Your voice is really the defining element of AOD’s sound, yet on the very first track [“All That I Am Now”], Richie Havens joins you on vocals, which I have to admit I initially found jarring. The song with the most active guest vocal presence comes first. Was that a conscious decision to set the tone for what would follow?
It just felt like a triumphant, anthemic song, like a set opener.
Now that you’ve recorded these songs with the guest players and no dubt listened to them many times over, have you found any of the songs challenging to work up in the live setting without those contributions?
We are, for lack of a better word, seasoned road hogs. Playing songs live is what we do. So if anything it’s always been the other way around- how do we take what we do live and capture it in the studio. I will say though that “All That I Am Now” has been the one song that’s been most challenging. There was a dynamic in the studio that’s tough to replicate live, although I think we’re starting to find the groove. But that’s been the most challenging one to bring to life live.
Can you talk a bit about the challenges of being an independent artist putting out a studio release in 2009?
The difference for me was this is the first record with AOD that I did without a label of any sort. It was liberating in a lot of ways because we were able to do a lot of things that labels don’t typically like, such as giving away half the album prior to release. The deal I’d made in the past was in exchange for some sum of money and marketing and support, I’d give them the right to my songs. This time instead, I made a much healthier deal with our fan base which was, “Here are the tunes, do with them what you will.” So either way you’re giving something up and I’d much rather give it to the fans and prospective fans than to a bunch of dudes sitting around a conference table.
So you likely would put out the next one yourself as well?
Unquestionably unless some other factor flew in. I’m a human being, I’m not impervious to temptation and possibility. But I think this was a great success and exposed our music to a lot of people who didn’t know who we were. Plus we had so many great players and big names on the record that part of the thinking was it’s an endorsement, a kiss, and let’s use that as a gateway to who we are at our core as a band.
One of things that the major labels traditionally have offered is radio support. How important is that to you and do you think that means something different today than it did 5, 10 or even 30 years ago?
It used to be the center of what major labels did. But in my class of musicians the folky grassroots career musicians there are different formats. Maybe if this were 1978 I’d be on my yacht eating shrimp and trying to recover from my drug addiction. But mostly the musicians making music like I tend to make end up in the less commercial formats anyhow. It’s really Top 40 radio that drove the music industry of old and that has perished in the new world. It’s still a piece of the puzzle and I feel privileged that radio programmers have seen merit to the song craft and have embraced it because a lot of my colleagues in the jamband world don’t get that opportunity. So I really feel proud of that and privileged.
I’ve noticed that there are some additional tracks floating out there that aren’t on the disc. Can you talk about those songs and explain where people can find them?
There are some live tracks but really two album tracks are probably the main point of interest.
One is an old song, one of the first songs that I wrote when I was 16, if not the first one. It’s called “Crest of My Wing.” Jon Trafton from Strangefolk joined us on that track, which was kind of a cool circle. And then Bill Nershi and Drew Emmitt who are touring with us joined us on “Hell’s Kitchen,” which sounds like a Band tune. “Crest of My Wing” is on iTunes and “Hell’s Kitchen” is on Amazon.
Why didn’t we include them on the album? Well for one, it just started getting really long. There are 13 songs to begin with and you worry about the pacing, dynamic and cadence of the record. And there are more slow songs on this record than any other record I’ve ever made, which was scary in and of itself. So I thought that throwing two more on there ran the risk of making it sluggish and sleepy. Also, for better or worse I caught Bill and Drew at the end of the process, so it was timing too in both cases. And the other thing is that the services like to have an ace up their sleeve and it gives you some special treatment to give them something that you’re not giving everybody else. So it was a great way to get some attention on iTunes and Amazon.
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