The Decemberists still experimenting, playing with darkness and light

The Decemberists are back with their distinctive folk-pop sound on the new release “As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again,” set to debut on June 14. It’s the band’s first new album since 2018, and they’ll be back in Atlanta at the Eastern on May 12.

The group, led by Colin Meloy, was nominated for a Grammy Award for best rock performance of their song “Down By the Water” from the 2011 album “The King is Dead.”

The band’s songs often detail accounts of historical figures or fables, yet woven within is always a central lesson about humanity.

Credit: Holly Andres

Credit: Holly Andres

The latest album ranges from stripped down ballads like “All I Want Is You” to the 19-minute-long progressive rock anthem “Joan In the Garden.”

“I was curious about how people would respond to it because it’s a slow burn to a big midsection build and then a psychedelic sound bath for five minutes, which is something we’ve never done before,” Meloy said of “Joan in the Garden.” “Then going into a three minute riff heavy ending. I think this is the most experimental that we’ve been.”

“Death and reckoning with death plays a big part” in the album, Meloy said, but there’s hope, too. “I was such a romantic growing up that for anything to be really successful it had to involve someone falling deeply in love or somebody dying. It’s something I can’t get away from. I feel like the album is a reaction to our last record which was, for the most part, pretty dour. I think this one is a little more hopeful and ends in a hopeful place.”

During the six year hiatus between albums, Meloy pursued writing for others.

There was a time when Meloy didn’t feel particularly motivated to write for the Decemberists. “It also made me realize that in my mind there’s this distinction between writing for the Decemberists and writing for somebody else, and writing for somebody else suddenly was very freeing to me,” he said. “And it actually was super helpful in getting me back on track and finishing the songs for this record. It breathed some fresh life into those songs and in that songwriting process.”

The music of the Decemberists has long played with contrast — light and dark, happy and sad — and that’s still very much evident on the new album. “There’s an inclination that I’m drawn to that’s marrying those sort of light, major key, happy chord progressions and melodies to a darker subject matter in the song. It’s not intentional, but it’s the thing that I’ve always loved in songs myself. If I’d written ‘Burial Ground’ with some sort of cheery, happy melody, I don’t think it would’ve seen the light of day. It would not have been interesting to me.”

Credit: Robb D. Cohen/Invision/AP

The band is approaching 25 years of making music together, something Meloy is very proud of. “I feel really fortunate for what we’ve done and what we’ve accomplished and how we’ve kind of stuck it out and survived. I think back to when it was all moving so fast and we were putting out so much music, and in some ways I felt inclined to get all that music out and get back on the road. I’m less so now and I feel I’m able to reap the rewards of that early hustle. I can take things a little bit slower, be a little bit more circumspect with the writing process and don’t feel so rushed to put out music.”

On the band’s current tour, they’ll be playing the Eastern, which opened in 2021. Meloy’s fondest memories of performing here involve another much older spot, where the band has played more than any other Atlanta venue. “The Tabernacle I’ve always loved. I feel like some of my favorite shows have been at the Tabernacle. There was a point where we moved from the teeny rock clubs into the bigger venues, and there was a palpable shift in energy. The raucous chaos of those little rock clubs kind of simmered down a bit, but for whatever reason, the Tabernacle stayed the same. I don’t know if that’s the club or if that’s just the Atlanta audience but I always appreciated that.”