I really like going to concerts, but it’s actually very rare that I continue to reflect on a show months after it’s passed. Mount Eerie’s 2008 performance at the Art Damage Lodge in Northside was one of those shows. Phil Elvrum, the creative force behind Mount Eerie, performed along with two of his friends, Julie Dorion and Fred Squire, with whom he had collaborated on last year’s lauded Lost Wisdom album. The tone of the show was hushed, intimate, and even reverent. The lonesome and organic sound of the trio’s performance, as well as the set of songs Elvrum performed alone, left a haunting impression. Now, on the heels of a much darker, bombastic, and occasionally aggressive record, Mount Eerie’s 2009 album Wind’s Poem, Phil Elvrum is touring again, this time with a full band lineup. Judging from the immense sound of his new album, this year’s show will have a much bigger feel.

Phil Elvrum has been writing, playing, and recording music for almost fifteen years. A steadfastly “D.I.Y.” musician and songwriter, he first began making tapes of sound experimentation in the back of a Washington record store in the mid nineties, just as the grunge era was in full swing. Now, almost a decade and a half later, Elvrum is seen by many as an independent music veteran.

Over the years, Elvrum has made a name for himself as one of the most prominent members of the Pacific Northwestern independent music scene. He was a longtime contributor to the K Records roster, participating in groups like D+ and Old Time Relijun, as well as helping to produce and engineer albums by Beat Happening and Mirah, among others. He is probably best known for his work as the Microphones; his 2001 album The Glow, Pt. 2 became an indie touchstone of the 2000’s.

In 2003 he dropped the “Microphones” moniker in favor of “Mount Eerie.” The albums following this change have shared similarities with the music of the Microphones, but with a decidedly heavier and more dramatic feel. Elvrum’s movement to heavier end of the spectrum has produced Wind’s Poem, an album he released earlier this fall which has drawn many comparisons to death metal, goth, and drone music. In addition to a change in name and sound, Elvrum has changed the way he distributes his music. He started his own record label, P. W. Elverum and Sun, Ltd., and began taking orders and selling merchandise from pwelverumandsun.com.

Elvrum was recently kind enough to answer a few questions about the past, present, and future of the Microphones and Mount Eerie.

You’ve come to Cincinnati twice in as many years. What keeps you coming back?

[Phil Elvrum]: Ohio is right in the middle of the country. It’s on the way from one place (home) to another (the crowded Northeast). Sorry it’s no special love affair with Cincinnati. I will play anywhere.

Your tour last year featured your collaboration with artists Julie Doiron and Fred Squire. The sound seemed pretty tight, hushed, and restrained. In fact, that seemed to be the aesthetic of last year’s Lost Wisdom; a sort of distillation of your previous musical experimentation into tightly edited acoustic songs. This year’s Wind’s Poem has a much more expansive feel. How will your live setup reflect this shift?

[PE]: I’ll be touring with a 6 person band, big amps, gongs, loud distortion, etc. Before that “Lost Wisdom” tour with Fred and Julie I had never really given much effort to evoking the recording live. It’s always seemed impossible so in the past I played shows that felt like loose interpretations of the recorded music. This time I have a band and I think we are succeeding a little at creating a big sound. It is exciting. With Lost Wisdom it was easy to recreate the recording because the album was very sparse and live sounding already.

I’ve noticed that your musical progression while using the name “the Microphones” is in some ways similar to your progression while under the name “Mount Eerie.” For example, you had a few releases which seemed to establish your sound ( for the Microphones, Don’t Wake Me Up and Window; for Mount Eerie, No Flashlight and Singers,), a few albums in which your sound seemed to congeal and gain momentum, (for the Microphones, It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water; for Mount Eerie, Black Wooden Ceiling Opening,) an album which seemed to be a peak of critical acclaim and recognition, (for the Microphones, The Glow, Pt.2; for Mount Eerie, Lost Wisdom), and an album in which you seemed to push the conventions you’ve established into new territories, (for the Microphones Mount Eerie; for Mount Eerie, Wind’s Poem). For the record, I loved Mount Eerie as well as Wind’s Poem.

In a nutshell, do you see similarities in direction and intention between what you did on as the Microphones Mount Eerie and what you did as Mount Eerie on Wind’s Poem? Either way, what’s next?

[PE]: I hadn’t thought about it like that but I guess it’s pretty true. None of that is intentional. I am always making the record that seems essential to make at the moment. I personally see the flow from “the Microphones” into “Mount Eerie” as an unbroken continuum. Just an insignificant name change. One river. I don’t know what’s next. At the moment it’s all touring and thinking about those logistics. I hope to make an even huger denser sounding record next. A wall.

After your experience on Lost Wisdom and Singers, do you see yourself collaborating with any other artists in the future?

[PE]: Yes, sure. Those collaborative records seem like “side projects” or something. Not part of the lineage of more deliberate albums with cohesive themes. Just song collections, or documents of specific time periods and recording sessions. I guess those kinds of records will keep happening, but I’m always more excited about the “real” albums.

A lot has been made about the black metal influence on Wind’s Poem. I can definitely hear some of that, as well as echoes of it on Black Wooden Ceiling Opening. However, Wind’s Poem doesn’t sound to me just like a black metal album. To my ears, it sounds like a black metal album through the voice and filter of Mount Eerie. Do you have any other genres you’d like to tackle and translate through the sound of Mount Eerie?

[PE]: I don’t know where this black metal thing started. It’s kind of annoying. Sure, I like some black metal, but I wasn’t trying to make a black metal album. The idea of doing an album in some genre is not interesting at all to me, and is in fact embarrassing. I want to make music that I haven’t heard before. I don’t want to put it in some dead category. I’m sure almost all musicians feel this way, yet we have all these limiting genres to label music with, closing our ears.

I think what’s going on specifically with black metal these days is people don’t actually know what black metal is. Or, maybe the definition has broadened to include pretty much anything that’s loud. In my understanding, black metal requires high pitch shrieking, really trebly guitars, crappy sounding drums, discordant half step chord changes, and maybe costumes. I don’t have any of these things. Black Wooden Ceiling Opening is probably closer to “hardcore” or “rock and roll”. Wind’s Poem is probably closer to “new age” or “goth”. I don’t know. It’s all meaningless anyway.

I see what you mean. I’ve noticed as much press in the past comparing your earlier work to folk music as I have seen current press comparing Wind’s Poem to black metal. Is this a longstanding difficulty as an artist; dealing with the labels reviewers and music writers put on your music? Being an artist who has had a long history in the “indie” music scene, do you find your music more generalized by blogs and underground music commenters, or by reviewers with bigger outlets like the New York Times and National Public Radio?

[PE]: I don’t think the labeling thing is inherent to some people and not others. It’s just the built-in problem with talking about music. It can’t really be done, so comparisons and subgenres exist as descriptive shortcuts to help writers grope in the dark. I don’t usually pay much attention to reviews though. I am just doing my thing.

I noticed a pretty extensive merch table at your show last year, as well as an extensive catalogue at your website, including special items like artistic packaging tape. This seems like a pretty unique addition to the usual touring lineup of t-shirts and buttons. Do you have any special merch plans for this tour?

[PE]: I made some pennants with glow in the dark words. Also some books, shirts, records. I’m sold out of tape at the moment.

You seem to have an interest in distributing music accompanied by impressive tangible accompaniments. I’m thinking of the photo book connected with Mount Eerie Pts. 6 & 7 and the journals associated with Dawn. However, you are also an artist who has made the move from record label release to distributing music and information independently from an online source. What is your feeling on the future of music distribution and the connections between physical packaging and the potential of the internet?

[PE]: It’s not true that I left a label in favor of the internet. No way. I started releasing my own records so that I could make the extravagant packages I wanted to and be the only one to blame for their success or failure. I still aim to get my things into stores. I work closely with Chicago Independent Distribution to do this. I also go on tour and do direct selling (”merch table”). The website is just the permanent international merch table, always set up. It’s not the focus, not at all.

I don’t know what the future holds. It seems like the bubble of relative affluence we are enjoying (still, really) must pop soon. Subsisting on art and music is such a luxury. It’s hard for me to imagine a future where there is an internet, let alone clean drinking water and electricity. Shit’s crazy.

For now I am enjoying making nice sturdy fancy packages and I think that’s a good solution (for me at least) to the problems posed by the internet in relation to making money off of music.

What differences have you found in your creative, distribution, and touring process since you made the switch from a K Records artist to a self-releasing artist?

[PE]: I have to spend a lot more time on the computer. I do so many of the steps myself, it’s kind of ridiculous. I spend so much time packing orders. I go to the post office every 2 or 3 days with a huge load. It’s rewarding but I am always super busy. I guess I like it. I love being in touch with all the aspects of manufacturing. My quality control is pretty high, so it’s nice to have only myself to blame if it turns out wrong.

Your website has a store for Mount Eerie and Microphones releases, but you also distribute output by artists like Thanksgiving and Woelv. How do these type of partnerships come about? What is your level of involvement as a distributor? Do you have any plans to expand this?

Those are just records I released on my label. Thanksgiving and Woelv are close friends and family. They were records that I felt needed to be released and I was lucky enough to be able to do it. My role is basically coordinating the manufacturing of the records, getting them to the distributor, and then selling the rest on my website and at shows. Pretty normal. I don’t have plans to expand this kind of thing. It’s overwhelming enough just to release my own stuff.

You’ve long been associated with the Pacific Northwest “Indie” scene, which has been one of the forefronts of important and influential music for two decades or more. What do you think that area of the country does so well in relation to music and community that you feel other areas of the country, like Cincinnati, for example, could learn from?

[PE]: I don’t know. That’s a good question.

Maybe it’s the overcast winters, keeping people inside to do their projects? Maybe it’s being far enough from Los Angeles or New York or Chicago that people just do things themselves rather than moving to the city hoping to get “signed” or something ridiculous like that. Maybe the self sufficient pioneer mentality persists still in 2009.

-interview by John Crowell

Mount Eerie will perform at the Art Damage Lodge along with Tara Jane O’Neil and No Kids on Wednesday, November 4th. Tickets are $7. The Art Damage Lodge is located at 4120 Hamilton Avenue in Northside.