“Pocketful of Grits” feels like pulling the string and letting it go, which the Suspects are great at. In general, is there a designated traffic cop?
Reggie: Basically, whoever’s got the solo gives the nod – “I’m done.” In general, Jake plays traffic cop when we’re on stage.
Jake, there are a lot of guitarists whose response to the Latin groove of “Pocketful Of Grits” would be an attempt at instant Santana. You avoid any clichés like that in your solo, however.
Jake: Well, thanks, man. You know, the groove that Willie’s playing is really a Mardi Gras Indian groove. You gotta remember: Willie went from the practice room to the Neville Brothers at an early age and stayed there for 30 years, you know?
I know drummers who know a lot of tricks – but Willie wrote the tricks, man.
“Soothe Me” is one of those songs that could work with just an acoustic guitar.
Jake: That’s where that one came from – me on my National steel guitar in open G, playing a little riff. I wrote that song probably 10 years ago, I bet. We weren’t trying to rewrite the book; just keep that feel of sitting on the back porch – you nailed it.
Tell me about the sweet old upright piano we hear on “Things (In Your Mind)”.
Reggie: That’s an old 19th century upright that was at CR’s house. It had a sound to it that just worked for that song – it needed something like that.
Jake: Jeff and I got this recording rig together and went over to CR’s house where he had this cool old piano. It was the noisiest, nastiest thing you ever heard, you know? [laughter] But it was real: you could hear all the hammers and everything. It was one of those times: “Be careful what you wish for, ‘cause you’ll get all that and more.”
The hardest thing was, there was construction going on in the street out front, so we had to do all these takes in-between the noise outside.
“Things (In Your Mind)” is a nice measure of the depth of the band: you can take an easy listen to it and there’s that sweet melody on top …
Reggie: it just kind of goes along without you realizing it. It’s like I said before: having the time to put all the parts together and play them so that they sound like they fit … it sounds relaxed because we were relaxed, you know?
Exactly. But at the same time, dig in a little deeper and you and Willie have got some intricate shit going on. I think it’ll surprise the average listener if they put an ear to what you guys have cooking there.
Reggie: Let me tell you: having a drummer like Willie is like going to heaven before you die, you know? [laughter] Really … he’s awesome to play with and he’s always challenging me on some level with something. Willie thinks in such odd ways that you have to be ready to think along with him. It’s cool. He’s got a mean foot, man … and I love it.
Jake, I love the way you and Jeff weave around each other during the solo on “Things”. He’s playing a clarinet?
Yeah, you got it. [laughs] Jeff pulled that out and I said, “Oh no, man …” [laughter]
And he said, “Trust me: the way I play this thing you’re going to like it.”
And you obviously did.
Jeff’s definitely got some tricks up his sleeve … I’ve never heard anyone play soul clarinet before. [laughter]
“Hoodoos and Cunyans” is like a full-length feature movie … and scary as hell.
Reggie: And it’s something that you’ll never hear us play on stage.
Well, I wondered about that, with all the shifting sound textures going on – plus the suitably-weird cameo from Col. Bruce Hampton.
Reggie: We were hanging out in the studio with Col. Bruce and there was this crazy conversation going. Somebody turned on the tape and recorded it.
Jake: You can just turn a mic on and let Col. Bruce talk. [laughter]
Reggie: We were listening to it a couple of days later and Col. Bruce was talking about hoodoos and cunyans. Jake called him up and said, “Hey, we’d like to use this on a song …” – and Col. Bruce said, “Go ahead.” [laughs]
With his psychic powers, Col. Bruce probably already knew you were going to use it, right?
Reggie: Yeah, he probably dropped it and said to himself, “Let’s see if they get it, you know?” [laughs] It was fun – I never get to play upright bass with Willie and doing it on that track was fun.
And then there are some sounds that I can’t even begin to explain …
Jake: All kinds of them. [laughs] Like a kazoo going through a delay pedal and running into a Leslie cabinet – that’s what you hear that sounds like a plane crash. Or there’s my son’s Star Wars light sabre … or Jeff dragging a steel trash can across the studio. There’s like, I don’t know … maybe 50 or 60 different tracks of sounds we used. Jeff actually went out into the swamp at night and recorded the sounds around him … that’s how the track starts.
The big question for us was, “How far do we take this?” I mean, there’s a psychedelicness to it that makes the Grateful Dead seem like a walk in the park. [laughter] Jeff and I had to decide how far to take it – because after while it gets disturbing, you know? It’s a contrast to all the fun and light stuff that’s on the album.
Speaking of fun: your rhythm guitar work on “Walk of Shame” is like discovering a Steve Cropper track I’d never heard before.
Jake: Cool – thank you. That’s old school, you know. The point of that song – the whole album, really – is an ode to the rhythms you’d hear if you were walking down the street in New Orleans, hearing all these different genres. That R&B thing from the 50s and 60s … that’s another sound that came out of here. We weren’t trying to create new sounds – just trying to recreate an old one.
Jake, how much would you think out a solo like the one you play on “Yo Flambeaux!” ahead of time? That is some wild and fine picking.
Actually, I think that was the first pass. We were tracking live; I made one pass and said, “You what? That sounds okay.” [laughter]
I think we’re all guilty sometimes of trying to put out the perfect solo. I really believe that you give it, like, three passes … and if you don’t get it, take a break and come back to it another time.
When it comes to playing a solo that you’re going to play the same way every night, I don’t know much about that. [laughs]
“Carnivale” and “Yo Flambeaux!” are very different songs, but they’re both such great percussion workouts. At that point, I don’t care what anyone’s playing – the whole band’s like one big rhythm beast.
Reggie: You’re right: a lot of that music is so percussion-driven – and if you listen to it in a certain way, you’ll realize that everyone is kind of playing a percussion part.
Jake: It’s all percussion. And when you’re not playing your main instrument, you never stand still: grab a cowbell, a shaker, a beer bottle – whatever’s available.
It all starts with the rhythm, man – if the rhythm’s not locked in, it’ll never rise to the next level.
*****
Brian Robbins sits with a cowbell over at www.brian-robbins.com
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