Pitchfork

Believe it or not, it's been nearly four years since we've heard so much as a whimper from the Sea and Cake, but that doesn't mean the veteran Chicago jazz-inflected pop quartet has slowed down.

Cakers Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt spent the last few years focusing on individual pursuits-- each released a solo record in 2005 (Who's Your New Professor and Wilderness, respectively, both on Thrill Jockey). Drummer John McEntire, meanwhile, has concentrated on his work with Tortoise, while also recording up a storm at his Soma Studios. And Eric Claridge traded the bass for a palette and paintbrush, turning out a pretty sweet series of oil paintings last year.

Now the fire, wind, earth, and heart of the Sea and Cake (water is lame, man) have reunited at last, and by their powers combined, nearly completed work on album number seven. Pitchfork caught up with Sea and Cake captain Sam Prekop yesterday for a chat about recording the latest LP at a "rock'n'roll boot camp," his photography book, his electronic record with McEntire, and the fine art of the album cover.

"We're almost done" with the as-yet-untitled record, reported Prekop. "We have one more song to mix, and then the sequencing." It should see the light of day in May, and like all previous Sea and Cake full lengths, bear the Thrill Jockey stamp.

That's not the only continuing trend here: like the six Sea and Cake LPs before it, number seven will contain exactly 10 tracks (including "Scribble On" and "What Tonight Is")-- which was far from Prekop's intention.

"I was very anxious to make a record that had more than ten songs," he said. "[But] this one has ten, too, which I didn't think was going to happen, because we had actually prepared 15. But for whatever reason, five of them didn't make it. If we felt that we could have pulled off more than ten, we would have, or if it felt right.

"It could be a thing where we just know that ten, that's it, that makes the best record, you can't get further than that."

And the five that didn't make the cut? Said Prekop, "I want to book some more time, and do an EP or just a bunch of different tracks...[and] take advantage of some of this momentum. I'll probably re-visit or re-write some of those songs, too."

Perhaps the biggest change for the Sea and Cake, the band cooped up at Michigan's Key Club studios to record the majority of the new record with producer Brian Paulson (who is presently mixing it).

"[It's] like a little rock'n'roll boot camp," enthused Prekop. "You get there and there's absolutely no distractions whatsoever. You're in the middle of nowhere, and you stay there, and it's like a full-on compound. I like that aspect of it: there's nothing else to do put play."

The Sea and Cake haven't, however, completely abandoned their frequent recording spot, McEntire's Soma Studios. Prekop recorded his vocals with McEntire, and did some mixing there as well, "because they had fancier stuff."

All that's left now, besides mixing and sequencing, is cover art.

"I'm looking for an album cover right now," Prekop told Pitchfork. His own photographs adorn the covers of the last two Sea and Cake discs, One Bedroom and Oui. "I was kind of hoping to not use one of my things, [since] I feel like I've done that too often...I'm trying to open it up a little bit. I had Archer doing some stuff, but that looked too much like what he would do."

"Actually, Eric did a lot of [our early covers]. It might be a good time to bring him out of album-cover-design retirement."

Or perhaps someone outside the band? "I would consider it, yeah, but I really like doing it, so it would be hard to give up that process."

When the burdens of cover selection prove to be too much, Prekop distracts himself with myriad other pursuits. He's hoping to record an electronic record with McEntire, inspired in part by Nuno Canavarro's Plux Quba.

"That's the high-water mark, in my opinion, of electronic music...It's a really delicate, beautiful, and really weird record."

And Prekop always has his photography. In fact, Japan-based publisher Press Pop will soon release a book of his work with the camera. "It's all black and white, and it's all around my house and in my house. It's a pretty broad range of stuff, even though it's limited subject-matter-wise. A lot of [the photographs] are abstract-looking in some ways, but [there's] also some straight street photography.

"It's been done to death, but I've always been interested in getting something new out of it."

For now, however, completing the new record is the first priority. And then, come May, it's back to the tour circuit for Prekop and the gang. "We probably won't be doing full on tours until the fall," reported Prekop, "but we'll probably play quite a bit around when the album comes out, and do some festivals."

Finally, when asked about his favorite musical finds in 2006, Prekop had at least one starling confession: "I actually like the Fiery Furnaces record with the grandmother on it [2005's Rehearsing My Choir]. I know most people could not hack it at all, but I actually think it's great...[although] it's not an everyday listen."