by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“It’s not like we’re unhappy people,” says Toby Nathaniel, “so forcing ourselves to go into that place in order to create that kind of music can be really taxing, physically and emotionally.”

It’s been nearly four years since the release of Black Heart Procession’s last album, and apart from the aforementioned ennui, the San Diego-based quintet has a stack of good excuses. Multi-instrumentalist Nathaniel moved to Portland and got married, while singer/guitarist Pall Jenkins built up a studio, Stereo Disguise Recording Laboratories, and kept on top of his game by recording other bands. When it came time to delve into new Black Heart Procession sessions, the band decided to get back to basics and away from the sunny eclecticism of 2002’s Amore del Tropico.

“Although [that was] a neat record, I think we lost track of some of what Black Heart Procession is,” Nathaniel explains. “There’s minimalism, and a certain starkness and loneliness to the music.”

The Spell certainly fits the bill, with its elegantly grim instrumentation, gracefully aching melodies and Jenkins’ vaguely dystopian artwork, depicting black birds, barbed wire, a man emitting swirling rays from his palm and a pack of topless, hypnotized women.

In recent interviews, Jenkins has discussed the album’s parallel themes of love and war, and several songs can be read as either personal or political. As open to interpretation as it is, the overlying concept was inspired by politics.

“‘The Spell’ refers to being under the thumb of a government,” says Nathaniel, “or dealing with a government that’s doing something you can’t control, and feeling helpless.”

For the first time, Jenkins was compelled to comment on the American political scene, which is due for an overhaul in elections this year and in 2008—Nathaniel says, “Hopefully some positive changes will happen this time. They have to happen.” Lyrically, however, heartbreak is Black Heart Procession’s home turf. After all, the impetus for forming the band back in 1997, when Jenkins and Nathaniel were members of Three Mile Pilot, was being dumped by their respective girlfriends almost simultaneously.

“Instead of just moping around, we were like, ‘Let’s write some music and have fun with this, be goofy.’ That’s an element of our music that people sometimes don’t get, but it’s always there. It’s a 75/25 thing. It can be really dark, but there’s always an uplifting aspect, if people wanna look for it.”

Silver linings may be integral to the Black Heart oeuvre, but the band draws the line at Cure-style pairings of dark lyrics and upbeat music, preferring a more cohesive mood.

“I always thought goth culture was kinda wonky because of that,” says Nathaniel, referring specifically to “gravers.”

“You see the way they dress all depressed, and the music is, ‘Boom-ch, boom-ch, boom-ch.’ I don’t understand!”

But Black Heart Procession have aligned themselves with goths in the past, not simply because they make sombre music, but by virtue of a mutual admiration for all things morbid.

“It’s a place where Pall and I write well, channelling that energy. Some people like darker-looking art—it’s a preference for us. If we tried to write a poppy song, it just wouldn’t work.”

With Devics and the Castanets at la Sala Rossa on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 9 p.m., $15

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