As Tall As Lions

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Features • Wednesday August 5th, 2009 • 12:00 am

Who needs a PR agency? Not As Tall As Lions, apparently. When the band self-released their debut EP Blood and Aphorisms in 2002, frontman Dan Nigro promoted it by sending copies to radio stations and websites. The resulting buzz led to a deal with Island Records and Triple Crown Records, through which the Long Island foursome released Lafcadi, their first LP, in 2004, and their self-titled follow-up in 2006.

Now, the newly-solidified lineup of Nigro, Saen Fitzgerald, Cliff Sarcona and Julio Tavarez are back with their third album, You Can’t Take it With You. We recently caught up with Nigro to talk about the new disc, hassle with producers, Neil Young and everything in between.

SSv: What’s that music in the background?

Dan Nigro: I’m in the studio finishing our instrumental EP that’ll be bundled with the first 500 copies of You Can’t Take it With You. It’s four completely new versions of songs that didn’t make it onto the album, but we wanted to get out there.

SSv: Speaking of things that are different musically, the new LP sounds like your most complex work to date. Do you agree with that?

Dan: Yeah, maybe that’s the result of the unique songwriting style we have. Everyone in the band writes, and we each get a day in the studio by ourselves every week to develop concepts. So I’ll come in with an acoustic guitar and sing something on Thursday, Sean will come in and lay down some beats or get some samples together in Pro-Tools on Friday, and maybe Julio will come up with a melody on Saturday. Then the next week we’ll sift through all these ideas and see which ones inspire the whole group. Those are the tracks that make it onto our EPs and albums.

SSv: We heard you had some issues with producers for You Can’t Take it With You.

Dan: [Laughs] Yeah, you could say that – that’s why it took a year to the day to record the album. January 2008 to January 2009. We initially met with 10 or 12 producers, and settled on one, who we only worked with for a few weeks before it became clear it wasn’t working out. Same with the second producer. Eventually we got together with Noah Shane, who did an amazing job.

During this process we realized that we’re most comfortable doing the initial recording by ourselves, and then working with someone like Noah to bring it all together. When we can just jam in our home studio we’re not under the time and financial pressures you have in a commercial setup, so we can take our time to get everything just right.

SSv: What has the impact been of having a more solid lineup, after a few years of band members coming, going and coming back again?

Dan: Julio, Saen, Cliff and I are like brothers. I know that’s a cliché, but it’s true. And we have all the good and bad stuff that comes with that family dynamic. Every decision is made together, but it’s amazing how the nature of our long-term relationship can affect the outcome of those decisions. If Saen and I get in an argument one day, we might disagree on how a melody should sound the next day, for example. Things like that can impact which concepts become songs, how we record those songs, what we play live – everything.

SSv: How does that, if you’ll pardon the pun, play out when you’re on a long tour like the one you’re planning for later this year?

Dan: It’s a lot of fun to be on the road with these guys. There’s a great atmosphere between the band, our tour manager and our sound engineer. Of course there are tough days, three-cups-of-coffee days where you’re running off no sleep and you’re a little touchy. You learn a lot of lessons by living in such close quarters, like how to respect each other.

Being right there with the same people for weeks at a time creates an intense energy, and we’ve had to learn to accept that we aren’t always at our best all the time. There are days when you feel confrontational but you know you can’t say something because it’ll lead to 10 hours of hell on the bus. Chris, our tour manager, is like our guidance counselor! It’s great that he can be a mediator when things get tense.

SSv: The themes of loss and regret seem to recur throughout the album. Can we talk about that?

Dan: Sure. When we sat down to plan this album, we made a conscious decision to not write about love, because we’d explored that fully already. We talked about themes we’re passionate about, and letting go of the past was one of them. That’s reflected in the lyrics but also in our approach to the album musically. We could stick to a formula, to a comfortable path, but you don’t progress that way. It’s more difficult, but ultimately more exciting if you move on from what you know, so that you can move forward.

SSv: You’ve recorded cover versions of songs by Smashing Pumpkins and Bob Dylan. If you had to cover an entire album by a particular artist, what would it be and why?

Dan: That’s tough, but I’d have to say Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush. When I was growing up I listened to music by Green Day and Blink-182. They’re good at what they do, but I didn’t get exposed to songwriting by some of the seminal artists that came before. When I got to college a guy played me After the Gold Rush and I thought, “Yes! This is the type of music I want to make.”

It started me on a new path of listening to artists who are true masters of their craft, which has really influenced the band. The four of us bring a lot of different influences in. Julio and I obsessed with Talking Heads, while Saen’s listens to A Tribe Called Quest and trip hop from Portishead and Massive Attack. That’s why you’ll hear elements of a lot of different genres in our music.