Album titles don't get much more provocative than Like a Virgin Losing a Child. That's the name of Atlanta quintet Manchester Orchestra's impressive debut. An intense indie-rock offering, the album's lyrics actually reflect the disc's weighty title. The emotive vocals are paired with a serrated, twin-guitar assault and the loud-quiet dynamic pioneered by bands like the Pixies. Smart keyboard coloring augments the tension.
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Andy Hull examines life as if he were a sagacious grandfather who has witnessed the best and worst of humanity — but refuses to lose hope in seeing the former prevail.
In the song "I Can Barely Breathe," for instance, Hull flirts with melodrama when he asks: "If you knew I was dying, would it change you?"
Isolated, the line comes off as the desperate words of a desperate man. But in context of the entire album — a collection of songs peppered with cryptic allusions and sly metaphors that reinforce concrete ideas — the inquiry speaks to an overall theme of carpe diem. Which brings us back to that album title, Like a Virgin Losing a Child.
"It's like losing something you never had and not taking anything for granted — God, loved ones, friends, family," Hull explains.
The singer/songwriter has answered his cellphone while enjoying some down time at the home he shares with band mates in a suburb of Atlanta. Hull cracks a couple jokes and doesn't shy away from tough questions regarding his religious upbringing (Pops was a pastor) or the faith issues he explores in song. The only unusual thing about him is that he's barely 21 years old, yet carries himself — both in music and conversation — like a person approaching middle age. Fittingly, Hull has no use for indulging in the backstage debauchery he surely encountered while playing some 250 dates last year with bands like Brand New, Say Anything and Saves the Day, as well as festivals like Bonnaroo.
In June, he will marry his fiancée of three years, a young woman who, along with several members of Manchester Orchestra, attended Atlanta's Providence Christian Academy, a learning facility advertised as "an interdenominational parent-sponsored Christian School for grades K-12."
"It is tough being away from her on the road," Hull says. "But at the same time, it's great when you're in a relationship with someone who believes in you — you can then work through everything else."
Hull opted for home-schooling when he turned 16, devoting much of his time to writing songs. Despite being raised by a dad who doubled as a pastor at a nondenominational Christian church, there's no resentment in the young rocker's voice when he discusses his upbringing.
"It wasn't really a strict Christian household," Hull says. "It was good, to be perfectly honestly. A home like that taught me the basics of being a good person: Be kind, respectful, honor your mother and father. It wasn't like I ever had to write 200 lines of 'I will love God forever.' I wrote a spiritually questioning record, and it was tough for my parents at first, but they never said anything negative."
Hull's initial love of music came by dint of the Christian rock CDs permitted in the home. Secular artists didn't make it through the door until Mom had a change of heart.
"I listened to dc Talk, Point of Grace — any really shitty band that my parents allowed," he says. "Then something in my mom snapped. She started listening to bands like Radiohead and Foo Fighters when I was 12. She started buying good records. It was great — I was starving."
Within a few years of Mom's immersion in "good records," her son picked up the guitar and started writing tunes. Hull would then play Mom his songs. Does she still get first listen?
"Yeah," Hull says. "I make a recording and then we sit in the car and listen."
The healthy relationship with his parents has apparently kept Hull grounded during Manchester Orchestra's whirlwind past year. The band self-released Like a Virgin Losing a Child in late 2006 and built a loyal fan base through heavy touring. Then last April, Rolling Stone profiled Manchester Orchestra in its annual "10 Artists to Watch" feature. The magazine reported that the "unsigned Atlanta band is at the center of a major-label bidding war that threatens to get even more heated after the ensemble — led by precocious singer-songwriter Andy Hull — finishes touring with emo heavyweights Brand New Day and Saves the Day this spring."
Hull downplays the intensity of the "bidding war," but his band did strike a potentially lucrative distribution deal with Sony. It allows the musicians to own their master recordings (a rarity with major labels) and issue future releases by themselves or by acts they sign on their own imprint.
"There was no bidding war; we should be a lot richer if there was," Hull says. "We chose back-end [money] over front, and get to run our own label through this company instead of being clamped down."
He did, however, receive a nice advance check on a publishing deal. Most 20-year-old musicians would have bought a new car or had a wild weekend in Ibiza. But then Hull isn't your typical young man in a successful rock band.
"I put the money in a retirement fund," he says. "I'm still wearing the same clothes from last year. Most likely, this will all go away from us. We're just trying to make as many fans as we can through our live shows — that's the only way we'll be able to make a living."
This article appears in Jan 23-29, 2008.