Was the writing process a team effort?
Well for each song, if you hear Bonnie sing it she wrote it, if I sing it I wrote it, if Sage sings it he wrote it, all the way around. There may have been arrangements that we came up with all together as a band, but the lyrics and progressions are all done individually.
Bonnie sings one of Dango’s songs on our first album, Every Stone. We often talk about collectively writing lyrics and writing the progressions, that excites us, but I think that’s something we’ll explore in the future. But right now it’s more of an individual process.
Since you guys have been coming out to different areas in the country for a few years now, do you think your music is interpreted differently on the east coast than in Colorado?
I think there’s different spots on the east coast that react differently. New York City is notorious for being a tough scene to break into, so that’s a little different. In Northampton, Massachusetts we felt immediately sort of accepted and our vibe sort of eased in.
We opened up for Dispatch at the Boston Garden so we immediately got introduced to 15,000 fans, so our shows around those areas have been really well attended.
Our first time to the east coast we actually did a tour with Railroad Earth. The best thing that could happen was playing with a band on the east coast like Railroad Earth where they’d already paved the way, and we love them. Dispatch was an amazing opportunity to even pave the way more for us.
Of course, a band with East Coast success as well. I know that you all like to play multiple instruments, are there any you guys are really working on?
Yeah, Bonnie spent a month playing saw with Gregory Alan Isakov in Europe, and she also plays the cello. Sage plays a bunch of different instruments. All types of fiddles and cellos and stuff. When Dango’s home he’s always writing songs on the bouzouki. I was talking to him about bringing it on tour and plugging it in. I think that it would add such a different flavor.
As mentioned you guys have been getting out to new places and evolving quite steadily. Aside from your fanbase expanding, how has the band and music evolved since you all began?
Personally, I’ve started to produce albums, I’m starting on my third album. I got asked by a band (two of the members are sons of Vince Herman) and they’re young. I’ve talked with them over the phone and I’ve been listening to their material and they remind me a lot of where Elephant Revival was when we were going to record our first album and we were starting to get going. So lately I’ve looking back and I’m getting goosebumps right now just talking about it, but seeing how far we’ve grown and where we’ve come from, the music certainly has evolved. We’ve gotten tighter, there’s a greater synergy that we have together, just like any who spends a lot of time doing their discipline with someone there’s just that massive amount of synergy that we have, almost like borderline psychic. You know when you get in the moment of that song and some cool things happen? We’re tapping into that more and more, and it’s always getting more and more exciting and we’re looking forward to doing that more.
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