Jordan: Caspian was a fairly young band when you guys recorded "You are the Conductor." The band had not played many shows and also was yet to go on a full tour. Looking back, are you satisfied with that EP?

Philip: It captures a moment in time for us, which is what keeps me satisfied. Of course there are things we would all change if we could record it again, but some of those imperfections remind me more of where we were at the time and those, ultimately, don't bother me since they have a certain nostalgic quality to them that I gravitate towards. As a whole it is something we are proud of, and it begins the journey of this band exactly the way we wanted it to.

Jordan: You talk about the "imperfections" of the music, and I think that's a really good point to make. There's always a debate about whether to make a polished record or one that captures the "live feel" of the band. One thing that strikes me most about "The Four Trees" is how much it diverges from the live show. By this time Caspian is pretty well know for being an intense live experience, but the cd is very sophisticated, with many subtle interludes which really extract the dynamics of the music and flush out the conceptual component of the album, and The Four Trees is really a balance between these two ideas. What exactly was the strategy going into the studio to record the album?

Philip: Since I had a general idea of the story we wanted to tell with the record, we had the tracklisting down (in sequence) for the album before we went into record it, so that provided the structure necessary for us to put down certain sounds and tones at critical points, and to try and spread out the different parts over the entire 60 minutes in an attempt to keep it sonically diverse and engaging from beginning to end. Other than that, trying to pack more than a year of songwriting into a 2 week session (with a band like us who are relatively un-experienced in a music studio) was nightmarish at times and almost drove me quite literally insane.

Jordan: One of the things that first struck me with the new album was the presence of the acoustic guitar, which was not well represented in the EP and is definitely not on the stage. Some of the intros/outros involving these are pertty tricky, but pulled off well. Who's idea was it to incorporate these aspects into the album and lay off the full onslaught of pedals?

Philip:Cal and I listen to a LOT of acoustic based music (Jack Rose, Kelly Joe Phelps and Iron & Wine, to name a few). We thought that providing that touch was unique and, more importantly, added the appropriate identity to the emotions we were trying to convey. For example, with "ASA" we wanted to deliver the largest, densest wall of distortion based sound we possibly could to emulate a sense of grandeur and force, and then slowly strip it down and un-ravel it to its most naked state at the end of the track. The acoustic guitar provided this contrast and I think it works well in the context and movement of the piece narratively. Of course, metaphorically, we think there is something important going on by executing this kind of production technique, but that would be difficult for me to sensibly explain.

As for the pedals, I think that came from a communal decision to not get lost in a sea of never ending experimentation that is too easy to do if you are communicating in this kind of language. But rest assured, there is some latent, but still critical, pedal work going on behind the scenes of each of these songs. Making people really listen for it is more exciting than handing it to them on a silver platter.

Jordan: Since "You Are the Conductor," the band has written a lot of songs, gone on two national tours, and played several times in Canada. Some of the tracks on "The Four Trees" you guys have been playing live for over a year -- has this process helped the development of the album or do you think you would have arrived in a similar place even without all the experience?

Philip: It definately helped the development of the album. We very much wanted to develop an emotionally diverse full length record, and having some of the songs in regular rotation for awhile helped define what emotional currents we were working with, and what we wanted to approach next. Structurally, those earlier songs from "The Four Trees" have remained relatively intact, and since we knew what wavelengths those songs were sending out to us and the audience, we had a better idea of what to tap into next. Darker songs like "Book IX" and "Brombie" came after we felt like we had taken care of the more cathartic and uplifting tracks for the record. As for spending a lot of time on the road this year, that experience shaped the way we communicate and interact with each other more than anything else, which in turn affects everything from the songwriting process to recording.

Jordan: I've always thought that one of the strongest points of the band was that although Caspian is an instrumental act, the music is so dynamic that this fact is often forgotten, especially at the live setting. I think in this regard you set yourself apart from many instrumental bands, who utilize more linear compositional styles. Has this development of the band's sound, and approach, been a conscious decision?

Philip: In general, I don't think it has. When I said earlier that we wanted to 'deliver an emotionally diverse record,' a statement like that might sound too calculating and could take away from the generally spontaneous nature of our approach to the sound. What keeps the four of us coming back is the warm presence of freedom to create whatever we want. If it ends up being progressive, ambient, riff rock, poppy...whatever - we will do it if we are all feeling it, and we won't feel the slightest bit bad about how it is received by anyone else. The new record, for example, is a long, conceptual piece of work that is intentional and "conscious" in its attempt to convey a distinct narrative, and yet the music on it arose from that mutual feeling of freedom between the four of us to create music we would want to listen to. We followed the natural flow of where we felt we were and responded to it. If we made a "conscious" decision to control our sound, I think we would have put out a cute 40 minute album that was like You Are The Conductor pt. 2, won over as many people as we could and then started fooling around. But that plan didn't excite us, and it wouldn’t have been a natural response to our life experience and to the freedom we feel playing together. On the flip side of all that, we are aware of the fact that we aren't the only musicians alive and that the last thing people want to listen to is a self-absorbed band playing only for themselves and their newfound sense of freedom. With that in mind, we do try to consciously sculpt a sound that is as forward thinking and challenging as we are capable of making it, without making it overly ambiguous and accessible only to a select few who are riding our wave. I think an artist has that responsibility and we try to honor it. So yes, there are some conscious decisions made to steer the sound in a certain way. That kind of thinking is only a branch of a larger tree though, and the trunk is rooted in our desire to have as few limitations as possible and create music that we are feeling on a profound level within ourselves.

Jordan: How exactly do you guys write songs? There's a great variety of material on the new album, from "Moksha" to "Asa" to "Brombie" to "Crawlspace." You imply that it evolves out of jamming around, but I wouldn't expect such an eclectic mix of songs to emerge from such a process.

Philip: Sometimes we'll spend 3 hours a night sitting around in our rehearsal space completely un-inspired, trying to write and hitting brick walls over and over again. It can get very depressing. But when a good idea surfaces from someone (or from a jam), a chain reaction of communication will take place between us all and we start moving. It happens very fast, almost like being swept up into a storm or something and we get spit out 30 minutes later with the foundations of a song to work with. Ofcourse thats 30 minutes of real inspiration and 3 hours of depression but making ourselves available for those 3 and a half hours is what matters. It's there that we get excited about a song, and over time we merge that moment of inspiration with where we think the song should go, and how it can best structurally mirror the basic emotions we want to convey. Thats the best I can verbalize it.

Jordan:What is on Caspian's agenda for 2007?

Philip:Well it looks like the record is going to come out April 11, and then hopefully some tours. We would like to put out a special limited edition (75 copies) version of the new album on March 11 so we will see how that transpires. We'll see. And I expect the party of the year is going to be Cal's wedding in June. (TSB note: congratulations to Cal!)

Jordan: What's going to be on the limited edition, if you don't mind me asking?

Well, it is still being hammered out. If all goes according to plan, the limited edition will feature 11 or so artistic reactions to the record that some of our friends from the area created, and small selections from an entire book that another friend of ours wrote in response to his conception of the album's overall narrative. We have creative friends and the stuff they came up with for us is mind-blowing. We want everyone to see it.

Jordan: What's in the future touring-wise? Our UK staff members want to know when they'll see you guys in Europe.

Philip:We want to get over there so badly. We were so close this Spring, and finances ultimately kept us out (as they do so many amazing things). We would like to get some label support over there so we can do it right and really make a great tour happen. We are committed to getting there in 2007. And we will certainly get out across the U.S. again to try and promote the record the best we can.

Jordan: If you guys could share a split cd with one other band, who would it be?

Philip: Tough question... Seriously. We talked with This Will Destroy You about it when we were in Austin last October, and we both want to do it. Our friends Seneca from Boston also want to do it, and since they're just plain incredible, we want to see it work. North, Thou, Beware of Safety, Constants, Radka...the list goes on and on.

Jordan: After recording the album this summer and going on your US fall tour, the band has been pretty quiet, understandably preparing for the release of The Four Trees. Have you guys written in new songs in the aftermath of all of this? Where do you foresee the band taking its music in the future?

Philip: Last week we moved into a new practice space, and we are very much looking forward to writing new material now that we have a solid place to play. The last song we wrote was "Some Are White Light" last summer, so we're aching to get into new stuff. As for the direction of the sound, I think we are naturally moving towards a more progressive approach, and we are going to try and execute more patience in general with our music. And keyboard rumors are true - we're about to buy one and start incorporating it slowly and hopefully intelligently but you never know with us. As long as the sound is moving forward and remains exciting to us, we'll follow wherever it leads.

Jordan: Are there any plans to put your music to a video, or perhaps lending your music for use in films? How about a DVD release of live footage?

Philip: We ended 2006 with a huge concert at the middle east downstairs in Cambridge and we had a 3 camera crew capturing the show, so assuming the footage is good, we'll consider releasing a DVD of the show and hopefully a short documentary along with it. As for licensing for films, we very much want to get into that world and will keep pushing next year for it. A few skateboard doc's have used some of the material from the EP.

Jordan: At what point did Caspian decide that it would make instrumental music?

Philip: I don’t recall there being a specific point where we sat down and took a blood oath to play instrumental music, it developed naturally I believe. When we used to just improvise and end up smiling at each other in the midst of these enormous wall of sound jams, thats probably when we knew we had found the foundation for our sound. I remember telling the crowd at our first show ever to come to our next concert at which we would have vocals, films, and all of these other things that never panned out… and a bunch of people told me afterwards to not change a thing. And we didn’t really.

Jordan: Where did Caspian get its name? Where do the song titles come from?

Philip: There will always be some debate about where the band name came from (laughs). As for song titles, sometimes when we are at a dead end, we'll commission a friend to name them. Our friend Ethan who recorded the new album is responsible for "Some Are White Light". Our friend TMath came up with "Book IX" after reading Milton's Paradise Lost. Another friend of ours who is studying Sanskrit for his graduate courses named "Moksha". Sometimes we like shopping work like that out to our friends so we can get on with playing music. When we (band members) name a song we try not to over analyze it too much since its intended to be on a record that tells a story, and we want the experience to be as subjective as possible for the listener. The song titles intentionally have nothing to do with the story we are trying to tell, or any other overarching concept to the album.

Jordan: How much musical background does the band have? Were you guys self-taught or do you come from a trained background? How did Caspian form?

Philip: Caspian sort of rose out of the ashes of a dying project that I was involved with called Hawley Sawyer Rifle Co. I joined up with that band in 2002 and started adding some atmospheric touches to it, which caught the attention of Cal, Joe and Chris. If you go back and listen to some of those HSRCo. shows, you can hear Caspian in there trying to be let out I think. We all knew who each other were from college, and when that band split up, Cal and I started listening to and swapping a lot of records with each other and decided to start jamming without any intentions of starting anything legitimate. Cal got Chris and Joe involved and thats when we started Caspian. Joe played with some friends in an electronic/live techno-esque band called The Treat that had some of the atmosphere going on that we would eventually adopt. Chris was playing bass in a folk rock band that doesn't sound anything at all like Caspian, and Cal was just playing around with friends. None of us are coming from a highly trained background. I don't think any of us can read music.

Jordan: It has become increasingly hip to be an instrumental band who doesn't actually listen to any instrumental music outside of their own band. What do you guys listen to? Which bands would you credit with influencing you the most?

Philip: I think between the four of us, we probably listen to everything. I'm totally serious. Except maybe pop country. Before Joe started playing with us, he hadn't heard a lick of post rock in his life. I quickly changed that, but he doesnt listen to it at all really anymore. He likes Jay-Z. Chris likes classical music. Cal likes Gram Parsons. I like Bardo Pond. As you can tell this answer is going nowhere! haha... But I will say that the one post rock band to really influence us communally is MONO. We played our second show ever with them, and then again months later, and it really set the standard for us within this genre. Mogwai. Telefon Tel Aviv. Eluvium. Constants. Tool. Isis. Massive Attack. These bands affect us all equally I think as well. Good music is good music with or without a singer, and we take equal pleasure from both types.

Jordan: One of TSB's readers asks the following question: "You guys are often compared to Explosions in the Sky, do you find this annoying?"

Philip: Explosions In The Sky are a good band, and they write great music. And since neither of us use electronics really and stick to an organic sound, it makes sense for people to draw that conclusion. I guess it becomes annoying when people carelessly throw any band that is instrumental and guitar driven into the pile of Explosions imitators. And I'm sure it was annoying for Explosions In The Sky to be thrown into the Mogwai pile all the time when they first started out. But they seemed to move past it and kept writing good music. We'll do the same. We know the ways that we differ from them and others in the genre, and it doesn't end up bothering us, but to get written off for lazy reasons can get frustrating. In the end it should come down to the actual songs and whether you like them or not, simple as that. And I really do feel like "The Four Trees" will put to bed a lot of the comparisons anyways.

Jordan: Do you guys consider yourself a "post-rock" band? I know you are often considered that by fans, but that term has never felt right with me. Especially with the four trees, the only two tracks I could fit into that categorization are "ASA" and "Reprise," and you could also make an argument for "Moksha". These three tracks bookend the albums, quite a clever marketing technique, no?

Philip: Haha. Well you know, we gotta cater to the scene, man. No seriously, we're just an instrumental rock band. "Reprise" is definitely a tiny homage to the quiet-loud post rock thing, almost like a reminder of where this all started with us in those innocent days when it still really surprised you to hear a band slam into it like that. Closing the record on that kind of note brings us full circle in a weird way I guess. When "post-rock" became a blanket term used in the late 90's to describe anything instrumental happening in the indie rock scene, I think a lot of people got turned off from the title and started ignoring it. And probably with good reason. We're fine with being a rock band and leaving it at that.

Jordan: How is the local music scene around Boston?

Philip: Its interesting. Somewhat eclectic. Since we're up here on The North Shore (30 minutes north of town), we tend to be out of the loop when it comes to the Boston scene. Radar Recordings have an excellent thing happening with bands like Junius, Constants, Seneca and Carrigan. Probably the best collection of active bands in the country, seriously. Other than those bands, and a few others, we are probably a little insulated from what is dominating the clubs these days. There is not a big post-rock scene here at all, and to be honest we dont mind that.

Jordan: Are any of the band members involved in any other musical projects?

Philip: I played bass in a side project called AM/PM last year, and the door is open for continued work there. Other than that we all stick to Caspian.

Jordan: What has been your best experience as a member of Caspian?

Philip: There have been so many. We’ve been lucky enough to play shows at venues that we could only dream about (Church of the Advent, the Middle East Downstairs, The Paradise, etc). Touring is different for all of us – personally I think meeting so many incredible people out on the road has impacted my life for the better and is something I am eternally thankful for. Putting out records that people seem to care about is a simple joy. Sharing the experience with three friends on a personal level is what will probably last the longest when all is said and done.