Some of the songs didn’t come out sounding anything like their original incarnations. “California Dreamer,” a response to the Mamas & the Papas’ 1965 hit “California Dreamin,’ ” has twittering, nervous keyboards reflecting the anxiety of the narrator, who’s been left behind on the East Coast by her LA–bound beau. With its soaring electric guitar and anthemic chorus, it’s the kind of track that could close out shows. But it didn’t start out that way.
“I actually wrote it on acoustic guitar, as a very, very, very quiet song, and just kind of wandered around,” says Krug. “It was almost a folky number. It sort of reminded me of Neil Young or Elliott Smith or something — not to say that it was nearly as good as either of them, but as if someone was trying to rip off one of them.”
That wasn’t working, so Krug reimagined it for electric piano. Concerned that it sounded too funky, the other band members began layering it with guitar.
“Wolf Parade’s never ever been good at being quiet,” Krug goes on. “We’ve tried so many times. But it doesn’t work. So the thing just got louder and louder and louder. We recorded it live on the floor, meaning everyone just going at once, and then I took it and edited the hell out of it. I chopped a bunch of parts out and added a bunch of MIDI saxophone sounds and cheesy organ sounds, and then the synth, which is put on top.”
Many of the other songs on At Mount Zoomer appear to have been similarly fashioned on the fly. And yet the album sounds fully formed and fully planned, despite Krug’s insistence that it simply jelled. “Things are really not overthought in Wolf Parade. If anything, they’re underthought. It’s kind of a rock-band approach to things. We’re more about just playing the first thing that comes out.” Vive la disorganization.
WOLF PARADE | Paradise, 967 Comm Ave, Boston | August 2 at 8 pm | $20 | 617.562.8800 or www.thedise.com
