interviewed for FasterLouder...

When The Fiery Furnaces first arrived with 2003’s Gallowsbird’s Bark they seemed determined from the outset to shake up indie pop with their interesting and quirky indie tales about fantastical lands, leaky tunnels and asthma attacks. Many may have dismissed them as eccentric oddballs but six albums later they are still exploring the possibilities of pop on I’m Going Away, their most conventional and catchy collection of songs.

The writing of the new record was much more collaborative than previous efforts where Matt Friedberger played a much stronger role than his sister Eleanor. Relaxing after a brief south east US tour she explains the songwriting process for the new album.

“I wrote nine of the twelve songs. A few were old songs that Matt helped me flesh out and others were ones we worked on in the room at the same time. We definitely talked about what kind of record we were going to make and how we were going to do it.”

Bouncing ideas off each other even led to the duo using the same lyrics in two songs with very different sounding results. “I mostly have lyrics and Matt places them to music if we are doing something together. There was an instance on Cups & Punches where he had a backing track and I put the words over it and then he thought ‘oh these words should be for a different sort of song’ so then he wrote the music to the song Charmaine Champagne and we ended up with two songs with essentially the same lyrics,” Eleanor explains. “We’ve done that live a lot but not on record before.”

The ending of a relationship is one of the main themes on I’m Going Away. Eleanor agrees it is a common topic across most of the twelve songs but not one that is tied to a specific person, time or place. “A lot of the songs we wrote, like Drive To Dallas, we wrote in the same room, I had the words and we purposely wanted to have something that sounded universal and although it’s all true stuff that happened to me it happened a long time ago so i don’t want to make it sound like its all up to date,” she stresses. “Breaking up is something that everyone can relate to and there is a lot of that subject matter on the album because we wanted to do something that was more universal and not so specific like so many of our other albums.”

Continuing the spirit of adventure that always drives their music, the Friedbergers have both recorded solo cover versions of I’m Going Away for release in the coming months. “We hope to have them done and out by the end of September as a digital release. It will be 6 songs of mine and 6 of his and then hopefully we will release the rest later. They are totally different, the same words but different arrangements,” explains Eleanor. “Mine are just guitar, a little bit of bass playing and some percussion, they are very stripped down. I’m not a terrific musician, Matt has the advantage because he is singing so they sound quite different. His have more instrumentation I guess. He went to a real studio and I did mine at home. I’m curious to see which ones people like more,” she ponders.

Dipping her toes into her own recordings has also raised the prospect of a solo album from Eleanor. “Yeah, doing this little project covering the songs on I’m Going Away made me want to do more. I don’t have any definite plans but I think before I die I will make a solo record it is safe to say.”

Historically, bands that feature siblings are often prone to conflict. A case in point being Oasis, The Kinks, Happy Mondays. Eleanor agrees but is quick to stress that the negative aspects are balanced with many positive ones. “We’re not relaxed, we are both uptight in our own ways and argue all the time. Matt is 4 years older than me and we grew up with rooms next to each other and he was very overbearing in many ways. He played his music as loud as he wanted to and kept it on as long as he wanted to and that was both good and bad for me. He kind of brainwashed me in a good way because I ended up liking everything he liked,” she says. “I think a lot of siblings usually reject what their older brother or sister likes but I totally accepted everything. I like other things that he didn’t introduce me to but for the most part I liked everything he liked so we have the exact same musical references and that makes being in a band so much easier.”

“Because we grew up fighting constantly we are used to it and know how to deal with it. We get into fights very quickly but we also forgive each other very quickly and I think people in other bands leave it for a long time to get into a fight and then when they do it just explodes and it destroys the relationship. We have resentments toward each other but they are very transparent so it makes thing easier,” explains Eleanor.

“The downside is that you are in a rock band and its supposed to be cool and crazy but you are with your older brother so all of those cool and fun and crazy things just don’t seem to happen. When you have to spend every night sharing a hotel room with him it can be a bit of a drag,” she laughs.

In concert The Fiery Furnaces are renowned for changing the arrangements of their songs and the format of their shows. At one point a few years ago they eliminated all breaks between songs in an effort to shake up the traditional gig experience. “For this record we’ve been playing it pretty straight. For the last record we were playing maybe a couple of song back to back but for the most part we play it the old fashioned way, one song at a time. I do miss the athleticism that went along with doing a 40 minute set without stopping. It takes the performance to a whole other level. It feels like more of a performance than a bunch of dudes and a chick standing there singing a song. It feels more dramatic,”explains Eleanor.

Whatever format their show takes, the good news for Australian fans is that the band expect to return to Australia in 2010, possibly around February/March, and on the strength of I’m Going Away they are likely to attract larger audiences keen to experience the wonderful world of The Fiery Furnaces.