The Owls (photo by Jeff Kearns)

Arguably the most democratically run band on the Twin Cities scene, all three handle songwriting and lead vocal duties, constantly swapping between keyboards, bass and guitar backed by the able assistance of drummer John Jerry. The Owls return this week after a 3.5 year recorded absence with their debut full-length, Daughters and Suns. It’s a fuller bodied album, with rich layers of synthesizers and jaunty melodies that often seek to disguise rather dark themes (like our current regime’s problematic attempts to “spread democracy” on “The Lucky Ones” – “We tried to prove our wisdom to the world/But they wouldn’t wish upon our star.”) A compelling listen that segues from moody mind-bending rock (“Welcome To Monday”) to piquant folk-pop (“Peppermint Patty”) without missing a beat thanks to the steady hand of Tighe’s production, it’s easy to see the Owls’ national profile soaring even higher behind this release.

Brian Tighe, a gifted songwriter who first wowed Twin Cities audiences with his pop group the Hang Ups, took time out recently to chat about the burden of expectations, his devotion to the album as art form and his past as a painter amongst other topics.

Reveille: The Owls started as a pretty casual endeavor. I remember you telling me when we last talked three years ago that “Air” becoming a hit song was sort of a surprise that caught everyone in the band off guard. I’m wondering how things changed for the band after the Our Hopes and Dreams EP came out and did pretty well on the national level. Did going back into the studio knowing that now there was an audience out there waiting to hear what was next feel strange?

Tighe: The EP was really just a collection of various recordings that we had done. They didn’t necessarily relate in any particular way to each other beyond being created by the same group of people. We pretty consciously wanted to make a record this time that had a real continuity to it. As far as pressure goes, I have to admit there was a little bit of fear involved. We were really surprised by how well the last thing did and we really wanted to make something that didn’t disappoint people, especially us. After awhile we just had to let the part about other people go and really focus on what pleases us. It took a long time.

Reveille: In the press kit it mentioned something about building a home studio and learning how to record there. I imagine that extended the process in terms of time quite a bit.

Tighe: That’s funny. The label kind of put those words into it that we built a studio and that cracks me up because now that’s the word out there and in reality the “studio” is just our bedroom with some pro tools tuff and nice outboard gear. It’s totally not a studio. We went into a few different places like Third Ear and Shortman Studios and those were the places we went to record the basic tracks and then pretty much all the overdubs and vocal arrangements and piano and keyboards we did at home. As far as a learning curve I had to learn Pro Tools from scratch pretty much. That’s the reason the thing took as long as it did. It was also just dealing with each other’s schedules. As we all approach middle age life gets more complicated and then not having a deadline … it’s a tricky proposition because on the one hand you can take all the time in the world to revise it and make it sound the way you want it to but then you run into that quicksand of indecision.

From L to R: John Jerry, Brian Tighe, Maria May, Alison Labonne (Photo by Jeff Kearns)

Tighe: It was really tricky figuring out the song order in terms of emotions playing off each other. For example, “The Way On” starts the album with this real sense of urgency and drama, and then next is a song like “Yellow Flowers” which has a really peaceful feeling to it even though the lyrics are really troubled. The way those contrasted the songs sort of strengthened each other. We didn’t want stuff to feel like filler. We were surprised that we had 14 songs on it in the end and felt like they all pretty much needed to be there.

Reveille: It’s clear from the way you talk about sequencing the album and even the product packaging that you care a lot about the concept of the album as an artifact. You and Maria did the album artwork and the music video DVD that comes with the package is really great. Do you ever feel slightly out of step still being so committed to the album as art form at a time when things like iTunes seem to be steadily chipping away at that form of music?

Tighe: It does feel a little bit like a dying art but that hasn’t stopped a lot of artists from doing it anyway. They’ve been saying that painting is dead for a long time yet you’ve still got these purist painters today that thrive. I think there will always be at least a small audience that appreciates the album, just like there are people that appreciate vinyl still. What’s making it easier is that manufacturing CDs has become quite a bit cheaper. You can do a small pressing of 1,000 discs and it’s like a limited print. I have no problem with the songs going off on their own as well. The last EP that was my entrance into the world of iTunes and people buying separate songs, as far as I’m concerned that’s great. I’ve personally found that’s what I like to do these days.

Reveille: I’m glad you just mentioned painting because that kind of leads into my next question. The Hangs Ups formed in the late ’80s at MCAD, how do you think your academic background in visual art has influenced the ways you view and create music?

Tighe: Making music and making visual art are linked up in so many ways for me. I went to MCAD for visual art and three years into it realized that I really wanted to be a musician. Yet I’ve found that the creative process in both mediums comes from the same place. What I’m really interested in doing is at some point teaching songwriting and the creative process in general. Whether painting or making music there’s that same process of generating ideas and carving them down and collecting things – you’re just using different tools and expressing different emotions. I think part of why I ended up gravitating towards making music during my time at MCAD was that the things I was feeling were easier to express by strumming a guitar and singing. The conceptual art experience just got so intellectual that it wasn’t the way I naturally wanted to use my brain. Before I went to art school I was really into drawing and painting and that was what I did all the time. I’m afraid that being in art school got me to intellectualize it so much that I found it very hard to be comfortable in it again. Intellectualizing your intentions every step of the way has a way of making your hand go limp.

Daughters and Suns

Tighe: I have to admit I’m pretty affected by the reviews and even a single person e-mailing or saying something nice. Even now if we get a bad review I think I take it to heart too much. To this day I’m not really the type that closes my eyes, I want to know what people are saying. I think it’s something I have to navigate all the time, I’ve gotten down about it when I shouldn’t have and gotten a big head about it when I shouldn’t have in equal measure.

Reveille: It’s refreshing to hear you say that. It seems like a lot of musicians feel the need to put on the front that they don’t care how critics respond to their record. That rings pretty hollow to me because otherwise you would just stick to playing in your bedroom if that was really the only audience you were concerned with reaching.

Tighe: Well I would say that 99% of the musicians who would say they don’t care what critics think are lying.

Reveile: There’s certainly a weird kind of contrarian aspect that pervades a lot of aspects of indie music culture. It seems like admitting ambition is somehow taboo.

Tighe: Yeah, that can be a little depressing and tiresome. I guess for me it’s like if something’s good I want it to be ambitious. But when something’s not good and it’s ambitious … that’s when things get real bad. So I guess I put more weight on wanting to make something good. I might not appear that way from the outside but I am really ambitious in terms of my music.