Bishop Allen’s two main members, Justin Rice and Christian Rudder, spent 2006 writing and releasing an EP every month. Many of these songs were re-worked for their second LP, The Broken String, which was released to positive reviews this summer.

Simply put, Bishop Allen makes great pop music. The band’s records—all 14 of them—are expertly crafted, with songs ranging from straight-ahead indie rock to folk-influenced balladry. Frontman Justin Rice is also an actor, and recently appeared in Andrew Bujalski’s indie film Mutual Appreciation.

Reveille: Is acting something you planned on doing?

Justin Rice: [Laughs] No, I never thought about it. I guess there’s some part of everybody that wants to be in movies. And I love movies, I watch them all the time. I’ve worked on them, I’ve shot them, but acting in movies was never something on my list of stuff to do. But it is interesting, and it’s helpful, and it’s kind of nice to see the process from that side. It’s also interesting too, in how it relates to songwriting, for me, writing and performing a song, a lot of our songs tend to be narrative and character-driven. There’s a certain amount of convincing yourself that you are the person who’s singing the song, or imagining yourself in the moment they’re describing, and it’s kind of like acting. It’s interesting to work on movies and actually be acting; it’s helpful when you think about how to sing a song that’s written from a particular perspective.

Reveille: Is there anything about the filmmaking process that you’ve used in the songwriting or recording process?

Rice: Well, in some ways, yeah. Film is a really project-driven world. Someone starts out writing a script, and attaches people one by one. They hire an actor, they get a producer. Everyone is working on a project, and by its nature, it’s temporary. And we’ve started to do that a lot more in the way we make records and tour. We define the parameters of a specific project, and we see who’s around and who can help us make it happen. The idea that it’s pick-up work, and that you put it together and dismantle it in between, and you focus on a specific project at a time, is something that we’ve started doing over the past two years. That’s the way all film works, and I think increasingly that’s the way a lot of bands work.

Reveille: Was getting into the routine of the EP project helpful going forward with a work ethic?

Rice: Absolutely. We had spent a long time before that trying to finish a record we couldn’t finish. Now looking back on it, it’s kind of clear to me what the flaws were that were preventing us from finishing those songs. And a lot of those songs ended up on the EPs, but forcing ourselves to be prolific made it so we had to do something everyday. Getting into the habit of writing everyday is pretty essential to making songs. So it definitely crystallized a work ethic that we’ve continued with.

Reveille: Has anyone criticized the EP project for being a gimmick?

Rice: Yeah, especially at the beginning. I mean, it is sort of a gimmick, I guess. But it also took a lot of work. Not every song on the EP I would classify as the best songs, but as the year went on, the best songs got better. There was always something to listen to, and it was clear that we were working really hard to do it. We were also giving away so much—we gave away 12 free songs last year. I haven’t heard too many complaints.

Reveille: Have you gotten a lot of fan feedback about the songs you’ve released over the past couple years?

Rice: Yeah. In general, the way we released songs—I like to think of it like we were sending postcards, or something. We were constantly updating people with our thoughts for a given month, and letting them see every part of the process. Because of that, it did encourage a dialogue with people. I hear from people all the time, what they think about certain songs, or what they think we’re doing right or wrong. It’s interesting. On the one hand it’s totally great to have that open dialogue going on, on the other hand, and it’s just part of writing songs, we also have to ignore a lot of what people on the outside say. [Laughs]

Reveille: Was it useful to have that feedback, and have these rough drafts before you released The Broken String?

Rice: Yeah, it was. Challenging ourselves to write a certain number of songs, emphasizing the process of actually writing songs, was really helpful. We learned a lot more about putting songs together, what kinds of songs we’re capable of, and how to use different instruments. The process of discovery for us was really, really useful. Trying songs out and re-working them was an interesting thing for us to do, but it was also a little frustrating. It’s pretty hard to be working on material you’ve already gone through once. It’s not as rewarding as coming up with new stuff. It was interesting, and I’m glad we did it the way we did it. It helped us break out of a rut we were in. We forced ourselves to write so many songs, and then later on, we were able to just devote our time to the pure process of recording. So songwriting and recording were two distinct phases. It was good in some respects, and on the other hand, I can’t wait to be working on new stuff again, to be writing again.

Reveille: You must be kind of tired of these songs at this point.

Rice: Yeah. There are moments when I’ll re-discover a song. When we’re playing them live, obviously, we continue to introduce new songs or try new arrangements of songs we’ve already played to keep them fresh. We’ve already started writing, but I do miss last year when we were constantly writing.

Reveille: How did you decide which songs to re-work and include on The Broken String?

Rice: We started out with the songs we liked the best, and those were the cornerstones. After that, we started thinking about songs that we thought we could arrange differently in a studio environment, and songs that could grow with more care and attention. After that we filled in with what we thought the album needed for its overall arc. When we started the recording process [for The Broken String], there were probably five or six songs we were working with that we abandoned partway through because they weren’t working out as well as other songs we were working on. It was a process that gradually refined over time.

Reveille: Since Charm School, your band has reduced the rock band sound, and turned into something more intimate. Would you agree with that?

Rice: Yeah, I think that’s true. For us, we’re always working on a given project, and at some point you choose what instruments you work with, and who you want to play with, and how you want to go about creating a given set of songs. That will always be changing. We never want to do things the same exact way twice. Writing songs and playing music is about self-edification and discovery, so it’s pretty important to always be following your curiosity to try out new and different things. And in general, I like the idea of intimacy. The music we make is about a personal connection and less about virtuosity. Intimacy is something we tend to seek.

Reveille: Is it a nice change to be on a label, after self-releasing 12 EPs?

Rice: It really is. We were prepared to keep going on our own, because we’ve always done it. It was working out pretty well. Also, in general, most of the time labels came to us with offers, they were tainted in some way. They weren’t totally fair, or we didn’t like the personality of the person who was approaching us, or they just didn’t seem to have that much to offer. When Dead Oceans came to us, they were really sensible, they were really fair, and we liked them personally. It was clear they would be able to do a lot more, they would have a lot more manpower and machinery than we had on our own. They were also really dedicated to making us a priority, to giving us the time and energy that is necessary to get a record out in a bigger way.

Reveille: How are the new songs shaping up?

Rice: They’re starting to come together. We’ve been on tour so much this year, we all realized about three days ago that this is really our fourth tour of the US in a year. So we haven’t had a ton of time to just sit down. At the end of this tour, we’ll have a month in November before we go to Europe, and we’re all pretty excited to sit down and start hashing out stuff. For now, the parts are starting to come alive.

Reveille: Can you give any indication of what they sound like?

Rice: I definitely want [the next record] to feel a little bit more off-kilter, structurally, than the last records. I’ve become obsessed with these songs that have a surprising underlying bone structure, but if you listen to them, they still have a really strong melody. I think great Zombies songs or Kinks songs are like that. And we’ve always done that a little bit, but the songs we’re working on right now emphasize that surprising off-kilter aspect. That’s something we’re figuring out how to do now, technically. It’s pretty interesting.

Reveille: And you kind of started that process with The Broken String. “Corazon” is a little more abstract than the version on January.

Rice: That’s true. And something that has that aspect—and I don’t know what else is different, but for whatever reason, it feels like we’re writing a slightly different kind of song now. I’ll have a much better sense once the parts start to coalesce. It’ll have a bit more nervous energy.