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w/ pitchfork (light on album news, but interesting anyway):

Interview with Brett Netson and Brett Nelson of Built to Spill | [by Kasia Galazka]

Pitchfork: You're only here for the evening, but is there anyone you actually you want to see play?

Brett Netson: Yes! Jesus Lizard. I've seen them probably 10 times through the years and it's always good. It's a good live band, one of the best live bands I've ever seen.

Pitchfork: And you're taking off tomorrow, right?

Netson: Yeah, we're playing New York tomorrow. Coney Island. And then some little show in New Jersey. It's a small trip.

Pitchfork: What was the recording process like for your new album [There Is No Enemy]?

Netson: It was kinda weird. We did it in Los Angeles, which was sort of different. Usually we record in Seattle, which is real comfy. But this time it was like going way out to Los Angeles, like east of Los Angeles, kind of out there, kind of middle of nowhere...It was pretty cool, being in a completely different environment, not many people around with a different engineer producer guy than we've ever worked with. We didn't know him at the time and we recorded digitally, which is really strange.

Pitchfork: First time?

Netson: First time, yeah. And it was good in some ways and bad in some other ways. I think this record is pretty significantly different than all the other ones. And all five of us played from the very beginning of the songs. We're introduced and all five of us started writing parts right away, doing the songs in the soundchecks and all that stuff.

Pitchfork: You guys get a lot of questions about being around for a long time. Do you see any new bands with any sort of staying power?

Netson: Yeah, a lot of them do, but they still just seem to disappear. I really like Tegan and Sara, which is kind of-- I don't know if that's embarrassing. They seemed really good, you know? It's not challenging the way that I'm always into, but compared to everything else as far as-- There's a vulnerability to it, but a lot new bands don't really have that. Everything's so professional these days.

Pitchfork: Do you think it'll be hard for kids born over the past 10 years to hear this really clean sound and then try going back and listening to something older?

Netson: I don't know if it's so much the sound of things. I mean, it sounds kind of great because with ProTools they can emulate whatever it is they're trying to do. There's so much control over what you can do. Whatever it is you have in mind, it's a lot easier to do it now. But the thing is that people doing music and taking chances, like risking embarrassing themselves or looking stupid-- that would be nice, if that was going to come back into favor. Ugly people making music, you know?

Pitchfork: What do you guys do when you're not playing music? What's a typical Built to Spill evening look like?

Netson: We're all kind of different.

Pitchfork: Is anyone secretly into whirlyball or anything?

Netson: What's that?

Pitchfork: Ever heard of it?

Netson: No. Sounds great. I've been fishing, hiking, gardening, and all these kinds of things. It's plants these days. Plants and animals. My girlfriend has this pet-sitting business, so I think I'm around animals more than people these days. And motorcycles. Doug likes the basketball. Brett makes music on his own also. Scott [Plouf] likes to cook a lot. Scott's an excellent cook.

Brett Nelson: He's been pickling.

Netson: Pickling. He makes these sauerkrauts, and he's promising to give me some. We're playing a Seattle Block Party next week. I'm pretty excited about that. That, to me right there-- homemade sauerkraut. I mean, can you imagine?

Pitchfork: It's a big part of my diet because I'm Slavic so everything is made with sauerkraut or sour cream.

Netson: Really? It turns out-- it's really good for you. And it's the perfect balance if you're eating anything with fat.

Pitchfork: Which is everything else on the plate.

Netson: Which is everything else (laughs). All the sausages. What's a good restaurant in Chicago then?

Pitchfork: Oh, I've honestly never been because my grandma cooks it all.

Netson: That's all right. Jim [Roth], our other guitar player-- he makes amplifiers. He's been making distortion pedals lately. He's pretty excited about that. I'm excited about it, too. I do a little bit of that, but not as much as him.

Nelson: And he just made a baby.

Netson: And he made a baby, too. (laughs) Babies, distortion boxes...