The New Pornographers' A.C. Newman talks songwriting and indie band feuds

The New Pornographers will play the Buckhead Theatre Nov. 6.

When A.C. Newman considers why the New Pornographers are still happily together 15 years and six albums after their inception, he cites the time the pop-rock group doesn’t spend together.

“Part of it is we’re friends, we go way back, and this band doesn’t take a huge toll on anyone,” said Newman, lead singer and primary songwriter for the group, which started in Canada. “I think what breaks up bands is just being stuck together for eight months out of the year. After a while, you just don’t want to see each other. You’re just figuring out how to tour quietly. And then, after a while, a band that started out as friends, they’re not friends anymore, cause they’re just sick of each other.”

The Pornographers — which include fellow Canadians Dan Bejar, who heads the rock band Destroyer, and Neko Case, who has a successful solo career — came together in between their other projects to record and tour behind their latest album, the critically lauded “Brill Bruisers.”

“Especially since I don’t live in Vancouver anymore, it’s like, this is the time I hang out with my friends,” Newman said.

The group members will continue their musical bonding Thursday, Nov. 6 in Atlanta at the Buckhead Theatre.

Newman discussed songwriting, changing band members and the group’s blend of coffee in a recent interview from his home in Woodstock, N.Y.

Q: I love “Brill Bruisers.” What kind of emotional well were you pulling from when you wrote the songs for the album? Where were you creatively?

A: I don’t know if there was a lot of emotional well I was drawing from. Some songs are very personal, like "Wide Eyes," but I was feeling pretty inspired. I think I knew what kind of record I wanted us to make. I had a lot of songs written, so I had a lot of songs to choose from. It was just nice to sift through and just not worry about cutting eight songs. It’s just kind of like, "OK, these ones don’t cut it, but that doesn’t matter. We don’t need 20 songs on this record."

Q: So what were you going for when you were sifting through the songs?

Well, I guess we didn’t know, but I guess what we were going for was basically what we did. We wanted something with that vibe. Like, something that sounded very much like the Pornographers but yet didn’t at the same time. Just trying to find, like, new ways to sound exactly like The New Pornographers. I knew I wanted the record to be pretty concise. I knew I didn’t want it to be down-tempo. Any songs that seemed down-tempo, I just put aside and said, “No, this sin’t going to work for this record.” And wanted it to be very concise. :Like, I think other records we’ve done – like something like “Twin Cinema” or even most of our records, we just did whatever we wanted. We never worried about making a really concise record. We thought, "Let’s just go in the studio and record some songs." And this one, I thought, "Let’s try and make a specific style of record." I wanted every song to have a very unique personality. There were a couple of songs that got cut that were great songs that I just couldn’t find the arrangement for them. It just seemed like a bunch of people playing chords and singing, and those were the ones that got cut.

Q: Do you think those will be used on a future album?

A: Yeah, there’s a couple of them. Some of them just didn’t get finished. I think there’s about three things that we were working on that I’m probably going to rework and do something with them. I don’t know if they’ll end up on an album, but maybe we’ll put them on an EP or single. Or maybe they’ll never come together and they’ll just languish in obscurity.

Q: Time will tell. I love the music videos you guys have put out so far for this album.

The directors do about 95 percent of the work if not more. Like, "War on the East Coast," that video just started out with me thinking it would be funny if Dan (Bejar) did a video that was sort of like "Bittersweet Symphony." So I asked him, I said, "Would you do that?" and he said no. And I said, "Ok, well I’ve already got a B plan. How about, you just stand next to me and I’ll lip sync." And somehow he agreed to that, and we went to Thom Glunt, the video director, and said, "Well, this is all we have." It was like, we’re going to be two guys singing into the camera, and I’m going to be singing as Dan, and that’s all we’ve got. And then we made the video.

Q: What about the video for "Dancehall Dominae"?

Yeah, that one was definitely (director) Scott Cudmore’s vision. I think both of them were really good. Both Thom and Scott were great in that I would talk to them and sort of interact with them and just talk about ideas and I’d say, "How about this? I’d like to do something like this." And they were both very cool in listening to me, which I really appreciate. Like, I know in "War On the East Coast," there’s a scene where I walk up to the camera and sing right into the camera. And that was just a last-minute addition because I rememember when we were shooting that scene, I was sort of standing in the background by a wall, and I remember saying, "I don’t know what to do here. I feel weird. How about if I just walked up to the camera and sing into it? Because that’s a real Oasis move." And he went, "Yeah, OK. Let’s do that." and I appreciated that. I feel like other directors might just dismiss you, you know, let’s just do it the way I planned it. And both of them, Scott and Tom, were very cool that way. Just open to changing, even though they had everything meticulously planned, still open to changing.

Q: Your drummer, Kurt Dahle, left the band recently after 15 years. How does that change the dynamic of the group, particularly when you’re on tour?

A: It changes it a little bit. It’s fairly subtle. It’s hard for me to say. It changes a little bit, but at the same time, Joe (Seiders), our new drummer, is really amazing. And I feel like when I’m onstage, I don’t have that sense when I’m standing up front playing that we’re a different band. There’s so many of us. It feels really good now. It’s weird when band members change, but it’s like anything in life. It’s like, you go through a breakup, and then a year later you can’t remember why you were ever sad about it.

Q: You recently tried starting a feud with Cut Copy on Twitter, sort of mocking the Ariel Pink-Grimes feud over Madonna, but it didn't seem to take.

A: Yeah, it didn't stick.

Q:Are you going to try again? Because I would like to see that happen.

A: No, no. I was just trying to make fun of the Ariel Pink-Grimes feud. I knew it wouldn’t stick. I just find indie rock feuds really hilarious. Like, there’s something about them that just makes me smile. It’s like, this is awesome. You’re actually arguing about Madonna. I just read those things and think, is your life that easy? You have so little to worry about in your life that you’re picking fights over Madonna.

Q: I was in an Intelligentsia coffee shop recently and noticed you guys have your own blend of coffee, Brill Brew. How did that come about?

A: Intelligentsia approached us. I guess they’re fans. And I was very psyched about it. I love coffee but, more than that, I just love the absurdity of it. It just seemed crazy, like, we have our own signature coffee blend. That’s crazy.

Q: So do you feel like you’ve officially arrived now that you have your own coffee?

A: Maybe some people might think that. Maybe that’s what I love about it, that it creates the illusion of extreme fame. Like, somebody from my high school might see that and go, “They have a coffee named after them?” It’s like getting your own Ben & Jerry’s flavor. Like, that’s superstardom. When you have your own Ben & Jerry’s flavor, you’re officially a superstar.

Q: Totally. So, it's been at several years since you guys have played Atlanta. Any memories of the city?

A: I’ve always loved Atlanta. Atlanta has always been a very great place for us. One of my main memories was there was a big costume superstore next door to the (Variety Playhouse) last time and I remember buying Halloween costumes. I think that was probably back in 2007.

Q: Did you wear the costumes on stage?

A: We didn’t wear them til the next night in New Orleans. We were just getting ahead of the game. We thought we’d buy our costumes the day before Halloween.

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The New Pornographers. 8 p.m. Nov. 6. $30. Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road, Atlanta. 404-843-2825, buckheadtheatre.com.