Two songs, "Double Bubble" and "The Rifle's Spiral" are being debuted on the road right now, and Mercer said he has 30 songs in the can. But don't expect to hear much moping around on the new album. "It's a lot more up-tempo stuff," he said. "I haven't really got any real ballad-y stuff right now. I've got 30 songs and none of them are real slow. I think maybe, I'm not so melancholy lately. I'm real happy. I've been lucky in love and I've got a wonderful kid now and things have been going well. Some of the songs are sort of aggressive in a new wave way. I'm excited about it."
Mercer thinks that his new material represents some of his best work. "For some reason, it seems like pop writers, it's like they just get worse or something over time. And then you're really jealous of movie directors whose careers seem to grow and they'll be 70 years old and still doing these incredible jobs. I'm going to reverse that, I hope. I think it's just working hard at it and not letting yourself be satisfied with the stuff."
The new album will be released on Mercer's own label, Aural Apothecary, possibly with distribution from a larger label, possibly the Shins' former home, Sub Pop. So why not stick with Sub Pop? Why strike out on your own? "Because you get more money," Mercer stated, matter-of-factly. "I mean, it's more work and it's more headache and all that, but I think it'll be worth it in the end."
Though Mercer hopes to one day release other artists' music on Aural Apothecary, right now, he only has time for his own work. Before the new Shins album, he plans to re-release Flake Music's 1997 album When You Land Here, It's Time to Return, which has been remixed by Danger Mouse's mixing engineer Kennie Takahashi.
