New Pornographer bares all

After maple syrup and hockey, The New Pornographers are one of Canada’s most exciting exports. With the recent release of Together, the band’s fifth album, the ensemble is hitting the road.

As the group’s Friday show at Memorial Hall approaches, Diversions Editor Linnie Greene chatted with vocalist and keyboard player Kathryn Calder about her upcoming solo debut, working with family and Southern food.

Diversions: How do you feel about playing the upcoming show at UNC — in your experience, are college crowds any different?

Kathryn Calder: You know, it’s funny — we’ve noticed the crowds have been a little bit younger than previous tours.

We have a cross section, but we have noticed that the crowds are a little more youthful on this tour. I like university shows.

Dive: What kind of changes did you make on Together as opposed to Challengers?

KC: You know, I think this record — you know, they do follow, there is a linear line that connects all the records. And I think on this record, Carl was looking for something a little bit more wrought.

He thought that Challengers was the mellowest we were going to go, so we made this sucker a little more upbeat again. All the other records are really rock records, so the only one that isn’t as rock is Challengers. We just decided to write some more upbeat songs. It’s sort of a natural evolution — more instrumentation, some of those really great guests.

Dive: Your solo record is coming out this July. What was the impetus for that album?

KC: I don’t know if you’ve ever had this, but sometimes you feel like it’s just the right time to do something. You sort of get this idea and everything seems to fall into place.

I just felt like it was time for me to do a record. I was curious to see what it would sound like to be honest, because everything I’ve done in the past has been a sort of group collaboration. And I wanted to see what I sounded like on my own, which is weird. Also, on top of that, part of the reason I did it — chose to do it when I did it — was because my mother was really sick, and I wanted her to hear it. She’d always been really supportive and had always wanted me to make a solo record.

And so she’s terminally ill and I just thought, “You know, I want her to hear this, so I’m going to make a record and see how that goes.”

Dive: You’re related to Carl Newman, right? What’s it like working with a family member on the road?

KC: Carl, my long-lost uncle. … I haven’t known him since I was a baby. My mother was adopted as a child, and so when I was about 14 and she was 45 or something, they just opened the adoption registries in Canada so that you could, if both mother and daughter, or mother and son or whatever wanted to find out who each other were, they could, if both of them wanted to.

So my mom’s birthmom and my mom both registered in the adoption registry, and they found each other.

And Carl’s in her birth family, so Carl’s mom had my mom and gave her up for adoption then had another five kids. And he’s in that family.

I’ve literally only known them relatively recently, so it’s kind of an interesting thing.

Dive: So how did you end up joining the band?

KC: That was another convoluted story. I think, how I know it — which might be different from how other people see it — is that I played with Immaculate Machine. We were playing a show.

John from the band is the bass player, we were playing with his band, The Evaporators, and I guess he thought I was really great.

And Neko was already doing really well at that point. She’s super busy, and they were trying to play shows. And he was telling me that they were looking for someone to sing instead of their lead singer.

I thought it was a great joke, you know — “Haha, that’s really funny.”

It was maybe a year or two later, I got asked to sing on the record.

Then Carl called me up in March or April of 2005 and said, “OK Kathryn, this is a really weird question, but we’re doing some shows in June in New York. Would you want to sing? Because Neko can’t make it.” I said, “OK sure, I’ll do it.”

Dive: How have your experiences been touring in the South? Had any barbecue yet?

KC: I’m vegetarian, so it makes eating a little bit difficult.

I really love Mexican food. I really love American Mexican food. We don’t get anything like that in Canada, so I can go down South and eat Mexican all day, and I’m totally happy to do that.

The collard greens, is that — sometimes I’ll go into those places and have all the sides, which are a little bit mushy most times.

For the full interview, visit the Dive Blog at dailytarheel.com/dive.

Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.