美国国家公共电台 NPR David Bazan Resurrects Pedro The Lion After More Than A Decade

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SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:

The indie rock band Pedro the Lion is known for its sometimes dreary¹ lyrics² that take on internal conflict often filled with religious angst.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE FLEECING")

PEDRO THE LION: (Singing) Who shall I blame for this sweet and heavy trouble for every stupid struggle? I don't know.

MCCAMMON: Pedro the Lion formed in 1995 in Seattle. They gathered a wide indie rock following even as many of their songs tackled faith. A decade later, the band and its frontman, David Bazan, had reached a tipping point. Bazan had been questioning his faith, and he left the band and embarked³ on a solo career. Fast forward to 2017, Bazan announced he would start touring again this year with a group of musicians under the old name Pedro the Lion. David Bazan joins us now while on tour with Pedro the Lion. Welcome.

DAVID BAZAN: Hi.

MCCAMMON: So since the band's inception⁴, Pedro the Lion has always toed the line between indie rock and Christian⁵ music. What do you think made the band so successful in the early 2000s? What is it that resonated with people?

BAZAN: I don't totally know, but I can guess. I think there is an earnestness that I wrote with and an openness with which I sang about doubt and faced issues at a time when I don't really think that was going on much. And also, I think I did it in such a way that it wasn't too hard on people who weren't coming from a place of faith. It wasn't slogans or trying to convert anybody. It was just me trying to process what was going on inside my head. I guess that worked for some folks.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SECRET OF THE EASY YOKE")

PEDRO THE LION: (Singing) Can someone please tell me the story of sinners ransomed⁶ from the fall? I still have never seen you. And some days, I don't love you at all.

MCCAMMON: During your time as a solo artist, you seemed to be documenting what you've called your breakup with God. Your 2009 album, "Curse Your Branches," talks a lot about that. I want to play a little bit of one of those songs, "Bearing Witness."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEARING WITNESS")

BAZAN: (Singing) Too full of fear and prophecy to see the revelation right in front of me. So sick and tired of trying to make the pieces fit 'cause it's not what bearing witness is.

MCCAMMON: David Bazan, how far have you come in being able to make the pieces fit - for yourself, at least?

BAZAN: It's taken some time. I've tried to be patient. But slowly, I've found more peace than I have had before. And I guess an analogy that I come back to a lot is planting a garden. There's just a lot of natural kind of sowing and reaping, these dynamics⁷ at work in everybody's lives. And I've been trying to focus on those. And it's been a lot easier to make sense of how to be as a human that way for me.

MCCAMMON: One of the things that stands out to me as I hear even some of your very early work as Pedro the Lion is there - a lot of these songs are riddled⁸ with uncertainty⁹ and doubt and criticism of religion. And so this has been a long process for you. Was there a moment, was there a turning point, was there a time when you said, I got to call this, I just don't believe anymore?

BAZAN: Yeah, having a daughter - my wife and I, our daughter was born in 2004. And it caused me to look at Genesis, the creation account and especially the account of the the fall and original sin in a new way.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HARD TO BE")

BAZAN: (Singing) You've heard the stories. You know how it goes. Once upon a garden, we were lovers with no clothes.

In their innocence¹⁰, Adam and Eve made a mistake that separated them from God forever. And having a new baby girl, who, in her innocence, I couldn't imagine removing myself from her or casting her out of my presence for any reason. And I just found I couldn't respect a being that would do that or certainly not be moved to love that being.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HARD TO BE")

BAZAN: (Singing) Wait just a minute. You expect me to believe that all this misbehaving grew from one enchanted¹¹ tree?

And so from there, things started to unravel¹². And I started looking at some other parts of the puzzle and hoping to shore things up. And they didn't get shored up, they just started to crumble¹³ more the closer that I looked. It was really, really disappointing. I was crushed.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HARD TO BE")

BAZAN: (Singing) Hard to be a decent human being.

MCCAMMON: You said that you're writing new songs and that doing so as Pedro the Lion again has reconnected you to parts of yourself you'd lost touch with. What can we expect from this new iteration of Pedro the Lion?

BAZAN: Well, I'm writing a record that pays homage¹⁴ to the town that I grew up in - Phoenix¹⁵, Ariz. So there's a bit of concept record that I've dabbled¹⁶ in before. I'm drawing from all of the Pedro music tonally and then all the Bazan music, just everything that I've done I feel like can come to bear on this Pedro record. And it seems to be doing that.

MCCAMMON: That's David Bazan. His band, Pedro the Lion, is on tour now. Thank you so much.

BAZAN: Thank you very much.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAKE MUSIC")

BAZAN: (Singing) Didn't we make music? Didn't we make music? Didn't we all...