Broken Bells: Chancing the Night Away

"When you get down to it, the point of experimentation is to create something so new that often you lose the beautiful quality that music, I think, should have." James Mercer is attempting to come to terms with the notion of 'experimental music'. The main man behind Portland-based The Shins ponders reviews of his Broken Bells collaboration with artist-producer Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) which have described their efforts as such, giving Mercer food for thought.

"We definitely spent a bit of time trying to find the right sounds,” says Mercer. “There was experimenting involved in trying to do that, but we didn't do things that were counterintuitive on purpose. We certainly tried new things. I played with my voice a little more. There seems to be a place where I leave behind the more static – or less dynamic – style of singing. It may be just a consequence of working with Brian. We'll see what happens when I do my own stuff again."

Having met in 2004, just before Burton's work as half of collaborative duo Gnarls Barkley went supernova, the pair have been working in secret since 2008. Mercer elaborates: "I wasn't able to reveal the fact that I was working with Brian. We decided that it would be better if we didn't have rising expectations and anticipation, keep the pressure of having to deal with labels trying to court us away." Despite the subterfuge, the pair have developed a close working relationship, and plan to continue to work together in the future. "Brian had a pretty conspicuous catalogue of stuff that he had worked on. I knew what he did and I was a fan of a lot of the records he put out, so for me it was an easy decision. He really liked The Shins' stuff and liked my voice so I think he also, like me, wanted to collaborate with someone writing-wise. So, it was kinda perfect timing for both of us. I had the idea that I could learn something new. It just seemed like it would be exciting, new and different, and something I needed at the time."

All of this has naturally led to speculation that The Shins are no more; something Mercer is quick to refute, with some caveats. "I think I'm just making it up as I go along. I had a few interviews early last year during a Shins tour. I was saying at the time that maybe by the end of the year I would have a record done. The whole time though, I wasn't able to reveal the fact that I was working with Brian. I'm not sure exactly what it is I'll be doing next, whether to worry about doing a Shins record or keep with the Broken Bells stuff. Right now we're trying to work out how much touring we're going to do with this and what that touring is going to look like. I think it's going to be pretty extensive, so it might be just that we keep full steam ahead with Broken Bells. We've got a couple of songs together already for a second record."

If this sounds as if Mercer is lacking decisiveness, it transpires that in reality he is proceeding with extreme caution. Having also collaborated with Burton and the late Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse (on Dark Night of the Soul, featuring visuals from David Lynch), there's a certain wariness when it comes to contracts and record labels. The release of that album has been delayed owing to contract difficulties with EMI, but is slated for an appearance later this summer. "Instead of immediately signing a new contract, in this environment, it's probably best to give these things some consideration. The internet has changed everything. I'm not a fan of something like Pirate Bay but at the same time I've seen independent record sales climb over the last twenty years now, largely because of the internet. You might remember a time where if you wanted to buy a record from the likes of Kill Rock Stars or K Records, you'd have to put three dollars in an envelope and send it to an office where eventually someone might open it and six weeks later you might get a catalogue where you circle some things, send the money and find out they were probably sold out."

Despite Mercer's stated intention of playing the album extensively, Broken Bells' official touring schedule is currently quite sparse, with very few actual confirmed dates. It’s another example of the duo's restrained prudence: "We're trying to figure out how well the record is going to do, get a handle of how big our audience is going to be before deciding for definite what to do next. The logistics of a tour are quite difficult; it's so expensive to fund the whole thing right off the bat. We're travelling at the moment doing promo gigs. So far, thankfully, those seem to be working out really well."