In the Pines returns (kind of)

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It has been nearly four years since folk-pop band In the Pines played a live show. In 2010, following the departure of lead singer and guitarist Brad Hodgson (for Austin, Texas), violinist Hannah Kendle and drummer Mike Myers, the beloved local six-piece quietly faded from the scene. Most fans assumed retirement.

Not yet.

The remaining members — bassist Darren Welch, violinist Laurel Morgan and guitarist Matt Wolber — continued to write songs. As with the group’s excellent self-titled debut, in 2008, the process was slow and deliberate. But now, In the Pines has a new, as-yet-untitled album on the way and is gearing up to play a reunion show Friday at RecordBar.

I called Myers last week to ask for details.

The Pitch: Remind me. Why did In the Pines retire in the first place?

Myers: [Laughs.] We just went into a hibernation. I actually left the band in 2010, and I think our other string player, Hannah, also left the band, and so In the Pines kind of just went dormant. They continued to write new stuff and work on songs that we recorded, and that was just kind of a really long process over the last four years. They actually played at South by Southwest with another drummer, and that was the only show in the last four or five years. I wanted to [be there], but I was out of town.

Why did you leave the band?

I just didn’t want to play in a full-time band anymore. Brad had moved to Austin, and I didn’t want to travel much — and that was still on the table then for the band. At that point, I’d been in the band for five or six years, and I was ready to do something else. I don’t even remember what band I joined after that. [Laughs.]

Brad still lives in Austin, and he’s not moving back, though you mentioned earlier that he’s flying in for the Thanksgiving show. Why resurrect this band after four years when you all kind of seem to have moved on?

The timing was just right to do it, along with the new music that we’ve been writing, and we’re still finishing up the new music that we’ve been recording. I don’t know — it just kind of happened out of the blue, but mostly because of the new music. We’ve been rehearsing without Brad while he’s in Austin, and he came up a month ago to practice, and things went well. I think we all just kind of missed doing it.

Tell me about the new material.

They’re songs that were birthed all the way back in 2007 and 2008, and written in the years following. Most of them were recorded analog, over a span of six years, so they’ve kind of been on the shelf. It’s going to be a full-length album, but we only have the song titles, not the album title.

How does the new stuff compare with the old stuff? Has the songwriting process changed?

This time around, the band has been writing things mostly as a unit, which is a little bit different from the first album. Most of the tunes [on that album] were by Brad. This next album will be mostly collaborative band songs. A couple individual tracks were written by Laurel Morgan and one by Laurel and Darren Welch.

They definitely have a different sound, for sure. It’s still In the Pines, but it seems a little more rock-influenced. You can hear more of the individual personalities come out in the music. I think it’s a little thicker sounding but not necessarily louder. The theme of the music is still there. It still sounds like In the Pines.

What was it like coming back together as a band for the first time after so long?

Oh, it was great. It just came back together. When you play with people for that long and you’re that close of buddies like we have been for all these years, the band chemistry, it just picks up right where it left off. We were immediately right back in step.

We had to shake off a little of the rust. Some of those songs we hadn’t played in six years. Some of the songs we hadn’t played since we recorded in the studio. As far as the band energy and chemistry goes, it was there immediately. We were super, super tight back in the early ’00s, and we had practice every week and had a lot of good times, and we were a tight-playing band. It didn’t take long to regain that.

What does this mean for the future of In the Pines? Are you back on the scene now?

We won’t be a full-time band. We might play once or twice a year. Our record label, Arctic Rodeo, is based in Germany, so there’s a chance we could tour in Europe around the new stuff. Really, it [the reunion] was all just kind of spawned from finishing up these new recordings.

I don’t think we’re going to be completely back in the scene or anything, but we’re definitely going to do another show, to release the full-length album, within the next year. We’re going to choose our battles. We’ll appear out of the woodwork. We may play South by Southwest again, if it makes sense, since Brad lives there, or we may travel a little bit to support the next one. It’s going to be a crafty, veteran-band approach.