Bruised and Breaking Issue #38

Caroline Polachek and Aaron Pfenning spill on their influences, their sound, and that coveted iPod bump

By Emily Elhaj
Published: December 1st, 2008 | 12:00am

After meeting at a Cat Power show, Aaron Pfenning and Caroline Polachek became friends and bandmates — eventually heading east from Colorado for school and a little change of scenery. What they found, in addition to a fine arts education, was a receptive and well-tempered atmosphere for their music.

At first listen, it’s tempting to assume that this Brooklyn trio anchors their roots in the same soil that Cocteau Twins, Kate Bush, and the Cure cultivated and called home. Surprisingly, when asked about their influences, neither member had heard the band Cocteau Twins until the recent comparisons. “None of us, at least while we were making the album, were listening to ‘80s music,” says Pfenning. This yields the question; Where did Chairlift’s industrial sound and vintage instrumentation for their debut album, Does You Inspire You? come from?

Recorded over the course of nine months (while Polachek was attending university in New York), the sound and tone of Chairlift’s album was hammered out with the help of producer Britt Myers, and some hidden influences; “Brian Eno’s Another Green World was kind of my ideal album structure. David Bowie’s Low was another album that I was really psyched to try and imitate,” Polacheck admits. “Interspersing pop songs, fragmented rock songs, and ambient, almost classical numbers all together — yet have it be this seamless stream of thought. [Similar to] a trip, kind of like a journey.”

So what, exactly, does that journey sound like? Pfenning has some thoughts on the matter; “I actually just thought of a good way to describe [the album]. [Long Pause] Our music would be found coming out of fallen speakers in the Dollywood amusement park after a tornado has destroyed it — and there’s just music echoing up through the Smokey Mountains.”

The astounding allure of the band’s debut album caught the ears of indie label Kanine Records, not to mention iPod marketing gurus: Prominent advertisements during last fall’s major primetime programming introduced the world to the new chromatic iPod Nano — but, more importantly, to Chairlift’s catchiest effort yet, “Bruises.” Originally conceived in 2005, “Bruises” — with it’s addictive opening line; “I tried to do handstands for you” — may be the first song many people hear from this young band, but it was also one of the earliest to be written for the album.

“I’m really excited that the song has given the rest of the album an opportunity to be heard,” says Polachek about the benefits of the iPod commercial. The group hits the road with fellow Brooklynites, Yeasayer, this winter before embarking on a European tour — they are excited to see what affects the extra attention will have on show attendance.