ARTSzENTERTAINMENT Trevor Hargreaves, OP Musico decade after the rise of grunge, Seattle is Still a hub of great modern rock. It might not be of the flannel and angst variety, but anoth- er, more-subtle scene is in full swing. The advent of literate, self-reflective indie-rock has ound a supportive audience in this West oast city. Led by local bands such as Death ab For Cutie and The Long Winters, an overall sound has emerged and begun to flour- sh. Local record labels Barsuk, UP! and the legendary Sub Pop further this sound by sign- g similar sounding acts from other regions cluding the likes of Built To Spill, Nada Surf, Rogue Wave and Quasi. In the midst of is scene is the oft forgotten, yet revitalized act Harvey Danger. Frontman Sean Nelson sat down with Trevor Hargreaves not too long avo to discuss their latest album Little By Little, and life in the aftermath of “Flagpole Sitta.” Trevor: In the years where Harvey Danger was inactive, you certainly didn’t toil in obscurity. In fact, it could be argued that you had a fairly high pedigree of guest appearances. Perhaps you could mention some of the bands you worked with in ecent years? Sean: Well, I’ve had a history of singing back- p for Death Cab For Cutie. I did two songs on the Photo Album, one song on Transatlantism, and a song on the new one. I was also on the Decemberists album Picaresque for a couple songs. s it that you have great taste in music, or talented friends? ither way, I’m very honoured to be in their company. ou also played in The Long Winters for a while. Was it painful to leave that project? Yeah, Long Winters is John Roderick’s baby and I was sort of a mid wife for it. I really am proud of the work that I did and I loved that experience, we're really good friends and I think he’s a genius songwriter, but there came a point where I needed to either devote my life to being in the Long Winters, or devote my life to something else, and I chose something else. Do you have any particular memories of touring Canada? ‘Actually, one show does come to mind. I have great memories of playing The Starfish Room in Vancouver. We had been on tour for a while, and things weren’t going particularly well at the time internally for the band, but Death Cab For Cutie were opening for us on that tour, and it was their first time on the road. And I remember being somewhat stressed and tired and what- not, and just seeing Ben Gibbard go off on stage. And it was really the first time I realized just how amazing they were and he was just so happy to be up there, that it really inspired me. ‘The Harvey Danger story up to this point seems like it was one of those “surprise hit” tales where the band ends up getting chewed up by the corporate music money machine. Would you agree? Well, our second album was almost one hundred times the budget of the first record, which we made for around three thousand bucks. The second one was made for a full major label budget of almost two hundred thousand dollars. But the label had imploded at that point. And we maybe tried to be intentionally less commercial or whatever. The thing is, the first time ound, we had no intention of any kind other than to just record, and the fact that it wound ap being commercial was just a testament that people liked what we did and that you can do omething really snappy and you don’t need a big fancy budget. And we didn’t pay attention to that lesson at all the second time. We were sort of followed through all the classic “rock band ma major label” tropes. I really like our second album King James Version and I’m proud of it. d the fact that it came out the way it did, in a really half-assed way, has been sort of haunt- g me ever since I must say. It’s a big part of why we broke up. It’s a big part of why we got back together. It’s significant that Little By Little came out five years and one day after King James Version. 1 have to say that when we got the new records delivered to us by the manufacturer, hen I saw it, and held it in my hand and touched it to my face and rolled around in a giant ile of them, I really felt like five years of anxiety had been lifted from my shoulders. In a c real, concrete way. | laeditor@gmail.com Harvey Danger: Revitalizing Their areer: Little By Little PHOTO BY ANGELA BLATTM/ If the release of Little By Little builds into another “big thing,” will you drop life : hit the road long term after that call of success? No, I’m not doing that again. That’s not how we’re built. Last time, we did that because “Flagpole Sitta” was so huge on video and radio, and the momentum of it was so present we had no sense of what it meant to say yes or no to anything. So we signed on with a ma label because we had run out of all the records we had pressed. And they said “we’ll meet need” and there was need. And we were selling tons of records and all the doors were ope for us and we just went through them. But it was pretty clear right away that they weren’t doors that were going to stay open and in a lot of cases, they weren’t doors that I was evet interested in being in the rooms they led to. It was an interesting experience, but it was a v tion on the success story that was pretty unsatisfying even as it was happening. Even thous was great to reach that many people, you can’t argue with people liking your music, althous try I did, and it just didn’t feel right, it didn’t feel like us. Did video and radio introduce a fanbase you had trouble relating to? Yes. And frankly I didn’t deal with that particularly well. You are probably one of the few musicians who delineate on subjects such as “how much success do I really want.” We had gotten to a point in Seattle where we could sell out places like the Crocodile Club, rooms of 500. The peak of our local Seattle career was Valentine’s Day of ‘98. We played shows in town, one all-ages and one over 21, at two different clubs and commandingly sol them out. And that was the night that a lot of record people came and we were still a “Sez band” and we had been struggling for four or five years in a way that meant something. A: that success just felt great. You would look out in the crowd and see your friends, and ther bunch of people you didn’t know who were also like your friends. And that’s really what t in a band was about for us. And does instant success spoil all of that? Maybe we'd get a day off, maybe the odd week off, but then we'd have to go to Europe. / it sounds inane to complain about it, that’s ridiculous. And ’m not complaining about it, € ly. But when you just want to sleep and be at home, and you feel like you’re caught up in s thing you don’t have any control over, even if it’s good, then it’s easy to sort of bristle at ii But then again, a big part of that is being twenty-four and not knowing who you are. So y it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It’s good to see you have a firm grasp on where you were, but where you want to bi Yeah, it'll all be much more on our terms now. I just like to make music — what can I tell