NEW YORK (Billboard) - A lineup change, a new label, a film score and a few new songs are in store for fans of indie rock band The Shins, which returned to the road this past week after an eighteen-month break.
Longtime bassist Marty Crandall and drummer Jesse Sandoval have been replaced by Fruit Bats bassist Ron Lewis and Modest Mouse drummer John Plummer. Lead singer and guitarist James Mercer began working with Plummer about a year ago, in what "intended to be a side project," but on the basis of the work they did together, Mercer made the decision to shuffle the band's lineup. Lewis was brought in three weeks ago to learn the band's current tour set, and both new members will participate in recording the follow-up to 2007's "Wincing the Night Away."
Mercer says he has written 30 songs since the last album, but the band is playing only two of them live: "Double Bubble" and "The Rifle's Spiral." Both songs were written by Mercer and then fleshed out by his new band mates, who added the drums, bass lines and keyboard parts.
"The last record was another attempt to change and find something interesting and new for us to experiment with," Mercer says. "(The new album) is forming in my mind and how I want it to feel. There seems to be less dwelling on lack of confidence about things and more affirmative feelings in the songs."
In past work, Mercer's lyrics have reflected a witty, cerebral and almost cryptic approach, a quality that helped gain the Shins' notoriety in its early years. This time around, Mercer sees his writing moving in a direction that addresses uncertainty and how people grapple with it.
"I wouldn't say musically there's something that stands out right now. I think that my real anger about people allowing their convictions to cause them to do a lot of awful things in the world has turned into this fascination," Mercer says. "Uncertainty is such a horrible thing to people ... there's just a billion different ways to look at the world, and you'll find somebody that has found 'the way.'"
MAKING MOVIES
Mercer also has moved into other media during his time off, taking an acting role alongside Sleater-Kinney alumna Carrie Brownstein for the indie film "Some Days Are Better Than Others," as well as contributing to the forthcoming Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse collaboration, "Dark Soul of the Night." He also teamed with Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock to score the film "180 Degrees South," a documentary that examines climbing and surfing culture within the context of the environmental movement. Mercer spent a couple of weeks backpacking in Chile with the filmmakers before diving into the writing process.
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