Here We Go Magic goes from one to five, getting collaborative on new album 'Pigeons'

[Dr. Dog w/ Here We Go Magic] [today, 9 p.m.]
[Waiting Room, Omaha] [$14 in advance, $16 at the door]

mp3: "Collector" and "Casual" from their new album "Pigeons"

as seen in the Daily Nebraskan
Within a few years, the dynamic of the Brooklyn, N.Y., band Here We Go Magic has gone from one guy, Luke Temple, to a "collaborative" band.

The band's first self-titled record was written and recorded by Temple with minimal instrumentation. Their new sophomore album "Pigeons," released this past summer, was something he and four other band members worked on together, with Temple still taking lead writing all the tracks.

Now the band has really "hit its stride," Temple said, being on the road together. HWGM is out on tour with Dr. Dog right now, stopping Monday in Omaha at the Waiting Room.

I was able to chat with Temple while out on tour.


Before the band, you were doing solo stuff. Did the band start organically, or was it something you had planned on?

It was sort of both, kind of. I had hoped to have a band at some point, but I wasn't making a physical step toward that direction. And then I made this record and shows were offered, and it wasn't music I could play solo, so I had to put a band together to facilitate the record. So that's how it basically came together.

With new members in the band since the first album, have those older songs changed a lot in the live set you guys do now? 

Yeah, absolutely. Especially the songs from the first record when it was just me, those have become completely different 'cause I didn't have a normal, traditional band setup with that recording. It was just I had one drum and an acoustic guitar and a synth, basically. Now I have bass, two guitars, synth, full drum kit, like five vocals. So we just have more at our disposal. And then from the newer record that the band did as a collaborative, that stuff has changed just because you can't really play a song the same way for 100 shows straight without getting really bored. So you start to kind of messing around to kind of keep it interesting. And so they've sort of morphed in that way.

How did writing and recording change from the first album to the new one, with yourself or with the new band members?

It's changed a lot. The first record was just me, so I would record that after I got out of work. I'd get home at like 6, and I would record until about midnight every night, like five days a week — it was like a work week. And I had to play real quiet 'cause I had neighbors that would wake up. And I had a really limited palette of instruments to use. And this record, we rented a house in upstate New York, and we set it up like a proper studio and we had a bunch of better gear, you know, we had the full band set-up in there. And I would write a song, and I'd show it to the band, and we would just sort of record it together. So that was a big difference. I mean, the list goes on and on and on, you know? It's just always different working with people than it is working by yourself.

What roles did the other band members take in the creation of the songs?

It was case by case. You know, coming up with their own parts, for the most part and suggesting certain things in terms of arrangement. People sometimes have a very sort of strong opinion about the general direction of a song that I'll listen to and end up feeling that they have a better idea how it should go than me, even though I wrote it. So in that way, it's a real democracy. I try to stay open and humble in that way as best I can.

Was there any concept you followed for the new album?

No, we were just kind of feeling each other out when we made it, and kind of going on stuff like … sort of getting influence from music that we were all listening to together. But other than that, sort of keeping it open — letting the record kind of define itself.

Is being based out of Brooklyn something you'd ever change?

That's impossible to answer. I can't tell the future. I think I really like Brooklyn, but I think Queens might be my final destination, actually.

Why do you say that?

I don't know. I'm just having a premonition.

What's next for Here We Go Magic after this tour?

We're going to go back to New York and have a break, and we're gonna kind of start working on stuff for the next record.

So maybe next year or the year after a new record?

I think we'll probably start recording it like next summer. We're going to start rehearsing stuff this winter and start recording stuff next summer. I think that's sort of the tentative timeline.