2009 was a pearler of a year for new music, but at the very top of this contributor’s pile was The Decemberists’ opus The Hazards of Love. Part fairytale, part folk-opera, it was a surprising work of art from a band who started off so humbly in 2000. After 2006’s The Crane Wife, it would’ve been hard to imagine Colin Meloy and band returning with such an adventurous and cohesive album.

“Colin had tried this on a short record called The Tain, a 20-minute rock opera on a re-telling of the British folk tale,” the troupe’s accordion, organ and piano maestro Jenny Conlee-Drizos tells FasterLouder. “That was the beginning of diving into that world, but I’m a huge fan of that kind of thing.”

According to Conlee-Drizos, it was easy selling the operatic concept to guest vocalists. Shara Worden and Becky Stark played the roles of the Witch Queen and Margaret respectively.

“They loved it,” Conlee-Drizos enthuses. “What’s funny is that Shara, who plays the Witch Queen, is just the sweetest, [most] harmless person, and her personality is not that character. She doesn’t have an evil bone in her body. But if she’s onstage and plays that character – I think it brings out the dark side in her. I remember when she came into the studio and we played the track for her, she was super-excited. And she’s a rocker. I saw her do a Sabbath cover once with her band, and she does a Zeppelin cover; she’s a fan of that music.”

Becky Stark, however, was a closer fit. “She has a sweet innocence to her voice. She’s an idealist kind of person. She has almost the personality of Margaret – the beautiful princess who has a heart full of love. She wants to give, she’s a little fragile. She has a very high soprano voice so it fits right in there, and the gentleness in which she sings it. When we played live, she’d wear a long princess outfit and just dance around the stage. She got totally involved in her character; it was wonderful to see. It was just the luck of the universe that those girls happened to have been on tours with us, and they both wanted to do the whole project.”

The record label, however, were a little unsure about releasing an album with no discernable singles. The only song that came close, The Rake’s Song, although amazing, is quite a dark number about infanticide.

“It was maybe a little hard at first for the people working with us,” the multi-instrumentalist concedes. “Is this the time to be putting out a record where people have to buy the whole record to experience it? I mean, you can grab a piece of it, but it doesn’t have the same meaning as listening to the whole record. But then we thought maybe people are still wanting that experience. Maybe we can reintroduce that experience to younger people, who didn’t grow up with Tommy or Quadrophenia and don’t know what it’s like to sit down and listen to a whole record front to back, like The Wall, or that kind of thing.”

The Decemberists were lucky enough to bring both Becky and Shara along on tour, where they played Hazards of Love in full. “It was pretty fun; a little daunting at first,” says Conlee-Drizos. “We sat in Colin’s garage for four days. We’d made the record, we figured we had a clue, but we didn’t really have a clue how we were actually gonna pull it off. Then we had to figure out what roles Shara and Becky would have to play musically. Shara ended up playing some major guitar parts. Then Becky’s singing all the back-up parts that Shara did [on the album], and dulcimer and percussion.

“We had this graph that we made, and then everyone’s names were on it and the songs and the instruments that had to be covered. We had to do it mathematically. We have a couple of samples that we had to use, and I’ve never used samples before for live shows. It’s a little weird. One track, there’s these kids that sing [ The Hazards Of Love 3 (Revenge!) ]. We tried to sing it ourselves, but it just sounded wrong, so we sampled the kids’ vocal parts. I have a click track in my head, so I’m not watching – it’s just me at the top and I have to match up the kids.

“It’s kind of a funny moment to be playing a show for live people and playing to a click track. It wasn’t a show where we could really relax, because if you missed something, it would be off.”

Luckily, the first Hazards Of Love show, at the South by Southwest conference in Texas a week before the album was released, was a success. “It was great. We were all super nervous, but it went really well. There were a bunch of technical problems that day which most people didn’t notice.”

Although The Decemberists won’t be bringing The Hazards of Love to our shores, Conlee-Drizos hints, “we’re planning on being able to do that again, maybe years down the line”.

As for the band’s Big Day Out appearances, Conlee-Drizos says they’ll “do at least a couple of songs from Hazards of Love. It’s gonna be weird, but we’ve done it in the past. We’ll probably do The Rake’s Song, because that works pretty well on its own, and maybe one other song. But our set’s pretty short, and we’d like to play other songs from other records, too.”

So what about the future for the Decemberists? “We’re going into the studio in May for a new record,” Conlee-Drizos reveals. “It’s about half written, so we’re on our way. I’ve heard a lot of it, and I think it’s gonna be more like the old days: shorter, more concise songs. Maybe a few kind of poppier ones, maybe a little folky – I don’t know.

“We haven’t sat down with the band and talked about it really. I’ve just heard the demo tapes. You can never really tell what it’s going to become. But we should have a record out by the end of the year.” Which is fantastic news indeed.

The Hazards Of Love is out now on Capitol/EMI – read the FasterLouder review. The Decemberists are currently on the road with the Big Day Out, making a few stops for sideshows along the way.

Tuesday January 19th – The Metro Theatre, Sydney
Wednesday January 20th – Beck’s Festival Bar, Sydney
Friday January 22nd – Sydney Showground
Sunday January 24th – Billboard, Melbourne
Tuesday January 26th – Melbourne Flemington Racecourse
Wednesday January 27th – Billboard, Melbourne
Friday January 29th – Adelaide Showground
Sunday January 31st – Perth Claremont Showground