The Stool Pigeon music newspaper

In the liner notes to Fleet Foxes’ ‘Sun Giant’ EP, there’s a semi-fictitious story which asks what the area where New York stands today might have looked like almost 500 years ago, and questions the significance of music in the natural world. It’s a perfect introduction to the Seattle quintet.

Beardy and bound by tradition, Fleet Foxes are steeped in history but there’s also a progressive, rebellious nature to their music, something which chief songwriter and singer Robin Pecknold puts down to the ubiquitous grunge legacy of his home city.
“I have a huge respect for the likes of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but I don’t think that sort of music really spoke to the people of Seattle in the way the media made it out to,” he says. “I mean, it was great having a spotlight on the city, but the music scene’s always been a lot more diverse than that.”
Nowadays the mecca for any budding guitar-based band seems to be Seattle’s neighbouring major city, Portland, but Pecknold admits to having no particular musical allegiance to either area. “I inherited my father’s acoustic guitar when I was 14 and I guess it was inevitable that his record collection would come with it,” he says, laughing. “I used to burrow myself away in the basement and just sit for hours teaching myself Neil Young and Dylan.”
With best friend and fellow guitarist Skye Skjelset, Pecknold used his lunch breaks to set up impromptu recording sessions in his school’s science lab.

“It was a pretty surreal experience trying to make music with all these chemicals and equipment nearby,” he continues, “but it was the only place where we could get any quiet. Besides, I think immersing myself in music like that got rid of the awful possibility of actually having to decide what to do with my life.”

Soon the pair hooked up with drummer Nick Peterson, keyboardist Casey Westcott and bassist Christian Wargo and, with a little help from Modest Mouse and Built To Spill producer Phil Ek, the newly christened Fleet Foxes began work on their self-titled debut.

“We recorded the album in our basement over the course of about six months,” says Pecknold. “We took the decision early on to make the sessions a strictly close-knit affair. We’d been getting some label interest, but it was really important for us to hide ourselves away and produce music untainted by outside influence.”

The isolation, like it did with Bon Iver’s immaculate debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, clearly paid off. Meditative but never mournful, each song on the album effortlessly segues into the next led by an army of ornate instrumentation, including banjos, mandolins, organs and drums, all beautifully married to delicate guitar pluckings and soaring Beach Boys-style harmonies.

“You’ve never lived until you’ve sang a harmony, man,” laughs Pecknold. “I used to do a lot of community theatre stuff when I was young where we’d deconstruct songs by groups like Fleetwood Mac and Fairport Convention and it’s still the one thing in music I’m most passionate about - the release you get from a harmony is just amazing.”

Although Fleet Foxes stay clear of direct references to religion, there’s a definite hymnal quality to their tunes, as Pecknold acknowledges: “Although I don’t come from a particularly religious background myself, I’ve always been inspired by that sense of power you get in worship songs,” he says. “It’s something I really admire in band’s such as Vetiver and Brightblack Morning Light.”

Full of otherworldly imagery, the music of Fleet Foxes is pitched at the intersection of reality and fantasy. “Every song starts with a real occurrence, but as they develop they take on a more fictional guise. The lyrics are mostly inspired by the people around me, but I find it easier to present my thoughts in an abstract way.”

Album closer ‘Oliver James’ is undoubtedly the best example of this. Over gentle taps of the hollow of his guitar, Peckfold reaches a soaring a cappella; his vocals repeatedly looped before fading out to a chorus of hisses and crackles. It’s heartbreaking stuff.

Perhaps the most incongruous aspect of Fleet Foxes is how a sound so evocative of rural America could be produced in the concrete jungle of the city. “I guess the sound depends on your lifestyle rather than your environment,” reasons Pecknold. “We never intended it to sound so rural, but we’d be pretty disappointed if we’d created a record that sounded like The Strokes or something.”

Although incredibly accomplished, the album gives you a sense of a band whose sound has the potential to develop in a whole range of uncharted directions. “We don’t stock up ideas, we put everything into whatever song we’re working on at the time,” says Pecknold enthusiastically. “I guess songs for us are like stepping stones - they’re a reflection of where we are when we wrote them. I’d definitely agree that we’re in a process of continual growth.”

With a rumoured five-album deal with Sub Pop, a diary full of sold-out shows, all members still in their early twenties - not to mention all the buzz surrounding their debut - life seems pretty sweet for Fleet Foxes right now. But, does their newfound success faze the group who like to keep everything close to home?

“None of us are striving for stardom, we just want to keep making music as long as we can,” states Pecknold plainly. “It’s cool to get recognised for what you do but life hasn’t changed much; I still have to take the dogs for a walk and put out the garbage each morning… well, at least on the days when I’m not halfway around the world.”