The Fiery Furnaces Deny Creativity
The most interesting indie-rock band around isn't anything special
The Fiery Furnaces is one of the more arresting acts to have emerged from the indie-rock scene in recent years. For one thing the group is prolific, having released at least an album a year since its inception, in Brooklyn, in 2002.
Each one of those records, from the debut Gallowsbird's Park to the latest, I'm Going Away, has been crammed full of ideas, quirky arrangements and lyrics, and shot through with flashes of melodic brilliance.
For another, the group's core is a brother and sister, vocalist Eleanor and songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Matthew Friedberger. The two grew up in a Chicago suburb and, when growing up, weren't especially close, says Matthew in a recent interview with this writer.
"It was just the two of us and I think when we were a little bit older, at least we didn't have too much interest in each other as friends," says the musician, reached on the phone during a tour stop in Troy, New York. "And then as adults we tried to become friendly, because we're siblings, and, well, It's nice to be friends with your siblings. And because of that friendship we started playing in the band, because a lot of the friendship was based on talking about rock music."
Fiery Furnaces Discography
Beginning with its startling 2003 debut, Gallowsbird's Park, the Fiery Furnaces was an immediate critical hit. 2004's Blueberry Boat continued the pro-Furnaces propaganda, but EP, actually a full-length compilation album, and Rehearsing My Choir, recorded with the Friedbergers' grandmother Olga Sarantos narrating stories of her life, mostly just confused critics and fans.
Bitter Tea in 2006 and the Thrill Jockey follow-up Widow City returned the band to the front of the indie ranks. This year's I'm Going Away, which features vocalist Eleanor writing the majority of the lyrics for the first time, is another record that defies easy categorization or summing up, but it's full of ideas and lyrics and melodies that could only come from the Fiery Furnaces.
Other Projects - Opera, Silent Album and Covers
Considering some of the other Fiery Furnaces projects either in production or on the back-burner—including an opera, a "silent" album (everything, from sheet music for the songs to album cover and graphics but no actual recording) to the siblings each trying their hand at covering Fiery Furnaces songs on their own (on a record called Take Me Round Again)—it seems strange to hear Matthew say he doesn't consider himself to be a creative person.
"I don't think I have any creativity," he says. "It just comes from the activity itself. I like to do these activities, and I want to approach them and do them differently than what someone else has done. Not to think I'm special but because you owe it to the things you like to do something different. Otherwise you're just casting a bad imitation on them."
And... Health Care Reform?
One thing that's a little less surprising is Matthew's interest in politics, at least when it comes to the issue of health care reform in the U.S. On the band's website, the Furnaces mention dedicating some of their recent shows to the cause of the reform bill that recently passed in the House of Representatives. And enough historical and political allusions pepper the Fiery Furnaces' songs to indicate that someone's been reading up on their history. This comes across in conversation as well when Matthew discusses the U.S.'s aversion to a national health care program.
"People still have this perverted version of the Jeffersonian ideal where you have your own little plot of land, your castle—it's a very strange libertarianism that's important to a lot of people," he says. "And it's very obsolete. The country hasn't been like that since—ever."
Role Models
It was once said of an Elvis Costello record that it packed in more hooks and musical ideas than most bands manage in a career. The same can be said of just about every one of the Fiery Furnaces' albums. Every band should be that uncreative.
Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger
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