A time ago before a show at Costa Mesa’s Detroit Bar in 2008, The Morning Benders’ Chris Chu sat in the front seat of his band’s used tour van (named Daryl), phasing out to Grizzly Bear’s “Colorado,” dreaming of where this vehicle would eventually carry him and his cohorts. In the time that has elapsed since, The Morning Benders have gotten well on their way. In addition to supporting their heroes in Grizzly Bear on tour for a time, the Benders have played with The Kooks, Death Cab, MGMT and Grand Archives. The band’s 2008 debut, Talking Through Tin Cans, showcased a refreshing take on ’60s pop that didn’t forget about the importance of its murkier undertones.
Newly arrived this week is The Morning Benders’ follow-up, Big Echo, and any notions of a sophomore slide should be silenced here. Armed with a desire to tread new ground, Chu and his band mates have taken liberties to explore both space and sound on this record, and Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor even co-produced. Big Echo shows the band displaced to a vaster, hazier sonic landscape, without compromising the affable soul that made The Morning Benders resonant from the get-go. The opening track, “Excuses,” showcases this growth, and is a perfect jumping-off point for a record that feels remarkably coalescent from a panoramic vantage. Recently, Chu took a break from a production cycle to chat with FILTER about pump organs, brotherhood, and the secret circles of underground van racing.
Hi Chris, where am I reaching you this morning?
I’m subletting a place in New York until our tour starts. I’ve been working on this record for The Miniature Tigers. I’m producing it, and we’re recording in New York State at this awesome studio called Dreamland. It’s upstate, sort of near Woodstock.
Have you done a lot of production work outside of The Morning Benders?
I’ve produced a fair amount of stuff, actually. I worked at the studio where we recorded in San Francisco, and I took on projects there. Although, not too much that people probably would have heard of.
How about your new record, Big Echo? Where did you record it?
We recorded it in San Francisco and Sacramento. There’s this place called The Hangar in Sacramento that’s just this huge, open, warehouse space, and it’s filled with tons of awesome old gear. Have you heard of the magazine Tape Op? It’s this techie magazine that a lot of indie music artists are into. But anyway, the guy who does that magazineruns the studio, so it’s got this insane collection of gear; cool instruments and old amps. So we just went really cheap using that stuff, and took advantage of everything we could.
We recorded there, and then we ended up coming to New York to work on it with Chris [Taylor], at the church, where they record Grizzly Bear’s stuff. So we started out in this huge hangar and ended up in a church.
The record does seem to experiment more with space and ambience.
Yeah, that’s just a product of us wanting to tap into some new textures, new sounds. On the first album, we went into the studio with the mindset that we were only going to use these five or six elements. To make these pop songs that were reverent to a very specific time in music. When we went in to do Big Echo, we just wanted to free ourselves of any of that, and so we would chase any idea we had and see where it went. Any kind of cool instrument or effect. But it was really a product of wanting to explore the space. I always want to make a record sound like it exists in this special world. I think part of that is utilizing your space.
What were some of the wackier pieces of equipment you used in The Hangar?
Actually, on the liner notes of the album we listed off for each song what each of us played. There’s a ton of guitar amps, some of which were old and falling apart, and a ton of cool tape delays, and organs—there was a sweet pump organ that you pump with your feet.
What had you been listening to during that time?
Do you know the album Think Tank by Blur? I got really into that record, which I think sort of influenced us. I was listening a lot to the third record by Big Star, called Sister Lovers. It’s the best album. It’s pop songs, but it’s just super dark and fucked up.
When I heard the track “All Day Daylight,” I couldn’t stop thinking about Talking Heads. It gave off a real cool ’80s vibe, which is sort of a different direction for The Morning Benders.
That’s awesome. I’m a big Talking Heads fan, and I got really into Kate Bush around the time of this record. A lot of that ’80s production stuff, which used to be a big turnoff to me, I got super into. It used to be so distracting that I wouldn’t like those artists. But I got into it because the songs were really good, and then I started realizing that although some of the ’80s go-to methods are played out, they can be used in cool textural ways if you think outside the box.
I think what I got from Talking Heads that shows up on “All Day Daylight,” is that you only need a couple chords to make a song move and flow, but you can make things develop in section changes and make things really dynamic through texture and arrangement. That song is two chords—back and forth—the whole time. A lot of Talking Heads songs are like that.
What was it like co-producing with Chris Taylor? I know you’re into Grizzly Bear…
It was pretty amazing. I’d never even thought of collaborating with anyone, probably because I’m such a hands-on, neurotic person, who needs to control everything and watch it every step of the way. But, with Chris, just from the instant that I met him and played him some of the early demos, it made a lot of sense and it felt really good, and our energies kind of vibed well together. There’s no one else that it could have been. In order to collaborate effectively with someone, it needs to be someone like Chris that would understand it in our eyes. Once he expressed interest in being involved, and we were able to work it out, it was sort of a dream come true. Having Chris come in with a fresh set of ears was super helpful.
You have a new band member too, Jonathan Chu…
Yeah, he’s my brother. He plays guitar, and he plays keys and sings. It’s been sort of a blessing—it’s so rad to have your brother in a band, at least for me. We have a really good relationship, and we just grew up together having the same tastes. It’s like nothing needs to be explained, you know? It’s understood. We have a connection on a gut level, which is really awesome. I don’t think I have that connection with any other person.
Do you still have Daryl? Or have you changed your wheels?
Actually, we traded in Daryl for Raul. We upgraded slightly. We still have an old, used van, but it’s a little bigger. Raul has racing stripes. We’re getting into street van racing, but you probably haven’t heard of it.
Street van racing? Where does that sort of thing go down?
I can’t really tell you. You need to have a racing van.
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