Folk music in various forms has been on the upswing in the past five years, and for this reason it could be easy to miss local folk-Americana act Weinland. But in the last half-decade, this six-piece has been doing nothing but gaining steam.
Started by the band’s namesake—John Adam Weinland Shearer—the original project found Shearer toiling in solo format under the moniker John Weinland. Shearer soon acquired Aaron Pomerantz (multi-instrumentalist) to his lineup when the two met through their work in the mental health field.
Long-time friend and bass player Rory Brown moved to Portland later to join the group. The lineup played as a three-piece for a year before they became a full-fledged band with the addition of Ian Lyles (drums), Paul Christensen (piano) and Alia Farah contributing on vocals. The band took on Shearer’s last name as a moniker and began recording in earnest.
This Saturday finds Weinland releasing their second full-length album, Breaks In the Sun. The Vanguard had the chance to interview Shearer, who spoke about the upsurge of folk music, as well as what the new album holds.
Daily Vanguard: What do you think of this phenomenon of “folk-rock” acts coming out? It seems you can’t turn a corner without seeing another come up. Is this just part of the community, or does this make it harder for you as a band to get people to listen?
Adam Shearer: I think if you look at any time in our history where there is a major dissatisfaction with government, violence or financial equity you’ll find an explosion of folk music. So it makes perfect sense that in the last seven years there has been an increase in this type of music.
You can sit down and write a song about what you’re feeling with just a single instrument and a few chords, and that type of music will always be meaningful. It’s timeless. Aaron [Pomerantz] has a John Hartford shirt that says, “A banjo can get you through times with no money, but money can’t get you through times with no banjo.”
DV: What would you say to someone who says, “Oh, they’re just another folk-rock band; I have too many of those as it is”? What makes Weinland stand out from the rest of the crowd?
AS: Well, appreciation of folk songwriting is like appreciating your own story. Either it resonates with you or it doesn’t. There are lots of songwriters that sound very typical and similar from a distance, but people who know those artists can find their own distinctions.
We get compared to bands I don’t think we have anything in common with all the time, but it doesn’t bother me. People need a frame of reference when trying to consume all of the information available to them.
As far as standing out goes, I hope we’re recognized for our dedication and passion to the music we create. I pride the band on the fact that we are sincere and we would be making the same music with or without an audience.
DV: What has been going on in your lives as you write this album?
AS: In the last year we’ve driven around the entire country playing our music. All of us have lost or left our jobs for life on the road. This brings a lot of excitement as well as strain, both financially and into our relationships with our people at home.
I think Breaks In the Sun is full of stories about the road and money trouble and trying to make things work. It’s also got a lot of content about recognizing struggle and appreciating the role it plays in making things better, stronger, more productive.
DV: This is an obvious change in tone from the last album. Was there any particular cause for that?
AS: I think it’s just growth. We spent most of 2008 touring and supporting La Lamentor [Weinland’s first full-length album]. So when it came time to record Breaks in the Sun we were much more focused on music and much less focused on other things. I think this last year has been really fun and exciting and challenging, and that tone has come out in Breaks In The Sun. We’re excited and uninhibited and ready for the next step.
DV: What are some of the other changes you brought to this new album? Musically, members, etc.?
AS: We haven’t had a change in personnel in two years. That has been really nice for writing and recording. That stability let us completely forget about ourselves while recording Breaks In The Sun. We just let it happen. When we went into the studio we had maybe one finished song, everything else was spontaneous and we were recording parts as we wrote them.
Some songs were almost entirely finished before I even had any lyrics for them. You have to trust your partners for something like that to happen and be successful. It was very exciting. This record feels like an exact picture of where we were in October 2008 when we recorded it.
And in the background of that picture was the looming recession. While it is a disconcerting thought to put all one’s eggs in one basket, Weinland has the foresight, the drive and the talent to make making music a recession-proof reality.