New years are ripe for new goals and resolutions. It’s also the perfect time to sift through your music collection and pick out the tunes that’ll begin to define your year. But most importantly, or what I perceive to be the most exciting, is the discovery of new music. Therefore, for 2011, add local Chicago six-piece Canasta to your required listening. That is if you haven’t already been completely entranced by their impeccable songwriting (Canasta member Matt Priest speak about this process in our interview following) and creative instrumentation.

Priest was nice enough to speak with us regarding CMJ, his thoughts on Chicago, and the extremely cool songwriting method Canasta employs. Here’s part 1.

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TM: How was CMJ for you guys?

Matt Priest: Everything about it was great, but we actually didn’t get a lot of CMJ-ness. We had a show in Illinois the night before our gig in New York, so we actually drove straight from the end of our gig at 10pm, in the north suburbs of Chicago, and pulled into New York at, like, 1pm the next day.

TM: Wow.

MP: And we were playing on the last day, like Saturday night. So, in the past we’ve gotten there earlier and we’ve actually gone to see shows. And I play in some other bands and we’d play a little showcase at CMJ headquarters (in between panels they have bands play and stuff), and you know, go get your bag full of free stuff and all that.

And we didn’t really get to do any of that, but the show itself was great. It was awesome. You know, I’m not sure it was a career-forwarding show like they try and sort of, like, pitch CMJ to be, I just think it was a cool New York show. We had a blast and all of our friends came out and stuff.

And then we got to hang out. We stayed like a day and a half in New York, and we had two band members who had never been there before, and for them it was like, “Wow, New York City”, like, it made everything exciting again for those of us who had been there fifteen times, you know.

TM: So do you guys like New York? Do you like playing shows there?

MP: We do. The CMJ shows never pay and I would say, as a rule, the New York audiences don’t buy a whole lot of merch. So, we’re never making much money when we go there. But, we’ve always had a nice response and we know a ton of people there. And I don’t think we’ve ever played a show to an, empty, not happening room. It’s always been at least a pretty good show, if not a great show in that regard. So yeah, it’s always fun for sure.

TM: Do you feel it’s beneficial for your guys’ career, or is it more of a biz thing for industry people?

MP: Yeah, I know what you mean. In the case of both CMJ and South By Southwest, and this is just sort of what it seems like to me - I used to book a club here in Chicago and stuff and I paid a lot of attention to this kind of stuff - and it seems maybe five years ago or something, or maybe a even a little longer, you really could be a band going there without a whole lot of a reputation and you might sort of hope to play for some important people that do booking, or management, or PR, or licensing, or whatever – and unfortunately, the Pitchfork phenomenon, there are so many small bands that now have at least a little bit of biz from getting a Pitchfork track posting, or a record review, or even just a news item or whatever – and it seems like most of the people that I talked to who are in the “industry”, at CMJ or SXSW, already had their schedules filled up going to see bands of that nature, and yet most of those bands already have management, PR, representation, they’re booked by Kork Agency or booked by Windish or whatever.

It seems like the days of going there as an actual independent band that really doesn’t have anybody helping you out and really could use playing for some people – I don’t know, it doesn’t seem like that’s much of an option these days. So, in that sense, I don’t know if you get a whole lot out of it.. We haven’t for a few years.

But I love reading Pitchfork. I think Pitchfork is in it for the right reasons – I think they love music and love the right bands and stuff. But for whatever reason, they just cover so many. And they sort of have it cornered, they’ve got the market cornered. If you’re not one of the 300 bands Pitchfork has introduced in the past month, good luck building a buzz on your own and going around them. I don’t think it’s what they set out to do, so I don’t blame them.

TM: Yeah, it’s pretty true. They have a lot of control over a career. Back to Chicago, how do you feel about the Chicago scene? Do you prefer it to, say, the New York scene?

MP: You know, we get asked that a lot. I know what I think about the Chicago scene, but since I’ve never really played in a band in New York or LA I’ve kind of just been going based on what I’ve heard. But like it seems… the Chicago scene seems a little less competitive, a little less cutthroat. It seems that there’s a little more generosity as far as bands playing with each other, helping each other out, playing on each other’s records and that sort of thing (and a little less cutthroat). And I guess, you know, this is a stereotype; but I think it’s a little less about image and about edginess or whatever, and a little bit more about hard work - blue collar, ethics, that sort of thing. It’s a stereotype, but it’s true to some degree. I don’t know too many bands who spend as much time on their image as they do on practicing, and flyering, and postering, and like, just getting out their and doing it. And I think maybe that’s in part because everyone in Chicago knows that, unlike New York or LA, it doesn’t feel like, or any show you play, you might be playing for that person who’s going to discover you. It doesn’t feel like that. So, it feels like people put on a little less of a facade. Like, people aren’t always on-guard and thinking they are about to have their magic moment. People are a little more chill about it, I guess or something.

TM: Yeah, I saw a few of those bands in New York when I was there for CMJ. The presentation was so much more than the music itself, which was interesting.

MP: There are so many good bands in New York and in LA and so forth, and you can go to any one of those cities and go to ten great shows in a weekend. So I don’t mean it for one second to make it sound like Chicago’s got more quality going on or whatever, but it just seems like the average band here maybe puts a little more emphasis on working hard on the craft of being a musician as opposed to the lifestyle, maybe? Or whatever is supposed to come along with it. But again, it’s mostly stereotypes. I haven’t really played in a band in those places. It’s just kind of what it seems like and that’s what I hear, you know?

TM: Yeah, for sure.

MP: I do love the Chicago scene though. It’s awesome. It’s super supportive. And even though it’s a slightly smaller city than those places, it’s not like you’re ever going to run out of cool bands to see or listen to. I mean, it’s endless as far as a music fan goes.

TM: Did you guys all grow up in Chicago?

MP: No, I think there were earlier incarnations of the band that were more Chicago-heavy. Now, currently, let me think… shit, I’m the only person. I grew up in the burbs of Chicago and I think I’m the only person who did. One guy is from Nashville; there are two people from northwest Indiana (which is obviously pretty close by), and then one’s from Seattle, and one’s from El Paso.

TM: Wow, how did you all come together?

MP: When we first started the band, it was more like me and friends of mine – and so it was people from the Midwest and stuff. And then, after the folks that weren’t that serious kind of, you know, left the band over the years we ended up putting ads out and stuff on Craigslist looking for serious musicians. And that’s a result of that; we ended up getting people from all over the country, like, specifically to do that.

So, we’ve got a real fantastic,serious six-piece right now. It’s pretty cool.

TM: Do you prefer to play local shows in Chicago, or do you prefer to play out-of-town shows and tour?

MP: Good question. Being on the road - there’s lots of bonding time and lots of inside jokes and it’s a lot o f fun, but it’s also lots of sleeping on the floor lots of real long drives. Generally speaking, the road is like a whole bunch of downtime and then for that hour or so where you’re up in front of people, especially in front of, what’s in a lot of cases, like, strangers and stuff, it’s pretty invigorating.

So, I would say that Chicago is more even-keeled, and it’s always fun, and it’s a little less pressure. And on the road, it’s a little more downtime-downtime-downtime and all of sudden, “oh man!”, you’re up on stage in front of people – they have no idea who you are – and it’s a real challenge; you got to make sure you bring them in and keep them sitting. It feels bipolar or something. It’s a little more exciting, I guess, on the road, but there’s something really comforting and rewarding about playing Chicago and playing with people you know and love. So, maybe a little more rewarding in that sense, but the road is little more exciting or something?

TM: Do you guys tour pretty heavily, or do you stay close to home?

MP: We do a lot of playing throughout the Midwest on weekends and so forth, but as far as really touring, like a week of dates in a row – getting out the east coast and so forth, it’s pretty rare. If it was up to me, we would have done it a lot more. But it seems like with the six-piece, we always have at least one member of the band who wasn’t quite as into it as everybody else and didn’t want to take the time off of work. So, we’ve always kind of been hindered. Right now is the first time we’ve had six people that are all super serious about really doing it, so we’re in the midst of planning shows currently for late January/February and we’re hoping to be gone for a couple weeks.

But yeah, the Midwest has definitely seen plenty of Canasta; but beyond that, it’s been pretty sporadic – not as much as I’d like to. We’ve never been to the West Coast – it’s like we’ve been to South By Southwest, but we’ve never really been West of there. Obviously, it gets expensive, and the drives are real long between cities, and we haven’t made that move yet. I hope to sometime though.

TM: Awesome. Tell me a little about the writing process for the band. Is it mostly one person writing, or is it more collaborative?

MP: It’s pretty unusual. It’s definitely not one person writing. Since the beginning of the band, there’s only two of us that have been there – that are sort of constant, myself and Elizabeth, the violinist – everybody else has been a bit of a rotating cast. For whatever reason, we’ve always sort of thrived on a really super collaborative and democratic process. And so, somebody will write a riff or some chords or something and bring it to the band. Or sometimes it will even just start with a conversation, like, “Hey, let’s try and write a sort of song we have haven’t tried yet”. Or, what’s a good mood or a good sort of feel that we haven’t really explored yet and we’ll just start from there. And then the entire band literally writes it all together. And so, a lot of times you get a guitar player writing violin parts, you get me writing drum parts. At the end of the day, I think it’s a little part of the reason that, even though we love orchestral indie-pop bands, that we don’t necessarily sound exactly like Belle and Sebastion or The Decemberists or whatever because we have a lot of people writing parts for other instruments and not their own.

And then when you’re done, everybody’s invested in, like, every part. And everyone feels like they were part of the writing process, so there’s a lot of ownership there – it’s really cool. But it’s a super, super long process – it can be years between albums[laughs]. I write all the lyrics, but everything else, all the music takes place all in the room, all in the practice space.

TM: Since you write the lyrics, do you wait for the music to be done and then add the lyrics, or are you kind of adding lyrics as you go? How does that happen?

MP: That’s another weird thing – the lyrics always get added last. In fact, we write the vocal melodies first, and that will sort of be gibberish or vocal scat singing or whatever, and I’ll sort of use that as a launch pad. Like, “What does it sound like I’m saying there?”, and then I’ll kind of come up with something and be like, “That’s interesting, what could that song be about?”

So, we always kind of put the lyrics in last, and it just always worked like that. Sometimes in the studio I’m writing them just before I go up and sing them, which is kind of weird. It can be stressful too, but that’s often how it is. We’ve even played songs live where the lyrics weren’t entirely done, but the band was excited to play it because everything else was written.

We try not to do that too often, but it happens.

TM: So how fast does a song typically come together if you’re all writing parts pretty equally? Do you just kind of sit down and no one leaves until its done, or is it more like a long, drawn-out process?

MP: It’s more long and drawn-out. We definitely stick around at rehearsal until a good chunk of something has gotten done. I’m really big on not leaving until it has sort of felt like we’ve accomplished something with the song. But sometimes that’s as small as like, “Okay, well now we know what the structure is”, “Now we know how long the bridge is, and how long the outro is”.

I mean, a few songs have come together quickly over the course of maybe a few rehearsals. But some songs, literally, on this new LP got kicked around for a year and a half – where they were, like, eighty percent done for a year – and then it wasn’t until we dug it up again and were like, “Okay, let’s really sit down and finish the solo section, and we’ll just figure out what the chords sound like”.

It’s a very long process, but we’ve had, again, such a rotating cast of people in the band it’s really… it’d probably disingenuous of me to sort of make it sound like it’s going to be the same again. Like, we’ve got three new people in the band since this album came out and I’m assuming the writing process will have some similarities to before, but I don’t know, it could be really different with three new people – I’m assuming they’ll bring a lot of stuff to the table. 

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Stay tune for part II tomorrow!

Canasta Official | MySpace

-Sam McAllister | sam@tandemshoprecords.com