Indie band Dirty Projectors constantly reinventing itself

In 2002, the indie experimental band Dirty Projectors released its first album, “The Graceful Fallen Mango.” Since then, the band has gained widespread success, performing on late-night television and collaborating with artists such as Björk and David Byrne. In the coming months, it will go on tour with The National. Dirty Projectors, presented by the Student Committee for the Arts and the Campus Events Commission, will play at Royce Hall on Thursday. The Daily Bruin’s Garrett Anglin spoke with Dirty Projectors’ guitarist and lead vocalist David Longstreth about touring with The National, album concepts and adjusting to success.

Daily Bruin: Since your start, you’ve risen from a relatively underground band to having endorsements by huge names like Jay-Z. How has this success affected your music, if at all?

David Longstreth: I don’t think it has. I’ve always just kind of done what I do. And I feel so lucky that my band is experiencing the things that we are. It’s really incredible. I think that I always just write what I write. I think that music is getting a little weirder. It’s almost like I can stay the same and what people listen to can change a little bit. My fans appreciate that we’re on our own trip and we’re different from record to record. Every (record) is going to be a new world, a new invention.

DB: You’re about to begin a tour playing shows with The National. Where did the idea for such a collaboration stem from?

DL: Well, we’ve been friends for a while. The Dessners, Aaron and Bryce, they’re just awesome dudes. We see each other a lot in Brooklyn. We’re good friends. They’re always just doing crazy stuff. A couple years ago, they put together this compilation called “Dark Was the Night,” which was a benefit for the Red Hot Organization. That’s the one where they paired me and David Byrne together to write some songs. So that was the first thing that I did with the Dessners. Since then, we played at a festival they curated in France a couple years ago, and we’re also playing at a festival the brothers are curating in Boston later (in May). Musically and stylistically, our bands are pretty different, but we’re friends, so it just kind of makes sense.

DB: Over your last couple of releases, including “Swing Lo Magellan” and “About to Die EP,” you’ve stated before that you’ve moved away from overall arrangements and concepts to focus more on individual songs and melodies. Has this been a purposeful shift and will you continue down this path?

DL: For the time being, I think so. The thing with arrangement is that I love orchestral color and tones and different parts interacting with each other. But I’m just as obsessed with melodies, with songs and words, just the basic, most skeletal aspects: what a song is about, what a feeling is about. That’s what I’m into right now.

DB: Many people see your lyrics as being impenetrable. Does this come naturally or do people just read too far into it?

DL: Well, with “Swing Lo Magellan,” I think of those lyrics as being more direct and telling stories. On earlier albums, the lyrics are definitely more about just the sound of the word. I think those songs are more obtuse. It really depends on the context though. Sometimes surrealism and impressionism in lyrics is amazing because it makes us listen to what the music is doing. It gets at something that you couldn’t express any other way.

DB: You’ve stated that the Dirty Projectors as a band is constantly recreating itself, including changing the lineup of the band and who is involved. Is the changing of the cast for albums rooted in the conceptual differences of those albums or do you just like to change things up consistently?

DL: I think it’s a little bit of both. One album is going to have a certain feel. Different friends and different players fit that feel better than others. On another level, I just like to keep things changing. It generally makes the process of creating music fresher. Although, the songs that I’m working on now, I’m definitely psyched to build them around Mike (Johnson), who is our drummer. He’s such a great feel player and groove player, and so making beats for him is going to be really awesome. And with Olga (Bell), there’s kind of a similar thing. When you’re playing with her, you don’t even have to tell her anything, you can just play a part and she’ll just play it back at you. She has perfect pitch. That being said, Amber (Coffman), Nat (Baldwin), Haley (Dekle) – they’ve been with me for years. It wouldn’t be the same without them at all. They’re absolutely fundamental to what the band is and how we sound and how we play.