DeadJournalist.com Exclusive Interviews:
Pierre de Reeder

Chuck Norton, DeadJournalist.com
09.17.08

 

After 10 years as the bassist for the highly successful band, Rilo Kiley, Pierre de Reeder released The Way It Was, his debut full-length album, on August 12, 2008.

The album is a personal, mature and sophisticated effort that leans more toward the pop sensibilities of 1970's singer-songwriters than the recent works of Rilo Kiley. The Way It Was is a smooth, cohesive album, which proves that de Reeder's talent as a singer and song-writer has been overshadowed by the Rilo Kiley's higher profile members Jenny Lewis and Blake Stennett.

He will be performing in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 4, 2008 at the Eagle Rock Music Festival (time TBA). He'll also be opening for Jenny Lewis on Friday, October 24 in Santa Cruz, CA; on Tuesday, October 28 in San Francisco; and on Saturday, November 1 in San Diego.

For more information on Pierre de Reeder, visit the his Web site at www.pierredereeder.com or his MySpace.com page: here or his last.fm page: here. Or for information on Rilo Kiley, visit their Web site at www.rilokiley.com or their MySpace page: here.

DeadJournalist.com proudly brings you this exclusive interview with Pierre de Reeder.

On August 12, you released you first solo album, The Way It Was. Was this album something that you had been wanting to record for some time, or was it a more recent desire? When did you first start putting the album together? How long did it take you to complete it?

PdR: It’s been long in the works, actually, but with no particular pressure or anything.

Some of the songs I began demoing up to five years ago. And along with other tunes that I didn’t put on the record, was slowly amassing material since then. But there was certainly a stronger, focused push about two years ago to “make a record”. So the majority really took shape then.

Then after all the recording, I again was in no rush to mix it … which we did a few months later. And later still to finally master it and get it ready to release.

I guess I was sitting with it, making sure I was happy with everything. As well as finding a logical, non disrupting time to release it among Rilo Kiley's schedule.

For someone reading about you for the first time - or for fans who know you from Rilo Kiley - how would you describe your new album?

PdR: Hmm... always a tough one, regardless if folks know you and what you've been involved with or not. It's certainly different from Rilo Kiley, for many obvious reasons, but at the same time there are some inseparable elements that carry through.

I don't really know what to compare it to, but I'm a big fan of the songwriting sensibilities of the likes of Neil Young and, well ... influences too numerable to count. But the songs are stories, the music is guitar and piano driven ... but again, a quick listen on MySpace will give the best answer.

Did you write the songs specifically for this album or we they a collection of songs you had previously written?

PdR: As I mentioned, they are a collection of songs to some extent ... but also specifically written for this album. And that mix allowed the record to be cohesive, and yet still retain a sort of journal of events quality.

Was there a specific point of view you wanted to express through songs on the album?

PdR: Well, each point of view is song specific. And I suppose with each I did either find myself, or direct myself to certain points of view. But there wasn't a global theme I was after. More, each song being an installment, a journal, a commentary, a reflection or idealism or both.

Although it is often a difficult question to answer, are there specific songs on the album that you favor or ones to which you feel closer?

PdR: Yeah, there are. I'll forever feel close to "Sophia's Song", simply because it's a song for my daughter Sophia.

There are some that I favor, for whatever reason... the aesthetic of them, the content, just the way the feel, I don't know. "The Long Conversation" is one that I really connect with, I guess more on a feel basis ... just how I feel when playing or listening to it.

"Young and Old" has some passages that still hit home with me. I don't know. I have such a close relationship with all of these songs, and I haven't played them to death yet live, so I'm still enjoying playing them.

More than ten years into your musical career, what have you learned about yourself as an artist and musician? Did becoming a father change your perspective as an artist?

PdR: I've learned that I still love playing music. You never [know] how long the enchantment of anything will last, but this certainly has endured. And sure, becoming a father changed my perspective on a lot of things, or at least my focus but also left many perspectives intact.

And the polls are in: all the cliche's are true, it's the single most important thing I have ever done, so if that doesn't alter a person ...

Do you find greater satisfaction in writing and recording or performing?

PdR: They are, for me, two entirely different beasts that I enjoy in such different ways, and they will often swap positions as to which I find that greater satisfaction.

Writing and recording is such a crafting and forging thing that can range from fairly quick to, more often, long and involved. This I don't mean to taint with an implication that long and involved is a negative, because that's often what I love about it.

Really getting in there and trying stuff out, layering, reworking, trashing altogether, starting over, etc. Like an oil painting ... you visualize this thing (sometimes!) before hand, you choose your colors, day after day you put down the undertones, and build up the details on top until your finally finished ... and along the way all sorts of unexpected things can happen.

Performing is all or nothing, a pure moment of whatever the music is, for better or worse. It's invigorating. It's cathartic. It's soothing. I don't know why it's that, but for me that's a good word to express sort of the core feeling I get when performing.

Are you going put together a formal tour in support of The Way It Was?

PdR: I am planning on touring as I can. A formal, extensive tour probably won't happen, but do plan on doing little sprints and getting on bigger tours and so forth, so who knows.

I will be opening for Jenny Lewis on some West Coast dates in late October. But don't get me wrong, if more good tour opportunities present themselves, I will certainly jump on them.

Is it more difficult to prepare for an extended period away from home as compared to earlier in your career?

PrD: I think it will be much easier now than then. When we first really started touring, it was just as my first little girl was born. And we were really in the grunt stage of touring, where we'd take whatever we could get and just hit the road for weeks and months at a time.

Being the only family guy in the band, it was much more difficult for me to justify that, aside from the ambition and team spirit we had to try to make something of ourselves.

So from a parental perspective, I would do everything I could to be home as much as I could in those times... flying home on weekends, trying to get schedules to have more time home between legs, (pre iChat, mind you) keep myself home on videos I would make of me talking and telling stories, all that.

Now, at least with my own record, I can be more picky about how long I get out there.

What is your perspective on the continued, and growing, success of Rilo Kiley? Has the band's success exceeded your expectations?

PdR: I don't think we ever really had specific expectations, it's always been a forge ahead and see what happens kind of thing. Of course, you can't escape speculating along the way, and I think we certainly did exceed the realistic possibilities of things.

It's so hard to actually get to a point where you can actually say you're supporting yourself playing music, we certainly dreamed of doing so as so many bands do, and actually achieving that is what I would put down as exceeding expectations.

What are the upcoming plans for the band; have you begun work on the next album?

PdR: Don't know right now a plan, we're all off in the solo world again. So, as last time, we'll go about that for a while and form a plan when when that winds down.

How did the process of writing and recording The Way It Was compare to past Rilo Kiley albums?

PdR: Well, obviously, this was a solo record so I did all the writing. And for much of it, I recorded and played the instruments myself. So it was more of that painting analogy, because it was more of a single painter type of thing. But it was great to have other folks play as well ... I'm glad I didn't try to do the whole thing myself.

You've had the opportunity to perform with a great number of noted artists throughout your career. With whom were you most excited to perform? Is there someone that you haven't worked with that you'd like the opportunity to?

PdR: I don’t know if we’ve had too extensive a list of guest performers, noted or otherwise, but do suppose we’ve had a fair share. It was certainly exciting to have Jackson Browne play on one of our songs, but we unfortunately didn’t get to track his part with him. Just because of scheduling, he tracked his part separately at his own studio after we’d pretty much finished.

But just playing with some bros that fall into that category is the most endearing to me… such as James Valentine and Mickey Madden, Conor Oberst, Matt Ward, Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch, and others.

One that was the most surreal, I suppose, was at our last, hometown show on a tour a few years ago, for an encore we had Debbie Gibson come out and sing “Lost In Your Eyes” where we backed her up!

What is the most bizarre incident that has occurred to you, or the band, while on tour?

PdR: Well, don’t know if this really could be chocked up as bizarre, but certainly was something … both because of what happened and because of the coincidence we found out about the next day.

A number of years back, we were getting near the final stretch of tour in our van, and it was one of the first times we ever enlisted a tour manager … basically a bro who took on a lot of the driving, merch selling and being the liaison at venues.

You survive these tours getting whatever money you make usually in cash from the venues and from selling merch, nervously accumulating it in a bag somehow, and then when the tour’s over you pay all your expenses (or recoup from expenses you’ve prepaid) and split up whatever little may be left over.

Anyway, our whole booty was in our tour manager’s (TM’s) [sic] backpack, which he kept with him at all times to keep it safe … sort of like a handcuffed attaché, minus the cuffs.

We stopped at a restaurant, had lunch, and about an hour or so down the road our TM asked for someone to grab something, a CD I think, out of his backpack. As we looked around it became clear it was not with us.

His face went white, all silent as we realized what happened.

We pessimistically turned the van around and headed back. I fished up a number for the Huddle House we were at and passed the phone to Jenny who, to avoid any riffling though it, pretended she was a student who left her ‘book bag’ at a booth and that we’re coming back for it. It had all been punctuated by a crazy rainstorm that we were now in. So a very quiet, anxiously sweaty drive, which took about an hour and a half.

When we got there, they had the pack! We were sure that in the time before the call they must have looked through it for ID or something … so expected it to be pillaged … though our TM swore that he’d hidden the cash at the bottom with other junk on top.

When we were back in the van we cracked it open, and like Charlie Bucket opening that Wonka Bar, we instantly saw gold, er, green. Everything was there!

Truly, we couldn’t believe it. But sighed a big sigh, and lesson learned. But ah, the coincidence.

The next day we got a call from Mike Mogis who told us a tale from the night before where Conor and the gang poured out of the doors of a club in Columbus, OH, and played some songs on top of, or around, their van. Some sort of semi-riot ensued. I forget the details, but people were slammed around, and they got the hell out of there.

But in the craziness, they left their bag of tour money!!! Somewhere, near the van. For them, they never saw the bag again. Luckily for them, not all of it was cash, as ours was … as they had a lot in checks from the venues.

But still, a significant amount, gone. Man, crazy! These two big, similar, unprecedented (at least among us) moments happened on the exact same day!

Having performed in bands since your high school days, what advice would you give young musicians just beginning their careers?

PdR: Cliché advice, really… very Nike… but just keep doing it. Do everything you’re thinking, make the demos, send the demos, make a record, play shows, book a tour, get your shit online, send to labels, release it yourself, write more new songs, whatever it is.

It’s okay to be discouraged if you can turn that into something constructive for yourself. Just don’t stop. It’s all very Darwinian, a mix between evolving and shear luck. The luck you have no control over, but the constant growing you do.

So keep on keepin’ on.

Is there a band or artist that you've discovered recently that you've recommended to your friends?

PdR: We recently had Benji Hughes open up for us, and he just released his debut album. Highly recommend.

To whom were you listening to in 1998?

PdR: Now you’re getting more specific! I was listening to a lot of Neil Young, Flaming Lips, Neutral Milk Hotel, Elliott Smith, Wilco, and others.

Who and where was your first concert?

PdR: Someone asked me this recently, and I’m not entirely sure. Think I might have include Tom Jones with my folks in Vegas when I was like eight. But think the first concert where I was dropped off at, was a Sunsplash reggae concert in San Diego when I was 14, and that was with Blake (Sennett). Had The Wailers, Pato Banton, and many others.

MP3, CD, Tape or Vinyl?

PdR: Most of the above… can’t say the last tape I played. At home, it’s been predominantly vinyl lately. In the car it’s iPod or cd (and good ol’ radio!).

One Drink. One Movie. One Album.

PdR: Vodka Martini … just a little dirty. Neil Young After The Goldrush

Editor's Note: For more from Pierre de Reeder, check out this interview out-take on the DeadJournalist.com (almost) daily blog: here