![]() “Then all of a sudden, I’d created the biggest distraction because people thought it was a cult. “I thought the robes would unify the group and basically be a beautiful image,” explains DeLaughter. Casual observers surmised that the robes, and then the uniforms, must mean they were some kind of cult. There was a mini-backlash, even as they gained success. “I thought with so many people up on that stage wearing street clothes, people are going to be trying to sum people up and figure out what kind of person they are and I hate how fashion dictates this false sense of judging people, summing people up simply by the clothes they wear.” ![]() “At the beginning those robes were meant to not cause distraction on stage,” says DeLaughter. It was an instance of mistaken intentions. So with The Fragile Army the band spurned the much-talked-about choir robes for a faux-military uniform, and still all anyone wanted to talk about was their clothing. Public discussion of the band seemed to center more around their attire than their music during the release of their first two albums and subsequent tours. But part may have been that frustration with the perception of the Spree. Part of that dry spell was due to the arrival of a fourth child to DeLaughter and wife/bandmate Julie Doyle’s family. But Yes, It’s True markes their first collection of original songs in six years. They did release a collection of Christmas tunes called Holidaydream just last year as a companion piece to their now-traditional Christmas concerts in Dallas. Then they hit a studio dry spell after 2007’s The Fragile Army. They followed their 2002 debut, The Beginning Stages of… with 2004’s Together We’re Heavy. It’s a record full of grand enthusiasm, even if the cheerfulness serves to manage these frustrations.ĭuring the intervening 13 years since they splashed on the scene, the Spree have not been quiet. But as usual, he addresses aggravations with hopefulness on the band’s fourth studio album, Yes, It’s True. It’s the “semi” part of the joke that seems to stick in his craw. He won’t name names, citing that doing so would be “crass” but surveying the success and impact of bands like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, I’m From Barcelona and even Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros during the time in question, one can surmise that his accusation might have some merit, even though some of them came about concurrently. But nobody said it sometimes someone might say Polyphonic Spree-esque or something.” All of a sudden you started hearing bands that were just totally borrowing sounds from Polyphonic Spree and going out there. We came out and nothing like that was going on. “Gang vocals, other than guitar bass and drum instrumentation in your music. “We came out 13 years ago and created a sound that basically changed the landscape in my opinion,” says DeLaughter. When his band burst on the scene back in 2002, the concept of a 20-plus-member band with choir vocals and various symphonic instrumentation was not the mainstay that it is today. “But this one is actually going okay,” he assures. ![]() That he doesn’t want to be misunderstood is understandable that he’s getting agitated is more surprising. “I hate talking about my stuff and saying the wrong things and getting tripped up and sometimes you come off as a buffoon.” “Normally I despise interviews,” DeLaughter confesses via phone from his home in Dallas. A little misunderstood and maybe maligned. Despite the supposedly perpetual sunny disposition of the guy who leads a robe-laden choir through soaring, psychedelic, symphonic pop music with messianic enthusiasm, The Polyphonic Spree bandleader Tim DeLaughter is miffed.
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