Bay Area musician Michael Zapruder does things a little differently than most artists. Best known (so far) for his 52 Songs project — for which he recorded and released one track online every week for a year — Zapruder also formed an orchestra dubbed the Rain of Frogs, which features a rotating cast including members of the Decemberists, Pink Mountain and Camper Van Beethoven.

Zapruder’s newest release, Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope is due out on SideCho Records March 24). On it, Zapruder builds upon his past work, but ventures into new territory, pushing both his songwriting and performing forward. This is the rare album that brims with pop hooks but maintains a sense of adventure — hummable melodies abide, but the album’s true strength is it’s unpredictability.

Bay Area readers are highly recommended to catch Zapruder live this Sunday at the Bottom of the Hill (along with Tim Williams and San Francisco’s own Mist and Mast and Jon Bernson.

SD: The music industry seems to be moving back towards singles (and away from albums), but Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope is very much an album. Did you set out to make an “album” and not just a collection of songs? Do you feel like the albums are a novelty in today’s music scene?

MZ: Yes, I always want to make albums. I love albums. Also, it’s definitely more interesting and satisfying for me, and I think for listeners as well, to have groups of songs. Visual artists don’t show single paintings or prints, and writers don’t usually publish single chapters or short stories (which are pretty good analogs to songs I think), and most people who make songs don’t really think in singles unless they are aiming for the pop charts I guess.

I don’t think the album is going anywhere, because I have never met a single artist who doesn’t want to make albums or who is particularly dissatisfied with the form. If an artist is compelling to a listener, that listener is always going to want to understand more about what the artist is expressing, so until artists really abandon albums, they’ll be fine I think.

SD: Both the music and lyrics on Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope have a dream-like quality to them. Did you try to create your own world with this album?

MZ: I tried to express things from an open, intuitive perspective on this record. I wanted to make a record that felt unprotected and unselfconscious, so I tried to let things lie that might not otherwise go together, musically or lyrically. I wasn’t really thinking about dreams at the time, but once the record was done, that was what seemed to jump out.

I think it’s not surprising. We all keep some kind of sense of ourselves going though thousands of days and nights, dreams and classes and meetings and meals etc, so I think that comes out when we don’t ego-manage ourselves as much.

SD: What three albums made you who you are musically?

MZ: Imperial Bedroom by Elvis Costello, Bee Gees First by the Bee Gees, and Blue by Joni Mitchell.

SD: People seem to have a tough time categorizing your music – how do you describe it? Or do enjoy defying easy pigeon-holing?

MZ: I wouldn’t say I ‘enjoy defying easy pigeon-holing’ in and of itself, but I think I enjoy it more than I would enjoy the experience of being easily pigeon-holed.

In general, I try not to think too much about categories if I can help it. I’m not crazy about describing my music, either, but if held at gunpoint I might say it’s creative songs. Or I might call it modern Jewish music, or dance music for the injured.

The thing about this question is that there is absolutely no daylight between bland straightforwardness and raging narcissism. As a matter of fact, that’s the problem in general with trying to describe your own music.

SD: Your songs tend to be fairly complex. Do the layers grow from a skeleton, or are they present at the beginning? Do you always write on the same instrument?

MZ: I write the songs on guitar or piano or sometimes just lyrics on paper, and just concentrate on the song and making it something that seems cool to me. Once that’s done, then we go record it. I don’t usually have any particularly specific instrumentation ideas while I’m writing.

As for the songs being complex, some are, some aren’t. I try not to think about anything besides making something that will be worth peoples’ time to hear.

SD: Your songs often sound like straight pop songs that have been thrown on their ear. Is that intentional? Does writing “straight” bore you?

MZ: Not exactly. I really just want to write well, and even more than that, to write things that can serve some useful purpose in the world and be of interest to people. In order to do that, I think I have to make them live somehow, and doing new things, at least things I’ve never done, is a way to get that to happen. I can’t make myself fit into anyone else’s style well at all, so I just have to try to find my own way to do things.

SD: You seem to have a relatively unorthodox approach to collaboration. How did your “Rain of Frogs” ensemble come to be – and how does it differ from a more traditional band?

MZ: The Rain of Frogs thing happened because I know a lot of really fine musicians, and I wanted a way to have them be a permanent part of what I’m doing without anyone having to say ‘yes’ to being in a band and going to regular rehearsals etc etc. I wanted to have those instruments to choose from on my records, too. Plus it just seemed kind of fun.

The Rain of Frogs differ from a traditional band in several ways, one of which is the fact that we have a set of secret by-laws. The one law I can share is that it is forbidden for all the members of the band to be in the same room at the same time.

SD: If you could collaborate with any three musicians, living or dead, who would they be?

MZ: I am a bit scared of collaboration, I’m not sure why. But I guess David Berman, Brian Eno and George Harrison would be cool.

SD: Who are your favorite local bands? Venues?

MZ: I like Ray’s Vast Basement, Scott Pinkmountain & the Golden Bolts of Tone, The Harbours, Colossal Yes, Eyes, Modular Set, Tom Heyman, and lots of others. Favorite venues would be Cafe du Nord, Bottom of the Hill, Make Out Room, The Independent.

SD: Your 9-to-5 gig is music curator for Pandora (online music service). Has that changed how you approach your own music?

MZ: It’s made it somewhat harder for me to be satisfied with my own music, because I’ve listened to a whole lot of music now. It’s pretty hard for me to find my way out to something that seems like virgin territory sometimes. But ultimately, it gives me a broad perspective that helps me make the things I want to make. It also helps me know what I have to do to be somewhat original, I hope. I know what to avoid.

SD: If you had a time machine, when and where would you go?

MZ: Ask me tomorrow and I might say Brooklyn 1862 to talk to Walt Whitman about the Civil War, but today I’d go back to some family reunion from a while back so I could see some people who are gone now. I miss them, and there are things I wish I had asked them when I had the chance.

SD: Who is your favorite literary figure/character?

MZ: Sancho Panza from Don Quijote.

SD: You’re also a new father (congrats!). What role has your family played in your development as an artist? Do you think fatherhood will impact your approach to music?

MZ: My dad played guitar when we were kids, and there was music filling the free time of both my grandfathers and their siblings, so family laid the foundation I think for me. Fatherhood is amazing and joyful, and it’s a huge challenge to my understanding of what music should be and do. It’s a great gift to have the rules changed, because it’s a great opportunity. I don’t know yet how it will impact me but I’m working on it.

SD: What’s next?

MZ: Some tour shows for the new record which comes out in late March, and then I’m going to be finishing recording the Pink Thunder project, which is a set of 20 free verse poems I’ve set to song, trying to see what contemporary poetry and song have in common, and if they sound good together. I’m hoping that stuff will come out late this year. And I’m working on songs for the next record, as well.

Michael Zapruder – “Ads for Feelings”

MP3s:

More:

MySpace
Tumblr
SideCho Records
Facebook
Last.fm

Mix 1
Mix 2