Your new studio album focuses on older material. Was that your intention from the start when you began working on the new disc or did things just evolve that way?
We recorded like 30 songs. Some were new, a lot were old and we decided to put the new ones on the side and focus on the old songs so we could get them out and move on because I feel like they all deserved the proper studio treatment. Our cycle of making records is one every couple of years or it used to be anyways, trying to find the funds, trying to find the time and when we kind of slowed down with the touring last year and it gave is a lot of time to focus on the recording art which we never have been able to do before. It had always been a pressurized thing with record labels money and interests. This was just us putting down our own money, taking our time and doing it all ourselves like we did with the first couple records.
We also felt with the new songs we needed a little more time to work out the arrangements. All these other songs have been road tested, we know people like them. So we wanted to give a gift to the longtime fans and the hardcores and also make something that we really liked. So we took a lot of liberties and experimented with sounds and effects which we never have before in the studio. Our records are usually pretty sparse, pretty raw almost, like a fancy live show.
This time we did a bunch of takes with different styles. One take we might be sort of quiet and then the next one would be with a completely different part on it. That way we could pick and choose. That also helped us to recreate our live energy because it’s so dynamic in the live show because you’re keying off the crowd or whatever’s going on in the environment. In the studio you’re sitting there in a really sterile environment. The sound is pumped right into your ear stripped down and raw. You don’t have the sound bouncing off walls to help your imagination, so we tried every song in different ways and then blended them
Was there a song that particularly surprised you as it evolved in this context?
I think that “Drink of Streams” is probably my favorite track on the whole thing because it’s a lot of sounds and different instruments that we can’t really get live when there’s only four of us. Trevor has got a bunch of banjos and all these different sounds going on and that’s cool to me. You listen to those Zeppelin records and Jimmy Page has like five guitars happening and they still rock it live. The two sort of exist in different worlds and you’re not trying to recreate either one. We know that we can play live and our live shows are compelling so at this point we’re not afraid to take chances in the studio.
I’d like to hear your takes on a few other tracks on Looking West. How about your song “Bouncing Betty?”
“Bouncing Betty” is a love song that’s an analogy to a land mine. When you set off a land mine it bounces up waist high and explodes and it typically destroys the troops behind the person who sets it off. I was interested in that idea of the leader destroying his troops and how that feels. So it’s love song and also a protest song. I wanted to draw that comparison with the Walter Cronkite overdub to lessons already learned that we seem to keep returning to.
I wanted to do something that made it clear what the song is about and I wanted to make it clear that’s it’s my anti-war song and the Cronkite thing came up when we were listening to it in the studio. And there’s some guitar on there where I’m trying to emulate the sound of helicopters and that came up in the moment.
You take a different approach on “Emma Lee.”
That’s been a fun one, Trevor’s ode to the festival. On that we were doing multiple takes and it was Reed’s idea for me to take an anti-solo. So the guitar solo on there is a big crunching one, almost like garbage trucks smashing into a wall. It was fun for me to get that out and throw paint at the wall and that for me is one of my favorite bits on the record.
How about the title track?
The song was interesting to record because it’s so free form. There are maybe two parts to it stretched over seven minutes. So there was a lot to sift through in the editing room on that one. “Looking West” is Trevor’s baby, he’s been playing it for years and we’ve been playing it at shows for years. I’ve never really had a part for that, it’s such an improvisational thing. Again we did a bunch of takes and hoped for the best. I think Trevor and Reed edited out a really great soundscape out of what they had to work with on it. There’s also a really cool moment on there where Reed doubles my guitar solo. He learned my guitar solo and played it on the organ. There are a couple moments like that throughout the record.
No Comments comments associated with this post