.Otherworldly Instrumentals

Pelican's muti-style metamorphism is a virtue of modern progression.

Pelican’s music eludes being pegged into any genre — or
subgenre, for that matter. On the surface, the Chicago band appears to
play instrumental rock, but even that’s subverted by its utter
progression and attention to dynamics. Think of it like heavy rock for
outer space — otherworldly headbanging music.

Spawned from the band Tusk, Pelican couples heaviness with hooks to
achieve melody. However, unlike bands that use hooks to tiresome
effect, Pelican lets its hookier moments develop naturally. A little
harmony goes a long way for Pelican, notes drummer Larry Herweg.

“Since we don’t have a vocalist, the melodies a lot of the time make
up for that,” he said. The hook “lets people wrap their minds around it
and makes the songs memorable.”

Despite not having a singer, Pelican still achieves tunefulness
— not an easy task for a lot of instrumental bands. And don’t
expect that to change. “We just never had a singer,” said Herweg. “If
it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

Sounding epic without feeling tedious and winding, the four-piece
uses heavy dynamics to create both aggression and comfort. The music is
fast without being chaotic, soothing yet not delicate. Such balance is
achieved through the flexibility of the members. “I think the band has
to be dynamic to be interesting, being an instrumental band,” said
Herweg. “That is one of the most important factors of the band because
the songwriting dynamic and the changes is what is going to keep
people’s attention.”

Herweg says the new album, What We All Come to Need, which
will be released October 27, fleshes out some of the band’s prior
explorations. “I think it is a lot of the things we wanted to try with
City of Echoes,” he said, referring to their last CD. “We had a
lot of cool ideas, but I think some of the execution fell short.” So
far, only one of the new songs, “Strung up from the Sky,” has been
released on the band’s MySpace page, but Herweg says the new album is
unique in at least one way for Pelican: the last track “Final Breath”
has vocals on it.

Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that the recording process went
more smoothly for this record, too. “We had a little more time to sit
in on it and really focus on. We keep in mind all the records of the
past and we come up with the best of all three on this new one.”

Part of that ease could be due to the band’s new label. Signed to
Hydra Head since its self-titled EP in 2001, Pelican switched to
Southern Lord for its fourth album. The band makes a great addition to
the Southern Lord roster, which has housed many genre-transcending acts
in the heavy realm, such as Boris, Burning Witch, Earth, and Om.
Pelican sees the label change as both as an opportunity for
metamorphosis and the start of a new era. “We’re hoping to loosen
things up; it’s a fresh start in a way,” said Herweg.

The band has always put a premium on pushing boundaries, not unlike
their forebears Isis and Neurosis. And the members have no qualms being
compared to them. “I remember seeing Neurosis in the mid-Nineties and
being totally blown away,” Herweg recalled. “Their later records, they
got into this psychedelic metal that paved the way for such bands as
Isis. They definitely inspired us to want to write longer songs with
more involved structures.”

On any given Pelican album, there is an impeccable sense of
atmosphere, reminiscent of both spacey and post-rock acts, but with a
heavier slant. “We want to take the audience on a journey” said Herweg.
“On some of those early records, some of those songs are breaking
twelve-minute marks, and we wanted people’s minds to wander and allow
the listener to get lost in the music. … I think it is our job to
keep it as interesting as possible and not fall into cookie-cutter
songs and the mainstream mentality when it comes to songwriting.”

Unable to be pigeonholed, Pelican has toured with bands as diverse
as Thrice, Zozobra, and Wolves in the Throne Room, playing everything
from festivals to small halls. While the band looks to the future with
many more projects, Herweg said he’s unsure what they want to explore
in the future. “I think once we tour and play these songs to death,
that is when we know what to do next,” he said. “You then know what you
still like, and what will stand the test of time.”

But Herweg says the most vital element to Pelican’s success is “the
drive and our inspiration. This is all we ever wanted to do: be in a
band, write songs that are unique, and go into new territory.”

The band has certainly achieved that.

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