IT is May 3 and Robin Pecknold is busy explaining one of his favourite cosmic conjunctions. “Our song, ‘Third Of May’, touched on some synchronicities. The third of May means a few things in Fleet Foxes’ world – it’s the birthday of both Skyler Skjelset [Pecknold’s right-hand man in Fleet Foxes] and Josh Tillman [who played drums for the band in his pre-Father John Misty guise], and it’s the day the Helplessness Blues album was released. Then there’s the Goya painting, The Third Of May. I re-downloaded Instagram to wish Skye a happy birthday today, then a bunch of people posted ‘Happy Fleet Foxes Day!’ So today is Fleet Foxes Day and tomorrow is Star Wars Day.”
You may suspect that such connections are deeply satisfying for Pecknold – a crossword obsessive whose rapturous hymnals often detour into classical allusions, logophilia and rich, esoteric detail – but he won’t be out celebrating today’s harmonious alignments. He is still recovering from a debilitating bout of ill-health that struck him shortly before the recent Spring Recital – aka the surprise comeback concert for Joanna Newsom that Pecknold helped mastermind – and has stubbornly lingered since. “I got sick a week before the Joanna show with strep throat,” he explains. “I made it through that show with DayQuil and Sudafed. I got Covid a couple days after, then the strep came back worse. We were maybe having to cancel that show, which would have been scary because we spent so long planning it.”
Illness aside, Spring Recital was “kind of psychedelic”, says Pecknold. “To hear Joanna play her first new songs in eight years was crazy. The venue felt like a crucible, with everyone tuned in to what she was doing in the most beautiful way. It’s one of those times where you’re surprised that experiences like that are even possible, it’s like accessing some part of your brain that never gets] Dan Rossen on guitar, it was incredibly meaningful.”
