Back in 2007, after hearing Justin Vernon’s soon-to-be-acclaimed For Emma, Forever Ago, Vernon’s fellow Eau Claire musician Sean Carey hunkered down in his bedroom and learned the entire album, top to bottom. When Carey opened for the newly formed Bon Iver that same year, he approached Vernon and demonstrated his rather unnerving knowledge of his songs. Vernon was impressed, and hired Carey as his drummer on the spot. These days, Sean Carey—under the moniker S. Carey—is busy supporting his own album, the appropriately fragile, hushed, and layered All We Grow. In advance of his appearance at Johnny Brenda's Thursday, June 23 with David Bazan, The A.V. Club spoke to Carey about Eau Claire, Wisconsin; his “academic” approach to getting a steady gig; and the long, not entirely unwelcome, shadow of Bon Iver.
The A.V. Club: Your approach to getting a job with Bon Iver was unique. What made you take that route?
Sean Carey: In college, we had this famous piano player from Eau Claire named Geoff Keezer, and he was telling us about how he got into Ray Brown’s band by doing something similar. He learned all of Ray Brown’s arrangements, all his songs, his whole catalog. We talked about that in the jazz program as something really cool to do—picking your favorite artist and learning all their stuff. I guess it was an academic approach.
The timing just worked out really well with Justin. He had all his songs posted on Myspace, which was kind of weird. [Laughs.] But it worked out really well. I spent two weeks and dissected all the songs—worked on the percussion parts, the singing, the harmonies, the lyrics. At his first show, I was playing in a band that was opening for him, and I told him that I had learned all his stuff. He was kind of taken aback. [Laughs.]