Indie band Built to Spill brings 'Keep it Like a Secret' to Sonoma

Twenty years ago, Built to Spill bandleader Doug Martsch was at a crossroads: “After making ‘Perfect from Now On,’ I really wanted to work on some more concise material because it was so draining to work on those long, long songs.”

Concise. Short. Brisk. These are not the words often used to describe Built to Spill songs.

The indie-rock band from Boise, Idaho, had signed with the major label Warner Brothers a few years before in 1996 and delivered a brilliant album of meandering, exploratory jams that came across as kind of a post-grunge homage to Neil Young’s Crazy Horse improvisations.

But it was almost cursed from the start. “Perfect from Now On” had to be recorded three times (thanks in part to master tapes melting in the producer’s hot pickup truck) to get it right.

Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden had all jumped to major labels earlier in the ’90s, and Martsch had been wary of selling out.

“It was important to not change our music when we signed to a major label,” he said. “When I was a kid in the late ’80s, a lot of the punk bands and alternative bands started signing to major labels and it seemed like they made albums that weren’t very good after they did that.”

Now, to follow up their taxing last album, Martsch and his bandmates, Brett Nelson on bass and Scott Plouf on drums, wanted to go in a different direction.

“It’s definitely part of the reason the songs are the way they are. It’s kind of a reaction to (‘Perfect from Now On,’)” said Martsch, taking a break during a recent three-night run in Los Angeles.

“The songs are poppier. It was also just way more collaborative. Brett and Scott and I wrote a lot of the songs and parts together. It was the first really collaborative Built to Spill record.”

The result is the now-classic Built to Spill album, “Keep It Like a Secret,” a collection that the website Pitchfork named Number 41 in a list of Top 100 ’90s albums.

It features catchy tunes such as “The Plan,” “Center of the Universe” and “Carry the Zero” - the designated closer at almost every concert.

The band’s signature winding, elliptical Fender fretwork was still front and center, but this time they cranked out tightly distilled nuggets of songs that never had time to stretch apart - the result of a new songwriting process for Martsch.

“It was the first time we really had jams just to mine for parts,” Martsch said.

“We would record a 45-minute jam and let it go anywhere. Not just 45 minutes with one chord progression, but change it up all the time. And then I’d go back and listen and find little things I thought could be songs. Then sometimes I’d change the tempo, speed it up a bunch or change the key and see how it sounded.”

The last time Built to Spill played Sonoma County was a moonlit night a little over a year ago under the redwoods in the WPA-era amphitheater in Armstrong Woods State Natural Reserve in Guerneville.

Out on the road again, the band is celebrating the 20th anniversary of “Keep it Like a Secret” by playing it in a different sequence almost every night, dropping by Gundlach Bundschu Winery on Saturday, Nov. 23.

Once again, the lineup has changed since we last saw them. The only constant in Built to Spill over the years has been Martsch as founder and maestro.

“Really most of our career we had a pretty set group of people. Around the time that (‘Keep It Like a Secret’) came out, it was me and Brett and Scott and we’d been playing a few years together.

“Then Jim joined us and played in the band for 15 years. And then people kind of fell out. The rhythm section guys quit after a little while. We were a five-piece and I let the guitar players go and we were a three-piece. Now I’m mixing it up again, playing with some Brazilian folks.

“There was a long time when it was nice to keep a solid lineup and get really tight. But now I’m ready to mess around and play with different people and record some different sounds.”

For this latest tour, he’s teamed up with a cast of characters led by Le Almeida, who plays in the band Orua, based in Rio.

He met them “through someone on Instagram who turned me onto their music.”

So far, they’ve been quick learners, and judging by reviews, the Built to Spill faithful seem to be enjoying their take on “Keep It Like a Secret,” even if Martsch has played the songs thousands of times.

“People seem to be interested in it,” he said. “I have no problem playing it every night. I don’t get burned out on it. There are always things to do in the songs – ways I can improve, or places to improvise or go in a different direction.”

“Now I’m ready to mess around and play with different people and record some different sounds.”

DOUG MARTSCH, Built to Spill