The Daredevil Christopher Wright

A conversation with Jon Sunde

(June 2009)

Interview by Adam McKibbin

In Deference to a Broken Back pulls off a neat trick that not many debut albums manage: combing through a variety of styles and genres without coming across as lacking in direction or identity. Indeed, The Daredevil Christopher Wright have come out of the gates sounding like first-degree indie-poppers. The Wisconsinites have even gotten a seal of approval from their state's most celebrated musician of the last couple years, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, who mixed the record and helped the trio (brothers Jon and Jason Sunde and Jesse Edgington) craft an album that's as cohesive as it is ambitious.

Jon Sunde took time recently to answer some questions about great song narratives, live show shakeups and the effect of Jorge Luis Borges (and Bon Iver) on The Daredevil Christopher Wright.

I’m from Wisconsin and Eau Claire has a special place in my heart – three of the guys in my wedding party were from Eau Claire.  They all took off at an early age, though.  Do you guys see yourselves sticking around for a while?

Actually all of us came to the Eau Claire area for University. My brother Jason and I both studied music with a vocal emphasis at UW-Eau Claire and Jesse Edgington went to school in Menomonie at UW-Stout for Fine Art with a emphasis in printmaking. Eau Claire has been a great place to be for the last 6 years or so. I love the people there and the music community has been the place where we've grown up as a band. We all grew up in Wisconsin and have loved the Midwest. We actually have currently moved from Eau Claire to my folks' place in north-western Wisconsin which will be our home when we're not traveling, as we learn how to tour a whole lot. So we’ve moved from Eau Claire already, but at this point in my life it is the place I would consider home so we may move back there at some point. 

Bon Iver put Eau Claire and northern Wisconsin on the map – at least for indie music fans, who are always hot on the trail of the next city to romanticize.  Eau Claire is obviously a smaller city than, say, Montreal.  What’s the music scene like there nowadays – and are there other bands that you think are poised to make a leap?

In the six years that I have lived in Eau Claire, the music scene has always been surprisingly vibrant. I came from a town of just under 3,000 people and forming bands - rock, indie, country, or otherwise - just wasn’t a part of the culture. So moving to Eau Claire and seeing great bands like DeYarmond Edison and Amateur Love was a revelation. Today there are probably five indie bands that are really making some great music in Eau Claire. The band Laarks are one of my favorite bands to see live and they just put out a great record called An Exultation of Laarks and the another band Meridene are a great band who just put out a great record called You’re Not Pretty, You’re Worse.  

I was a little confused when I was prepping for the interview about how the album has been released.  I know it’s had an official release here in May – was it previously self-released?  It seems like I was reading some reviews dated 2008.  Can people feel safe putting it on Best of 2009 lists?

We released a single from the record in 2008 as we were trying to drum up some interest from labels and the wider music world in general. In the course of our work on the album Kyle Frenette, who is the man behind Amble Down Records, was always helping and encouraging us in anyway that he could. As the process of searching for a label to put the record out, it just made more and more sense to put it out on Amble Down. Kyle just really convinced us with how hard he works and the heart he has for music coming out of this area. So the full record then officially came out on 5.19.09. So, yes, it is very safe to consider it a 2009 record. It was just a long birthing process.

For those of us who haven’t had a chance to see you guys in concert yet, what’s the live experience like?  Do songs undergo dramatic transformations or are the songs generally finished products by the time they reach the record?

We work to have a pretty dynamic show. One of the things all three of us aspire to is variety in the songs that we write and perform in terms of style, instrument pairings, harmony, and rhythm. When we started as a band, and a lot of the music on the record represents this, we worked primarily from an instrumental stand point of bass, guitar, and drums. More recently, and you can see it in some of the songs on the record like “The East Coast,” we’ve been working to write in a way in which we have more instrumental variety in the songs - trying to not rely so heavily on the guitar, bass, drum formula and also incorporating a lot more vocal layers and harmony. It’s been a good challenge and we’re learning a lot.

The fruit of this work is seen in our live show. We try and present some different arrangements of the songs for the live setting, perform some new material, and there certainly are some songs that stick pretty faithfully to the recorded arrangement. Sometimes you really achieve what you were hoping for in the recording process and so you don’t really feel the need to change the arrangement and other times it’s really great to see what the song would feel like in a different context. It’s nice to have the freedom to go in either direction.   

There are some pretty memorable narratives on In Deference to a Broken Back.  This made me curious whether you had a favorite story that’s told in song – and also whether you have a favorite song where you have no idea what the hell the song is about.

Favorite story told in song (good question): “Between the Bars” by Elliott Smith. It isn’t a straightforward narrative song but it so beautifully captures the picture of a damaged human being trying to save another damaged human being. There is kind of this hopelessness or sense of futility in the narrative that is both terribly sad and some how totally satisfying. Sad songs done well have that weird ability. Also, I like that the narrative starts in the middle and doesn’t really have a conclusion. So very post-modern.

Favorite song where I don’t know what it’s about (there are probably better ones than this but I’ll give you what came to my head first): “Who Could Win A Rabbit” by Animal Collective. I just love this song. Just saw them play at First Avenue in Minneapolis and it was great.  

The other narrative-related question:  What would we find on your bookshelves?  And bands typically list other bands as influences – I’m wondering whether there are any literary influences that have impacted The Daredevil Christopher Wright.

Currently Reading:

Jesse- Coop by Mike Perry. He’s a well known writer who’s from the Eau Claire area. I haven’t read his stuff yet but I hear good things.

Jason- Coming To Our Senses by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It’s a book about mindfulness. Also, he’s reading The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. I want to read this one. Hopefully get a more balanced perspective on this creativity business.

I most recently have been reading Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges. It’s a big collection of his published short stories. He is an amazing short story writer. The man is brilliant and writes these totally strange and compelling and sometimes over your head stories. I was going through about of year of writer's block and a friend of mine told me if I wanted to get inspired I should read this guy. He just comes at stories from all different angles and doesn’t seem to feel chained to any narrative rules or structures. I’m really inspired by that kind of story telling. He certainly gives me something to aspire to. I have some friends who are great writers and passionate readers and so they have turned me on to some great stuff also. In the last year I kind of went on a bit of a kick where I was writing songs kind of about writers and books and written narratives.

“A Conversation About Cancer” is a song that has very personal real-life roots – and they are laid bare in the song, rather than being artistically clouded.  Was the person who inspired the song able to hear it?  And what kind of response did you get from your mother?  It must have been a special thing to be able to play for her.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the woman whose friendship and conversation with my mother inspired the song, ever heard it. I wish she could have. I didn’t really know her but my mom really loves the song. She says it is a beautiful tribute to her friend. It’s a humbling thing.

I think the casual (non-musician) music fan may not really understand the roles of producers, engineers and mixers.  So when they see that Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver) mixed the bulk of the album, can you explain the role that he played in the process – and the impact that he had on the finished product?

Yeah, I didn’t really understand how any of this stuff worked until we recorded our first EP. When you come to someone with all your raw recorded tracks and ask them to mix the record, what you are essentially saying is, help us take all of these parts, edit, revise, and shave them down, put them in their right place, so that they fill a role that helps to enhance the esthetic goal of the song. It is a really important process of polishing the sound of each element and then bringing it together to make the song feel like is working as one piece. It’s a huge job and you really want someone who esthetically you trust, because we have some ideas for how things should sound but we have no idea how to get it there. Justin was really great in just being willing to be really collaborative with us in figuring out how these songs should sound. But also being willing to apply his esthetic touches and ideas outside of our sessions together and then bring that to us to see what we thought about it. His impact in that collaboration was really important.  

Does anyone in the band qualify as a bona fide daredevil?  Any feats of mention?

I don’t think anyone of us would be considered a daredevil.  Most of my daring feats have been the result of peer pressure, not because I like the rush or something. I'm rather content to avoid situations that will probably cause me pain. I think Jesse did some skateboarding when he was younger…. 

Finally, closing with a couple clerical questions: Do you guys have any plans to tour to either Coast any time this year? And have you already started writing for the next one?

We are in the process of booking an East Coast tour and are heading out tomorrow actually (6/2). The booking has been more slow going than we would like, but we’re learning and plan to be making the East Coast loop a number of times this year. We are hoping to head West also, but when is up is in the air. We’ve been doing some writing and have been performing a handful of new things along with the album material. So yeah, we’re definitely thinking about the next one.