Pitchfork

He may have just hit us with a massive, vinyl-supplemented photo tome, a reissue of an essential album, and a new EP in the past year, but is Phil Elverum slowing down for even a minute? Heck no. The Mount Eerie/Microphones mastermind has more projects in the works than one reasonably-sized paragraph can contain, so we phoned Phil up for a little chat about these recent goings-on, working with one of his idols, and adventures in "smart-ass" nomenclature.

First on the Mount Eerie docket is a new collaborative offering with Julie Doiron and guitarist/Doiron bandmate Fred Squire entitled Lost Wisdom. Phil's own P.W. Elverum & Sun imprint will release the 10-track disc on October 7.

As it turns out, Elverum considers Doiron something of an idol. "I've been a huge fan of [Julie's] music for many years, 'cause she played in Eric's Trip and that's my favorite band, ever. I mean, they're kind of the reason why I got into playing music."

The record was born of pure serendipity, as Doiron and Squire found themselves in Phil's hometown of Anacortes, Washington for a few days in between a recent tour and a recording session in Olympia. Elverum suggested they bide the time with a little recording.

"The trick was that I really wanted to have Julie sing on my songs. I mean, it's like a dream come true, but I thought it was a little presumptuous to ask. But eventually they were both like, 'No, seriously. We want to do this. Let's try and do a whole album.'"

As for the resulting disc, "[it's] pretty simple," explains Elverum. "We didn't do much overdubbing. And it has a feeling kind of unlike my usual albums, which are really produced-- I don't mean produced in a glossy way, I mean with a lot of weird stuff happening. This one, you can tell that it was a documentary of a session. The songs all have the feel like, 'Oh, it was just one time in this room, they sat down and did it.' It feels really live."

Lost Wisdom is comprised entirely of Elverum's songs, including two brand new ones and a number the singer has been toting around for a while. Says Phil, "[Doiron and I] harmonize most of the time. There are a couple of songs that I don't sing at all-- just Julie sings the whole thing, which is awesome to me, you know? 'Cause it's a song that I wrote that I've been singing for years. To put it on my record, and then to hear her, this voice I've listened to for so long, singing my song-- it's an amazing feeling. I really like her music."

As for what specifically about Julie's singing gets to Phil, he says, "It's a tricky thing to describe, the quality of somebody's singing voice. But she has a voice that is really unique and I guess it always sounds really sad, authentically sad. You know what I mean? Some people can try and sound sad, but when she sings, it sounds sad and beautiful at the same time."



Elverum has played a few shows with Doiron already, and the two plan to tour with Squire in tow come fall. Mount Eerie has plenty of live dates in store before then, however-- including a run of recently announced shows with Why?-- and, naturally, plenty more releases in queue following Lost Wisdom.

First up is Dawn, which will be released as both a journal/CD combo (via Buenaventura Press) on November 1 and as a vinyl-only offering via P.W. Elverum "probably right around" November 1. The journal documents time Elverum spent in a remote part of Norway in 2002 and 2003. As he describes it, "The actual content of my days was pretty empty. There's no one around, I lived in this cabin, and I just kind of wandered around the place and talked to myself. So most of the journal is me observing the place and describing it, and just kinda going weirdly deep inside my own mind, talking about the books I'm reading and how it relates to this, and that idea versus this idea. It's hard to describe, but the few people who have read it have said that it's interesting."

The accompanying CD (and separate vinyl release) collects songs Phil composed during his Norwegian sojourn. And, as it happens, Elverum will return to the area this November to play the Bodø Hardcore Festival.

Mount Eerie at a hardcore fest? As Phil tells it, "When I lived there, it was mostly hardcore. It's just what they have up there. It's really far north. There was one reggae band, and there was one kid in town who liked Sonic Youth [laughs], but that was about it."

Elverum isn't too worried about playing for an atypical audience, though. "I've played there before, just getting a pick-up band together-- these amazing, young hardcore musicians, having them try and go along with my songs."

Norway also happens to be where Elverum-- Phil Elvrum by birth-- first employed his surname switcheroo.

"The extra 'e' is the old spelling, like the Norwegian spelling. The family name comes from Norway, but during immigration it got changed. One of the 'e's got removed, which is common; a lot of people's names got messed up along the way. But when I was [in Norway], I just was filling out some paperwork or something and to avoid having to explain myself, I just started writing it the Norwegian way and liked how it looked. And I thought it would be kind of a smart-ass thing to do, to start writing it that way. Kind of like Kurt Cobain, writing his name all kinds of weird ways.

"It's not legal or anything. I still can't cash checks written to that [name], but I guess I just like messing with names. It was [the reason for] changing the band name to Mount Eerie, and then also putting out a record of the Microphones. It's a way of teasing people. Names are kind of funny and absurd."

Like Lost Wisdom and Dawn, however, Elverum's subsequent couple releases will retain the Mount Eerie name. The Black Wooden EP-- not to be confused with the recent Black Wooden Ceiling Opening EP-- will arrive this August on Southern as part of the label's Latitudes series of sessions recorded at the legendary Southern Studios in London.

The EP marks another foray into the "black wooden" genre that Phil dreamt up a short while back. "Black wooden [was] this idea of this new genre that was based on the idea of black metal, but more organic. You know, like, wood instead of metal? More wholesome, a little bit. But I kind of gave up on the idea because I realized that genres are stupid."

After Black Wooden, we can look forward to the next "proper" album from Mount Eerie. Titled Wind's Poem, it would seem to continue the elemental metaphors Elverum explored on such Microphones records as Don't Wake Me Up and It Was Hot, So We Stayed in the Water. Elverum's about halfway done with it, though he doesn't anticipate putting it out until spring of next year.

"The songs are mostly about wind and what wind has to say," Phil explains. "Wind as a destructive force. Winds of change, and destroying winds. I don't know. I keep coming back to this metaphor of the sound of wind through the trees, and hearing words if you keep listening close enough, and hearing it speaking...That's kind of the vibe."

For those wondering, Phil's not doing the Captain Planet thing on purpose. "It's not intentionally an element. It's more like I can't stop talking about wind!"

So-- ahem-- is being pegged as too prolific and flooding the marketplace a concern of Phil's? "At this point it is, a little bit. That's why I'm waiting until next spring to put out Wind's Poem, because I could probably put it out soon if I wanted to, but I want to focus on it a little bit more. I don't want it to be like, 'Oh God, another Mount Eerie thing! He just came out with three albums.'

"So I'm a little hesitant-- but at the same time, you know what? I'm not that worried about it."

Lost Wisdom:

01 Lost Wisdom
02 Voice in Headphones
03 You Swan Go On
04 Who?
05 Flaming Home
06 What?
07 If We Knew...
08 With My Hands Out
09 O My Heart
10 Grave Robbers

Dawn:

01 It Wasn't the Hunting
02 Cold Mountain
03 Moon Sequel
04 I Have Been Told That My Skin Is Exceptionally Smooth
05 I Say "No"
06 Moon, I Already Know
07 With My Hands Out
08 A Show of Hands
09 Woolly Mammoth's Mighty Absence
10 My Burning
11 Great Ghosts
12 Climb Over
13 We Squirm
14 Voice in Headphones
15 Who?
16 Dead of Night
17 See Me
18 Log in the Waves
19 Goodbye Hope

Black Wooden EP:

01 Black Wooden
02 The Bottomless Pit
03 If We Knew...
04 Appetite
05 Marriage
06 Mount Eerie Revealed (version)

Mount Eerie:

07-18 Anacortes, WA - City Hall (What the Heck Fest)
08-15 Seattle, WA - Vera Project *
09-03 Boise, ID - TBA
09-04 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
09-07 Marfa, TX - TBA
09-08 Austin, TX - Mohawk #
09-09 Dallas, TX - Granada Theater #
09-11 Pensacola, FL - Sluggo's #
09-12 Gainesville, FL - Common Grounds #
09-13 Miami, FL - White Room #
09-14 Orlando, FL - The Social #
09-16 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle #
09-17 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church #
09-18 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom #
09-20 Northampton, MA - Iron Horse ^
10-02 Sydney, Australia - TBA
10-03 Newcastle, Australia - Sound Summit Festival
10-04 Sydney, Australia - Great Escape Festival
10-05 Brisbane, Australia - TBA
10-06 Melbourne, Australia - TBA
10-07 Melbourne, Australia - TBA
11-15 Castellón, Spain - Tanned Tin Festival
11-21-22 Bodø, Norway - Bodø Hardcore Fest

* with Karl Blau, Madeline, Your Heart Breaks
# with Why?
^ with Julie Doiron