That is a breath of fresh air,” says Department of Eagles frontman Daniel Rossen, tongue planted firmly in cheek in regard to his band’s latest achievement. “The Gossip Girl number-
one ring tone.” On a break from mixing an album with Grizzly Bear, in
which he plays guitar, Rossen was marveling at the aftermath of his
other band’s appearance in a recent episode of the teen drama. “It
would be funny if the ring tone was like ‘Phantom Other’ or some really
eerie song.” The track, “No One Does It Like You,” lends a catchy tune
to the lives of television’s richest love-stricken teens, but Rossen
isn’t quite sure how the iTunes generation will react to the rest of
Department of Eagles’ second record.
“‘No
One Does It Like You,’ thought it has an eeriness to it, is very much
the odd man out on the entire record.There’s a lot of pop-like songs on
the record, but that’s certainly the poppiest, catchiest one,” he says
by phone from Brooklyn.
These days, Rossen alternates between his “number one job” in Grizzly Bear and his secondary one promoting In Ear Park, which has left him a bit tired.
“It’s
both a breath of fresh air and a real headache to be honest,” he says
of his schedule. “Logistically it’s a nightmare, it’s difficult to
balance everything going on right now.”
Despite
the lack of sleep, Rossen is having his cake and pigging out as
well.The songwriting guitarist has sold out a Jan. 19 show at Bowery
Ballroom and even the New York Times is marveling at his talent
pretty early in the game.Which begs the question, what constitutes
fame? “I wouldn’t say I’m famous in any way,” Rossen replies. “At this
point I don’t know if the record will do anything else or if we’ll be
launched to any level of success.”
So far so good. With
upcoming shows on both coasts, Rossen says he looks forward to
experimenting with some new ideas in front of a live audience. “It’s
harder to do that sort of thing with Grizzly Bear.When we’re doing big
shows we’re expected to play a rip-roaring set, you can’t really just
bust out some random demo. “When [Department of Eagles] was in Europe,
I kind of came up with a song the weekend before we left and I just
decided to play it because it’s kind of interesting to play incredibly
new material for an audience—when the song is practically not done it’s
like a very scary open mic.” Rossen says he enjoys the leniency
Department of Eagles provides him as a venue for some of his and
collaborator Fred Nicolaus’ songs that might not be as well suited to
Grizzly Bear. “Department of Eagles is not exactly a band, it’s kind of
a project—it can be whatever we want it to be.” Though he might soon
find himself the center of swooning Gossip Girl fans, Rossen and Department of Eagles have no plans to tour extensively but are focused on Grizzly Bear’s forthcoming effort.
“You can’t tour your entire life away,” he muses. “You’ll die 30 years younger than you’re supposed to.”
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Department of Eagles
Jan. 19, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie St.), 212-533-2111; 8, $15
