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Greatly exaggerated
Bejar’s ‘recluse’ label proves inaccurate
John Kendle
Don’t always believe what you read. Or hear.
Or listen to.
A case in point — interviewing Daniel Bejar this week.
The man who calls himself Destroyer is both famous and infamous
in Canadian indie rock circles for being something of a “reclusive
genius.”
Since 1995, the thirtysomething Vancouverite has created a wonderfully
eccentric body of work of five albums and counting. His latest,
Your Blues, was just recently released on the Merge label.
Bejar is also one of the main songwriters with New Pornographers
— yet he left that group for a while in 2000 after reportedly
becoming uncomfortable with its level of buzz and popularity.
After decamping to Spain and Montreal, Bejar returned to Vancouver
in 2002, has since become a non-touring member of NP and has issued
two more Destroyer albums.
Musically he is one of those guys — similar to The Mountain
Goats’ John Darnielle — whose vision is best expressed
and most fully realized by himself.
His albums are wicked and weird and wonderful all at once. Critics
desperate for comparative context have said he’s got a Bowie
jones. Bejar doesn’t deny it, but his music is much more
than a post-modern recasting of Hunky Dory.
Destroyer is lyrically abstract and poetic; it’s also deliciously
ironic in its musical phrasing, especially when happily cheesy
synth lines punctuate the tunes, as they do on much of Your Blues.
It’s all pretty cool stuff, really.
But Bejar has been notably standoffish about doing interviews
and engaging the process of promotion and publicity over the years.
So I had more than a couple of people ooh and aah rather ominously
when I told them I was going to be talking to him.
Our little telephone chat session was far from a nightmare, however.
Bejar is a thoughtful, gracious guy who was simultaneously talking
to me, greeting an old friend of his sister’s, and figuring
out when to leave Calgary with his bandmates (the guys from Frog
Eye, who are also opening his shows as themselves on his current
Canadian tour.)
We talked about songwriting, mostly, and he was rather revealing.
“I don’t really have a disciplined writing schedule,
though I think it would be interesting to try. I’ve read
that Nick Cave has an empty office with a piano in it, and that
he goes there every day and keeps office hours, I’d like
to try that sometime,” Bejar says.
“For the most
part I’m still plucking things out of the air… a phrase
will descend with tiny hints of melody on it and I’ll sit
with a guitar and try to wrap some chords around it.
“It’s
quite an ephemeral thing, really.”
Bejar says he has recently organized himself to have acquired
a notebook in which he jots things down. He says he used to think
that if he couldn’t remember something, it wasn’t
any good.
“I think I write quite similarly to the way
other people do,” he continues. “I’m not an
exposed nerve to world, existing solely as a vessel for songwriting.
“I guess I’ve just always had an interest in
streaming language together, and over the years this is how it
works best for me. I’ve always been a fan of music, but
when I was younger it never occurred to me that I could do it,
or that it was something I even wanted to do.
“Discovering
four-track recording was pretty liberating for me. I could muck
about at home and create kind of like an album.”
To a certain extent, Bejar is still doing that. But he’s
discovered that people want to hear his music, and he’s
getting over his fear about, and disappointment with, playing
live.
“It used to put me in bad moods for days before
and days afterwards,” Bejar admits. “The sound was
never good enough for me. Trying to approximate the records would
depress me.
“But now I understand that you can go to
a show and have an incredible experience and that’s what
you try and cling to — that someone might see my show and
be inspired.”
Bejar will be trying to inspire people April 30, when Destroyer
performs at the West End with Frog Eyes and the Pink Mountaintops.
Prepare to be entertained by a really nice guy.
For more info see our What’s
Up entertainment listings. |
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