Simon Adler’s tousled blond hair and slight lisp match the honesty and reassurance of his smile, both of which compliment the carefree and jovial air around him.
He’s from the Midwest — Eau Claire, Wis., to be exact; a haven for soft-spoken indie-folkie types such as Bon Iver, Megafaun, Peter Wolf Crier and Sean Carey.
That’s where Adler has drawn from for his songs, and even though he hasn’t crawled away to a secluded cabin to record a hit album, there’s always that possibility.
Adler and his five-piece band, Wintertime Carousel, have been kicking it around Eugene for the past few years and last winter dropped their debut album “Grief In Movement.”
The record is a soft compilation produced by Mike Noyce of Bon Iver and for which they packaged and screen-printed 100 limited editions by hand.
The soft melancholy of the album unveils a time fraught with confusion and maturation, a period of growth inspired by novels such as J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher In The Rye” and James Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” However, a necessary period of harsh growth is usually accompanied by a subsequent maturity.
In Adler’s case, the impact on his music can’t be more evident.
“It’s hard to play sad music and do it well,” Adler said. “I feel that this (new) album is considerably more poppy, and it’s more fun. And I think we’re working on making it more approachable. I feel there’s something to be said for striking a balance between trying to make something artistic and trying to make something approachable.”
As easy as it is for some to understand and relate to grief, it doesn’t necessarily draw a crowd ready and equipped with their dancing shoes. And that’s what Adler and the others are really striving toward.
The newer album, to be released this upcoming summer, capitalizes more on the band’s penchant for jazz improvisation and breaks out of the rigid confines of folk and into the wild world of shreddy guitar solos, juicy riffs and a horn section. Think of a transition from a Bradford Cox-Bon Iver fusion to something more up-tempo like The Dodos crossed with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
The jazzy transition also seems appropriate considering lead guitarist Ben Rice’s abilities and that the three core members of the band met in the University’s jazz program.
“I think one really big thing with Ben bringing in these blues influences — he’s an amazing jazz guitarist — I feel like that opened up a lot of slide stuff that I never would have imagined when I conceptualized the songs,” Adler said. “I think that’s one of the sounds that make us unique.”
And in a genre where they’re well aware of their protege status, something unique is imperative. That’s where the new horn section comes in. Even the way old songs are played now seems to be drastically different.
“I think the way we play ‘Alchemy’ live, now there’s a lot more grit to it; it hits a lot harder,” bassist Evan Marquardt said. “I personally like that track and the way it turned out, but it feels a lot more ambient. Something about it reminds me of a shoegaze song.”
The new tracks are indeed, as Adler said, “more fun.” All written while he was on a semester abroad in Peru last term, the songs’ subject matter has even changed to a storytelling format, eschewing that former introspection and angst. This is apparent in the track “Percy Fawcett,” which chronicles the adventures of the eponymous South American explorer who disappeared while trying to find an ancient lost city in the Brazilian jungle.
“I feel like I’m getting better at songwriting, like maturing or whatever you want to call it — I’m just doing it more,” Adler said. “And I can think about more things while writing the songs.”
More important than their progress in songwriting, though, is the way the band has gelled and been able to understand each other as musicians.
“I think something that is great about playing together is that we can trust each other musically so much,” Rice said. “It’s great to be like ‘I’m hearing this’ or ‘I’m hearing that.’”
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