To call Retribution Gospel Choir a side project wouldn’t be fair. Sure, it features Alan Sparhawk and Steve Garrington, both of slowcore band Low, but to dub a band a side project often connotes that the project pales in comparison to the artist’s day job and Retribution Gospel Choir certainly holds its own in Sparhawk’s catalog. Back with their second album, the aptly titled 2, Retribution Gospel Choir continues its mixture of searing guitars and psychedelic meanderings — a sound rumbling leaps and bounds away from that of Low.

In the van on the way to Oxford, Mississippi, Sparhawk took some time to answer some questions about the new record, the physical fitness level of the band, and why it might not be as easy to be a new band these days as those of us at home might think.

SSv: I know it’s always kind of lame to call people out on their bios, but I laughed when I read yours because it says you guys are the most “physically fit band on Earth” and said that you in particular had been scouted for football coaching, so is that true?

Alan Sparhawk: [Laughs] Well, I’m working on the scouting. The coaching… Yeah, well, you know it’s kind of a dream of mine that I think, being scouted is maybe pushing through for a little bit. But yeah, I played in school and I think along with all the other things in the bio there, we’re just trying to make a point that we’re an extremely fit conscious band, [a] fitness conscious band.

SSv: I guess that’s a good thing. I think a lot of times people think that musicians were always the kids who were kind of picked last on the playground and pegged hardest in dodgeball.

Alan: Yeah. Oh, yeah, and that’s kind of true. Most musicians don’t care, but I don’t know. I shouldn’t say that. A lot of musicians are physically fit. But, yeah, I don’t know. It’s more interesting than talking about how rad the band is.

SSv: So, the new album was tracked at home in Duluth, Minnesota. Now, I’ve interviewed bands who say that they have an easier time recording in their hometown and ones that say it’s too much of a distraction. So which end are you on?

Alan: Well, ironically, I probably in most cases would fall towards the ‘go someplace else where you’re not distracted and concentrate for, you know, the whole day. I guess, traditionally that’s how it works. But we did the studio sessions about three blocks from my house. Having said that, we did do it in a pretty concentrated manner. We tracked the record in four days. They weren’t relentless 14-hour days, but, yeah, it was almost four days that we did 8 or 10 hours a day. And it was kind of best of both worlds to have it concentrated and get it done in such a short amount of time, and we knew by how we were working that that was a reasonable goal.

SSv: And it’s always nice to be able to work and go home and sleep in your own bed.

Alan: Oh, yeah, but, you know, I’ve experienced all ends of that. I’ve recorded in my house, and there are advantages both ways.

SSv: So this album was mixed by Matt Beckley, who had credentials working with people like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, who aren’t really anything like your music.

Alan: Right. Right.

SSv: So why did you want him working on this album?

Alan: Well, he of course has a much larger, elaborate resume than just those two. He’s worked with a lot of people, some other big producers, pop rock, the Swedish dudes who produced all the pop in the ‘90s. I actually just met him as some guy in a band years ago. I met his dad actually before I met him, but anyway. He was in bands and we were friends and over a few years it sort of dawned on me that he also had this other job where, he would sort of give me hints, like, “Oh, yeah, I’m up at Skywalker ranch working on this recording thing.” “What’s Skywalker Ranch?” “Oh, That’s where they master this or that.” Or “I’m working with so-and-so” and I’d be like “Who’s that?” and then I’d go look it up and it would be some big producer.

So, anyway, long story short, we knew each other and he’d always expressed interest in working with me, and I thought it’d be interesting to give it to someone who had that kind of skill and that kind of experience. But I knew him, I knew his sense of humor and I knew his taste. I knew what he liked about music and I guess I just felt like we had similar tastes and ideas and I could trust him to take something and push it further. He was always offering to do something and he liked the band, so I sent him a couple songs to try and he sent back some rough mixes and obviously they were great.

You should look up his resume, or Google and see his credits because he’s actually very, very, very good. He’s got a lot of experience for the young character that he is.

SSv: Now, Retribution Gospel Choir, it’s a heavier sound than your other, more well-known band, Low, and you’ve done solo projects and other things like that. So, I guess what I’m getting at is, why is it so important for you to have so many different musical outlets?

Alan: Well, I don’t know. I guess, ever since I started doing music, the opportunities to try different things and play with different people was kind of always there and it just grew, even though Low is what Mimi [Parker] and I do, it’s developed into [Laughs] this sort of eternal thing. I don’t know. All these years, I’ve always had different people to play and just in the community that we live in there’s always been the opportunity to try different things and so, yeah, I’ve been lucky.

And I like playing music. I like the interaction that happens with other people when you play music. So, I guess, I dunno. I feel that it may be overindulgence in some people’s eyes, but the opportunity’s been there and it generally makes for great things when you make music with people. So, I guess, I don’t feel like…it’s not really a question of over indulgence or loyalty or whatever. I just try making music.

As far as Retribution Gospel Choir, it comes a lot out of who’s in the band. Know what I mean? There’s just a different dynamic here and everybody has ways of how they push themselves and ways that they attack the infinite or the unknown and this band has just sort of immediately become more aggressive, loud and those are things that definitely don’t happen with Low. At the same time, there’s things that happen with Low that wouldn’t happen with Retribution.

It’s interesting. I don’t look at it as opposite, or escape or some sort of balance as much as music.

SSv: Yeah. I think it’s cool that you said these opportunities tend to arise to work with other people, and I don’t see why you wouldn’t take them. I mean, you’re a musician, but that’s your job. I don’t see that as overindulgent, I see that as doing your job.

Alan: Yeah, it’s a weird, thing, you know. People, especially the artists, can get a little too wound up about it, so I try not to.

SSv: Now, something I thought would be interesting to talk to you about is, well, you’ve been in the industry for well over a decade and the past 10 years especially have been really tumultuous for the industry, and I may be asking the obvious here, but is it easier to be in a band like the level of Retribution Gospel Choir now than maybe when you formed Low back in 1993?

Alan: Well, yeah, it’s kind of similar, but I hate to sound… there’s definitely been an arc. In the early ’90s, yeah there were places to play but it was a real struggle. It was hard to find the places all over the country and then as the ’90s developed it definitely exploded where there were lots of places and lots of bands. Lots of people were going to shows and there was sort of this insurgence of underground touring. It really came into its own.

And I think the last five or six years sort of back end of that, where there’s almost too much music [Laughs] or there’s a lot of people who are like, ‘Oh, I want to try that.’ And there’s a lot more people trying to go for that bone. And I think maybe just because of oversaturation or different generation or people getting older that were at one time a part of that scene… I don’t know. There’s a lot of factors, but it’s definitely harder now, but it feels to me kind of exactly the same as it was in the early ’90s. It’s an exciting time for us and, at the same time, we were barely getting by and we were playing show for five people and it took a lot for that to happen.

As it is now, there’s almost too much infrastructure now and too few people. I think there’s less of a tone of young people going out to see shows and I think that in a certain way it’s sort of predictable. For a while there, there was almost too much to go see, and I think people were getting tired of it. And the quality of it has waned, you know? Myself, of course, I have a lot of faith in live music. I have faith in that experience and that people are still gonna want that, will still come around for that feeling. I really love that feeling you get a show, when you’re surrounded somewhat by peers, feeling something communal instead of sitting at the house listening to an mp3.

I dunno. I guess, I believe in the live experience, but it’s a struggle. I don’t envy a new band. We definitely have a leg up because there’s at least 20-30 people who are going to come because they’re into Low, just as a curiosity. But man, a new band these days are up against a deep slide or a deep hill. It’s hard to get people excited. There’s just too many bands and too much media which makes it harder to get people interested in coming out to see you, if you’re a new band.

SSv: There is like so much music, and even the stuff that gets noticed on the blogs, and even some webzines, it turns over so quickly.

Alan: Oh, yeah.

SSv: There’s always the best band since whenever, yet the next week it seems it’s already somebody else.

Alan: Yeah, and it’s unfortunate because there’s definitely a lot more variety out there. It’s too bad. You theorize for days about the effects, but that’s just sort of the flow of media and communication and the way it’s mutating. There’s definitely people who still know good music when they hear it and they’re going to love it and stay true to it, but, ironically it’s just as hard as ever to find new music. It really is. I mean, gol-ly.

*Photos by Cameron Wittig