Seattle's Grand Hallway is one of many local bands playing Bumbershoot this year.

Anyone who follows the Seattle music scene will know that Grand Hallway are one of the hardest-working bands around. They seem to be a constant feature on the city’s fixture list, from their many festival appearances to their slot supporting The Head and the Heart earlier this year – and yet their dreamy blend of ethereal folk and indie chamber-pop never seems to go out of fashion. Their latest album, Winter Creatures, sees them moving towards the folksy sound of their recent live shows, and promises to promote the band even further beyond the city’s boundaries. Grand Hallway may not be Seattle’s best kept secret for much longer.

We caught up with Tomo Nakayama in advance of their show at Bumbershoot to ask him a few questions about the new album, their Seattle contemporaries, and his memories of the festival.

Dan Coxon: Winter Creatures feels like a departure from your previous chamber-pop sound, moving towards a more poignant, soulful folk vibe. What prompted this change?

Tomo Nakayama: A few days after we played the last show with the lineup that recorded Promenade, I went back and listened to the original demos I’d done for that album. I was really struck by the difference in the vibe. I think when you first write and record a song, there’s a purity of intent. There’s an immediacy in the performance and structure that gets lost the more you refine and edit it. So with Winter Creatures the aim was to capture that vibe, not only in the performance but also in the engineering.

I’ve always been intrigued by the dynamic between Neil Young and David Briggs. Neil would go from song to song without giving it a second thought, and Briggs would be right there with him, throwing mics up and dialing in sounds on the fly. Cory Gray, who produced Winter Creatures, he’s also an amazing musician and songwriter. He approaches his engineering with the same level of fluid improvisation and imagination that he brings to his music, and I think the record really benefited from it.

DC: The most obvious comparisons would seem to be fellow Seattleites Fleet Foxes, and maybe Midlake too. Which bands or artists have inspired you? Are you inspired by other media too?

TN: Both those bands I think are fantastic, so thank you for the comparison. I try not to listen to too much music when I’m in the process of recording, but before we went into the studio this time around I was listening to a lot of Arthur Russell, Terry Riley, Harry Nilsson, Cat Stevens, stuff like that. Bjork’s Vespertine was a big influence too. I was also reading a lot of baseball biographies (Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy and Eight Days In August in particular) that really helped me focus, to be absolutely present in the moment, but also to stay out of my own way mentally, to allow myself to get into the zone, if that makes any sense. I don’t know why, but baseball biographies have that effect.

DC: There certainly seems to be a specific Seattle sound right now. Does having such a strong scene around you help you creatively? Or is it sometimes more difficult to get noticed?

TN: The Seattle sound is constantly evolving. When I started out, pretty much every single band sounded like Modest Mouse. Alt-country was really big a couple years ago, and that morphed into the stomping and clapping thing that was big last year. You can already see bands like Pickwick taking that to the next level, adding their own kinda Motown twist, and it’s all very exciting. But that’s just the more-or-less mainstream stuff. There’s an incredible jazz and garage/punk scene, and a bunch of great avante-garde artists as well. A lot of it is stuff I don’t think I quite get, but really find inspiring nonetheless at a visceral, gut level.

As for Grand Hallway, we’ve been incredibly lucky to have a lot of nice things written about us lately, but I also realize that will not always be the case. Nor do I have the desire to keep making the same record over and over. I don’t know how we’ll fit into the musical landscape, but we just do what we do, you know? My favorite artists are guys like Damien Jurado and Jeremy Enigk, people who can’t help but be themselves, no matter what musical context you place them in. If you’re in it for the long haul, and if you stay true to yourself, your path will eventually intersect with the zeitgeist.

Grand Hallway's latest album, 'Winter Creatures'.

DC: Winter Creatures lives up to its name, with its undertones of loss and death. Has it been strange playing these winter songs in the heart of summer?

TN: It’s been incredibly fun and rewarding, actually. We’ve got a couple new members (Maria Mannisto and Aaron Otheim) and it’s been a blast playing with them. I like to imagine our music as a cool misty breeze to chill folks out in this blistering northwest heat.

DC: You’re old hands at Bumbershoot now. What are your favorite memories of the festival from years past?

TN: The first time I kissed a girl was at Bumbershoot. We were slow dancing to the Indigo Girls at the main stage, just brushing cheeks throughout their entire set. A bunch of old dudes behind us started hootin’ and hollering really loud when we finally kissed, during the encore. I think they thought I was a girl. I get that a lot. I also remember seeing Cibo Matto force the entire floor at the KeyArena to do the Electric Slide. That was pretty amazing.

DC: Are there any bands you particularly want to catch while you’re at the festival? Any other Seattle bands we should be watching out for?

TN: Sharon Van Etten and Phantogram are must-sees. Little Dragon and Vetiver should be great too. As for Seattle bands, Whalebones are on fire these days, and our buddy Kaylee Cole is debuting her new record that she’s been working on forever. I also highly recommend checking out Flatstock and also the “Sin Dawg” cinnamon roll from Dave’s Killer Bread. They usually have a stand just outside of the Fisher Pavilion.

DC: And finally… what’s your favorite winter creature?

TN: That would have to be this guy: http://cheezburger.com/BobKat/lolz/View/3988650496

Grand Hallway will play Bumbershoot’s Starbucks Stage at 2.15pm on Monday September 5, 2011. Tickets for all three days of the festival are available from the official Bumbershoot website. For further details of the festival, as well as interviews with the bands in this year’s line-up, check out our dedicated Bumbershoot page.