CheekyChicago

After reaching some impressive heights with the complexities among pop-like structures on their first two EPs (Trees, Swallows, Houses and You and Me and the Mountain), Chicago indie-rockers Maps & Atlases released their first full-length album, Perch Patchwork on June 29, kicking things off with a raucous, sold-out release show at Subterranean.

Fresh off a tour with Frightened Rabbits and just a few days before embarking on their first headlining U.S. tour, guitarist Erin Elders of Maps & Atlases took a few minutes to talk about the new album, what he’s listening to now and his stint as a tutor at a “rock-and-roll after-school program” with other Chicago musicians.

Do you have a favorite song you like to play from the new album?

Erin Elders: I think my favorite right now is probably “The Charm.” That’s also because I get to play snare drum. I get excited when I get to play that song. I get to revisit middle school band and play the snare drum.

Where did that idea come from?

EE: We made the record without the live show in mind. We kind of wanted the live show and the record to be two different things. Eventually the time came where we were like, “How are we going to do this live? How are we doing to do verses of these songs to do the record justice?” We were just going through the different sounds that we felt were really important. There’s a couple of toy piano parts on the record that help the songs. So I was like, we have to find a toy piano.

The new album is a fairly far cry from the first two. What was the main idea for Perch Patchwork?

EE: When we started, we had no idea what we were doing. We had no plan or goal. It was four guys getting together and playing. The songs came out of a certain energy that was there when the four of us got together and started playing. I think that’s what Trees, Swallows and Houses came out of, just us, all these ideas being thrown together with a certain energy. Since then we’ve been trying to sort of focus things a little more and sort of write songs more cohesive and adjustable, songs that are more complete ideas that people can listen to and take something away from.

What are you most influenced by?

EE: When we first started, because we didn’t know what we were doing and didn’t have a plan or a path, we did bond over some experimental music or free jazz. But at the same time we’re still really into and influenced by Otis Redding and Van Morrison and some more old soul. As our band has gone along I think the interest has sort of focused itself into more of a songwriting thing than sort of just the instrumentation. I feel like when we first started it was the excitement of instrumentation and sort of something like a song frame around that.