I don’t think it had the same social impact that Mission of Burma had as an influential band. We don’t have that kind of reach.
On that note, it just doesn’t draw my interest, and you have to be interested in what you’re doing. To go back to that… those are fine songs, they’re okay or whatever, but it’s not exciting for me to do that. It’s not that we all don’t get along, we get along great, and maybe it would be fun to do it just for us, but I think that all of sudden, it can become sort of silly, to get back together and tour. I just don’t like that vibe. But again, that’s not to say that it would never happen, but on my agenda of fun and entertaining things to do, it’s low.
Popcorn Youth: There are a lot of people out there hoping for a reunion, I can tell you that. Do you find that your Archers fanbase has stuck with you through the years?
Bachmann: It’s a mix. There are people that have been with me the entire time — people that liked Archers, people that like Crooked Fingers, people that like the solo record. Then you lose a lot of people, too. There are people that loved Archers but hate Crooked Fingers, and they tell me so! And then they’re people that hated Archers, they thought it was trendy 90s indie rock bullshit, and then love Crooked Fingers and what I’m doing now (laughs).
For me personally, what I find the most satisfying is when people don’t know about Archers of Loaf, and they like me anyway. It’s sort of like proof…validation that you’re not resting on your laurels, that you’re still vital in your own world, you’re still moving forward.
Having said that, I really love people when they know the whole thing. It’s really cool if they know the whole story — if they were there in the Archers days and they’re here now, and they were there in the middle, they were there for the whole thing. It’s fun to talk to them, for me, because they have all these memories and I’ll talk to them and be like, “Holy shit I forgot about that, but I remember that now!” That’s definitely a cool thing.
Popcorn Youth: So what was the impetus to move to Denver?
Bachmann: A woman. And we just moved out. (Laughs) We get along fine, but we just argued too much. We’re still friends and maybe we’ll still be dating, but I moved out about a month ago. I don’t know what will happen with that.
Popcorn Youth: Do you plan on staying in Denver for the foreseeable future?
Bachmann: I don’t like the cold winters, and I would not stay here, if I didn’t believe that there was a really good community of musicians. Through people, I’ve met so many wonderful people. I would argue that Denver’s music community is one of the better that I’ve ever been able to experience. There’s a guy Ian Cook, that I’ve met and played with, and he’s a cello player and does really great stuff on his own; Élan palmer, a woman who has played the violin with me, she’s been on tour with me. Tom toured with me, because Devotchka was so busy doing all of their own stuff, so he recommended me to all of these people. And through all of these people I meet even more people — and it snowballed from there.
I would say I’ve made more connections here with Denver people than I have in Atlanta, or I ever did in Seattle. Seattle had a fantastic music community, no doubt about that, but I never felt as connected to that or Atlanta as I do to Denver at this point, interestingly enough.
Eric Bachmann will perform with Neko Case at the State Theatre this Saturday, Jan. 26.
