Port
O'Brien
gone
fishin'
by Marleigh
Crocco
Van
Pierszalowski of Port O'Brien spends about 1/3 of
the year working with his father on a commercial fishing
boat off the coast of Alaska. Plenty of time to write
songs, though it seems like they may end up a little
morose. Luckily he's got the other 8 months to balance
that out. The Oakland folk singer recently answered
some questions for us via email about the sea, his
latest EP, "Nowhere To Run", and his favorite
movie.
The
new EP's sound is more bare bones, and not as polished
as your last record. Could you describe your growth
process and was it a conscious decision?
I don't know if "When
the Rain Comes" is exactly what I'd call polished,
but it certainly was more gentle and soft, although
I think that has more to do with the songs than anything
else. The EP is a more urgent record, one that has
a story to tell and knows that it has a limited time
to do it. "When the Rain Comes" was more
relaxed. It had lots of ideas, but it felt like it
could relax with them.
Do you find that you write songs differently
at sea than you do on dry land?
Certainly. As a general rule, I can only write about
my experiences at sea while on land and vice versa.
On the boat, I usually write very simple melodies
and songs, but with lots and lots of lyrics, and on
land – vice versa. I'm still trying to find
a balance, and I think it's getting closer and closer.
Are the group vocals on the new record a result
of Cambria Goodwin co-writing and co-performing? And
was she always a member of the band or did she join
just for the new EP? Cambria and I have been
a couple since high school and she has always performed
with Port O'Brien. However, Port O'Brien was always
a "solo" project in that I played all of
the instruments on the recordings and things like
that. I have a hard time working on recordings with
other people generally. Cambria and I had been working
on songs together for a while and we finally decided
to make a record out of it. The group vocals came
about because whenever we play those songs - like
"A Bird Flies By" or "I Woke Up Today,"
we get the audience to scream along with us, so we
wanted to capture that, or at least represent it.
What great records have you discovered recently?
For some reason, I never got into Exile on Main Street,
but I really haven't been able to stop listening to
it for the past few weeks. It's so amazing. And Neil
Young's American Stars N' Bars is another one of those
things. I've always had it, but never really gotten
into, but it’s fantastic.
You reference Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Vetiver,
Neil Young, Beck, and the Talking Heads as some of
your influences on your myspace profile. The Talking
Heads stood out to me in the list among the more obvious
influences. What have you taken from their music that
reflects into
yours?
The simplicity of lyrics. I really love David Byrne's
lyrics most of the time. They were one of the first
bands to get me into really good music. I've studied
the Stop Making Sense concert film over and over and
it still blows me away.
Is Sea Change your favorite Beck
record? (wink wink)
I love all of them, but I think Midnite Vultures takes
the prize. That shit is off the hook. Sea Change is
amazing though, and anyone who hates on it is just
trying to be cool.
If someone was to come to the Bay Area for
just one day, in your opinion, what's one thing they
have to do or see, and, what's one thing they have
to eat?
That's a very hard question! But since I live in Oakland
I'll stick with what I know best. The individual must
go see a movie at the Parkway Theater, with couches,
cheap tickets, and a bar. They also have to shop at
the amazing Urban Ore as well as the Depot in Berkeley.
As dining goes, I'm a big fan of Razzo's Pizza by
Lake Merrit, who makes an amazing pizza in no more
than 2 minutes. Made to order in TWO MINUTES!!!
What's your all-time favorite movie?
The Empire Strikes Back is the greatest movie in the
world of all time.
|
