Liner Notes: Port O'Brien, 'Threadbare'

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GRIEF CAN BE a great inspiration for indie rock. The Arcade Fire wrote its full-length debut, "Funeral," after the deaths of grandparents, and Bon Iver decamped to the wilds of Wisconsin to eulogize a broken-up band and nurse a broken heart on "For Emma, Forever Ago."

With their second studio album, Californians Port O'Brien have made their own album about loss and shaky recovery. "Threadbare" arrives after the death of founding member Cambria Goodwin's teenage brother, and fittingly, she is a stronger presence here than on past records, her ghostly vocals providing a foil to Van Pierszalowski's earthy howl.

"Threadbare" moves past intense ache into something like wounded acceptance. It's a compelling report from the frayed fringes of extreme emotions, delivered by a band that knows about fringes.

Pierszalowski and Goodwin spent summers working in rural Alaska, where she was a baker in a cannery and he spent weeks at sea on his father's fishing boat. These experiences informed their early songs about soulful isolation and youthful self-definition, but as Port O'Brien gained popularity and toured more heavily, the pair had to abandon their jobs to concentrate on music. Of course, that decision inspired a song.

Express asked Pierszalowski to walk us through "Threadbare" song by song to explain their origins and how they tell a larger story. Click here to stream the entire album as you read along.

"High Without the Hope 3"
The first three songs on the album deal with three different aspects of mourning and loss. The first track covers the initial feeling of depression and hopelessness. When you are that completely overwhelmed, you feel that nothing could possibly get worse, like you are immune to any other bad things ever happening in your life. In a sense, it's liberating, but not really in a good way.

"My Will is Good"
This track is about making active decisions in your life following great tragedy and loss. When you lose someone you love, it puts everything and everyone in your life into perspective. You realize who is important to you and who is not, and it forces you to clear your palette in a sense, to take a deep breath and get rid of aspects of your life you need to let go of.

"Oslo Campfire"
This song is about the feelings that are caused by the results of making these active decisions. When you exorcise negative components of your life, it gives you a better insight into the other healthier components. We wanted to include a gang vocal at the end to act as a form of celebration, and a "screw-you-we-are-just-fine" type of sentiment.

"In the Meantime"
This song sums up the record for me in a lot ways. When we wrote this song, we had a strong vision of what the record would be like. It helped to shape and form things in perspective for us, both thematically and stylistically.

"Tree Bones"
This is the second version we've recorded of this song. It's the first song Cambria ever wrote, when she was 16 and had just moved out of her parents' house. The song took on a whole new meaning with the loss of her younger brother and we needed to revisit it.

"Sour Milk/Salt Water"
This is really the only song on the record that directly addresses our old jobs, working in Alaska — on a fishing boat and in a cannery, respectively. We wanted to include at least one ode to this aspect of our life because its impact is felt almost as much in its absence as it was when it was our yearly routine. This song has actually been around a long time, but it finally came into focus this time. Write-ups on the record have talked about digital manipulation in this song, but it was actually on the ones that never touched a computer until mastering. All of the effects were done on tape. The backwards guitar was done the Beatles way, by literally flipping the tape around on the deck.

"Threadbare"
As the title track, this song represents how we were feeling before creating this record. Literally every aspect in our lives felt like they were barely hanging on by a thread.

"Calm Me Down"
This song was written on the boat a few years ago, but was finished right before recording. We wanted to have one epic on the album, and it was clear this one would be the best. We were listening to Nirvana's "Unplugged in New York" around the time, and I think it shows in the end jam!

"Leap Year"
We also wanted to have one song on the album that was a complete break from the turmoil and grief that is felt throughout. This song was the perfect candidate. The carefree melody and screw-you spirit of the melodies were really meant to almost mock our current state of mind.

"Next Season"
This might be my favorite song on the record. Cambria wrote the main parts of the song on piano. Her lyrics on it are some of my favorite, and it has a lot to do with the same themes of "My Will is Good."

"(((Darkness Visible)))"
This song has always haunted me. When Cambria first wrote it, we were living in this ridiculously small rabbit-hole-esque house and it sounded incredible in there. After the loss of her brother, it became apparent what it was always about. It's really amazing that this song was written before the loss, because it is the perfect dedication to her brother.

"Love Me Through"
This little ditty is about moving on, the eventual goal of all of this. Although we haven't really felt like we're there yet, we can identify with it as the eventual destination. It's there to tease us and guide us.

"High Without the Hope 72"
We wanted this song to bookend the album because it really represents where we were mentally when we were actually in the sessions. It's one thing to have songs about other aspects and issues pertaining to what you are feeling scattered throughout, but we wanted to come back to the current moment at the end to wrap it all up and really cement the feelings we were feeling.

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Written by Express contributor Stephen M. Deusner
Photos courtesy Port O'Brien