Kim Ruehl: How's it feel to be indie? Was this a long time coming?
Emily Saliers: I think it was. Yeah, it's kind of full circle for us, we’re both excited about it. It's really liberating. We had a long, long history with Epic Records and that ran its course and I think after that Amy would've been fine to be completely independent, but I just wanted to give a small label one more chance to get us different or more exposure and just see what a different team could do for us. They dropped us after the first record, so I guess that didn't work out. It became clear that there's not a thing in the world that a record label could do for us anymore. We're much better doing it on our own. We've got lots of experience and relationships in the business, so we’re good. We're excited.
After being in the industry so long, do you think that's becoming the truth of things—there's not really anything record labels can do for artists anymore?
Yeah I think that's certainly true. The whole record industry was just completely leveled by technology and downloads, they're charging too much money for CDs...the environment and the pressure to get a song on the radio. When we got signed, labels were nurturing the life of a band. The environment became toxic. With MySpace and YouTube, the internet and sharing, there's so many ways individual bands or artist can make use of that to get their music out there. There's just no reason in the world for a lot of artists to be signed to a label. [They just offer] a lack of creative thinking about how to get the music out there, and then they take your money. It's clear to us that this is the only way for us to go.
What about the title of this album...there's a reference to Poseidon in your song "Fleet of Hope," but what was the impetus behind the title of the record?
Mitchell Froom came up with that and it was a joke, really. We were just sitting around doing pre-production for the record and he said, "You should call it Poseidon and the Bitter Bug," and we all burst out into laughter. For whatever reason it stuck with us. I like it because I think it's quite whimsical. And I like the fact that Poseidon is from my song and bitter bug is from Amy's song. We've never done that before. I like the joining of the two lyrics. It's fun, it's playful. The artwork is hand-drawn by our graphic artist friend, and there's a bit of whimsy to it. You can't quite put your finger on it and I like that.
I was wondering if there was an element of...one record is "Poseidon" and the other is "The Bitter Bug."
That's an interesting question. We didn’t think about it like that. The two discs are seen as the same project, so they're identified in that way. But that's an interesting question. I didn't even think about that.
What was behind the decision to do the two different versions of the record?
Well we thought it would be fun. Our fans enjoy getting to hear the songs in their stripped-down versions. On the acoustic [disc], literally it was just me and Amy sitting around microphones and singing the songs. It's very organic and I think it's fun for fans to hear that version and then to be able to hear the version with the rhythm section. I love playing with a band. I think it's cool for fans to be able to have both. It didn't cost that much more to make that and it was just more to offer, I think.
Do you have a personal preference, or was it more on a per-song basis the way this turned out?
I like the band record, you know. I can't help it. I like a rhythm section. I like bass and drums. I like this bunch of songs. We played two or three of them live over the course of last year's tour. I do really enjoy playing these songs live with Amy. So that's cool after all these years to be excited about a group of songs. Some of them are quite depressing and world-weary, but whatever [laughs].
What has changed about the way you two collaborate over the years? Is it telepathy at this point? Are you still surprising each other?
We work very well together, we've got it down. There's a flow to it now, obviously, after all these years. Amy writes her songs and I write mine. That hasn't changed. We’re actually quite tedious about the arrangement process. We spend a lot of time getting together, trying ideas, different notes, where to leave harmony out, where to leave it on, what kind of instruments to play, all those things. We just spend a lot of time and effort on that. We also instinctively know when things work and when they don’t, and we trust the process. Whoever wrote the song gets veto power in the end. It's a democratic relationship. We do enough in our personal lives apart from each other—we have very fulfilling individual lives, so when we get back together it's great. It's a very healthy partnership.
When you go back and listen to some of the older records, do you ever think, "Oh I wish that line was different"? Do you think you might write some things differently now?
There are songs that I think "I wish to God I would've changed that line." But really, at this point in writing, I make very sure I won't regret anything I've written. I don't know what it is about being a younger writer but I just wasn't as...well-written, or I didn't process enough about what should have been changed. I try not to let that happen anymore. But yeah, there are lots and lots of songs like that.
