Pop is a dirty word among music fans these days. There exists a chasm between the assembly line creations of the top 40 market and the layers of irony and hype that surrounds much of the indie world. The Shins have chosen to bridge the gap, making music that is at the same time listenable and meaningful.

The music of The Shins is superbly balanced, blending well crafted rhythm and melody with the beautiful poetic lyrics of lead singer James Mercer. I had an opportunity to speak to Mercer about his recent activities with the group, hot off the release of Chutes Too Narrow and preparing for a tour of North American cities. The Shins has been around in some form for many years, beginning with the band Flake in 1992, and evolving finally into their current form in 1997.

CordMag questions in blue. Artist responses in grey.

First off, why The Shins, rather than say The Knees, or The Calves?

Well I was going through a ton of names and I just loved the idea of The Shins, it's just so nonsensical. One of my favorite bands is My Bloody Valentine, but I just think the name is terrible. Bands shouldn't have names that try to mean something.

You've been with the same group of musicians for many years, do you think that The Shins is a natural development of your earlier work, like Flake for instance?

Yeah I guess it is, it's a collaborative effort. I wanted to start out my own side project. I wanted to do songs that weren't working when I was doing Flake. Flake was a power pop sort of thing, and it was a really strange contrast to be doing something with these loud distorted guitars, almost a Weezer type song, and then go into the type of thing The Shins are doing, which is really pop-y, sort of traditional jangly stuff. It doesn't work together; what I wanted to do wasn't working with Flake, so I pretty much had to start a side project. And then Flake broke up, so this became my main deal.

If you had the opportunity to skip any of your years of musical development, would you skip straight into The Shins now?

No, because I learned a lot about how to play the guitar; I learned about song structure, drinking beer…

What would you think if Top 40 radio picked up Chutes Too Narrow, and started to play it between 50 Cent, say, and Britney Spears?

I'd think we were going to make a lot of money. Is there any example of such a thing ever happening? I mean maybe back at one time…

Well The Beatles, for instance, played pop music, and it was brilliant. Do you think pop music still has something to say to people in the mainstream?

I don't know, there's so much of a dip. Clay Aiken, I mean what the fuck?!? Britney Spears is actually easier to understand: a young, attractive girl who has talented writers, and she can dance.

Do you have any big fantasies for the future of the band, world conquest, maybe a Beatlemania type, Shinsmania?

I know my fantasy is to be able to tour a lot less, have more of a normal life.

So are you on the road right now?

We're in the middle of one week off. We have begun to tour Europe, so that's added a whole new dimension.

How do you find the scene in Europe as compared to North America?

Well, we're new there; we're a small band. We did really well, we sold out venues, and we're getting a fair amount of radio play.

So how does the creative process in the group work? How do the songs go through development?

Well I usually sit in my room and play acoustic guitar, try out different melodies and chord structures, and come up with song ideas. I flush out a song and bring it to the band, and they come up with their own parts. Finally I write out the lyrics to it.

Do you have any unique instruments or effects that help form your overall sound?

-I have this old Silvertone Jupiter guitar, and we have keyboards - cheap keyboards.

Do you have any brand new music you'd like to recommend to music fans out there?

-There's a band called Triangle, and I believe they're going to be on the newly reforming Fiction Records. They're from Oakland, California.

Elsewhere

By Ryan Ince
Photos : SubPop/Brian Tamborello
Published : May 23, 2004.