It is not too often that one hears about college professors going on tour with a band. Spenser Simrill, Jr., however, is one of the rare exceptions. The professor from the U. Georgia-Athens, who holds a doctorate in English, accompanied avant-garde Pop band of Montreal on their winter European tour and, in the process, made a documentary titled of Montreal: Family Nouveau about the band.

While the film is only about 45 minutes long, it provides viewers with a different view of the band — both as individuals and as creators of some of the most unique music material available today.

Simrill and I discussed, via phone interview, his inspiration for the documentary, what took place during filming and his deep appreciation for the band and their music.

FSView & Florida Flambeau: What inspired the making of this documentary?

Spenser Simrill, Jr.: Well, (of Montreal’s) approach is beyond music. It’s beyond lyrics, it’s beyond images, it’s beyond theatrics. And I say “beyond” because, if you take it as a whole, it unifies all those forms together and it’s a show. It’s a spectacle, it’s a circus, as (frontman) Kevin (Barnes) puts it, and the video, I felt, would be the ideal medium to capture that because it would be like going to the concerts. With video and circle cameras, you can see things from different angles but also see how the show is put on and know more about all the personalities and the characters and all the band members and how they get along. It’s one large family. They’ve been making music for so long together and they lean on each other for ideas. There’s this really cool, loose, playful atmosphere surrounding the band. I knew them before, so my goal was to capture that in the film.

FFF: How did you know them before and how did you approach the band about doing this?

SSJ: In Athens, pretty much everyone knows everyone.

I’ve been living here for 15 years and teaching at UGA for 10 and I met them at parties. My roommate actually made their T-shirts, so I sort of had an “in” in that way and, at this Christmas party, I found out they needed somebody to sell their T-shirts on the European tour and basically be the “merch guy,” but the tickets were so expensive that they were caught in a bind. Luckily, I had a free ticket to Europe because I was teaching over in Tuscany, Italy. My kid brother was coming, too, as a student, so I told the manager, “Why don’t you let my brother sell my shirts and I will run the cameras?”

FFF: And what was their reaction to that?

SSJ: I think from the beginning they knew that the whole approach would be kind of low-key. In the cinéma vérité tradition, the goal is to depict life as it is without the gaze for the lens of the camera. Of course, we know that’s impossible because you’re always there and people know the camera is there. But, I think that just being cool with them before made them more relaxed in my presence and I just wanted to be as chill as possible and to just be a part of the action.

FFF: As someone with a doctorate in English, how would you analyze their lyrics?

SSJ: (Kevin) makes references to Orpheus, to Dionysus, to Apollo, to Tiresias. It’s a fascinating combination because he’s very steeped in the classical European mythological tradition and this is wholly self-educated. He went to a community college for a semester (because) he was more into music and into writing songs.

If you look at his bookshelf, you’re just blown away by just how rich and how broad his reading interests are. So I really consider him a self-educated genius. It’s a fascinating combination: the European mythological tradition with American sense of rhythm and blues and rock and soul.

FFF: “Family Nouveau” is one of their songs. Why did you choose this as the title for your film?

SSJ: My biggest regret of the documentary is that Nina, Kevin’s wife, wasn’t on the tour.

The first thing that he would do after each show was that he could call her just to check in. I felt that the song, since it’s about their relationship and their new life together, would be a way to honor her from afar.

Also, you get a sense that these people are more than just people who make music together.

They’ve grown up together; they’ve matured together and they’ve gone through a lot.

In my opinion, it’s very inspiring and it’s a real testament to artistic perseverance for a band that, for a long time, had little commercial success. There were some die-hard fans from the beginning but they were unique enough that not everyone was getting their vibe, but they stayed true to their art, their aesthetic, to their vision and the success eventually came. It’s a testament to believing in your goals, to believing in your heart, believing in your message and eventually people will listen.

FFF: Were you a fan of the band before?

SSJ: Absolutely. I didn’t know as much of their early stuff as much because for a while, I was living in Europe.

But I came back around 2004, around the same time the album Satanic Panic in the Attic came out and I was totally blown away by the sound. It had this amazing combination of really bright, poppy, multi-layered beats and arrangements with lyrics that were mythologically rich and emotionally all over the place.

FFF: What would you say are some of your favorite songs by of Montreal?

SSJ: There are so many (sighs). I like to listen to the albums straight through because I feel like, from start to finish, there is an emotional, narrative art that is expressed. It’s really hard, but “The Past is a Grotesque Animal,” I think, is, for a lot of people, a really important song. It’s eleven minutes long and it’s both tight and sprawling at the same time.

FFF: How was the tour different from what you had anticipated?

SSJ: I didn’t have any expectations.

I know that from doing performance stuff, myself, that not every show is going to go well and you just expect that.

It was a cool time to be over there. We got very lucky with the timing of the piece. We arrived on the night of Obama’s inauguration, so we got to watch that together and there’s that sense of hopefulness, not only in the band but really in all of Europe because I’m sure, as a lot of people know, the war is unpopular abroad.

Also, the other really fortunate thing for timing was that we were in Glasgow, Scotland on the one night off (it was 12 nights, 11 shows). We were there for the 250th anniversary of Bobby Burns, a Scottish poet laureate.

It was funny because there are a lot of similarities between Kevin Barnes and Bobby Burns. You’ll see in the documentary, they look just alike.

I just did this cool thing where I found images of them with a similar expression and I put a cross fade on the image and they look exactly alike — it’s eerie. Their lyrics and poetry have this unique mixture of mirth and melancholy. It’s that same emotional range of joy and also some sadness.

FFF: So I know you have some filmmaking experience aside from this documentary. Do you plan to expand on that even more now?

SSJ: Oh yeah, absolutely; it’s so fun. Every time it’s a challenge and it’s really exhilarating when things come together, especially in the editing phase. So yeah, I think this is the start of lots of things to come, for sure.

FFF: What else do you have going on in the near future?

SSJ: I’m working on a documentary about “Uncle Remus” and the “Song of the South.” Joel Chandler Harris compiled African-American folklore, “Brer Rabbit,” “The Tar Baby,” (et cetera). It’s the one film that Disney has yet to re-release.

It’s a controversial subject for some people, but if you really want to know more about where the stories come from and know more about Joel Chandler Harris the compiler, (and) also the actor James Baskett, who played Uncle Remus, I think it’s something worthy of sharing and something that should be out there.