Would you say that your time in Band of Horses has changed your approach to songwriting and your style at all? Or would you say that it has just given you a different outlet to show a different style and you’ve kind of kept your solo repertoire focused the way it was before?

I think really the main change has been on a couple levels. For one, I feel like I have got a little bit stronger at singing. I think that I’ve found maybe a better range for my voice and that comes from singing in front of large audiences with fans in front of you—both with songs that I’ve written or just from trying to harmonize with Ben and Ryan. So I’ve learned a little bit about that and being able to project a little bit more and trying to be in a little bit more correct pitch wise.

Another change has just been about my understanding the electric guitar and the possibilities that that has. For a long time, I really was just an acoustic guitar player. I was basically a folk singer-style acoustic guitar player. I messed around with the electric guitar but it wasn’t like something I did all the time. Now, I think I’ve got a better grasp on that—what kind of inventions that can add to what I’m doing with my music as well.

When you went back to write your new solo album, had all this time playing electric guitar changed your approach to the acoustic guitar?

I don’t really know if it’s changed the way I play the acoustic guitar. I think more the acoustic playing has kind of influenced my electric guitar technique. I still do a lot of finger picking with the band—even stuff that would probably sound more like it with a pick. I’m trying to figure out ways of adapting my style into what we do as a band. I think that that’s still the direction coming from the acoustic guitar, and I do use a pick on a lot of songs.

In terms of your writing approach, at this point do you write for a specific project?

Recently, I was writing songs that might be Band of Horses oriented, but we had so many songs. So some of those songs or song ideas I decided to take for myself and tried to finish them myself. They weren’t necessarily full songs that didn’t get used but more of ideas that ended up developing into songs.

Speaking of bigger audiences, Band of Horses recently opened a series of shows for Widespread Panic at the request of keyboardist JoJo Hermann. Not only that but Ryan actually sat in with the band. I was curious what that experience was like from your perspective?

Yeah he did! And that was so great to watch. That was so much fun. And those guys, man they were such sweethearts—like the coolest group of people. It would be so fun to kind of a get to know them a little bit more and hang out with them. They were just so nice It was great and it definitely felt like a different audience but the audience was really receptive to what we were doing, and just getting to spend time with those folks and meet them all was fantastic.

Did Ryan know them before they asked him to sit in?

No, I don’t think any of us had actually met them before but they were just being so warm to us that I think that that kind of happened like right before the show. It was like, “Come sit in on a song!” He went up there, and I was like, “I wanna go!” [laughter] But I mean it was more fun just watching Ryan having a blast up there like just kind of feeding off what they were doing and playing. So it was really cool.

Back to the solo tour you have coming up, is that just going to be you and an acoustic guitar or are you going to bring a band on the road?

I’m still trying to figure it out. I’m having a band at least here in Ashville for this gig I’m doing, and I’m thinking about asking them to come to a couple of the shows that are close by but mostly it will be solo. It will be more than me and an acoustic guitar: I usually bring more than an acoustic guitar. I’ll try to bring at least a couple of electric and maybe a couple drum machines that ended up on the last two records that are always fun. The challenge is to figure out how much I can bring to make it really interesting and dynamic but then I also have to be able to bring it in a car, or possibly period if there’s an airport. I have West Coast dates too, so it has to be a portable set up but also I want it to be really, really fun. So it’s like getting all the pieces together to make sure it’s fun for me and interesting for the people that come too.

You have to put your bandleader hat on.

It is insane. I mean, the record just came out, so that’s exciting and then I have this tour. And then back on the road with Band of Horses for a few weeks. And then we’re actually working on our new record. We just started—we spent a couple weeks in the studio and started working out the songs, and I think we’re going to get back to the studio before the year is over. And then I’m going to try to get back out and do some more solo shows in January or something. I have to figure out all the timing for all that.

We touched a little bit on Seth and what he brought to the album. When did you first meet him and at what point did he get involved? Was it pretty much just for the studio stuff or did you write some of this in mind with, you know, he’s going to add some of his flourishes to it?

We met a number of years ago. He had a band around town a long time ago, and I kind of got to know him but he still lived out of town. And then he moved to town, and I actually played with him. We’d do some shows where it was just me and him, and it was his music before. He was going by Seth Kauffman instead of Floating Action back then. We did one really, really fun tour where we’d go out West together and basically it was more like camping than playing shows. We got to do a few shows out on the West Coast and a few in between and got to be really good friends. I didn’t involve him until we got to the studio in Nashville, other than the fact that he picked me up in his van and helped me load way too much gear into the van. And it’s just a mountain of junkie pawn shop gear that I got and took it all over to Nashville and put it in a pile in the studio and most of it ended up just sitting there. I knew that once we got in there, he would have brilliant ideas and he did.

Yeah and someone who was just willing to go with the conscious mistakes as you said.

Yeah that was me, especially. I was blowing off all kinds of interesting buzz. It just felt really perfect having the three of us in that studio. It felt like being at camp or something. We were sad to leave when we were done.

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