Colin Meloy
Colin Meloy
Colin Patrick Henry Meloyis an American musician, singer-songwriter and author best known as the frontman of the Portland, Oregon, indie folk rock band The Decemberists. In addition to vocals, he performs with an acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bouzouki, harmonica and percussion instruments...
ProfessionFolk Singer
Date of Birth5 October 1974
CityHelena, MT
rocks stuff records
You can't really come into a concept record objectively, because you immediately associate it with Yes, stuff from the 1970s that punk rock kicked against, the pretentiousness.
stuff novel contemporary
I like all sorts of things, not necessarily just Victorian. Even though I tend to read a lot of Victorian novels, I like a lot of contemporary stuff.
church sound fantastic
All instruments sound fantastic in a church.
saint nancy benediction
As she walked, she breathed a quick benediction to the patron saint of sleuthing. "Nancy Drew," she whispered, "be with me now.
book school average
I was in school for literature, and read so many 19th century and early 20th century novels that it was hard to break out of that and read an average Jeanette Winterson book or something.
home heart trying
And I am a writer, writer of fictions I am the heart that you call home And I've written pages upon pages Trying to rid you from my bones...
mother war father
My mother was a Chinese trapeze artist in pre-war Paris Smuggling bombs for the underground. And she met my father at a fete in Aix-en-Provence; He was disguised as a Russian cadet in the employ of the Axis.
teenage want unrequited
No-one wants to hear anything spoken in earnest anymore, unless it happens to involve unrequited, teenage love.
war thinking band
Living in war, and being a wartime band, I don't think there's any way that can't somehow influence the songwriting.
people lines draws
There's some things there that you just have to draw the line. Some people are just not going to like it. We would hope that everybody would like it.
song hurt writing
When I first started writing these kind of songs that would eventually become Decemberists songs, I was writing them because I knew that nobody was listening at the time and that it wouldn't hurt to challenge myself and get weirder and see if I could alienate more people
attitude college people
I don't feel like we're setting ourselves up to be exclusive. I don't want to set up an attitude where we're telling people 'You can't listen to our music if you don't have a college degree.
race expectations should
Music has been already devalued by the consumer. There's an expectation that it should be free so the race to the bottom has already been won.
world share fragile
It is better to live presently. By living thus, perhaps we can learn to understand the nature of this fragile coexistence we share with the world around us.