How Deep Is The Ocean?
The online portfolio & blog of Eric Ogburn

From Califone’s Artist Page on Thrill Jockey Records:

Roots and Crowns. “Uniting where you come from – your roots — with what you strive to be or what you reinvent yourself to become — crowns,” explains Califone’s Tim Rutili. “At the bottom of these songs are the memories and images you sift through in the process.”

“Before we started to work on the new the record, I was listening to ‘Orchids’ by Psychic TV on repeat,” says Rutili. “This song made me want to start writing songs again.” Califone offers a sparse and beautiful cover of “Orchids” on Roots & Crowns. The line from the song, ‘In the morning after the night/ I fall in love with the light,’ became a theme for the new album.

Heron King Blues was very much the dark end of the band’s last cycle; in many ways this new album is a kind of dawn after the darkness. The songs and sounds all feel fresh.

Imagery of rebirth comes up often on Roots & Crowns. On “3 Legged Animals,” Rutili sings, “3 legged animals shut their sweet eyes/ lick your scars and grow wings,” and later, “leave your memories, we’re almost new.” He explains, “that song started out as a song called ‘Dreamless’ for the end credits of The Lost. The last scene in the film is a total bloodbath; after that it seemed like the film could use a little sweetness, a bit of salvation for these dark, misfit characters after a period of intense violence. We re-recorded it with Califone and took a more detailed approach, both lyrically and instrumentally. Where the first version felt more about balancing the mood of the film, the one from the album feels more about hope and joy, rebirth, survival and self-acceptance.”

Watch the video for “Spider’s House”