When Erik âRipleyâ Johnson pitched his Wooden Shjips bandmates on recording their first album in five years, he did so gently.
âWhat I proposed to them was the minimum commitment possible,â Johnson explains. ââWeâll rehearse two or three weekends and go into the studio for five days. Thatâs all you have to commit to.ââ
The other three Shjipsâdrummer (and Portland resident) Omar Ahsanuddin and two non-locals, bassist Dusty Jermier and keyboardist Nash Whalenâagreed to record quickly, inform no one of the work, hand over a finished album to Thrill Jockey Records, and try to avoid all the timelines and pressure that come with being a pillar of modern psychedelic music.
The result is V, the follow-up to 2013âs Back to Land, which condensed the Shjipsâ famously droning psych sound and pushed the band toward more melody, more traditional song forms, and more of Johnsonâs voice. V moves further in that direction, but with a much mellower overall vibe. Here, the fuzzed-out noise-rock of the bandâs earlier releases is all but gone, and in its place is cosmic American music: strummy acoustic guitars, squirrely electric solos, pillowy keys, laid-back vocals, and echo stretching to the horizon.
For these songs, timing was everything. The Shjips were on tour in Europe on election day in November 2016, reeling from the results. âThat night basically killed our tour,â Johnson says. But with another busy band, Moon Duo, to take up his time and attention, it wasnât until the summer of 2017 when Johnson started to feel the itch to write new songs for the Wooden Shjips.
By then, the anger and shock of the election had receded, but wildfires had erupted near Portland, turning the cityâs clear summer skies into an unnerving mix of haze and falling ash. Fueled by new age music and apocalyptic vibes, Johnson set out to write a gang of chilled-out sunshine jams, despite the constant intrusion of the outside world.
âAfter going through months and months of trying to digest what had happened,â he says, âI was personally determined to find the silver lining, and to try to look at things in a different perspective that wasnât so grim.â The music, Johnson says, âis a balm against the noise and negativity.â
Donât be mistaken: V isnât full of three-minute pop songs. The Shjips still tend to draw things out beyond six or seven minutes, merging the fuzzy propulsion of the Velvet Underground with the spacey roots-rock of Neil Young. Indeed, when all is said and done, V is the bandâs comforting classic rock record in a musical world currently overflowing with simmering rage and protest songs.
âWe couldâve gone harsher and noisier. We couldâve gotten angry. But that just wasnât where I was at,â Johnson says. âBut it definitely is a reaction to whatâs going on in the world and where my mindset was at the time.â
In an article published last month, Pop Matters called the Wooden Shjips âone of rockâs most reluctant bandsââa mantle Johnson not only agrees with, but embraces. The band hasnât toured since that late 2016 run, and because its members live in different cities, they donât see each other often, much less play together. Still, after a dozen years and five albums together, the itch to record with the Shjips keeps coming back to Johnson.
âThereâs nothing quite like a band,â he says. âSometimes you need space and sometimes you miss them and wanna get together and have another go through that album adventure.
âWhich can be a grind sometimes,â he continues. âBut when youâve been away from it for a while, itâs nice to get back together and see what you can come up with and see how people changed. We donât really do it for the money. Thereâs no fame involved. We just do it because we want to do it, which is a pretty pure way of looking at it.â