When quizzed about the last tune he sang along to, Carl Newman, of the don’t-call-them-a-supergroup pop collective the New Pornographers, hesitated as if he didn’t really listen to music.
“You mean from a record? I don’t find myself sitting at home playing albums that much because sometimes you need to be doing something else,” says the flame-haired frontman, who is set to release the fourth NP album “Challengers” August 21. The dense, intricately arranged album (cellos, tremlo guitars and harmonicas are all up in the mix) expands even more on the band’s well-known synth-pop playbook, and is a fair excuse for Newman to be ignoring his stacks of old albums.
Newman opened up about bucking record industry standards, rock subsidies from the Canadian government and selling his music to the University of Phoenix.
Mash-up site The Hood Internet recently mixed your single “My Rights Versus Yours” with Lil’ Flip’s “I’m a Balla (Flip My Chips).” What do you think about a New Pornographer’s song being fused with a track about stuntin’ on 24-inch rims? That mash-up appeared literally two days after the song was posted on the Matador Records site. It’s really flattering that somebody took the time to create it. And, of course, it’s really funny.
You threw a wrench into the current music industry model by offering an instant stream of your new album “Challengers” to those who buy it in advance. What is your goal?
In this day and age, if somebody wants to listen to our record, they are going to find it—and find it for free—but that takes work. We wanted to reward the people who actually bought our album by offering it to them right away.
You are also selling an Executive Edition package, which includes an additional three-album box set stuffed with exclusive New Pornography. What sort of fans-only party favors are you handing out? Alternate mixes, B-sides, videos and photos. We are also including an album called “Live From The Future” which is exactly what is says: We are going to record every show on our Fall/Winter tour and compile a live album out of the material. But it obviously hasn’t been recorded yet, hence “the future.”
The new album has a song called “Entering White Cecilia.” Um… That’s a Dan [Bejar] song. We all thought it was an overtly sexual title, but he actually meant it as a stage direction in a play, like “enter white Cecilia.” But when you add an “-ing” on there it totally changes the meaning.
In the past, the Canadian government has provided your band with grants and low-interest loans to help subsidize your creative process. Do they know you live in Brooklyn now? Even though I am living in New York now, the rest of the band is still in Canada. We are very lucky because this money has helped us out on so many levels—recording, touring… We get grants to go to Europe and work the funding into our modus operandi. If you can show the government that you lost $20,000, they will give you money to cover it. It’s all pretty complicated.
So how do you thank the Canadian government for hooking you up with these grants? Have you traveled to Ottawa to play for the Prime Minister’s hip niece? We played a Canada Day show in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park where we didn’t get paid that much. Some high-ranking Canadian official was there, like the Secretary General—she thanked us for playing. I didn’t realize it was going to be an official diplomatic event.
You recently licensed one of your songs to be used in a University of Phoenix television ad. Did they pay you in cash money or correspondence courses?
I wouldn’t take a college course over the Internet because I would probably fail. Actually I got into trouble for talking about this on Pitchfork. I didn’t know what the University of Phoenix was, and when the guy from Pitchfork asked me the very leading question of “How does it feel to be connected with a sketchy American online university?” I didn’t know how to respond. I have to admit, our song sounds pretty cool in it.
