Justin Ringle of Horse Feathers
Words aren’t dead yet, just hard to make out
Alicia J. Rose
Horse Feathers in a stoic moment on the old porch swing.
For a guy who titled his band’s first album Words Are Dead, Horse Feathers’ Justin Ringle leaves much to be discovered in his lyrics. Not that it’s obvious. Often, Ringle’s words end up half-hidden in the unpredictable rasp and waver of his vocals and the stark backup of multi-instrumentalists Peter and Heather Broderick. What’s more important is that line where his hearty tunes meet the frail and unusual atmosphere, yielding something too intriguing to merely call “Americana” and too expansive to merely call “chamber pop.” That’s where the Portland band’s recent second album, House With No Home, really thrives. Even when Ringle ruminates over family conflict on “Father” or jealousy on “Heathens’ Kiss,” his acoustic guitar and the Brodericks’ strings lend an inviting warmth that blurs into the chills. Ahead of Horse Feathers' show at The Frequency on Wednesday, Ringle exchanged a couple of e-mails with Decider about vagueness and the contrast between concise lyrics and vague presentation.
Decider: House With No Home sounds a lot more rough and weathered than Words Are Dead, but it also sounds like there’s more going on in the arrangements. How did that come to be?
Justin Ringle: There were far fewer doubled vocals on this record. I ended up just letting a lot of grit and natural takes stay as is—just trying to let stuff hang out there a little more. The arrangements immediately became more complex with Heather’s parts being in the mix. She really adds a more intense layer of harmony to everything.
D: All three of you are credited with quite a few instruments, but the album still has a pretty stark feel. When you’re arranging a song, do you feel like you have to narrow it down from a lot of options?
JR: It’s funny, we almost never narrow anything. We keep on adding, and then we may take away one part of something. I don’t ever think of it as that sparse, because I am coming from the point of the song existing with just me playing it in my room for a while, so when Peter and Heather get involved, it always seems layered to me. To an extent, I want things to sound very natural and raw. I think when that is lost, the music immediately loses its intimacy.
D: The liner notes for House With No Home have the lyrics in this very dense, hard-to-read handwriting. Are you trying to discourage people from reading them?
JR: No, not really. The artist that worked on the handwriting for me did that. But I could see how people would find that maybe ironic. First they can’t understand what I am saying, then they investigate and the lyrics are equally unclear. I will post them online soon. Sorry about that! But I think his writing is beautiful.
D: Your vocals sometimes make the words pretty clear, and sometimes make them a little tricky to work out. Do you like to leave a little vagueness in the songs?
JR: In some ways, yes. I don’t mean to be extremely enigmatic, but I always feel that lyrics are slave to the melody and feel of the line I am singing. For me, I feel like more is conveyed in how someone says it.
D: “Working Poor” is about hardship, but has a rather uplifting feel. Do you try to embrace a certain amount of contradiction and contrast in your music?
JR: Yeah, I enjoy that. That happened on the last record as well.
D: What do you mean by “happened”? Does it ever come as a surprise to you?
JR: Well, the first time I did that was on the song “Walking And Running,” which is kind of a quiet little song with harsh language [sample lyric: “Walking and running /sucking and fucking at your will”]. I think that contradiction between the words and mood can be really interesting, or at least I find it to be. I think in “Working Poor,” for instance, the contrast between the words being about hardship, yet the music staying somewhat upbeat, kind of gives some sense of hope.
Justin Ringle: There were far fewer doubled vocals on this record. I ended up just letting a lot of grit and natural takes stay as is—just trying to let stuff hang out there a little more. The arrangements immediately became more complex with Heather’s parts being in the mix. She really adds a more intense layer of harmony to everything.
D: All three of you are credited with quite a few instruments, but the album still has a pretty stark feel. When you’re arranging a song, do you feel like you have to narrow it down from a lot of options?
JR: It’s funny, we almost never narrow anything. We keep on adding, and then we may take away one part of something. I don’t ever think of it as that sparse, because I am coming from the point of the song existing with just me playing it in my room for a while, so when Peter and Heather get involved, it always seems layered to me. To an extent, I want things to sound very natural and raw. I think when that is lost, the music immediately loses its intimacy.
D: The liner notes for House With No Home have the lyrics in this very dense, hard-to-read handwriting. Are you trying to discourage people from reading them?
JR: No, not really. The artist that worked on the handwriting for me did that. But I could see how people would find that maybe ironic. First they can’t understand what I am saying, then they investigate and the lyrics are equally unclear. I will post them online soon. Sorry about that! But I think his writing is beautiful.
D: Your vocals sometimes make the words pretty clear, and sometimes make them a little tricky to work out. Do you like to leave a little vagueness in the songs?
JR: In some ways, yes. I don’t mean to be extremely enigmatic, but I always feel that lyrics are slave to the melody and feel of the line I am singing. For me, I feel like more is conveyed in how someone says it.
D: “Working Poor” is about hardship, but has a rather uplifting feel. Do you try to embrace a certain amount of contradiction and contrast in your music?
JR: Yeah, I enjoy that. That happened on the last record as well.
D: What do you mean by “happened”? Does it ever come as a surprise to you?
JR: Well, the first time I did that was on the song “Walking And Running,” which is kind of a quiet little song with harsh language [sample lyric: “Walking and running /sucking and fucking at your will”]. I think that contradiction between the words and mood can be really interesting, or at least I find it to be. I think in “Working Poor,” for instance, the contrast between the words being about hardship, yet the music staying somewhat upbeat, kind of gives some sense of hope.
