jason powers
When Erik “Ripley” Johnson pitched his Wooden Shjips bandmates on recording their first album in five years, he did so gently.
“What I proposed to them was the minimum commitment possible,” Johnson explains. “‘We’ll rehearse two or three weekends and go into the studio for five days. That’s all you have to commit to.’”
The other three Shjips—drummer (and Portland resident) Omar Ahsanuddin and two non-locals, bassist Dusty Jermier and keyboardist Nash Whalen—agreed 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.