Silversun Pickups: Gonna Make You Swoon

Although still paying dues on these shores, LA’s <b>Silversun Pickups</b> are becoming a big name in their home country. Nikki Monninger tells <b>Darren Carle</b> they're all the happier for it.

Feature by Darren Carle | 26 Jun 2009

There’s always a story behind an album title. Whether it’s a good one or not is a different matter. With Los Angeles’ Silversun Pickups, the naming of their latest offering is at least worthy of note. Walking into the first rehearsal sessions, singer Brian Aubert apparently scrawled ‘Swoon?’ with a permanent marker onto a dry-board in the studio. Bassist Nikki Monninger is still unable to illuminate what inspired Aubert to do this, though she's confident it shaped the resultant album. “It just kind of stuck as something that worked,” she explains from her LA home. “It helped how things went from then on.”

And so, from a flippant scribble, the quartet eventually forged their sophomore album, titled, if you haven’t already guessed, Swoon. The big direction change for the group, and the one that perhaps best exemplifies the title, is the lush orchestral arrangements throughout. Whether it’s Catch and Release’s subtle, rousing strings or The Royal We’s more immediate, driving violins, Swoon is definitely a grand album from a band unafraid of adding a bit of ostentation into the indie rock oeuvre. “We were hoping for a quartet, but we were able to get a sixteen piece orchestra,” reveals Monninger. “That was pretty exciting - going in and seeing the ideas that we had come to fruition...we were pretty humbled by it.”

As well as its grand production, Swoon is proving a better showcase for the memorable tunes that were more fleeting or over-worked on their debut album Carnavas. Where previous singles such as Lazy Eye had the necessary ingredients to be great, it felt that the band hadn’t quite perfected their method yet. However, with stand-out tracks like Panic Switch, it sounds as if they're getting a little more confident in cooking up a storm this time around.

Still, it would be erroneous to say that the Silversun Pickups now follow a rigid verse-chorus-verse template and standard three-and-a-half minute song length, both areas that have drawn them criticism in the past. “I would say that as a band we don’t really follow structures,” suggests Monninger. “It’s interesting watching our producer [Dave Cooley] talk with Brian because he’s like ‘OK, is this the chorus or is this the verse?’. Most of the time we just go with what we feel is right. I don’t think you necessarily need a form in order for a song to work. The song is done when it’s done, not because we’ve finished the third chorus.”

It’s a concise answer that makes a supposedly discerning and open-minded music fan feel foolish for questioning. A more reasonable line of enquiry, and one that has loomed large over the band since their inception, is that of their similarity to the Smashing Pumpkins, something that seems equally unlikely to abate. Brian Aubert’s perpetually breathless fawn-eyed wonderment of a voice mimics that same aspect of Billy Corgan’s to a tee. Carnavas and - to a lesser extent - Swoon certainly borrow some of Corgan’s fretwork. Heck, they even share the same initials. “We are flattered by the comparison,” claims Monninger in good nature, “but I think we’re confident enough in our own sound that we don’t get frustrated with the constant reminders.”

And it seems she isn’t the only one with confidence in the band. The release of Swoon in April saw the band land into the American Billboard Top Ten, where previously they had languished at number eighty with Carnavas. Though Monninger still pleads allegiance with the local LA scene they cut their teeth in, and indeed still reside, they're clearly becoming bigger fish in a big pond. However, ahead of their trip to Europe and the UK this month, Monninger is aware that success hasn’t entirely translated over to this side of the Atlantic yet. “We definitely play at smaller places in the UK but they’re gradually getting bigger,” she states, before acknowledging that their upcoming date at Glasgow’s Òran Mór is a notch above their previous one at Nice ‘n’ Sleazy.

“We feel like we’re paying our dues over there,” she concedes, but not with any resentment. “When we were over there In 2007 I was really happy, just going round and round the UK. It feels like a sort of homecoming, to see some of the same people there that come to every show.” Whether you’re one of those familiar faces or a new addition to their growing fan base, Silversun Pickups are going to make you Swoon.

Silversun Pickups play Òran Mór, Glasgow on 1 Jul.

http://www.silversunpickups.com