Nearly a decade removed from their time in Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Cave Singers are on the cusp of releasing their fifth studio album, Banshee, on February 19. Myspace talked to singer Peter Quirk about the new album, author John Cheever and what Banshee means to him. 

Homebase: Seattle, WA

Did you guys have a vision for this album before you went into it? 

Not an overall vision, but I think we wanted to make a little bit of a darker record compared to (2011’s) No Witch, a record we had made previously. We decided to record this record with the same engineer and producer (Randall Dunn). But initially when we started writing and creating the record we just let it come out. This is the record where we took the most time writing and didn’t feel any pressure to get it finished at any certain point.

Could you tell it was coming together right off the bat? 

When we got together, when Derek (Fudesco) and I got together and then with Marty (Lund) it just started right away. It felt we were making something different, something we had never made before in terms of the content. It seemed new, it seemed very different to me.

Was it tough paring it down to the final track list? 

You always think you have more of anything. With the songs I think by the time you get to the end of recording you find which ones are grouping themselves together as sort of a cohesive whole. They almost decide for themselves. 

What did the producer, Randall Dunn, bring to the album?  

He just brings a lot of interesting ideas. He produces a lot of different sounds and creates soundscapes and using his expertise and the dark arts of audio production. It was something we were interesting in doing. It felt like these songs had a dark mystical feel. So he brought that. He’s also just a really excellent technical engineer. We wanted it to be a louder, more rock and roll kind of album.

The opening song “That’s Why,” how did that song come about?

That’s the first song I can remember that we wrote with drums and electric bass which Derek plays. Derek actually found that bass online, he just thought it was a cool bass and bought it and then just wrote that riff on the bass. He started playing it and we wrote ‘That’s Why’ in one sitting almost. Then we polished it and I carved out more lyrics that probably made more sense than what came out initially. 

A lot of the songs got written pretty quickly. They almost came out formed in a way, not completely, fully formed but they were like, ‘Whoa!’ We were kind of surprised. 

Do you guys have a hard time letting go of a song?  

I do. I have a hard time letting go of lots of things. But I think the practice of letting go in terms of music and probably just in general of life is a good practice to be mindful of. But it’s hard because you’re writing a song – in this case three guys writing a song – and everyone wants it to be the best that it can be. We’re really good at that working as this collective unit. And so most of the time we’re pretty unanimous about the changes or when we’re done or is this done. Sometimes it just feels right. 

What was the inspiration for “The Swimmer”?  

The Swimmer is a story by John Cheever. It’s a short story about this guy who is basically an alcoholic drinking his way across this neighborhood swimming through all these different pools. He’s oblivious to other people’s reactions to him being there. And you can see from their reactions that he may have some relationships with them or that they’re resentful towards him. I remember seeing that movie and reading that story so it’s sort of based off that in a way lyrically in tone. The music is supposed to be a representation to me of that landscape, that suburban nightmare in a way.

Why did you decide on naming this album Banshee? 

We were interested in having a one-word title. I like one-word titles for things so Banshee seemed to fit with me and the lyrical content and the feeling of the record. It has a haunting, warning, ghostly vibe in a way. That’s what made me think of Banshee. And Banshee has always been something that scared me when I was a kid because I knew about it from my heritage.