SleepStation “Anna”

David Debiak is the creative mind between Sleep Station, a creaky cabin sort of Americana project that just released the patiently paced and ambitious The Pride of Chester James. Amix of Neutral Milk Hotel’s backwoods eclecticism and The Flaming Lips’ wide-eyed earnesty, Sleep Station is just one of Debiak’s long line of conceptual bands and projects. He spoke with Performer about the development of one of Chester James’ more pensive incantations, the dazed “Anna.”

Q. How did you go about putting “Anna” together?

A. Interestingly enough, this was the first time in my entire life that I had ever collaborated with anyone on anything musical. I had just never tried it. But this one day, during recording, my friend Kris Ricat brought in some recordings that he had done on is own and said “I’d like to see if you could put lyrics and singing to this.” So I said “Alright,” then the second I heard it, I started humming the melody along with it.

Q. How did you know it would fit with the album?

A. I was right in the middle of making the rest of the songs and I went right to the beginning again after hearing it once and wrote the lyrics out right then. It just worked because I was right there already in that frame of mind and everything. It wasn’t anticipated or anything.

Q. How do you work on keeping albums cohesive?

A. When I know I’m working on an album, I write specific songs around a particular story I have in my mind and a vibe I’m feeling. I get into it and then use that to fuel all the songs I’m working on. They end up sounding together because they’re all coming from the same place. Then, one day, I just suddenly know that I’m writing the last song. I’ll finish it, hit “stop” on the tape recorder, and know that the album is done.

Q. How does going into a studio affect the composition of the songs?

A. Well, I write every song by myself, sitting alone with an acoustic guitar. So when I get into the studio, I always have what is more or less a shell of a song. The guys I work with in the studio, I’ve been working with for a very long time and have built up a high level of trust with. I can say very vague things and they will understand what I’m saying. So with that, I’m comfortable bringing in shells of songs into the studio and experimenting with them. In the case of the songs on Chester James, I brought in a few demos and shells of songs, and the kind of stuff they did with arrangements and production on the album was just outside the realm of my imagination.

Q. How does that translate to being on the road?

A. I’m touring by myself now. It’s honestly a money-saving measure with gas being so expensive and all the other stuff that goes along with touring — my van got totaled for instance, a tree fell on it — so I’m just driving around in a car now. But in reality, I started these songs on my own with nothing but a guitar, a very personal experience. And now that’s the way I’m presenting them, which is maybe really the best way for them to be presented to people. I love the experience of going into a studio and being able to add and subtract whatever you want, but I don’t think that treating songs this way takes anything away from that.

Q. What do you do when you’re trying to get into an album, and there just isn’t any vibe or story to be found?

A. You have to wait, you can’t manufacture it, you know? Sometimes it’ll happen easily. At one point during the recording, I had just gotten ProTools at home and Kris came over to help me learn it. So, to learn it, I just started making up a song we could play with as we went. By the next day, he said “Hey, I guess you’re getting the hang of this.” And that one ended up on the album, too.

www.myspace.com/sleepstation

photo by Mark Jaworski