Daniel Rossen, one half of Department of Eagles (and also a member of Grizzly Bear), talks fledgling efforts and 'necessary failure' with SINÉAD GLEESON
Everyone knows you from Grizzly Bear, but Department of Eagles predates it
I met Fred [Nicolaus, the other member of Department of Eagles] at college when we were room-mates and I had spent my teens nerding out pretty hard on music theory, listening to a lot of jazz and classical music.
I didn’t really know what I was doing in college, so by the end we were ditching classes and making music in the practice rooms, which is where a lot of this archive material came from.
These songs are from 2003-2006 – what prompted their release now?
We had a contractual obligation to this label, and in order to release In Ear Parkwith 4AD we had to broker a deal. We would probably have faced a lawsuit if we didn't let them put it out, but it's not an unhappy story, if people enjoy it in some form.
Fred dubbed some of the songs on Archive“necessary failure”, which is an interesting choice of words
It was a learning experience, and we were trying to do something we just didn’t know how to do. We went into a studio with no engineer and tried to play all the instruments ourselves. If we’d had someone to man the controls and bounce opinions off, it would have been different. I think of it as demo ephemera from our early days, but I enjoyed it. Some of it is very experimental and a little random, but I still think it’s interesting stuff. I like those pieces for what they are.
How do you feel about the Venn diagram element of both bands?
Essentially, Grizzly Bear subsumed a lot of the writing I was doing. Much of what I had written that ended up on Yellow House(Grizzly Bear's second album), was going to be on this Department of Eagles record. In Grizzly Bear I do a lot of writing, but our roles are much more nebulous. It's more like a collective – it's a very different set-up to Department of Eagles, which is a lot more focused. The success of Grizzly Bear allowed me to make In Ear Parkexactly the way I wanted to. And without Grizzly Bear, Department of Eagles would never have developed the way it did.
Chris Taylor and Chris Bear of Grizzly Bear have worked with you on Department of Eagles material – do you ever fear the lines getting blurred musically?
It was definitely confusing for In Ear Park, because it was me, Fred and both Chrises. They practically could have been Grizzly Bear songs. The thing about Department of Eagles is that there is no real band, and we haven’t really played any live shows. If we do another record it will probably be a different set of people involved, and that overlap won’t be an issue any more.
Does Grizzly Bear provide most of your outlet for playing live?
Pretty much. Grizzly Bear is the only band I've really played live with, and I love it. Playing with them after making In Ear Parkmade me realise how valuable a really good live, organic band is. Songs that I really want to play live end up going to Grizzly Bear anyway. Songs that are more introspective or moody end up filtering off to Department of Eagles.
Has this project been a place for you to be more personal or confessional than with Grizzly Bear?
Yeah, definitely, because there's a lot of the songs on In Ear Parkthat I wouldn't have felt comfortable doing with Grizzly Bear. But then there are Grizzly Bear songs that, at the time, I felt were pretty personal. Bands by their nature, because there are four people, make a song less personal because it's not just your thing any more.
What’s next – new Department of Eagles material or a new Grizzly Bear album?
When we finished doing In Ear Park, we played some shows, and then I was launched straight into Veckatimest . It's still going on: we've been in Veckatimest[Grizzly Bear's third album, released last year] mode for a year and a half now. I've been working by myself a lot, which could be a solo record, Grizzly Bear tracks or a new Department of Eagles record. Right now, Grizzly Bear is in post-record limbo, but I'm itching to play new songs live.
Archive 2003-2006 is out now on Bella Union
