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Saturnine are no strangers to business or pleasure. For years, the band has been entertaining crowds on the indie circuit. Recently, they released their latest long player, Pleasure of Ruins, with producer Steve Albini sitting in the cockpit. PopMatters spoke with Saturnine's vocalist and guitarist Matt Gallaway about the new album, having a good day job, and driving through tornadoes to get the music played and the job done.

PopMatters: Firstly, thanks for taking some time off to speak to us at PopMatters. In your opinion, are there any big differences musically between Pleasure of Ruins, and your last album, American Kestrel?

Matt Gallaway: Thanks for giving us the opportunity to speak. I think the big musical difference between American Kestreland Pleasure of Ruins is that the songs on American Kestrel were written during a time period when some of us had fallen under the spell of a number of sixties bands-the Byrds, the Zombies, etc., and there was an attempt to infuse some of the elements of those bands -- backing vocals, catchy melodies, Rickenbacker guitars, tons of overdubs, and orchestration, into our own sound. Most of the songs on Pleasure of Ruins, by contrast, were written in a much more organic -- if you'll excuse the use of the word -- way, i.e., more spontaneous and collaborative, and therefore reflect a truer sense of who we are, as opposed to who we were trying to be. Musically, this manifests itself in songs, I think, that are more direct -- let's call it "rockin" -- and intense.

PM: You do seem to have a distinct sound that harkens back to the college rock of the '80s and '90s. Do you personally draw any influence from any groups from that time, or are you just creating what you consider a personal, current sound that you enjoy?

MG: Except for John Pisani, our keyboard player, who is I think 26 or 27, the rest of us are more in the 32-33 year old range, so we definitely grew up loving the music of the Eighties and early Nineties, and I think it would be ridiculous to deny the influence of these bands on our music. One thing I will say, though, is that while there have been times earlier in our existence when we have tried to emulate certain bands, I feel pretty comfortable saying that at this point we are making music that we can comfortably claim as our own. Which is not to say it's revolutionary or anything. I like being able to locate us within a certain lineage of rock traditions, even if we are just a tiny little offshoot.

PM: How, if any, has the band's attitudes or outlooks changed through the years, considering the different personnel shifts that have gone on within Saturnine?

MG: Up until American Kestrel, there was what we could loosely call a lot of "psychological warfare" in the band, the details of which are described in such excruciating detail in the liner notes to Pleasure of Ruins. Obviously, a lot of this was a result of personality conflicts between ex-guitarist Jennifer Baron and ourselves. Honestly, I don't know why any of us, including her, tortured ourselves for so long, but as a formerly closeted gay man, this is an area in which I have a lot of expertise. I think there is a romantic idea that tension can be the root of great music, and while this may be true for others, in our case we have been a thousand times happier since Jennifer left the band. Again, not to lay blame on any particular person, and I think this emotional turnaround is a strength in Pleasure of Ruins.

PM: I read that you have your "day jobs" outside of the group, and in turn aren't so reliant on needing the music make the ends meet. I would suppose that attitude would give you the freedom to write and record pretty much whatever you like. Has there ever been a point in your musical career where you were a little more reliant on the music, or has it always been more or less just something fun to do on the side?

MG: There was a period of perhaps an hour or two when we thought about making real money off of music, but we are all fairly rational people, and it was pretty obvious that the necessary demand was not there. Money aside, there was certainly a time when music was more critical to my sense of self-identity, which made me crave success in a rather pathetic way, i.e., I thought it would solve certain other problems in my life. Now that we have "matured" and have been unleashed from these types of expectations, I think we all feel a lot freer to make the kind of music we enjoy the most, and it certainly helps when you don't have to worry about temping at some crappy job to pay the bills. We have recently caught wind of a debate on this subject, and for the record, we would like to say that it is our opinion that anybody who thinks you have to be poor to make great art (which is not to say we have succeeded in making anything but a great series of mistakes) is sadly mistaken, and will eventually be a bitter little person who will look back on their life around the age of 36 with a sense of regret and humiliation.

PM: Do you have any favorite current bands that are popular these days? Whom have you had enough of? Do you think the time will come around again for indie label artists to gain greater exposure like they did during the early '90s when alternative and college rock kind of took off?

MG: I know they're not popular in a Britney Spears kind of way, but my all-time favorite band is the Cannanes, because I respect their honesty, their sense of humor, and their ability to rock out. They are nice people, too, and that counts. I've totally had enough of what has come to be termed as "twee" and its corresponding and superficial intersection with the suburban styles of the mid-Sixties (incidentally, why the Cannanes are ever associated with this particular genre is beyond me). As for the long-term, I think it's unlikely that there will ever be another crop of bands -- the Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Mudhoney, Pavement -- the sort of large-scale indie bands that resonated on a wide scale, but under the radar screen of mainstream entertainment, and which ultimately led to Nirvana. Music today, for better or worse, is increasingly fragmented and commodified into smaller and smaller units, so as a practical matter, I don't see how any indie rock band can expect to cross-over in any sort of sustainable way. Obviously certain bands, like the Strokes, will pop up for a few seconds, but, and this could just be that I'm now in my mid-thirties, I'm not optimistic with regard to any band's long-term viability, unless they are completely prefabricated and reinvented every few months by the entertainment industry, which in the interest of maximizing profits, would rather have changing tastes and new commodities to offer accordingly (if only Marxism wasn't so boring).

PM: Who came up with the Pleasure of Ruins' sleeve design? I saw on the website that there were alternate covers as well. Were those also considered for the release?

MG: The concept of an extended section of liner notes was my own, but Ryan McGinness, a friend of ours who is a kick-ass graphic designer and artist (www.iheartego.com), came up with and executed the design, as well as the alternate covers. We were all really happy with the text-driven design, though, so once we saw it, the alternates were not seriously considered.

PM: Have you been touring in support of Pleasure of Ruins, or have you just laid low and let the album work its own way around?

MG: Does Albany, New York count? We played there last Friday. Actually, we've been laying low for the most part, but we're planning on doing a week or so in the Midwest in early summer.

PM: What, to you, is the most difficult part of the recording process? Was Pleasure of Ruins fairly easy to lay down, or were there any rough spots along the way?

MG: Pleasure of Ruins was by far the easiest album we've ever recorded. We did the whole thing in four days, and there were no fights, broken equipment, last-minute restructurings, panic attacks, etc. that have delayed some of our other recording sessions. Basically, we just sat around and listened to [producer] Steve Albini and our bass player Mike Donofrio talk about baseball and a prospective army of litigants/defendants (which provided some of the inspiration for the mock-legal form of the liner notes), given the fact that Mike and I are both lawyers.

PM: Do you have a personal favorite recording in the Saturnine catalog, or do you ever bother to even listen to your own work after it's been recorded and released?

MG: I personally find that I have a couple songs I really like from each record, and the rest generally elicits a reaction anywhere from embarrassing humiliation to pleasant indifference. On Pleasure of Ruins, for example, I think that I will always love "When We Were Anchors for the Sun," and "Apples". From our older stuff, my all-time favorite song is probably "The Raven" on Mid the Green Fields.

PM: Lastly, what are the future plans for Saturnine? Will you be back in the studio anytime soon, or will you be taking a break for a bit in support of the new album?