Explosions in the Sky 'Take Care' to Avoid Post-9/11 Hysteria and Conspiracies

Post-rock never became the next big thing, but it certainly took root in the rock consciousness. First-wavers like Mogwai and Tortoise bred bands like Explosions in the Sky, who in turn influenced young guns such as This Will Destroy You and Caspian.

Explosions -- whose fifth album, 'Take Care, Take Care, Take Care,' is out now -- took considerable flak early in their career, not for the type of music, but for their name. It seems preposterous now, but just as the Austin-based quartet was launching its second record, 'Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever,' with a tour in the latter part of 2001, they became unwitting victims of 9/11 knee-jerk hysteria. A gig with And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead at Boston's Middle East club caused outrage and they were blacklisted by college radio stations. Even conspiracy theorists somehow found ways to include them into their bizarre ideas.

If Explosions -- guitarists Mark Smith and Munaf Rayani, bassist Michael James and drummer Christopher Hrasky -- are guilty of anything, it is some rather dramatic album titles. The new record is nothing but sweetness and light, with calm and contemplation taking precedence over signature post-rock clamor. Spinner chatted with Rayani about the album and how the band weathered the 9/11 storm to become a respected musical force.

There you go with those intriguing album titles again. What's behind 'Take Care, Take Care, Take Care'?

It's such a sweet sentiment, take care. It's not such a severe good bye. We constantly say "take care" to each other, so it just stuck as a phrase that was part of everyday vocabulary for people. We really liked that phrase; it rolled off the tongue really well: Take care, take care, take care.

Actually, saying it three times does make it seem more urgent and ominous.

That was not our intention. That is not an idea for this record. It was more kindness, thoughtful. Perhaps the urgency should be that you should bring it to the forethought of your mind and take care -- but without panicking. We're into not panicking.

Post-rock bands are known for their dramatic, long titles, aren't they?

Are you kidding me? There's a set of rules you must follow when playing in a band like this. One or two-word album titles just aren't part of the rules.

Seems like Explosions hit the wider public conscious around 9/11 and the band came out of the underground around then. You were touring at that time...

When all that stuff happened, we canceled the first couple of shows. The whole country shut down. Then we continued.

But you got caught up in an incredible controversy.

We were touring with a band called And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. Imagine seeing a bill with And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead with Explosions in the Sky at the Middle East Club [in Boston].

Did anyone come to the gig?

There was a decent crowd there that night. Prior to the Middle East, we were in New York a couple of nights earlier, again playing with Trail of Dead, playing just a few blocks from Ground Zero. It was all in a moment, the timing was nothing to do with us, how it played out was nothing to do with us. But in the society in which we live that sensationalizes things, in that moment, it placed a light on us. Maybe not a favorable light, but not a disturbing light, but a light nevertheless. I recall in that time there were 30 college stations that refused to play our music. We weren't the only ones -- there was a list. We were on it, Trail of Dead was on it [and], strangely, British Sea Power was on it, some other weird ones. It was like, "Man, you're really going to stop someone listening to music or stop art because of ..."

A coincidence.

Yep.

You were literally blacklisted by college radio, which was once known to be forward-thinking.

Exactly. You'd hope that it was liberal...

And intelligent.

Exactly. Boy, no. When the FCC gets its hands on things or the government says this, that, or the other, then the law must abide.

But you weren't breaking any laws! It was your name and you could be talking about fireworks.

That's exactly what we were talking about: fireworks. [Laughs.] What it did was, as with many things during the course of our musical lives, it just added more inspiration. Alright, you don't want us to be heard -- we're going to make sure you hear us. If you're not going to play us on the radio, we're going to go to every city in the United States. That tour and some that followed, that's what we did. We were our biggest promoters and toured six weeks at a time playing to thirty people, which turned into 60, which turned into hundreds. Whether it was 60 or 600, they got the same intensity, this belief that we were into it. We were immersed and lost in it.

The title of the second album has been linked to post-9/11 conspiracy theories. Do you follow that conspiracy stuff?

We keep our ear on the ground. Sometimes we joke with each other about the end of the world and the government implementing martial law. Sometimes it can make you pause for thought, but it's all a big comic strip to me. The world is going to go in the direction it's going to go. We don't spout off about what's happening. You can pull truth from anything: government conspiracy theories, religion, socialism, but it's all a bit of a sham when you think about it. If you live in a panic then you will not find joy in what's going on around you. When I take stock about being with my best friends and being invited to play shows all over the world, then the sun is shining on us. We're lucky. We're extremely lucky.

Nearly 10 years on from being blacklisted, you're selling out Radio City Music Hall and playing this highbrow show at Hollywood Forever Cemetery with art installations inspired by songs from 'Take Care.' That's some serious respect.

[Laughs.] That was the goal. We never wanted to be this MTV band. I know that holds some negative connotations these days. In the '80s and early '90s, if you made it to MTV then you were a big deal. These days, it means you're not even flavor of the month, not even flavor of the week, you're flavor of the day. We never had any interest in being a band that shot to the top overnight and was forgotten about just as quickly. The longevity of what we've done, it's been a slow burn since day one. And every day it's gotten better and better. I'm uncertain about how far we can go with this, but I don't see the ceiling yet.

I'm starting to believe that instrumental music can go as far as anything else. At this point, we haven't been proved otherwise.

Explosions in the Sky Perform 'Postcard From 1952'


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