With longplay2, pacificUV return w/ their strongest effort to date. In a friendly, honest, and lighthearted question/answer session, I asked Clay Jordan, Jessee Robert W., and Matt Kline about the new album, the new line-up, and the future of pacificUV. Some of their answers were surprising…

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For those that are unfamiliar w/ the new record, how would you describe it?

CLAY: Like classical music played by people who only know two chords.

JESSE: It is a record that definitely doesn’t stay in one place for very long. As critics have been very eager to point out, there are a lot of undisguised dream-pop and post-rock influences contributing to Longplay2, as if having influences is some kind of musical sin. It won’t shock anyone to learn that we all listen to Spiritualized. What most critics fail to mention though, is how little the record actually sounds like any of those influences. Yes, the elements are there, but I have yet to hear anyone argue a strong case we’re a carbon copy of any band. Spiritualized doesn’t even sound like Spiritualized anymore, so I doubt we could pull it off, even if we wanted to.

Clay, there were a lot of changes made in pacificUV in the last few years. A new line-up, a new city. How did these changes transpire?

CLAY: Let’s blame it on a girl named Liz and guy named Howard. I co-founded the band with Howard a few years ago and after the EP was recorded he decided that he no longer wanted to be in the band. The split was very friendly. He went to medical school and I moved to Portland for a change of scenery. I also moved from Athens because I had just broken up with my girlfriend at the time. I am actually thankful to both of these people for spurring me into action!

Did the changes affect your approach to what you felt pacificUV was?

CLAY: Well, for a very long time after I moved to Portland, pacificUV did not exist. I was done trying to play music. But slowly, you meet the right people and it becomes fun again. After working on Longplay2 with this new lineup, I am very excited about what we could do in the future.

How did you recruit the talent that you did? How did you all meet?

CLAY: Friend’s of friends / Craig’s List / etc.

Did the new line-up change your writing and/or recording process?

CLAY: To be honest, both records have taken far too long to record and were both exhausting. Longplay2 was a bit more organic in that we recorded more of it live and had vocal melodies written with the song, not after it was over. But the songs on both records usually started with a guitar line or sound…….I don’t think we have ever had a song that started with lyrics or a vocal melody.

That is something I want to change on the next record, I want to have songs that can be written on an acoustic guitar and then can be taken in and fleshed out in the studio. I also want the new songs to be more immediate and visceral. We can do the whole delay/ambient/drone thing in our sleep now.

Was it challenging or intimidating to make a follow-up record for an album that Rolling Stone called a “masterpiece”?

CLAY: I didn’t give it a second thought. Some dude from RS liked it -great… but I feel no obligation or pressure to live up to that subjective praise. As soon as you start basing how you feel about your music based on the reviews, you are in trouble.

Do you have any tours planned?

CLAY: We only formed this band so we could play Japan, so maybe that will be in the future. We do have a west coast tour in the works for late summer… and a few shows around Portland/Seattle until then.

I’ve been told that your live performances are truly worthwhile (a friend of mine saw the band perform a few years back). How would you describe a typical show?

MIKE: We’ll be doing a couple of songs from the first record and from the EP, but because this is a completely different lineup, those older pieces have necessarily changed and evolved with the band. Of course, we’ll be playing material from the new record as well, and it’s been fun to slightly re-imagine some of those to better suit a live performance situation.

CLAY: We are very adamant about providing a complete experience when we play live. This means projections and other multi-media elements that will hopefully enhance the show. Our goal is to shoot a video for each of the 8 songs from the new record and then use this footage behind us, but we will see how that turns out.

JESSE: The lineup changes will definitely change how the band and pre-Longplay 2 songs will come across in a live setting. Different band members means different chemistry, and ultimately a different sound than the previous lineups. The live shows are more organic, and frankly, probably not what a lot of people would expect from us. Our level of intensity usually supersedes anything on the records, and while we’re still pretty minimal at times, we’re not interested in being CD-soundalikes. If people simply wanted to hear us play everything exactly like it sounds on the record, they would just stay home and listen to it. We’re not very good at being one-dimensional, so audiences will be in for some surprises.

Can you tell me about an atypical show? Any amusing stories that you’d care to share?

MIKE: Other than nearly getting in a fistfight with some band who thought we were taking too long to set up, not really. We’re total pacifists, but we talk a good game.

CLAY: Once I got a bit too inebriated and spray painted the doors of a club in Texas that I thought was giving us the shaft, but that was in my more youthful days. I quickly learned this is not a good way to endear yourself to club owners.

It’s always fun when people do the “hippie dance” during our slow songs. it makes me feel like I am in Widespread Panic.

I’ve read that the original album was originally entitled Longplay1, but then the title was changed when repressed. Why did this happen?

CLAY: The first record was self-titled but the press release called it Longplay1, but Howard didn’t like that title so we nixed it. I have always loved simplicity and minimalism in art and music…..why not call it what it is- our first record, our second record? …Though I doubt the third one will be Longplay3!

What albums by other artists are each of you listening to right now?

JESSE - The new Two Gallants disc is pretty amazing. I’ve been listening to it pretty consistently for a couple of months now. I’ve also been digging back into The Catherine Wheel catalog. I heard KEXP play one of their songs which I hadn’t heard since I was 15. I had forgotten how absolutely amazing that band is.

CLAY: Right now, I am in love with the Graham Nash record Songs for Beginners. The new Raveonettes is cool as well. -Oh, and the 2nd Buffalo Springfield record. -And Ricky Nelson. He was kind of in the shadow of Elvis, but he has a killer voice.

I want the next pacificUV record to have more of a 50’s influence. I am, frankly, sick to death of “dreampop” and “post rock”. The next record will be a radical departure.