Song Exploder - The Decemberists - Once In My Life

Episode Date: September 5, 2018

The Decemberists are a Grammy-nominated five-piece band from Portland, Oregon. They released their first album in 2001, and since then they’ve put out seven more, including the 2018 album I’ll Be Your Girl. In this episode, singer and guitarist Colin Meloy breaks down The Decemberists’ song “Once In My Life," from his first demo, to the final tracks they recorded in the studio. songexploder.net/the-decemberists

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. The Decembrists are a Grammy-nominated five-piece band from Portland, Oregon. They released their first album in 2001, and since then, they've put out seven more, including the 2018 album, I'll Be Your Girl. In this episode, singer and guitarist Colin Maloy breaks down the December's song, Once in My Life, from his first demo to the final tracks they recorded in the studio. My name is Colin Malloy, and I play in the band The Decembrists. I was, you know, in one of those moments between songs, not really feeling great about stuff I was working on.

I felt blocked, frustrated, not really feeling like anything was coming. You know, you get to those moments like, I'll never write another song again, like I've tapped out. That's all I have in me. And often I'll find if I'm stuck, you remind yourself that you just need an in-breath. And an in-breath can be watching a movie, reading a book, going for a walk, you know, just somehow taking in rather than putting out.

So I decided I'd try to learn a Richard Thompson song, to try to receive something and see what it creates. It was Vincent Black Lightning. I loved the song, and I wanted to learn it. It's basically the story of like a motorcyclist who falls in love with this girl, red-haired Molly. but he's like an outlaw. Oh, says red money to James. That's a fine motorbike.

A girl could feel special on any such a like. It's a great song, but I just could not play the thing. It's kind of a finger-style thing and a weird tuning. So I spent most of the time just trying to figure out what the tuning was. And so instead of learning, the song, I just started strumming and moving my fingers around in this tuning, and the chord progression came out. This is just an iPhone recording.

It felt really cool to me, really ringing open chords, open strings, and then the chord changed it really simple. And then I just started singing along to it. But it's kind of nonsense, sort of embarrassing to listen to it. That what-of-I thing was the initial idea, then free association off of that once in my life came out the next time around. So I was really attached to the core progression, and then that melody line over the top. It felt like there was something there to work off of.

I think one of the best descriptions of songwriting is in Winnie the Pooh. And I discovered it reading it to my kid. He's making up a song, Winnie the Pooh does, and he's going along and it's got a full verse, and he gets stuck. And he tells himself, well, what if I just go back and start it again and maybe I'll trick myself into whatever word will come next? And then I'll have a song. And actually, it kind of rang a bell because I feel like that's how I tend to work. I'll just repeat something over and over until I find myself accidentally going into the next line.

You're the only obstacle, really. and often if you remove that obstacle, you'll land somewhere kind of interesting. I guess if you told me to sing once in my life, you know, as a prompt, I would say, oh, God, if something would just go right. So I tricked myself into singing once in my life, would something go right?

And in the in-between time, I had found that other chord in there and found what I consider to be the chorus to kind of finish out the complete idea. After having done that, I remember thinking, is this still a fragment? Does this song need a different chorus?

It's certainly lyrically the shortest thing I've ever written, but I felt like the over-the-topness of those three lines was enough to compel the whole thing forward. And in fact, the more I thought about it, the more interesting it was to have it be just that one singular sentiment. Any other words would just dilute it. I thought the interesting thing about it was its simplicity. Typically, I'll finish a song and I'll play it for Carson, my wife. She's always the first listener and my first editor and critic.

I remember playing it for her and being like, oh, for once in my life, could just something go right? Can I sing that? Does that make sense? I mean, look at me. I'm like a professional musician. Have two wonderful kids. I have my wife. I'm fairly happy. I feel like so many things have gone right for me. And I have so much gratitude for that. Where do I get off saying, oh, for once in my life, could something go right? Right. And we talked about it a little bit, and I still believe in the end, it's a universal enough feeling. I think it's something that everybody should, regardless of their situation, should give themselves license to really throw themselves into every once in a while. It's sort of gloriously self-indulgent in a really ham-handed way. But I also feel like it's genuine. I grew up on loving Morrissey.

and heaven knows I'm miserable now. I was looking for a job, and then I found a job, and heaven knows I'm miserable now. One of the greatest lyrics of all time. So the next step was making this song, which is basically three chords and two sentences into a song that felt like a journey took place,

that there was a beginning, a middle, and an end. So I played solo acoustic for every, everybody while we were on tour and we worked it out in sound check. There's a handful of songs on the record that we actually kind of, you know, road tested. And once in my life was one of them. It was really a puzzle, an exercise in creating build out of something where there is just one line, you know. So it was all about how the guitar starts, where the bass comes in. Each little level how it builds to its crescendo, peaks, draws back, and then comes back out.

As I was just playing it and playing it over and over trying to find the right sounds, it reminded me of this Yola Tango song called Barnaby Hardly Working, which is one of my favorite songs of all time. So we were playing it live, and I felt moved one night to sing the last two lines of Barnaby Hardly Working, lays down by the river, face down by the river. I thought it was an interesting coda. The arrangement we had done in the live version was very kind of folk rock. And it felt like it was cool, but it also was following patterns that I felt like we had gone to over and over again.

Sort of starts at the strumming guitar, build with bass and drums, B3 Hammond, and then like ripping guitar, which is all well and good. And, you know, it's something we could have continued on. And I'm sure some people may have preferred that. But I think at that point, that felt... a little tired to us, so I knew we needed to try something different. And I figured working with a different producer and working in a different studio was the way to go.

And so a guy named John Congleton produced this record. And we recorded this at a studio called Halfling. A guy from Nike skateboarding, this guy, Sandy Bodekar, took this old warehouse that was in northwest Portland and turned it into this amazing, massive, multi-use art space. And one of the parts of that was a studio. This place also has, like, an event space.

It has an indoor skate bowl. And actually, the drums on this song are beautifully spacious, and they were recorded in the skate bowl. We set up the drums inside the skate bowl and then miced it. The phaser, that's all John Congleton. He does a lot of sneaky things, I think, in the mix.

A lot of, like, flange and phase and distortion that he threw in there. that's not really common for us in our mixes. So it was kind of novel and neat to hear it. The other members of the Decemberists are Jenny Conley, Nate Query, Chris Funk, and John Mowen. And so Jenny had brought in some synthesizers. And I just remember walking into the main room, and Jenny was going through patches and seeing what would stick,

and she hit this sort of obliterative synth pad. And we all just went, yes, that's it. I think there's something really sweetly, sort of nostalgic about it. I mean, wholeheartedly, admittedly, like kind of John Hughes movie. And it was sort of like, wow, do we really want to do that? We haven't done that before. But that matched with the sentiment of the song, it just seemed appropriate. And I feel like we had created this environment where we had licensed to really try some different things.

And that was certainly one of them. So at that point, we were taking. that tack and it was clear that was the direction, like a ripping Chris Fon guitar solo did not make remotely any sense anymore. And so he searching around for something landed on this choracy guitar, which fit in really nicely with the synth.

Yeah, so that's a baritone guitar. That was Jenny's idea because the only thing that's doing anything melodic is the synth, and it needed a baritone guitar. And it needed some more melodic information, and a baritone guitar felt like the right timbre to do that. That's Nora singing backing vocals. Could just something go, could just something go right?

We have two background singers. They've been with us the last couple of records. That's Kelly Hogan and Nora O'Connor. That was a really deliberate part of the bill, like when those backing vocals should come in. when the three part should come in. I've been waiting. And then they break away and start just repeating the phrase.

And so all of a sudden, you get kind of a new lease a little bit on that idea. It then breaks apart and all of a sudden that line becomes a refrain, and then I'm sort of extemporizing over it. Oh, for once in my life, could just something go right? I honestly do think when you feel that way, It is all encompassing. That feeling can erase everything else. To feel that put upon,

even if you realize you're blowing things way out of proportion, I think it's okay to do that, you know? There's something therapeutic about the celebration of feeling that sorry for yourself. And as somebody who tends to do that, sometimes I need to be able to celebrate it. Here's Once in My Life by the Decemberists in its entirety. Once in my, oh, for once in my life.

Could just something go, could just something go right? Once in my, oh for once in my life, could just something go, could just something go right? I've been way, I've been weighed. Visit songexplor.net to learn more about the Decemberists and for a link to buy or stream this song. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th. It's been about 15 years since I last put out of full length. And this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishikesh Her Way.

I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists, and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast,

like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Robe. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzukas, Josh Molina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more.

They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In The Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website. Rishikash.co. Or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. Next time on Song Exploder, Blood Orange. This episode was produced and edited by me, along with Christian Coons, with help from Olivia Wood and Nick Song. The illustration for this episode was done by Carlos Lerma. You can see that on the Song Exploder website too. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a collective of fiercely independent podcasts.

You can learn about all of our shows at Radiotopia.fm. I'd love to know your thoughts on this episode. You can find Song Exploder on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Song Exploder. My name is Rishi Keish Heirwe. Thanks for listening.