A strong network of family members is a crucial element for indie-rock band the Fiery Furnaces. Not only is their driving force the dynamic, song-writing duo of Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger, but their upcoming double-album features a little bit of their grandmother's vocal talent as well.
"My grandmother's a funny woman... she was the choir director of her church for forty-some years. She's 83 now and she's very musical. If anyone in our family should have been making records, it should have been her. She's got a very 'diva' sort of personality," Eleanor Friedberger said in a recent interview with The Eagle.
One of the two upcoming LP's will showcase duets between elder and junior Friedberger, each taking on various age-appropriate personas for the songs.
"It was cool to get to [record] with her, finally. I wish I could have done it 20 years ago, or 15 years ago or even 10 years ago because then she would have been able to play some shows with us. It would have been amazing," Friedberger said.
Although the Fiery Furnaces are quickly becoming a family affair, the Friedberger siblings still manage to channel that traditional bond between brother and sister.
"Matt and I fight a lot," Friedberger said. "We spend more time together than other siblings do, I'm sure. We fight about how something is going to go, 'why did you look at me that way,' 'don't call me when I say I'm going to call you,' you know, whatever.
"We're quick to say nasty things to each other but we're quick to forget about it, more quickly than if your friend told you to shut the fuck up. With them, you can be mad for a couple of days, but between brother and sister you can be mad for a couple of minutes, " she said.
The parents also play a supportive role, each actively "Googling their children constantly," according to Friedberger.
As for the music, the yet-untitled release will hopefully appeal to fans of 2004's "Blueberry Boat" LP, hailed by many critics for its whimsical, adventuresome narrative style. Songs like "Quay Cur," the 10-minute opening opus, and "I Lost My Dog," a tall-tale-like account of a misguided pup and owner, are fan favorites because of the stories they tell.
"Some people complain about 'Blueberry Boat' for being too abstract. It's very wordy and doesn't make sense to people at first listen, but [the first LP] is very easy to follow stories. It's all pretty straightforward. It's really fun to listen to," Friedberger said. "The other record is made up of short, poppier songs. Maybe the people who liked our first record ['Gallowsbird's Bark'] more will like this."
Friedberger also commented on the nature of the Fiery Furnaces' music as something to be absorbed all at once. Up until their most recent tour, their live set has consisted of an explosion, mixing songs from their vast catalogue into 45 torrential minutes of upbeat, frenetic playing.
"It was fun for us, and as we got better at it, I hope it became fun for the audience. Other bands out there just aren't playing like that and we were giving them something different. I like to think that bands aren't trying to reproduce their records on stage," Friedberger said on their previous performance style.
Friedberger said that the band would be trying something that was "new for [them] and probably traditional for other bands." She assured that the Fiery Furnaces would be playing songs in their entirety and in the same order as they appear on the record, in the interest of defying expectation even further.
To many fans, "Blueberry Boat" marked the return of 'album rock,' to be heard as an entity rather than a series of interchangeable songs. The Fiery Furnaces never released a single off the album, but rather saw it accumulate widespread listener support despite the stigma of a single-less release. In the tentative community of independent music production, the Fiery Furnaces' label, U.K.-based Rough Trade Records, exhibited a great deal of faith in the band for releasing the epic tale of "Blueberry Boat."
"We are really lucky because when [Rough Trade] likes something, they are behind it 100 percent. In my mind that seems kind of arbitrary, but I think they've got good taste... for whatever reason, they like us. In the old-fashioned sense, because [Rough Trade] likes us so much, it's like 'give the artist whatever they want,'" Friedberger said.
Despite the support Rough Trade has shown for the Fiery Furnaces, Friedberger acknowledged that the label was "probably disappointed" in the album and its lack of video-quality singles that could have been released in the U.K.
"It's not like we would have been played on the radio [in the U.S.], anyway," she said.
The Fiery Furnaces, minus Grandma, will grace the stage of the 9:30 club Friday, April 8.
