Living By Code

Early 2002. Austin, Texas rock band …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead had a small yet fervent following and a slowly developing storm of hype surrounding them after the release of two albums and a US tour with Superchunk. They released their third LP, Source Tags & Codes, and the explosion of plaudits and accolades rained down like a torrent. The album was filled with uncompromising bluster, angular bombast and a defiant air that stood head and shoulders above New York's cool kids on the block. The band became bigger and brighter, and therein lay the backlash, as adulation turned to disdain. It didn't faze them, however – it only made them stronger.

Come to the year 2013, and it feels like full circle, albeit on a parallel universe. The band released Lost Songs last year, a release that felt more urgent and immediate than their past few outings; the band have scattered across the world (frontman Conrad Keely now lives in Cambodia) and the band find themselves revisiting the material that kicked everything off by remastering their first two albums, then playing debut Madonna and Source Tags & Codes in their entirety.

“I think for us to revisit those albums, they are very special moments in our history,” co-founder Jason Reece muses. “And it's something that we have always been asked to do, by fans and promoters who are fans and friends of ours, so we finally caved in. We only did Madonna (in its entirety) in Tokyo, and we've done bits of Source Tags… in Austin, but Australia will get it in its full form for the first time, which will be interesting. We want it to be special. So who knows – if you really want to see it, you may have to fly there – this could be the only time. We don't want to be one of those bands that keeps dragging out the dusty albums – we want it to mean something, to us and to the fans.”

Source Tags & Codes denotes conflicting emotions for Reece, because although that album itself is a towering achievement that was revered in its day and is still held aloft as a benchmark by their fans, the shifting sands of public opinion and the chimerical zeitgeist of taste has seen such evaluations drop away over time, despite the band endeavouring to traverse far more interesting sonic realms since. For better or worse, internet litmus test Pitchfork gave the album a mythical 10.0 score, only to denounce their own opinion years later. There have also been internal shifts, with integral members leaving for other artistic pursuits. Reece admits that the brouhaha surrounding that album proved double-edged, yet they never intended to treat any wall of resistance as a failure or indeed a reason to fade away.

“With that album it holds a crazy time for us, because Pitchfork gave it a ten, which was ridiculous, the amount of attention we got just because of that, 'the Pitchfork ten band'. We were happy with it of course, you want to be favoured, you want to have that kind of recognition, you want people to realise that you've worked your ass off. But getting a ten, you can't get any higher. And we have never thought we were going to make a couple albums and opt out, go do something else; we have always seen this as a career, as something that would last a long time, maybe even outlast us, something like the Flaming Lips or Sonic Youth, even Fugazi, what they've achieved and still continue to achieve. So everything we have done since has been held in direct comparison to that.”

It is this inherent belief in crafting a legacy that has allowed …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead to remain one of the most consistent acts of the past decade, and has led to a holistic approach to their music. Both Lost Songs and 2011's Tao Of The Dead incorporated Keely's now iconic illustrations into a fully fledged story, included in both comic-strip and graphic novel variations, whilst the iconography and the linking segues between album recordings has been a lasting thread from the very beginning. This comes down to the latest album, which includes two versions of the record (with and without the musical segues between tracks).

“We wanted to have it so there was a choice – either go straight up, or take the full journey,” Reece explains. “There are people that would rather listen to two or three songs; they'd rather pick and choose in this day and age. The album format, it's sad but it isn't adhered to as it used to [be], it's more like making a mixtape or a playlist for their iPod. Even we do that on road trips, we have our iPad with this turntable thing set up on it, which allows you to DJ the stuff you like. So we get that. But as far as we are concerned, the album format is the truest form; lately for me it's been some of the War On Drugs albums. We love vinyl too, because there is so much you can do with it and you can invest yourself in it to a certain level. And we like to continually connect everything, but always search for something new. We are working on something that involves a 20-minute piece, no breaks, no segues. We'll see how well that goes down.”

At the end of the day this is the defining factor of the band – they never compromise. Every move they have made has been wholly from their standpoint, even their ill-fated days on major label Interscope. They live and die by the sword, without a single regret, something Reece believes has not disappeared as the 21st century has become ever more youth-oriented.

“We are surrounded by an ever-changing industry that expect different things, but we never succumb to it,” Reece espouses. “It's fair for people to jump on things that are fad-oriented, but I have a feeling that the people that remain on those fads will be the Luddites. Others will revert back to albums, eventually – and I'm not talking about older generations, I'm talking about younger generations. Making an album and putting it on vinyl will be anti-establishment – the punk thing to do. In some ways it always was, and always will be. There are some kids who are doing that now – some 13 and 14-year-old kids in a band in Austin, Texas called Residual Kid, and they're totally into playing rock music that's influenced by Fugazi, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth – legacy bands. And when I was growing up, Sonic Youth and Fugazi were already fucking old to me. They were entering their 40s and I was thinking, 'Dude, I'm listening to old people!' But I gravitated towards those bands because they had soul, they had conviction, they had something that no one else could touch. Age, looks, gender – it doesn't matter, and as long you always have something important to say and do, it never will.”