I could talk gear with you all night, but I promised myself that I wouldn’t. I did want to ask, though: knowing it was a one-day session, what did you bring for guitars?

Well, I had probably five different instruments available to me, but I used almost entirely a ’68 Les Paul and a ’66 Epiphone Riviera – the same one I used on the last record.

How about amps?

I’ve been using the same exact amplifier on every record I’ve done since 1983: a Dumble Overdrive Special. I have two of them. I occasionally use a Fender Super Reverb for a rhythm part or a Deluxe, but generally – about 95% of the time – I’m using the Dumble.

You’ve always had a great tone, no matter what the combination of guitar and amp has been. What do you use to get your leads out there without altering your signature tone?

The Dumble has an overdrive channel; it also has a 2db boost. Basically, it bypasses the tone circuitry and that just gives the amp a 2db boost. That’s generally what I use – it’s almost like just cranking the amp up, but it remains clear … and I like that. I like hearing the sound of the amp and the guitar sounding like the amp and the guitar.

When you crank it on, it simply sounds like the guitar takes a deep breath and lets loose – but it retains its voice.

(laughs) Thank you.

So what were the ground rules going in? You didn’t have the time to focus too long on getting any one song down.

Trusting each other. (laughs) We had nine songs to record in one day. As you say, we couldn’t spend more than an hour on any one song. We were supposed to do that two-week tour and play this music beforehand, as it was new music, but the tour was aborted because of the wrist fracture.

I just sent the guys little demos that I did – just acoustic guitar and vocals sitting on my couch – and charts. I charted everything. So they were able to listen to my little demos and look at the charts and have some sense of what was going to happen going in.

Once we got there, we just started playing. I’d make suggestions here and there, and somebody else might make a suggestion … but pretty much everyone was able to just start playing.

The drums were probably the thing that required the most attention, as whatever the drummer’s doing sets the entire table. But Wes is so good; so creative; and he brings so much when he shows up.

So, yeah – about an hour a song, man.

Had Brian, Ricky, or Wes played any of these songs during the European tour last year?

Yeah, we were playing the covers – “Poor Kelly Blues” and “Cut You Loose” … and we played “Different People” a little bit. So three of the nine songs they were familiar with … the other six were new to everyone.

Were there any surprises?

We had some technical difficulties with the studio itself, which was unfortunate when you have to do what we had to do in a day, but we were able to surmount all those obstacles, get things figured out, and go ahead with recording.

Was there any one track that came together quickly?

Probably “Poor Kelly Blues” – it’s a straight-up blues and went down pretty quickly.

How structured were the two instrumentals? You had a group of players that could blow on those all night.

Well, there were definite forms. “Thump and Bump” is a little more complex than “Top Down” in that it has time signature changes and the melody itself took some time to compose.

I enjoy that process; I won’t go into it, but there are certain techniques you can use when writing instrumental music that are fun to go into; fun to explore. Quite frankly, I was unsure of both of those instrumentals going into the studio because I don’t really play music like that so much.

How so?

My thing is much more song-oriented these days, so the notion of doing not only one but two instrumentals on one record was unique to me. It was somewhat of a practical decision as writing lyrics takes a long time – you want it to take a long time! I only had three weeks to write five songs, so I allowed myself the luxury of two instrumentals.

I can’t help but think back, though, to your tour of duty with Phil Lesh, for instance. As Phil & Friends, you had some wonderful songs to work with, but it’s oftentimes those voyages between the songs – the jams – that are the makings of a set. You’ve always been great in that sort of setting.

Well, thank you. I love to play; I enjoy being in situations like that. And I don’t mean to say that we don’t improvise a lot, as we do … ultimately, if you clocked it out, two-thirds of what happens on stage is improvised. So yeah, we do do that … but it’s done within a certain kind of a structure.

The thing with Phil Lesh, for instance … quite frankly, it’s basically playing for a very long time on one chord – in my music, we use chord changes. There is a tremendous amount of improvisation with Phil’s music, but it’s kind of the same thing … (laughs) I enjoyed it; don’t get me wrong. I was really happy to have that experience. But it’s nice to have a little bit more to play off of, which would be the difference between what I’m doing and what Phil does.

One more thing about A Day In Nashville : your voice is getting more soulful as time goes on. I don’t know what you are or aren’t doing, but keep it up.

Well, thanks. (laughter)

Would you do a one-day session again?

I wouldn’t choose to record a record in a day, but it was a lesson; it influenced my thinking about what it means to make a record. I don’t spend tons of time cutting tracks – I never have. Generally, I cut tracks in 3 to 5 days at the most, and then spend some time doing overdubs. Mixing generally takes more time than anything else.

It’s always nice to take the time. You know when you’ve done a track and you’ve nailed it. There’s a certain point when you know you’re not going to play any better than you have. But you want to give yourself the opportunity.

Now that you have this one under your belt, perhaps you’ll roll tape during the tour that’s coming up and we’ll have a live record to look forward to later on down the line.

Ummmm … we’ll see. (laughs)

Well, I appreciate you taking the time to talk, Robben. Thank you for years of great music and here’s to many more to come.

Thank you very much, man – it was a pleasure.

*****

Brian Robbins gets a 2db boost over at www.brian-robbins.com.

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