Group effort

In the age where singles are more sought after than albums, local airy pop makers The Crosswalks are thriving. Their songwriting pool comes from all three members of the group and has been more than ready for the shift from the album to singles.

Unafraid of having a disjointed output, The Crosswalks embrace each member’s style, finding new ways of incorporating their respective instruments and vocal styles and opening themselves up to improvisation on what each of the others brings to the table.

“It’s not always easy to run a band in this manner,” says Dave Shur, drummer and one-third of the vocal brigade. “Everything being fair means everyone’s at least a little pissed off all the time.”

If there are frustrations in the band, then they are not evident in the group’s outpouring of music. Their first full-length album came out in 2007 and juxtaposed Shur’s Morrisey-esque voice with Brendan McCracken’s Built to Spill tempo shifting guitars, with bassist Emily Vidal giving a sunny jaunt to the driving beats making any inner frustrations take a backseat to their joyful brand of indie pop.

With what could seem like a novice’s approach to music (three songwriters coming together and pasting their songs into a single album), The Crosswalks have in fact developed through more than 12 years of playing together.

Shur and McCracken started making music when they met at Whitman College their freshman year. Twelve years and, as Shur describes it, “a ton of different projects” later the two relocated to Portland from Walla Walla, Wash. The two recorded The Crosswalks’ first EP in McCracken’s bedroom.

To fill out their sound they turned to Craigslist in search of a bassist. 

“We tried out several bassists,” Shur says, “but it was clear that Emily was the perfect third piece to the band.” With what is often revealed to be a dicey move—trusting those you meet on local message boards—The Crosswalks had found what successful bands require: trust.

“After playing together for a short while it became clear that we were all equals in the project,” Shur says about the addition of Vidal on bass. “And we began making all decisions based on consensus between the three of us.

We take turns bringing songs to the band, and everybody is given total freedom to invent their own part for each song. We discuss what songs should go on the album, what venues we want to play, etc. Everything is fair.”

But does fairness help in making the best possible album? Well, the elements that are most intriguing about their 2007 full-length release, New Ghost Lights, are the ones that bring the disparate elements together. Like in the opening track “Ghost Writer” (with lead vocals by Dave Shur) when all three voices converge in a chorus of “la da da da da da da.”

Their best songs are those that allow all of their voices to come together in such celebratory choruses. This is perhaps the best evidence for their synthesis as a band. And this is what ultimately makes the album work as an album and not just a handful of stylistically different singles.

“We’ve tried writing songs together from scratch,” Shur says. “We’ve tried covering songs that are far outside our genre as a learning process, and just recently we tried electing Brendan [lead guitar] as the sole producer of our new forthcoming EP. All of it is worthwhile because we have great respect for each other, and no matter what we try, the result is a genuine mix of the distinct musical personalities of each of us.”

Even through all their attempts to create music in different ways, The Crosswalks keep coming back to the tried and true method of each bringing in their own distinct voice. The band’s next output will come in the spring when they release a new five-song EP.

“What is our goal?” Shur asks. “I suppose the same as it’s always been, to release truly original and unique music that is honest for all of us. I know that sounds generic, but in our case it means something because we are made up of three people all capable of leading their own great band.”

Only time will tell if these are the makings of a band that is destined to go off into their own individual projects. They seem to be taking it day by day, and enjoying making music together, which is what any band should aspire towards, and in the meantime us avid listeners are more than willing to eat up the music that is offered from these three talented individuals.