“We’re not a throwback band or writing with a formula. We’re constantly evolving,” Rubblebucket band leader Alex Toth says as he reflects on the band’s busy past and exciting future. The Brooklyn eight-piece made a name for themselves with energetic live shows and relentless touring. Lately, due to singer Kalmia Traver’s unfortunate bout with ovarian cancer, Rubblebucket scaled down their touring.
Now, armed with a clean bill of health and nearly 30 new songs, Rubblebucket is set to embark on the Communion tour, a multi-artist bill that takes on the feel of a community gathering rather than a concert. Started by Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett, Communion gives the artist the power and stylistic freedom to allow their music to grow, something Toth is very excited about.
So tell me about this Communion tour Rubblebucket is about to embark on in October.
Communion started out not as a label but as a bunch of friends that were helping each out other out to create a community in the U.K. A way for bands to get exposure and it formed into a label. I guess this is the way we got involved, they just started doing shows in the US and we did one back in April. That’s where we met Ben Lovett [of Mumford & Sons], who started the label and he just really loved it and wanted to put our EP out.
They don’t want to look at is a “tour” it’s just part of their monthly series that they’re starting. It’s unique that it’s “routed” around our tour for us. We’re doing non-Communion dates on the tour as well. It’s a really cool community to be a part of. It’s run by artists and there is a lot of personal attention. I know Rubblebucket has always been DIY, we’ve always put all our stuff out ourselves and making the music we want to make. it’s such an extension of our ethics and what we want to put out into the world. It’s not some big corporate vibe and they’re not telling us what to do. It’s born naturally out of what we’ve been putting out there. It’s really exciting to be a part of a wider, international community and be part of Communion’s breaking into the U.S.
Overall, what would you say attracted Rubblebucket to Communion? You mentioned the artistic freedom. Is that it?
We’ve been in some funny situations with label offers and stuff like that, people wanting us to change our band name, this and that. It’s like, it’s just who we are. You know? We need to be going into business with someone that’s going to help you get your art and music out there. We’ve put in the legwork over the years to build a fan base in a grassroots way, kind of fan by fan. It’s really important to us to be with people that just implicitly get us. [Communion] get us and loves it, just like our greatest fans do. That’s amazing.
As far as Rubblebucket’s model is concerned, what are some of the long-term benefits you foresee by joining up with Communion?
We really wanted to partner with a label to help our recordings get out there. We’re doing pretty well with touring and we really needed something on that side. Looking at their roster, it’s a lot of really rootsy stuff and there is also innovative stuff on there. Branding wise, and spiritually, its stuff that comes from the earth. It’s real bands figuring it out and a lot of it is even rootsier than Rubblebucket in some ways. But it’s all really sincere songwriting. They really seem to go after that experience, that honest songwriting and live show that is really ecstatic. It seems like all the bands they associate with are like that.
Part of Rubblebucket’s thing is constantly wanting to push boundaries and come up with sounds and approaches to writing and playing that feel fresh to us at least, hopefully we haven’t heard before, trying to carve out our own path. Maintain a kind of earthiness. This album really has that. That’s a big thing. I really love that we’re on a label with great folk and rock and roll. I want to be a part of that. It’s not “stuck up” music.
It sounds like you appreciate being around people who “get it” and get what you’re trying to do.
To be with working with people and artists who are running the label who do it their own way, like Mumford & Sons. They didn’t go through a major label, they had a lot of success, a lot of pop success with unique instrumentation for that world. They do it their own way. They go through all these small towns and make music for people. The whole thing, I really like it. It’s a really sustainable way to build and grow. For example, the full-length album we are working on; on the previous albums we’ve come off the road, jumped into the studio and recorded the songs we had to record. We never had extra songs to choose from, it was always ‘we have 12 songs so we are going to record 12 songs’. This year we have really taken the time to write a lot. We have like 30 songs that are contenders for the album.
Going on meetings with Communion and have them be really encouraging with the stuff we’re working on and encouraging us to continue writing. It’s exciting to give ourselves the time to totally discover our capabilities and not short change anything with overly touring. It seems like all the values are in the right place.
That’s what it sounds like. You spoke briefly about the music. How do you think something like Communion will affect your songwriting? Stylistically, do you foresee any changes when you enter this environment?
I think what’s been happening with this space away from constant touring this year, we get deeper into who we are. It’s not like getting pushed one way or another. When talking with Communion they want us to be, in their words, “Rubblebucket in a bigger way, more us than we ever have been,” if that’s possible. Reaching deeper in and it’s something I’ve come to on my own too. In terms of different writing processes, one thing that I’ve been doing is writing a lot of songs on a piano. It takes days to arrange a song for horns, bass, drums and guitar, but it really doesn’t take that long to write chords, verses, lyrics and melodies. That way I have 20 songs of me singing and playing piano and before I want to spend three days to arrange it I wanted to make sure it’s a great song through and through. In the past, I would make up these beats and then try to come up with stuff over the beats, but the beats take forever to make and the arranging take a long time. It’s really cool to let myself be a songwriter at the core and develop that as much as possible.
I can’t really speak to how it influenced us ascetically. Just that as I have this space, I’ve been more aware of who we are and reflecting on four years of touring and putting music out. A big thing for me is how to integrate horns in a way that feels fresh for me and that I would want to listen to as a trumpet player. That I would be excited about. It’s a funny thing. In the past I would write a song that I would think would be a great song, but then it’s like ‘where do I put the horns?’
Transitioning to the Communion shows. What should fans expect? I’m sure there will be some collaborating.
On this upcoming tour, half the dates are Communion dates and the other half will be regular Rubblebucket club shows. The regular clubs shows will be longer sets. The Communion dates we are headlining, they’ll be nice, but they will be short and sweet. One of our favorite experiences as a band was playing SXSW in 2012. We were down there with thousands of bands. And people were warning us, ‘Oh man, it can be really awful.’ But for us, it was really exciting to be part of this thing. One thing that Rubblebucket has going for us is that we’ve played almost 1,000 shows and we know how to play live. We know how to connect with the audience and how to put on a good live show. A lot of these bands on these bills do also. I think it’s going to be these wild nights.
Because we have horns, we used to end up playing with every band we come across because it’s easy to fit horns into everything. I’m sure they’re will be some collaboration. We’ll be playing some new songs too.
Kal will be coming off her treatments and stuff like that from the chemo, and we’ll have a touring room that will allow her to take naps. We’ve all been really strong through all that. Music is such a healing thing, it’s what we love to do. We love playing live so we’re really excited to get back on the road. Kal will be back in full force. It will be nice to have the support around, the love and community around us, throughout that.
Coming off something so traumatic like that, this has to be one of the best ways to begin to recover, right?
We’ve spent most of the year off the road and doing some shows here and there. It’s so invigorating to play for people. After writing so much it’s really exciting to bring new material. The songwriting is getting better and better lyrically, but also bringing the horns back to a forefront in a much bigger way and utilizing that. Not shying away from that.
Last year when we toured with Reptar, it was so great. You become best friends with these people you’re on the road with and it’s great to see them every day. It’s just a much bigger family vibe backstage. It’s not just a band, it’s the other band and now we are going to be with a bunch of other bands.
It’s really fun. I gotta say. It’s an honor and extremely rewarding to go around the country and meet new people in new communities and also meet artists from around the country and sometimes outside the country and have that kind of energy and idea exchange.
Earlier, you mentioned touring less to focus on songwriting. Is that a model you want to continue in the future?
The reason we are doing shorter stints on this one is because Cal will have a chemo treatment before the run. It takes about eight days to get your strength back and then you’re still pretty weakened. She’s going to have her last treatment on the 13th, that’s why the run is broken up.
I think we want to be, as we get older, more efficient with how we do things. You can’t substitute especially these days or ever, playing live shows and going out there and bringing your thing alive to human beings all around the world. I do like the idea of having periods where we are songwriting and making recordings and collaborating with other artists and doing all kind of different projects. We’ve been doing avant-garde jazz gigs, and doing some songwriting collaborators with “freak folk” writers and bands. I want to keep diversifying and collaborating with different artists. It sounds like through Communion, I’ll have the opportunity to work with other artists on arranging and writing and stuff. That, to me, is one of the most exciting things in the world. I think this year it was an important thing to step back and cut down from touring.
Once the album comes out we are going to be going full-force for a while, like we have been. Hopefully with a slightly more comfortable touring situation. The 15 passenger van and trailer can really wear on you especially when there is seven of us in there plus a sound engineer. So it’s eight of us crammed into this little van. I think we’ll continue to be touring. That’s what you have to do. It’s a blast.
I think a lot of people are really excited for these Communion shows. There is still a little unknown to it as well. I imagine that’s exciting as an artist.
It’s like an affirmation to have the support of a label like that. To an extent, when Kal and I are writing songs and the bands developing songs we are following our hearts and years, but we’re shooting in the dark. We’re not like a throwback band or writing with a formula, we are constantly evolving. If I’m sitting in my bedroom and I’m working on music, who is going hear this? I have no idea. Is this something that makes sense to a broader world of music? I don’t know. It’s something that my ears are doing right now and I’m trying to obey them.
It’s just such an affirmation to have that support and to have that tying you into a greater global community of musicians and artists. It’s really exciting. I don’t know what will come of it. Due to the fact that it’s extension of our ethics and want to things I see it as a positive.
To be so artist driven has to be great, especially for a young band like Rubblebucket who clearly want to continue to grow.
And God forbid something hits in a really big way. I don’t know how that works. I feel lucky to be doing what we are doing. It is stressful at times. It’s a lot of hard work and I can work 24/7 on music and put tons of blood, sweat and tears into it and still the reward stream is not directly for money. You can be a really successful musician but still make less than your sister working at a gym, it’s a whole other reward stream to be out there and playing music for people.
You want things to catch on in a big way, but touring is a grind. You’re driving all day and staying up late every night, not getting much sleep. Every night is a party, which does get old. As we get older we get better at that. And you can work really hard on something, but it won’t really get that far. If you have a label it really helps shoot the music out there and get it to more ears. That’s important to anyone trying to make some noise, having people to hear it. That’s really exciting.
