An Interview with Nils Petersen of Rose Windows, CHBP 2013

Rose Windows
Rose Windows

Rose Windows

Rose Windows

Rose Windows Band Photo thumbnail
Rose Windows Band Photo thumbnail

This Saturday, June 27th, catch Rose Windows on the Main Stage at Capitol Hill Block Party @ 3:30 p.m.

Describing Rose Windows isn’t easy. I rewrote this paragraph over and over — probably six or seven times. I started with psychedelic Native America. (Nope.) Gritty folk? (Almost.) Gypsy rock? (Not quite.)

I imagine myself listening to Rose Windows while walking through a post-apocalyptic, Cormac McCarthy-esque world. Their music is terrifying (in the best way), but also beautiful and tender.

On Friday afternoon, I spoke with guitarist Nils Petersen over the phone about Rose Windows’ ascent to the top of Seattle with The Sun Dogs on Sub Pop Records. While the band has achieved a lot since February, they are starting to think less about achieving perfection on stage, and more about rediscovering the raw energy they thrive off of.

I saw yesterday that you’re opening for Modest Mouse in Reno. What have these past couple months been like after signing on to Sub Pop in February? Has it all been a little surreal?

Definitely a large amount of it is really surreal. It’s totally a dream come true for all of us. It’s amazing that all these opportunities have opened up just because of having that name associated with us. Also, it’s an amazing staff that does a huge amount of work just because they love the artists they work with.

You don’t seem to be a band to choose a label because of their name though. Why sign with them over other labels?

We’ve always liked their conviction and music throughout the 25 years that they’ve been doing it. They’ve held themselves to a very strong power but also in a very humbling manner. They don’t take themselves too seriously. I think it’s still less than 30 employees. It’s still a very small — almost grass roots — campaign that throughout 25 years they’ve figured out how to do in a successful manner.

So it’s still a personal label? You feel like you get to know everyone?

Yeah, I’m on a first name basis with a lot of the staff there and sometimes we just hang out to have a drink — not even about business. It’s very conducive to the creative aspect of what we’re doing.

You guys have been touring a lot. Do you feel pretty comfortable on the road?

We do great on the road. I’d actually say we’re more comfortable on the road than we are at home. Because there are seven of us, we had to learn quickly that there are certain things that never work on the road. And there’s certain things that work to our advantage that we’ve come to embrace. We treat each other like family and we’re a very close, tight knit group.

I read that Pat Schowe (drummer) said that you’re the “papa of the band.” Could you explain that more? Do you keep everyone in line?

For all intensive purposes, I’m the manager of the band and that goes ten fold when we are on the road. I make sure we are on schedule; I’m the one who contacts all the venues and finds out what we need to know. I still hand out some of the tasks, like cooking. For example, David is definitely the cook of the band and comes out with a lot of the meal plans.

I’ve also heard you guys had some bad luck at shows in the past — playing at sushi bars, teeth getting knocked out and such. But your most recent tour stops have been at pretty impressive venues. Do you ever miss the uncertainty of it all? The element of surprise?

There’s a little bit of that. We did this impromptu show last Friday at Hollow Earth Radio which is an online radio station. But then every once in a while they have really intimate sets. On one hand we were doing it to help our buddies who were touring through from Austin, but also they did a live broadcast and turned it into a podcast.

It was very conducive to the basement setting shows we grew up with. It was just fun. There’s the element of raw energy that is hard to recapture when you’re in a more professional setting. Through these last couple of tours, we’ve been figuring out how to bring back that raw energy. For a while it was all about, How do we perform to the best of our abilities? How we do make sure the musicianship is there? We wanted to be tight. We wanted make sure the songs were played perfectly. And now that we’ve started to get past that and feel comfortable again, we are able to bring back that energy.

You guys are really supportive of the ladies of La Luz. Can you tell me about your relationship with them?

I knew Shana through her previous band The Curious Mystery and I’m good friends with one of the members of that band. Oddly enough, when they picked up Alice to play keyboards, I found out that Alice and I went to college together. We were both in the same arts program. We just have a very strong affinity for what they’re doing. It’s amazing music and they are all so down to earth and very wonderful human beings. We’ve been able to play a couple of shows with them, and they are always our top choice if we have the chance to get another band on. It’s always a joy and blessing when we get to share the stage together. We’re really stoked that they got moved from Neumos to the Main Stage!

So many bands lately use technology as a crutch. Did you consciously look to explore different areas of music with The Sun Dogs or have you always been musically curious?

For the most part, we’re all very musically curious. We all come from very early backgrounds of music. I myself started playing the violin when I was two years old, and then when I was around nine years old I started the piano and continued with that into my 20s. I picked up the guitar in my teenage years and I played the trombone in band. I also sang for many years. And that’s kind of the story with a lot of us. We’ve always had this innate draw to study music and learn more about it.

Some of the sounds from The Sun Dogs seem like it’s coming from an anthropology class I took in college or something. (Laughs)

(Laughs) There’s definitely an anthropological aspect to our album. And we take pride in that. We’re able to use the technology of today and obtain information quickly. But instead of using that as mindless fodder, we are using it for knowledge.

Could you tell me more about your video for “Wartime Lovers”? What was the message you were trying to convey?

In the end, we threw out all the messages we thought of putting together. We had this idea of escapism versus inclusion and doing this video where the main person is missing out on all these things. I think there’s a very loose tie to that. But mostly, it was a project where we had eight days to come up with a concept and film it all before the director had to go on to the next city. Originally, we thought about traveling out to the Peninsula or going to other locations…but then we decided to keep it in Seattle. It was four days of shotting and doing two to three scenes a day.

Ultimately, we just decided to make it a little zany. We feel like there is this serious edge to our music and we want to make sure that people know we have a sense of humor.

Do you have any memories from CHBP?

I’ve only been to Block Party once as a spectator. But last year I worked the entire weekend at The Comet and it was really fun because I got to watch everything on the Main Stage. I definitely had a lot of one-off, by chance, relationships with people as they would hang out for an hour before moving on to something else. That was really fun, but I thoroughly enjoyed Neko Case. Not only is she a phenomenal musician and has an amazing cast of talented musicians to back her, but she’s also really vulgar!

She’s really funny! I just remember she could not handle the guy in the eagle costume in the window. (Laughs)

(Laughs) Yeah! That was hilarious.