A.C. Newman still doesn't know how to write a song. At least, that’s what he says. “Every song feels like learning a new craft,” he shrugs. “I wish I had a formula. Even the greatest songwriters will tell you that.”
Which is comforting, until you realize Newman’s version of winging it has somehow given us nearly 25 years of the New Pornographers, a band that never fit into the cool-kids table of indie rock but ended up scoring the last laugh anyway.
“I didn’t pick up an instrument until I was 18,” he says. “And the first time I played live, I got this high off it. If I’d bombed, I probably never would’ve done it again.”
Luckily for us, he didn’t bomb. Instead, he started stacking influences—early Eno, Sparks, ELO, Blondie, Belle & Sebastian, Neutral Milk Hotel—and somehow came out sounding like nobody else. “We don’t really sound like them, but I took a few things. Like, don’t be afraid of a three-chord song.”
Still, Newman remains hilariously unconvinced that the band has a sonic identity. “I listen to Spoon or the National and think, they sound like themselves. But I listen to us and think, what do we sound like? I don’t know.” When it’s pointed out that New Pornographers absolutely sound like New Pornographers, he just laughs: “I can only trust what you say.”
Their new record, Continue as a Guest, kicks off with the line “I am blurry on this here particular scene,” which sounds like a commentary on the entire process of making music in the post-pandemic haze. “I might have thought about that during sequencing,” he admits, “but honestly? Once something works, I move on. I forget the good stuff immediately because I’ve got to focus on the lines that suck.”
Still, Guest has moments that demand you pay attention. Case in point: “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies,” a song that uses a Roman governor as a metaphor for our modern urge to livestream everything—even executions. “I realized if Pontius Pilate had social media, he would’ve posted the crucifixion,” Newman deadpans. “And the vote would've been evenly split on whether to kill Christ.”
In other words, the song is about social media, which he knows is dangerous territory. “I hesitated. I thought, is this going to age badly? Is social media as eternal as love now?”
Maybe it is. After all, even Beyoncé was ahead of the curve with “I ain't gonna diss you on the internet”. “I remember thinking, she mentioned the internet in a lyric? That’s bold,” Newman says. “And now it feels just as timeless as ‘you broke my heart.’ Which is terrifying.”
It’s that kind of specificity that he’s learning to embrace. “You can be oddly specific and it still works. Like when Morrissey sang about a Walkman melting in Bigmouth Strikes Again—it doesn’t date the song, it makes it better.”
Elsewhere on the album, Newman leans into musical choices driven more by curiosity than precision. The title track Continue as a Guest slowly builds tension without ever totally resolving, which he was unsure about—until everyone around him loved it. “That was the weird one. But people kept saying it was their favorite, so I went with it.”
One of the album’s low-key MVPs? The saxophone. “Zach [Djanikian] is a great sax player, and we figured, let’s use that. Honestly, a lot of times, whatever instrument is lying around ends up being the one we use most.” There’s no manifesto, just a mandolin used like a hi-hat, or a saxophone playing noir-ish leads. “I wanted to reclaim the mandolin—to use it in a completely artless way,” he says. “Like a Ramones rhythm guitar.”
There’s talk of future instruments to reclaim—maybe banjo, definitely not bagpipes. “If you're gonna use bagpipes, you gotta be okay with your song sounding like REEEHHHH the whole time,” he jokes. “I’m not going down that road. No one has to worry. Not a chance in hell.”
As for where the New Pornographers sit in the indie rock pantheon, Newman is content with being slightly out of step. “In 2003, indie bands were getting used in commercials. That’s why I have a house,” he deadpans. “But even then, we weren’t part of the scene. We weren’t the Strokes or the White Stripes. We were off in our corner—Vancouver instead of Montreal.”
He compares their career to Yo La Tengo’s: “They’ve always been out on their own, not really part of any trend. That’s how you get to keep moving.”
So no, A.C. Newman still doesn’t have a formula. But whatever it is he’s doing, it’s working. Even if the songs still feel like little mysteries.
And if you see them live? Look out for the new guy, Adam Schatz from Japanese Breakfast. “He’s replacing Zach on sax, and he played SNL, so he’s scratched that bucket list off—something I probably never will.”
Hey, never say never. But if it happens, please: no bagpipes.
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
