The_Commandant

This isn't a question, but I just have to say that my high school Wind Ensemble performed "Sleep" and "Lux Aurumque" last year, and they're absolutely wonderful pieces. Sleep is simply one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. Every time I played it I got chills.

It's composers like you that inspire me to write music!

Edit: Holy Christ, I just realized that you wrote Godzilla Eats Las Vegas! I played that at my very first concert with high school's audition only Wind Ensemble. As a trombonist, I loved the laughing effects we got to do. I still remember playing that piece like it was yesterday, despite it having been nearly four years ago! Thanks for all the great memories your music has inspired!

And here's an actual question. What makes you write a piece like Sleep, and then something like Godzilla Eats Las Vegas? Do you go into these pieces with a certain mindset of "I'm going to write a zany story piece", "I'm going to write a choral", etc? Or is it more organic than that?

Colin,

A few questions about my favorite Decemberists song, "California One":

1) The guitar at the start of "California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade" is without a doubt the most goddamn majestic thing I've ever heard and one of my favorite acoustic guitar riffs/chord sequences. What was the writing process like for the song?

2) Was "California One/Youth and Beauty Brigade" always conceptualized as one song, or was it initially two songs that you realized worked best together?

3) The middle features an excerpt from Archangel, which ends with one of the most beautiful lines I've ever heard: "If I were such a ghost I would stay so close to you, you could feel my breath on your cheek." What made you put that in the song, and does it have personal significance to you? I suppose it's always felt personal to me.

Also, I'm seeing you at the Ryman in April, and if you could play California One it would be amazing. I haven't yet seen you play it. (I was at the Murat show for Hazards of Love in 2009 and Louisville for The King is Dead in 2011.)

PS: I share your love for "Tristan & Iseult" from the Tarkio days.