Fleet Foxes Say 'It Took a Lot of Faith' to Finish 'Helplessness Blues'

As the title suggests, Fleet Foxes found the process of making their new record, 'Helplessness Blues,' rather thankless. In fact, the Seattle band actually considered scrapping the disc entirely.

"It took a lot of faith for us to keep going," singer-guitarist Robin Pecknold tells Spinner.

"I paid extra money to go into the studio and re-record this song after everyone thought it was done -- I would still be working on stuff if I could. I would just be happy working on it endlessly and never stop. I just have a weirder relationship with the record."

However much Pecknold picked at the songs, he does admit to being pleased with the end result.

"I'm happy with the intention behind it," he says. "There were times where I just personally had a lot of pressure."

With some material on 'Helplessness Blues' dating back to 2008, Pecknold admits the time lapse was hard to navigate. "One of the problems we ran into on this record, though, was that we had to re-record older songs, and it was kind of jarring to work on them when we could've come out with them a couple of years ago."



With the album about to drop, Pecknold is relieved to be able to work on fresh material once again.

"Yeah, I'm totally writing right now," he says. "We'll probably make another album but not now."

Before Pecknold commits himself to another Fleet Foxes record, he'd like to head into the studio and make a record as Rainbow Fang, the side project he started with his sister and manager Aja Pecknold.

"I'd really like to finish it because I like those songs," he says. "I'd like to start a label where we can be releasing stuff and putting out our own little records from friends and family.

"We've been kind of in this mode -- full album, big tours -- and it's a good way to do it, it works, but for our own sanity, we'd like to do a little something different next time. I think we're going to do singles and little EPs, try different ways of releasing music now that we're out of a record contract."