New Shearwater album

The Daily Texan

Shearwater’s new album ready to take flight
John Meller

Daily Texan Staff

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Share this article Published: Friday, January 30, 2009

Updated: Friday, January 30, 2009

Shearwater, fronted by former UT student Jonathan Meiburg, toured with Coldplay in July.
In the past two years, dynamic rock group Shearwater has been steadily building a following on the national scene. The band started in Austin in 1999 and has been a local favorite for years.

In 2008, Shearwater released its fifth album, Rook, to much critical acclaim, toured the U.S. and Europe and even opened a few dates for some band called Coldplay.

Shearwater’s shows here are always highly anticipated, and tonight’s performance at the Mohawk is no different. The Daily Texan spoke with Shearwater frontman and songwriter Jonathan Meiburg about a new record, ornithology and touring with Coldplay.

The Daily Texan: You studied ornithology at UT, correct? Do you continue to do any ornithological work?

Jonathan Meiburg: I actually studied geography, but what I studied for my thesis was a species of bird that lives in the Falklands and in Tierra del Fuego, the Striated Caracara. I try to keep tabs on the work that’s being done on that particular species and also go to a meeting of other people who are interested in birds and bird research every few weeks here in town. I’ll be giving a talk about the sort of birds that bird belongs to at the Texas Ornithological Society meeting in Austin in April, so there’s an actual scientific thing I’m going to do [laughs].

DT: How did Shearwater get started?

JM: Shearwater started not too long after I moved here as a sort of project I just did for fun. I didn’t actually expect to ever actually play any shows as Shearwater. I met Okkervil River at their second or third show, and the singer from Okkervil and I decided we’d like to write some songs together and we might make a tape one afternoon on a four-track. When that turned in to Shearwater, and we made an actual album out of it, we liked the record and so it just kind of snowballed from there and kept growing. Your first album is like your high school picture [laughs]. I feel like the last two records for Shearwater have really been our first full-fledged albums that I’m really proud of and happy with.

DT: Could you tell me a bit about the upcoming record?

JM: I wish I knew more about it to tell you! We’re working on about 20 different songs right now, some of which will make it all the way to being real songs, and others will be just sort of thrown by the wayside as we go.

DT: What was touring with Coldplay like?

JM: [laughs] It was ridiculous. It was wonderful. The audiences were — it was strange, they were enormous, but they weren’t unimaginably enormous. It wasn’t like there were people stretching way out of sight. You could see everybody when you were playing these things, but it was strange to think you were playing in front of more people than had ever bought one of your records.

DT: Did Coldplay’s audience respond well to your music?

JM: They didn’t boo [laughs]. Actually, they did respond well. We got some good cheers out of them, and they were attentive while we were playing for the most part, or they were, you know, sending text messages. The thing is, in a situation like that, it really doesn’t matter if the audience is talking. You’re so much louder than they are, and you’re way up high on this big stage, so it’s not like playing at Emo’s where there’s some jerk talking by the bar that’s ruining everybody’s show.

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John Meller

Daily Texan Staff

Print this article
Share this article Published: Friday, January 30, 2009

Updated: Friday, January 30, 2009


Courtesy of Shearwater

Shearwater, fronted by former UT student Jonathan Meiburg, toured with Coldplay in July.
In the past two years, dynamic rock group Shearwater has been steadily building a following on the national scene. The band started in Austin in 1999 and has been a local favorite for years.

In 2008, Shearwater released its fifth album, Rook, to much critical acclaim, toured the U.S. and Europe and even opened a few dates for some band called Coldplay.

Shearwater’s shows here are always highly anticipated, and tonight’s performance at the Mohawk is no different. The Daily Texan spoke with Shearwater frontman and songwriter Jonathan Meiburg about a new record, ornithology and touring with Coldplay.

The Daily Texan: You studied ornithology at UT, correct? Do you continue to do any ornithological work?

Jonathan Meiburg: I actually studied geography, but what I studied for my thesis was a species of bird that lives in the Falklands and in Tierra del Fuego, the Striated Caracara. I try to keep tabs on the work that’s being done on that particular species and also go to a meeting of other people who are interested in birds and bird research every few weeks here in town. I’ll be giving a talk about the sort of birds that bird belongs to at the Texas Ornithological Society meeting in Austin in April, so there’s an actual scientific thing I’m going to do [laughs].

DT: How did Shearwater get started?

JM: Shearwater started not too long after I moved here as a sort of project I just did for fun. I didn’t actually expect to ever actually play any shows as Shearwater. I met Okkervil River at their second or third show, and the singer from Okkervil and I decided we’d like to write some songs together and we might make a tape one afternoon on a four-track. When that turned in to Shearwater, and we made an actual album out of it, we liked the record and so it just kind of snowballed from there and kept growing. Your first album is like your high school picture [laughs]. I feel like the last two records for Shearwater have really been our first full-fledged albums that I’m really proud of and happy with.

DT: Could you tell me a bit about the upcoming record?

JM: I wish I knew more about it to tell you! We’re working on about 20 different songs right now, some of which will make it all the way to being real songs, and others will be just sort of thrown by the wayside as we go.

DT: What was touring with Coldplay like?

JM: [laughs] It was ridiculous. It was wonderful. The audiences were — it was strange, they were enormous, but they weren’t unimaginably enormous. It wasn’t like there were people stretching way out of sight. You could see everybody when you were playing these things, but it was strange to think you were playing in front of more people than had ever bought one of your records.

DT: Did Coldplay’s audience respond well to your music?

JM: They didn’t boo [laughs]. Actually, they did respond well. We got some good cheers out of them, and they were attentive while we were playing for the most part, or they were, you know, sending text messages. The thing is, in a situation like that, it really doesn’t matter if the audience is talking. You’re so much louder than they are, and you’re way up high on this big stage, so it’s not like playing at Emo’s where there’s some jerk talking by the bar that’s ruining everybody’s show.

Comments
Be the first to comment on this article!