Profile: David Bazan
David Bazan is fascinated by the big questions. “I have an
enduring curiosity about what the nature of reality is,” the 38-year-old
singer-songwriter says. “It’s a head-scratcher.” Bazan examines these
conundrums in his music, initially as the creative force behind Pedro the Lion,
an indie Christian rock band based in Seattle .
Around 2006, Bazan suffered a crisis of faith, sought solace in alcohol, and
the band broke up.
“Anything that tends to advertise itself as religion, I don’t
find compelling,” Bazan explains in a phone interview with Vita.mn. “I believe
that there’s a natural law built in to everything. Ethics and morality are
really important to me in terms of how I treat my family, friends, strangers,
and what I expect from people. I take that seriously.”
It wasn’t until 2009 that the broody-voiced musician
released his full-length solo debut, “Curse Your Branches.” The
critically-acclaimed collection of songs was described by NPR Music as a “breakup
letter to God.” “Strange Negotiations,” an album with fewer theologically-themed
songs but just as much self-examination, followed two years later.
“Sometimes I get embarrassed of all the baggage I’m carrying
around,” Bazan says. “I get tired of it.”
Because says his creative process takes place primarily on a
subconscious level. “You don’t choose your dreams; you ride them out,” he
explains. “That’s I how I feel about songwriting.” A religiously-inclined
individual might opine that confessional songwriting is Bazan’s cross to bear,
but in the end, he says, “I’m happy about the songs my subconscious forces on
me. It’s kind of like opening up a present; you hope it’s Legos, but sometimes
it’s underwear.”
There’s nothing quotidian about Bazan’s latest project: he’s
teamed up with the Passenger String Quartet for “Volume 1,” a recently released
compilation album that recreates tunes from his catalog with cello, viola, and
violin accompaniment.
This partnership came about through a divine intervention of
sorts. In the summer of 2012, Bazan was scheduled to play a show in Tacoma , WA
“It was an amazing, beautiful experience,” Bazan says. “Now
that we’re well down the road, figuratively and literally, it’s cathartic and
fun to play with these guys every night. It gives all of the tunes some added
weight and heft but without being rock ‘n’ roll. I love rock ‘n’ roll, but I
know how that feels, it’s a place that I’ve gone to a lot. It’s cool to reach
those same kinds of depths and heights [with the strings]. People expect it
will be light and airy, but it’s really loud. It’s a sludge fest. That’s part
of the aesthetic that I couldn’t have anticipated.”
If anything, the drawback of a string quartet is that they
won’t fit in many living rooms, one of Bazan’s favorite venues. “It’s very
grounding,” he says of house shows. “It boils down this thing I get to do to
its purest form, its essence. There’s no gate-keepers, no middle man, not even
a PA system to filter what’s happening. It’s very direct. You can take the
temperature of the room without even trying. It’s an energy loop and
everybody’s aware of it. Most nights it’s just really intimate, really good
energy, and you can’t always say that about club shows. There’s a lot of things
that can get in the way in a rock club.” Luckily the Cedar Cultural
Center
When the enchanting instrumentation fades, Bazan will still
be grappling with the big questions. He likes Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote “The
arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” He wants to
believe that, though why and how justice prevails he can’t explain. As for an afterlife?
“I doubt it,” he says. Instead, he cites a lyric that his friend, Chris Staples,
wrote: “If you just stay true, some good things are coming back to you.”
Originally published in Vita.mn in Nov. 2014.
Originally published in Vita.mn in Nov. 2014.
