A Weather

By Bob Ham

Photo By Chris Mulliken

It gets mentioned a lot. Every article that gets written about us mentions Conor Oberst.” The slightly embarrassed tone of Aaron Gerber, frontman of Portland’s A Weather, is a surprise considering what he is referring to. His band, which has been together for just over a year, has been tapped by the artist otherwise known as Bright Eyes to have its first CD come out on Team Love, the label Oberst co-owns.

It is an unexpected and refreshing response that mirrors the humble, unassuming tone of A Weather’s sound. The songs on the band’s upcoming full-length debut, Cove (due out in March), are tranquil pop gems, methodically constructed from a foundation of hand-plucked acoustic guitar and garnished with touches of Rhodes piano and glockenspiel. Add to it the touching interplay between the vocals of Gerber and drummer Sarah Winchester and it becomes easy to understand what caught Oberst’s attention when Team Love co-owner, Nate Krenkel (brother of A Weather guitarist Aaron Krenkel), played him the band’s early demos.

Oberst asked the still budding band to open up for Bright Eyes at The Showbox in Seattle this past March. Although Gerber will admit that the show was undoubtedly the highlight of his band’s young career, the most the soft-spoken frontman will say about the attention is that he “sometimes forgets how cool it is.”

The confidence comes out when the band begins talking about writing and arranging its songs. “We spend a lot of time working out the parts,” says Gerber. “We don’t write by jamming on chords the way other bands do. Instead we talk it out, planning it.”

According to Winchester however, most of those plans have already been worked out ahead of time by Gerber. “More than any other musician that I’ve ever known,” she says, “Aaron hears things and can clearly describe what he envisions for a song.”

Gerber found the perfect foil to help record his musical visions in Adam Selzer, whose work with likeminded artists such as Laura Gibson and The Decemberists inspired the decision to sign him on as engineer. “Plus, I heard he worked with Zooey Deschanel,” remembers Gerber, “and I’m a huge Elf fan.”

All of this forward momentum in Gerber’s creative life is a far cry from his days growing up in Maine playing what he calls “awful grunge music” with men 10 years his senior. In college he became fascinated with electronic music, spending a year working on material that would eventually be released by a label in Luxembourg. It was only when he moved to Portland that Gerber decided to pick up a guitar again. “I started getting back into writing traditional songs,” he says. “I was interested in limiting myself in terms of writing with just acoustic guitar and vocals. I wanted to make sure there was some substance there before I considered adding other things.”

Adding Winchester and her wispy vocals, guitarists Zach Boyle and Krenkel, and bassist Lou Thomas to the mix has been crucial to a sound that appears minimal, but is actually quite full of melody. “I used to listen to a lot of Renaissance vocal music,” says Gerber of just one of the band’s many influences, “and it is so carefully crafted, with lines that weave in and out from each other. Sometimes they’re lined up, other times they drift apart.”

It is a testament to the warm interrelationships between the band members that those lines complement each other rather than each vying for the listener’s attention. It is also a fitting analogy for a group that, according to Winchester, never has “any conflict, which is amazing for a band of five people.”

While it is undeniable that the association with Team Love and the peer respect factor that goes along with it has helped the band considerably, A Weather earns its keep. The band members’ humility and honest passion for what they do will allow them to take the release of their Team Love debut and the work that will be necessary to promote it (including a tour to SXSW early next year and a potential European jaunt) in stride. “I think that because we all get along so well,” says Winchester, “we have a pretty good precedent about how we handle things. We enjoy each other’s company and enjoy what we’re doing.”

www.aweathermusic.com