Owen Pallett is the man behind the strings on Arcade Fire’s albums, The Last Shadow Puppets and Suitcase Orchestra favourite Luxury Pond. He’s also just released the excellent Heartland album and has kindly completed the Suitcase Orchestra Q&A.

If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?

Couldn’t say, really.  I always like to discover music on my own accord, so I’m hesitant to play my own shit for people.

You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?

Tomita’s album of Debussy pieces seems suitable.

What was the last album you bought?

I bought Vampire Weekend last weekend because I liked the album cover.

Tell us an interesting fact.

Anne Murray has a daughter named Dawn Langstroth.  If she and Dave Longstreth had a son, his name could be Dan Langstroth-Longstreth.

Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.

Larkin Grimm is really pushing all my buttons lately.  She has a concert up on NYCTaper that is a must-listen.

What film would you be a character in?

Ennh, probably Richard E Grant in something.

Recommend a book.

Haven’t been reading anything heavy lately, mostly Kingsley Amis, it’s great on tour.

What’s the worst record in your collection?

I stopped grading records.

What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.

You’re doing fine!

Owen Pallett’s myspace is here.

Ignore the fact that one of the stand out tracks on this album is called Summerland and you have the very essence of a wintry album. Sparse yet pretty, clear and crisp, The Woodlands sparkle like the frostiest of January mornings.

Nothing is rushed, nothing is overblown – it’s all very simplistic stuff, but very beautiful with it. Essentially the strummed musings of married couple Hannah and Samuel Robertson, the songs are added their frosty shimmer by sporadically dropping in strings, piano, accordion and glockenspiel overlaid with Hannah’s vocals which are not so much whispered as sighed. This is an album which demands that you listen to it with strained ears.

‘Such light shines so bright through the winter’ Hannah sings on the album’s closing track, neatly summing up the album’s contribution to the Suitcase Orchestra playlist over the last few weeks.

They have also done the Suitcase Orchestra Q & A, below, in which they give the best answer that anyone has ever, or will ever, give to the question What is the worst record in your collection?

If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?

Hannah:  If only one, then Summerland.  The song came from a deep and beautiful well I found within myself.  It was like meeting a truer version of myself.  It tells of a land that I had dreamed of and longed for and found inside me all at the same time.  Beautiful and magical and enchanting!  It is both figurative and literal.  Summerland is probably my favourite song on the album.  I feel like after writing this song, something was solidified in my mind and I began to believe in myself as a songwriter and what Samuel and I were creating together.  It was a swirly, euphoric moment, and the song has always reminded me of it ever since.

Samuel:  Summerland is a good representation of a lot of the elements that show up in our songs on the album.  It has an innocent and untainted quality, without being naïve to the threads of darkness that run concurrently through the experience.  It has a quality of otherness.  Both mysterious and familiar.   It is a poetic song with images and melodies that continue to echo in your head long after listening.

You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?

Wow.  So much pressure.  Not only making all the necessary preparations for space travel to the moon (do they even have in-flight snacks anymore?), but also the tremendous pressure of choosing just one album?  An album that not only defies exclusion, but gravity as well?  At least we can choose two between us, and share them with each other when we get there.  So together we choose:

Seabear – The Ghost That Carried Us Away

MGMT  –  Oracular Spectacular

What was the last album you bought?

Hannah:  Au Revoir Simone – Still Night, Still Light

Samuel:   Florence & The Machine – Lungs

Tell us an interesting fact.

If you mean an interesting fact in general:  More children, women and men are held in slavery right now than over the course of the entire trans-Atlantic slave trade (International Justice Mission).

If you mean an interesting fact about us:  We both speak Spanish.

If you mean an interesting fact about our music:  We have two songs (Until The Day Dims and Day To Day) featured in a newly released international feature film from Greenland called Nuummioq that makes its world premier at the Sundance Film Festival and then off to more of the international festival circuit.  We are excited.

Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.

Folded Light

Catherine Feeny

Horse In The Sea

What film would you be a character in?

Hannah:  Chocolat

Samuel:   Hawaii, Oslo

Recommend a book.

Hannah: The Great Divorce – C.S. Lewis

Samuel: The History Of Love – Nicole Krauss

What’s the worst record in your collection?

Samuel:  In ninth grade my friend Ben Merris and I joined together as a doubles tennis team, mostly as a joke because neither of us had played tennis before.  Our record during the regular season was 0-9.  That’s zero wins and nine losses.  As in, we lost every single match.  At the end of the season, every team from every school in the city was allowed to participate in the city tournament.  The big dance.  Shockingly enough, we won our first match.  Shock upon shock, we won our next match.  Inexplicably, and to the utter astonishment of every soul in sight, we won the next as well.

A gradual buzz began to build around the tournament that some miscreant loser doubles team was slicing through the competition and steadily advancing.  We were those miscreants.  Tennis miscreants on fire.  Our miraculous ascent through the junior high pantheon of tennis elites simply could not be foiled.  Something just happened, some mistroke of fortune or stroke of misfortune, and we were hurled through the tournament brackets with our rackets blazing and our eyes gazing incredulously ahead at the little plastic tennis-man coated with a gold glaze that sat atop a faux-marble base with a little brass placard awaiting the engraving of the tournament winners’ names.  Our names.

We marched through five straight glorious matches to get to the championship, where we fought a close and embittered battle and seized a well-undeserved victory.  With upturned hands and brows, with murmurs and grumblings from astounded and unquestionably higher calibre opponents, and with a euphoric disbelief at the feat we had accomplished, Ben and I walked through a shower of applause that swelled from hesitation to elation as we claimed our trophy that decreed the worst and best record of our lives.

What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.

What do you enjoy in life outside of music?

Hiking through Forest Park in the Portland hills.  Making our own kombucha tea.  We love watching foreign films at home, finding affordable happy hour food specials, laughing ridiculously with friends, visiting family, travelling to new places with new adventures, inventing recipes, brainstorming art ideas, eating olives, browsing second-hand stores, showering together at night, talking about Europe, make fun of each other’s quirks, hoping.

The Woodlands can be found here.

To celebrate the release of their third long player, Die Stadt Muzikanten, in their native Canada , Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton found a bunch of answers to go with the questions we sent him. Amazingly, they match up. Almost.

While you read this ingenious coupling of question and answer, have a listen to Empty-Hall Sing-Along from Woodpigeon’s new album.Empty-Hall Sing-Along

If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?

Whenever I’m asked this question, I always think of the most recent song I’ve recorded or written. I think the most recent song one finishes is always the most accurate portrait of who you are musically at that exact moment. (And the song I’m thinking of is part of an EP project for later in 2010).

You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?

Most likely something timeless. There’s a piece by Brahms that wakes me up every morning that I don’t think I could live without. (More specifically, it’s the Concerto for violin, violincello and orchestra in A-minor).

What was the last album you bought?

John Jacob Niles’ ‘The Ballads of John Jacob Niles’.

Tell us an interesting fact.

It’s impossible to keep your eyes open when you sneeze. (Your eyes would fall out).

Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.

A trio of wonderful friends: Laura Leif (aka The Secret Brothers), Ryan Doyle, and Kris Ellestad.

What film would you be a character in?

Sometimes I feel that my life is enough of a movie as it is. But since I get to choose, I’d probably select someone who lives a long happy life (and scores the hottest guy).

Recommend a book.

‘Life: A User’s Manual’ by Georges Perec.

What’s the worst record in your collection?

It’s long gone — I did a clear-away of that stuff about 8 months ago and haven’t looked back.

What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.

Write your own questions! Otherwise, how about, “Would you prefer cash or cheque for your time?” Ha.

Die Stadt Muzikanten is released on January 12th on Boompa Records in Canada.

He’s Howard Robot and he’s My Robot Friend. He’s released his third album, the electro-folk-pop mash-up that is Soft Core and he has provided the A to our Q.

If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?

Robot High School because it has a secret agenda. I can’t tell you what the secret agenda is though because then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, and that’s no fun.

You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?

Astral Weeks by Van Morrison. It is my favourite album of all time. I never get tired of it. Plus its title is celestially themed and that is a bonus for the whole moon trip.

What was the last album you bought?

Memory Tapes “Seek Magic”. It is my album of the year so far.

Tell us an interesting fact.

We are all robots.

Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.

Sleeping States’ “There the Open Spaces” is a few years old but magically interesting. Talk Talk’s “Spirit of Eden” is even older, but beautiful and strangely underappreciated.

What film would you be a character in?

Tron2

Recommend a book.

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It is a love it or leave it proposition though. If you aren’t enthralled after the first 100-200 pages, just walk away.

What’s the worst record in your collection?

It is an album called “Picking Up Girls Is Easy,” sort of a how-to record. It is delightfully terrible.

What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.

Not this one. Really. It hurts my brain and sends it into a recursive loop. I have to shut down and reboot every time you ask it.

Soft Core by My Robot Friend is available now, check it out here.

They wrote the song which named this website, they have their own record label, Double Feauture Records, and now Britta Phillips from Dean and Britta has completed the Suitcase Orchestra Q & A.

If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?

Night Nurse… because it’s my favorite.

You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?

Velvet Underground LIVE 1969

What was the last album you bought?

Velvet Underground box set

Tell us an interesting fact.

My 10-year-old step-son has a million of them, but I can’t remember one.

Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.

Moondog… Cheval Sombre… Stereo Total

What film would you be a character in?

L’Avventura

Recommend a book.

Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes:
I wish it were required reading for every American.

What’s the worst record in your collection?

Britta: We have a huge vinyl and CD collection, so it would take way too long to figure that out… but I’m not fond of the new compilation in MoJo, “Man Machine.” There are a few good songs on it, though.

What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please

What do you experience when listening to a song you love?
Well… that depends on the particular song, of course, but often it is a similar
feeling to watching someone you are madly in love with from far, far away…

Find out more…

Dean & Britta here

Double Feature Records here

Destiny Disrupted: A History Of The World Through Islamic Eyes here

Dan Goldman goes by the name Luxury Pond. He has a new self-titled album out and he appears to have a My Little Pony tattoo. He has also taken time out to answer the Suitcase Orchestra Q & A.

If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?

Boulders

You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?

Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin

What was the last album you bought?

Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle by Bill Callaghan
Tell us an interesting fact.

According to the book Tree by David Suzuki, it’s still not known exactly how a tree pumps water from its roots to its leaves. Some say surface tension, some say osmosis, but “the currently favored hypotheses is that evaporation from the leaves creates a vacuum behind it, and the vacuum draws water up through the xylem.”

Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.

Snowblink

What film would you be a character in?

Crossroads and/or the Karate Kid

Recommend a book.

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCuller

What’s the worst record in your collection?

Well, they’re all pretty great, but I think there may be a Plastic Ono primal therapy one in the bunch.

What question should I always ask in a Q & A? And answer it please.

I’ll offer a question you should never ask instead:

What comes first, the lyrics or the music?

FInd out more about Luxury Pond HERE.

Andrew Morgan has just released one of 2009’s outstanding albums, ‘Please Kid, Remember’. He’s also answered some questions we sent him:

If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?

Probably Leaves/Please Kid, Remember (which is really one composition, but split into two tracks) because I feel like it pretty much encapsulates the kind of music I’ve tried to make thus far.

You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?

Definitely the 50th Anniversary Edition of Kind of Blue by Miles Davis because 1) it’s been my favorite album for 12 years and I still listen to it constantly, and 2) it comes with about extra hour of music via outtakes, alternate versions, and a bonus disc.

What was the last album you bought?

Kingdom of Rust by Doves

Tell us an interesting fact.

The sound the wind makes is in a minor key.

Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.

Julie London, and her songs Dark, About the Blues, Bouquet of Blues, Meaning of the Blues, and Blues, All I Ever Had. I know very little about her, and discovered her music sheerly through chance, but have been absolutely transfixed by its film noir aura for the past 2 years. Haunting stuff.

What film would you be a character in?

A fun question to think about! While I’d love to sneak my way into the new Jason Bourne film that’s in development, I’d probably fit better in a Wes Anderson film as a character in the mold of Rushmore’s Max Fischer.

Recommend a book.

Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky

Would you rather a number 1 record or lasting respect from musicians you admire?

The latter, though I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive (i.e. The Beatles). I love the story of Doves, who had a hit song as Sub Sub, then were able to channel that success into the time and resources needed to develop into the phenomenal band they’ve been for the past decade.

What question should I always ask in a Q & A?

“What are your Top 5 Favorite Albums of All Time?” It’s a stock question, but something I’m always interested to know…

so, my current All Time Top 5 is

05. Nico – Chelsea Girls

04. Elliott Smith – XO

03. Radiohead – In Rainbows

02. Yann Tiersen – Amelie

01. Miles Davis – Kind of Blue

The next group would be

Nick Drake – Five Leaves Left

The Zombies – Odessey and Oracle

Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of the Bewilderbeast

The Strokes – Is This It

The Smiths – The Queen is Dead

And new album most likely to crack the list is Fleet Foxes S/T.

Andrew Morgan’s latest album, ‘Please Kid, Remember’ is available now through Broken Horse Records.