In a 2010 Rolling Stone interview Jim James compared the new album to Evil Urges, saying that Evil Urges was the hardest record the band ever made and that the new sessions sounded more upbeat.
"I'm really excited. It's all live, so the vibe is really, really good, really wholesome. There's something about it. We've done stuff mostly live but then you do some overdubs, some vocals, or whatever. But we're trying to do everything other than maybe strings live. There's just something old and dirty about it."- Jim James
(Rolling Stone interview, August 2010)
In a 2010 New York Post interview, published on October 10th, James again commented on the sound, saying that the five new tracks the band currently had done was old and dirty sounding. He also commented on the performances being done live in May 2011, explaining the excitement over the recording process.
"Well, it’s funny. Normally I have rules, until I realize I can’t have rules. But for this record, yes, we wanted to make it a live, emotional thing, which included live vocals and everyone’s main performance for each song being live, in order to get a take. We were all excited about running back to the control room, jumping up and down, high-fiving!"- Jim James
(A.V. Club interview, May 2011)
In a 2011 Toronto Sun interview James commented on the difference between recording to tape and recording with computers and why he felt that it was important to record the vocals live.
"I don't want to seem too retro, but there's just a certain purity of recording to tape. It's like a mirror; you only see what you put into it. Whereas the computer is a crazy hologram machine. You can put the image of a frog into the computer and turn it into the Devil. So for us, it was just fun to focus on getting good live performances. We've always done our basic tracking that way, but it's been tough to get a live vocal -- by the time the band gets the song down, I'm spent. But this time I really wanted to record the vocal for every song live with the band, because I feel that makes for a more emotional connection. So we didn't rehearse any of the music before we got to the space. I sent the guys really simple demos so they kind of knew the songs, but that was it. So it became an all-in-one process where we were learning the song and recording the song at the same time. And it turned out great."- Jim James
(Toronto Sun, May 2011)
Shake it up
In a 2010 interview with Post-Gazette Bo Koster was asked if the band tries to shake up the sound a little with every album;
"I don't think we purposely try to shake things up just for the sake of it. I think it's more about following inspiration as it comes, starting with Jim's demos and we go from there. We like to experiment and try things for sure. Everyone is open."- Bo Koster
(Post-Gazette, August 2010)
Compared to earlier records
In a 2011 interview with MySpace Jim James compares Circuital to previous album Evil Urges, using various beverages to illustrate the differences.
"Evil Urges is very bubbly or triangular — like Sprite or soda or beer. Circuital feels more smooth like milk or water."- Jim James
(MySpace interview, March 2011)
Songs flowing into each other
"I just wanted the songs to flow into each other and create a cool note, and extended listening experience. I love listening to a record that has points where the music does not stop. I really love the sound of the chord as the noise from “Victory Dance” ends and “Circuital” begins. It just felt right."- Jim James
(A.V. Club interview, May 2011)
Lyrics
Interviewer: A lot of the lyrics are about growing up, moving on, reflecting back on youth. Aren't you a little young for a midlife crisis?- Jim James
Jim James: Some of it came from a head injury I had two years ago when I fell off the stage. That made me question a lot of things. I was in a weird place -- while I was recovering from this very strange injury which took a long time to get over, I was watching people starting families and having kids. I felt like an outsider -- like I was watching through Plexiglass as real life happened to people I knew. And I was thinking about when different versions of you stop and start, and how you have to let yourself change. You can't try to stay the same person. There's the child inside you that doesn't want to die as you become an adult, but you have to move on. I'm just constantly trying to find out who I really am. And I'm still struggling to find a definition I'm comfortable with.
(Toronto Sun, May 2011)
Not sorted
"We’ve always been a pretty comfortable band, I think that’s always been one of our greatest strengths, just that we’re so comfy with each other. We’ve never really had weird power struggles in the band or weird mind games between us. I feel like this record was a lot looser for us — I tried to give us less fully formed songs to work with, so we could all really flesh out the songs together and everyone could bring their own thing to it. We’ve been doing this for a while, so I think we’ve all figured out how to function together and also not drive ourselves crazy. This record kind of shows that, I think.
Jim James
(Stereogum interview, March 2011)
