Bowerbirds Interview
Bowerbirds are one of those boyfriend-girlfriend bands just like Matt & Kim and Drug Rug are actually pretty good. They opened for Elvis Perkins In Dearland last night at the sanctuary of the First Unitarian Church. Phil Moore’s voice filled the large open space of the sanctuary from front to back. The band have a strong grasp on folk music and were a perfect match for Elvis Perkins In Dearland. He dropped by for a quick interview over the phone while the band was driving down to Washington DC. Interview below.
Colin: So how did come up musically? Has music always played a part in your life?
Phil: Yeah, pretty much. I’ve been playing music since I was a kid. I learned how to play folk songs on the guitar when I was in fourth grade. Then I played in bands with really good friends for several years then I moved down to North Carolina from Iowa. Eventually I started playing with Beth(Tacular).
Colin: What made you make that move from Iowa to North Carolina?
Phil:My good friend moved down to North Carolina first, he was kind of just following his girlfriend. He started playing music with some people. I heard about North Carolina from listening to Superchunk and other bands when I was in high school and college. I kind of always just enjoyed the thought of it but never really knew anything about it. Then I made the leap of faith down here and lived down here and started playing music together again with my friend Mark.
Colin: Very cool. Where did you go to college?
Phil: The University of Iowa.
Colin: What did you study?
Phil: I got a biology degree.
Colin: Ah very nice. That sounds pretty intense(laughs). How did you go about getting your music out there and picked up by Dead Oceans?
Phil: Well, we started kind of by ourselves and released a small EP that we had hand sewed together. We took a trip around the country trying to pick up gigs. We were in Portland for a while and played as much as we could while we were there. Played a show in Minneapolis and it started off very small with ourselves. Then one of our friends put out our album digitally and eventually that didn’t totally work out. So we talked to with Dead Oceans a while at a show, we were opening for John Vanderslice. It was our very first big tour, I guess. Phil from Dead Oceans was there and we talked to him. I think he was there because he was probably thinking about picking up John Vanderslice, which he eventually did but he also found us.
Colin: So what was the writing process like for your most recent record, Upper Air? Was there a sole songerwriter?
Phil: Yeah, for the most part. Beth writes her accordion parts a lot of the time and Mark, who used to be in the band, would write his violin parts and harmony parts. It was all really simple. I would write the acoustic guitar first, then we would add a little bass drum here and there, and then the violin and accordion.
Colin: So you kind of just pieced it all together as time went on?
Phil: Yeah, we’d write the music first and then the lyrics second.
Colin: What are some essential non-musical activities you do on tour?
Phil: On tour? We’re pretty focused on musical activities(laughs). We try to find time to eat healthy food, that usually works pretty well. That’s honestly all that we have time for when on tour. We try to find a Whole Foods or whatever.
Colin: There’s a Whole Foods in Philly, just so you know.
Phil: Awesome!
Colin: What’s life like for you when you’re not on tour?
Phil: When we’re not on tour, we’re either in Raleigh or we’re out an hour away from Raleigh building our cabin, living in our Airstream Trailer. That’s been one of our main projects of the last couple years—building our cabin.
Colin: How’s that coming along?
Phil: It’s going very slowly right now. The majority of the time we’ve been on the road and then when we get back it’s kind of hard to get back in that lifestyle. It’s actually.. the cabin is to a point where it’s almost liveable. We actually sleep there a lot of the time with the windows in there.
Colin: That’s a pretty rad thing to do. What would you be doing, say, if you didn’t play music for a living?
Phil: Uh… well, we had a web designing company and before we started putting more time into the band. Then we could do it independently and live out on our land and everything. I don’t know probably something like that. Beth is a visual artist so she would probably doing a lot more of that.
