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
bush current decisions foreign objective policy protest resemble showing taken
It's kind of a protest song. My objective is to make sense of foreign policy decisions taken by the current Bush administration and showing how they resemble solipsistic bullying.
brings edwardian kurt mind nick pan pop pub roaring rock tin victorian
Meloy's balladry brings to mind vaudeville, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, 'Sweeney Todd,' the Victorian and Edwardian eras, Kurt Weill and Nick Cave, 1960s psychedelic rock pop and roaring pub sing-alongs.
style upbeat pops
Pop music has always adopted the style of marrying upbeat melodies to dour lyrics.
song thinking should
I think the music should definitely underscore the sentiment of the song, and it can work for or against it.
baby kids littles
One thing about hanging out with a baby is that you can remember a little bit better what it was like to be a kid, and all the mystery that came along with it.
people hustle attention
When everybody is playing at the same level, there's so much more noise. And there's less incentive for the people who should be rising above that noise to take time and invest in what they're doing. It just becomes about hustling and grabbing attention.
expectations people buying
When you get respect from the people who are buying your music and coming to your shows, there's an expectation that you have to live up to your own standards.
facts resources has-beens
It's hard for us to talk about how we disdain file-sharing when in fact it probably has been a great resource for us.
people lines want
I pretty much draw the line when people want you to do original music for commercials.
song nice relief
It was a nice relief to be able to work on individual songs.
thinking order mainstream-culture
I have a conflicted relationship with musicals, because I think the music itself can be so horrendous. It's an industry that relies on appealing to a mainstream culture in order to survive.
wine writing iron
If Broadway musicals were as popular as they were in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, then people like Sufjan Stevens and Iron & Wine would be writing for Broadway, which would be amazing. As it stands, it's the worst stuff that's mired in pop music.
song guitar hunters
The jam stuff doesn't appeal to me in general. My newfound love for the Dead came from Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia's songwriting, not the elaborate guitar solos. I'm a song person. Once it starts to break out of that structure and become loopy, it's uninteresting to me.
wish dip baritones
I wish I had a better range, but I really have a super-limited one. Barely a tenor, dips into baritone - that's about it.