The Builders and the Butchers – Citizen Dick Interview

The Builders and the Butchers’ recently recently released sophomore long player, Salvation is a Deep Dark Well has been churning through the Citizen Dick stereo since it’s release.  We’ve been sitting on a critical comment, hoping that we had an interview up our sleeve.  We recently had the opportunity to chat with the group’s frontman, Ryan Sollee about the record, things of  influence and, briefly, the universe.  The record is packed with Gothic narratives, soaring multiple part harmonies and big emotional crescendos.  It’s worth checking out.  (Editor’s note: We went with footnotes on this one because they made sense and we just learned the code for them.  We think they’re both clever and useful, but if they’re distracting, feel free to ignore them.)

Citizen Dick: The record’s got an expansive, dramatic sound.  With that, there’s a distinct warmth.  Put simply, it’s good.  Are you happy with how it turned out?  Does it sound like it sounded in your brain?

Ryan Sollee: Overall I guess so, so much time has past since we recorded it to when it came out that I found myself stuck in a lot of second guessing traps, but overall I am proud of the record. The record is much more musically wide in scope than I had expected, that had a lot to do with working with Chris Funk, Adam Seltzer and Tucker Martine who did amazing work for us.

CD: Your website describes a youth in punk and then a left turn into Americana.  There’s an obvious connection there to, say, The Pogues who pulled the same trick with Gaelic folk.  I don’t, however, hear the sneer in your record that I do in something like Rum, Sodomy and the Lash.  How do your influences filter into a unified whole?

RS: For me influences for this band come from a lot of old American music, like Leadbelly and Son House¹, but I’ve always been into story song writers like Johnny Cash or Tom Waits.  That being said all of the musicians in the band come from a much different place musically from me, and nobody is trained or formally taught on the instruments they are playing.  So the sound comes from five different filters attempting to play old American sounding music and fucking it up, but hopefully in a good way.

CD: There’s twin lyrical trend on the record, with a lot of images that explicitly reference color (“Golden and Green,” “Barcelona”) and a lot of old-timey hellfire and brimstone, devil and damnation stuff.  Do these almost overtly literary flourishes happen organically or do you work to get them in there?

RS: I’m pretty guilty of getting stuck on a certain few topics for a while, so the images find their way into the songs pretty naturally.  Most of the songs on the first record had something to do with water.  I had to stop writing about that, so naturally I moved to hell and the devil.

CD: We’d argue that the record shares a bit of tonal, thematic and sonic quality with The Decemberists’ early work.  Is that the result of Chris Funk’s production, an already extant streak in the band or some sort of magical Portland effect?

RS: think it could be a bit of all three, it’s hard to escape your surroundings, and I think the Decemberists are a pretty amazing band, however there a many local Portland bands which I’d name as direct influences before the Decemberists.  I think the biggest effect of Portland on us the fact that there are so many acoustically based bands that are doing vastly different things with traditional folk instruments.

CD: The description of the development of your live act is fascinating. We’re looking forward to your Cleveland date.  Can you still swing as much outlandish stuff indoors?

RS: It really depends on the show, as to what will happen we really just try to feel a room and an audience to see if one thing or another will work.  That being said, growing up seeing truly outlandish bands like the Jesus Lizard² or Fugazi play, what we do seems pretty mellow.

CD: Anything else for the good of the order?  Something whimsical?  Some snippet of Oregonian slang we can pass along?

RS: You should be listening to Pancake Breakfast.³

Big thanks to Ryan for taking the time to throw some thoughts at us.  If you’ve not yet put your ears on Salvation is a Deep Dark Well, the two tracks below are going to make you sprint to the record store.  “Golden and Green” is a bit more typical of the album’s overall sound, but the Latin vibe and shouted chorus of “Barcelona” hit exactly the right note.

“Golden and Green” – The Builders and the Butchers

“Barcelona” – The Builders and the Butchers

As an added bonus, we’ve got some sweet video to get you super stoked for The Builders and the Butchers upcoming appearance at the Beachland.  (They’re all over the place if you’re not a Clevelander.)  Loyal readers will not a distinct similarity between this video and some stuff we’ve posted from Megafaun.  Suffice it to say, we’re excited.

Snag The Builders and the Butchers at insound.