Photo by Stuart Levine
This month marks the one year anniversary of Terrapin Crossroads. As Phil Lesh explained in a recent Relix interview, the idea for the venue originated with a Ramble at Levon Helm’s barn in 2010. That gig saw the bassist perform with his sons Grahame and Brian, and “It was such a magical day and we came away with a strong desire to do something like that at home.” Last year he finally attained that goal with the opening of Terrapin Crossroads on the site of the former Seafood Peddler restaurant in San Rafael, CA. The opening month not only featured Phil Lesh on stage in various ensembles, but Grahame Lesh was a steady presence as well. Grahame’s brother Brian entered the fray after he graduated from Princeton a few months later, and since then the Lesh siblings have maintained an active role at Terrapin Crossroads. The pair anchor the Terrapin Family Band on Wednesday and Sundays, while making other regular appearances as well (with Grahame Lesh & Friends and American Jubilee). Grahame recently spoke with us about how all this came about, reflected on his musical development and identified some Bay Area unsung heroes as well.
I’d like to start off by talking about your musical influences while you were growing up.
I went through phases that I think most kids growing up did, around my age. Obviously, I went to hundreds and hundreds, probably thousands, of Dead shows and Phil Lesh and Friends shows. That was probably the most formative music. In the house, my dad, and my mom too, listened to a lot of classical and jazz music. My dad’s really into the opera, and Wagner, that sort of thing. When it came to rock and pop music, I was sort of on my own. Lots of the classic rock: Led Zeppelin, the Stones, the Beatles, I went through all those phases. I went through a Metallica phase. I think that some pop songs are really well done for what they’re trying to do. I don’t dislike any one genre particularly more than any other. Whatever strikes me as interesting at any one particular time I’ll listen to. Obviously the Dead, and Phil Lesh and Friends especially, influenced a lot of this. I love Gov’t Mule ever since Warren Haynes joined Phil Lesh and Friends. I love everything Jimmy Herring does. I went through my freshman year in college listening to 75% Ryan Adams, so those artists that were in my dad’s band were a big influence. Not just what they played with him, but also their stuff outside of that.
Plenty of young people go through a rebellious phase where they try to push back against their parents’ input and influence. Did you go through any of that? You mentioned pop music. Derek Trucks has explained that he has a no tolerance policy when it comes to his kids listening to disposable pop in his presence.
Well, I did mention my Metallica phase, which I think for both of my parents, they assumed it was just loud noise (laughs). I mentioned my dad being into really complicated classical music and especially modern classical, the really weird twentieth century stuff, and the more complicated and interesting the rock music he’s listening to is, I think he likes it. The gunshot snare drums and the turned-up-to-11 guitars, I think he even appreciates the musical stuff that Metallica did. That’s probably the closest I got to rebelling.
We had the radio growing up and I don’t think I loved or listened to any of the pop music that was around, but that was my choice. No one discouraged me. I still think, and always did, that things are catchy but sometimes they are disposable. I think there’s always been good and disposable pop music throughout the history of pop music. So I don’t think there’s anything worse about this generation of pop music than the last, there’s just more of it.
When we interviewed your dad for Relix recently, he spoke about discovering music through yourself and your brother. Can you talk about that experience from your perspective?
I think some of it’s just a two-way street where what we listen to, or listen to around the house, would filter back to him. I think it mostly happened when we started playing together more. A couple years ago we did a Ramble at Levon Helm’s barn and that was the first main time the three of us had done it together. And I think what really clicked there were our three-part harmonies. It was a little bit more country than what we had been listening to.
At the same time, my brother and I were both in college and there’s a lot of modern popular country that comes out of that. But then you dig deeper to campfire bluegrass and country, which you can sing around a fire, and it’s really community based and family-based and we really enjoyed that. When we play with him, at least at Terrapin—it’s less so when we play with him in Phil and Friends because that’s his band—we try and do more of those family harmonies. I think the three of us singing together is much better than the individual parts. That’s how family singing works, if you listen to any brothers or family members that sing together. So when we play with him at Terrapin we try to push that old folky sound more than the wild, psychedelic stuff. Not that that isn’t very, very fun on occasion. But I think with the three of us, what we do best is the more country, more song-related playing.
In terms of family vocal harmonies, have you given any thought as to how or why it works as it does? Biologically? Physiologically? Longtime exposure to cadences and rhythms? From your experience, what is that like?
Well it’s hard to explain what that’s like, other than it’s really cool and I think it sounds really good. As for my thinking on why, I think everyone hears their voice and thinks it’s very unique, but I do hear similarities between my brother’s voice and my voice when I listen to recordings of us. One of my majors in college was in music science technology, which is basically music recording, and I found that it always sounded different if you layered a lot of your own vocals and harmonies together. It didn’t necessarily sound better, because they would all sound the same, but it was different and there’s a unique quality to it. So I think having families, whose voices are similar but not exactly the same, is just an interesting wrinkle. So you get that sameness that makes it nice and full and creamy, while having it different enough so that it’s not sterile.
You contrasted Phil and Friends, which is your dad’s band where he dictates what goes on, with the Family Band. So when he plays with the Family Band, who is the bandleader and how do you decide on the repertoire for a given show?
Most of what we do with the Terrapin Family Band is by the seat of our pants, and we like it that way. We joke that we don’t rehearse, well we do rehearse, but we do it in front of people. For example, we have one tonight and I’m making a list of a few songs we’ve never done before. And we do that plenty—myself or Brian or Ross James, or any of the other guys who are in the band, will just bring whatever tunes we feel like. And we’ll just be, “What’s the groove on that? Do you have a chart?” “Ok, cool,” and then we’ll just go and do it. If we’re lucky we’ll have a couple hours beforehand to jam on it, but it’s mostly flying by the seat of our pants. At any one time there’s a different bandleader, and it’s usually whoever is singing, so usually my brother, Ross James, or me. When my dad feels like joining in he can, and does.
The other musicians in the group are clearly your peers in terms of age, so when your dad sits in, do you alter the nature of what you do? Do you try to throw something in that’s more in his wheelhouse, or are you like, “Hey, if you want to play with us, then this is what’s happening”?
When my dad joins us it’s usually Dead tunes. I don’t know how much of our crazy set lists you’ve seen of the shows he doesn’t do, but it’s very much just whatever—classic rock, folk, country—whatever songs we come up with. We even throw in a couple originals here or there. It’s not exclusively the Dead catalog, although a lot of them were played by members of the Dead at one point or another, but when he sits in it’s more the Dead catalog. And it’s dictated by whoever’s playing. We are sort of the house band and we have our jams on Wednesday and Sundays, and those are a little more freeform. Whereas if we do a show with my dad in the Grate Room, or my dad and Mark Karan, which we did in December, then that’s more dictated by the Dead catalog or what Mark wants to do, or whatever guest is joining us.
Your dad also said in that interview that he was impressed with the arrangements you do, and that they surprised him in a positive way. Do you have any recollection of that?
Well, we are a little more bluegrass than the Dead ever was, so we’ll do faster versions. The most drastic one we did wasn’t with the Family Band originally, it was in one of our Hoedowns at Terrapin Crossroads. We had a bunch of mandolins and Tony Leone came out from behind the drums for a bluegrass version of “Candyman.” That one wasn’t actually the Family Band, but we play so much music at Terrapin that we like to take the usual songs and give them our own twist. We do “I Know You Rider” nice and fast and bluegrassy. Brian does a cool version of “Cold Rain and Snow.” I think it’s based off of someone else’s version, it’s not his, but it’s more minor and slow and very cool. Those are the examples off the top of my head. But yeah, the Family Band is a little bit more country than Phil Lesh and Friends. The sound that we try to go for with Phil and Friends—and I’ve only done a few of those—is dictated by the guests a lot too, not just by my dad. If Warren is in the band it’s different than if it’s Mark Karan. It’s always a little bit different.
You mention that first Ramble at Levon’s barn. I believe your dad has said that the precipitating factor in terms of opening Terrapin Crossroads is the experience the three of you had at that Ramble. I’d love to hear your memories of that initial experience and how that has all evolved into Terrapin Crossroads?
The most vivid thing that I joke about all the time—and memories change, they’re not particularly reliable—but I do remember that after the show, we follow Larry Campbell across the floor, open the door, and we go into Levon’s kitchen. It’s just his house, and everyone’s hanging out in his kitchen and you can just see a light bulb go off in both my parents’ heads being like, “Oh, wow, we kind of want this.” Because my dad likes playing all the time, but touring is always difficult and so they just sort of got that idea. Obviously the vibe is so phenomenal, just the idea of the Rambles is such a good idea, that having somewhere else to do them, close to my home, was very fun. So my parents slowly but surely started looking around Marin for a place to find. There were a few different leads. They were going to build a place but then they happened upon the old Seafood Peddler in San Rafael, and I don’t know if it was for sale at the time, but it became for sale pretty quickly. It’s just been a rollercoaster ride since then. It’s crazy.
Can you recall the moment when it moved from whimsy to serious intent? How long did that take?
You know, I don’t know if it was one moment. I think they just kept pursuing it. We went back to Levon’s a year after, and we went back this year after he passed. So I guess 2010, 2011 and last year. We went each summer and by the summer of 2011 my dad had probably given an interview that said it was a cool idea he was thinking of, and behind the scene my mom was looking at places and laying the groundwork. I don’t know when the exact moment was; there was some drama with a proposal in Fairfax, California, which is a small town in Marin a little closer to my parent’s house. When that fell through they were just driving around and I think that’s when they found the Seafood Peddler. All the other proposals for building a place were going to take a very long time to actually happen. Once they figured out they wanted to buy a place instead and fix it up, it was a matter of months, like two or three months. That’s when it really accelerated, the fall and winter of 2011.
Did you have a sense from the start that you and your brother would be so intimately involved on a performance level?
I’d hoped so. I don’t think I realized the scale of it. I had my band and my music, and Brian was still in college until last summer. I think the fact that this came out of those Rambles at Levon’s, which were the two times that all three of us played together in front of people, I think that experience, as well as having somewhere close to home, was something my whole family was really into. We really enjoyed playing together and my mom loves watching. I figured we’d be involved. How much I didn’t know, but then for the opening run my mom books me for twelve nights. I was able to do it despite the day job, and since then it’s been all good.
In terms of your development as a musician, can you talk about your aims and intents as an artist and how those have evolved over the years?
Over the past year or so, since Terrapin, I think my playing and my singing and everything has gotten much better. A few months before Terrapin opened, a band I was in called Maiden Lane sort of fell apart because people moved. The drummer [Eric Saar] and I started a band, which still doesn’t have a name—it’s called Grahame Lesh and Friends—but that was my first real attempt at writing songs myself, fully. That, combined with playing more with Ross James—who started working at Terrapin at the beginning and who was in my brother’s band before—sort of got me on more of a country, bluegrass kick. Yeah, it’s just getting the reps in. Maiden Lane was more of an indie-rock band; we had a female vocalist, Brodie Jenkins, who is incredible, but it was a little more indie-pop and I was just writing guitar riffs for that more than melody and vocals. So striking out on my own as a songwriter, plus playing in a band every day with a rotating cast of people, who you can learn from, it’s musical boot camp and I think it’s been really good for me.
Did Maiden Lane come together while you were in college?
Yes. We were all at Stanford together, all in the same grade. We had a few different names and we started just playing classic rock covers at frat parties and then we started writing a lot and playing around San Francisco when we graduated. People moved away but it was still a very cool band, I think.
What year did you graduate?
I graduated undergrad in ’09 and I spent another year getting a master’s.
What is your master’s in?
Music science technology. That was actually my minor in undergrad and then my master’s.
So when you came out of the program, what did you think you would do professionally?
Well, my major was in communications, so I went into, I still work, in social media at Adobe. I have a day job that’s not really music-focused. The master’s, you keep studying other things besides just music, but it was just something I was really interested in—it’s all these awesome computer programmers at Stanford that also like to make music, so they create all these crazy instruments and music programs. I started taking classes there sort of as an excuse to use their recording studio for my various musical projects and I learned a lot about recording in those classes. When I came out of college, the plan was always day job and play music when you can, which is still what I do. If you get lucky, which you have to in 2013 in the music business, then you can make a living from playing music.
Your brother decided to attend college on the east coast whereas you’ve pretty much been in the Bay Area your whole life. Were you temped to go somewhere else? Is it because you love the vibe in the area? Happenstance?
I do love the Bay Area, but we’ve traveled everywhere. I know living somewhere is much different than going on tour to a location. Yeah I just loved the school and I think I made the right choice. I had a great time, and I think I learned a lot. Awesome people, it was everything you hoped for in college. I just liked the school. I could have gone back east too but I didn’t feel like turning down Stanford. At least, my group of friends, everyone just went to work in Silicon Valley start-ups in San Francisco and in the South Bay, so I followed right along. I grew up in Marin, just north of San Francisco, so living in San Francisco has been fantastic. I love this city. I can’t imagine leaving. It’s been pretty great.
What are your memories of Jerry Garcia from when you were very young?
He was like an uncle, kind of. He was just one of dad’s good friends. He was very nice. When I was really young I used to sit on his side of the stage. I assume there are plenty of pictures of that. My favorite song of his when I was younger, and even now for different reasons, is “Standing on the Moon.” I remember I was into space. I drew a little kid picture of an astronaut on the moon with Jerry’s beard and gave it to him. He was a very nice, sweet guy. I was eight when he passed—I feel like most of my memories are stories that other people have told.
I assume it was mostly summer tour, but would you go out during other times of the year as well?
Yeah, at least by the time Phil Lesh and Friends happened, most of the tours would be around our school breaks. So, if it was a three-week spring tour, that would be during our spring break, and we would go out at least for that week, maybe miss a few days on either side. We would bring a friend who was a teacher out, to sort of be our tutor, at least when we were in high school. So we didn’t miss much, but the big ones were in the summer.
If you close your eyes, I’d love to know which memory jumps into your head from that era? The first one that comes to mind.
There are a few and these are all memories that don’t necessarily have to do with the music, they’re just great experiences. I had a bunch of friends come with me for ’03 and ’04 Dead Tours, not the whole tours but for both Red Rocks runs and those were great fun. For shows I could pick tons of PLQ shows. The Warfield runs in September ’03 with the Q were great. I do remember, if we go to the [Grateful] Dead, I do have flashes of when they first did “Unbroken Chain,” It was my fault, my doing with them bringing back “Unbroken Chain.”
Can you elaborate on that?
Well, my dad has credited me more than I really remember. But I do remember mentioning that I liked the song from listening to it on the Mars Hotel CD, and I couldn’t really wrap my head around the fact that there are reasons for not doing it—it’s really, really, really complicated. My dad was like, “Yeah, why don’t we do that?” And he brought it to them during some tour in ’94, ’95 and they did it.
Jumping back to the present, how did the Family Band come together?
It started with the bar shows—we did the soft opening bar shows before the grand opening in March. The soft opening was in the bar and that was four nights and a full rock band with all sorts of guests: Bobby [Weir], Jackie Greene, and Tim and Nicki Bluhm and Deren Ney, the Railroad Earth guys came…That was just a whole crazy weekend. Even after the big twelve show run to open the whole thing, there were the Rambles and other shows. While they were rehearsing, my dad and whoever else was in town, found that they enjoyed just going into the bar afterwards and playing some music. You know, there are all kinds of great experiences with that. The power went out one time so they played acoustic by candlelight. It was just whoever was around: John Kadlecik, Jon Graboff, Jackie [Greene], whoever was in town. And often it would be Ross James or me as the third person. This was before my brother graduated.
Ross James was just working there?
He’s on what they call “Team Terrapin.” He works on sound. He does the sound for the streams now, that’s his main thing, but they all do everything these days. He’s on the crew and he played guitar for the soft opening band. Basically from the start he was pulling double duty. He and I would sort of be the other two rhythm guitar players or guitar players when they needed someone to join in for these guitar shows. Then Brian graduated and he came down, and he actually works there full time at Terrapin. So he has plenty of time to do the music stuff when they need him to.
What does he do?
It’s very similar to Ross. He helps my mom with all kinds of marketing stuff and just running the whole thing. It’s a team and I don’t know what their titles are, but they all help out. My brother helps a little more on the restaurant side than say Ross or some of the other more crew people do. Once my brother came back, Brian and Ross’ friend Scott Padden came to town, and he plays drum and bass, so he would play drums every once and a while when we had my dad down to play bass. Then we sort of discovered that a very old friend of Brian and myself, Alex Koford, was a really, really good drummer, so we sort of were like, “Hey, do you want to play drums for us?” And that way Scott could play bass, which is what he does best. So the five of us sort of became the Family Band, but it’s rotating. I can’t make every show, we’ve got Alex Nelson, Jackie Greene’s brother, coming down and playing whenever he can. Our friend Emily Sunderland has been singing with us all the time.
It just sort of happened naturally. The restaurant discovered that, as you can imagine, if there’s live music people will come and buy drinks from the bar and such. So they wanted to have music all the time. It started getting real around November when my dad went on tour with Phil Lesh and Friends and we sort of had to pick up the slack. We started turning into a band then, the five of us. Then in December the decision was made that we’d do every Wednesday and Sunday, and they might expand it further.
So American Jubilee is the same lineup minus you?
Kind of. I guess I’m not technically in American Jubilee, but until recently I’ve played in all their shows. American Jubilee is Brian and Ross’ band and it just happens to have a very similar lineup to the Family Band. They asked Alex Koford to be the drummer recently and Scott Padden used to be the drummer. Their other friend, Scott Harvey, and me join when we can.
We used to say that American Jubilee is the Family Band when we play away from Terrapin, but it’s a little bit more fluid a definition than that. Think of American Jubilee as Brian’s band and Grahame Lesh and Friends is my band, which really needs a real name at some point, and then the Family Band is all of us.
Grahame Lesh and Friends includes one of your bandmates from Maiden Lane?
Yes, Eric Sarr, our drummer, was also in Maiden Lane, and Connor O’Sullivan, our bass player, became the bass player for Maiden Lane in our final months, when we were just sort of rehearsing, we never played any shows. Then, when we couldn’t keep Maiden Lane going, I asked Eric and Connor to join me in my own project. Our fourth member is Elliott Peck, who is Connor’s wife, and she plays keys and also sings and plays guitar.
How would you characterize the sound?
We’re just rock and roll. We’ve got a little bit of country in us but it’s just rock and roll. Elliott and I both sing about half of the leads, so guy and girl vocals. She’s great, she’s got a big soul voice. It’s just a fun rock show.
Mostly originals?
Yes, my originals, Elliott’s originals, and we throw in about twenty percent covers to our original shows. Connor and Elliott will come down and join the Family Band as well, so it’s all just one big pot we’re stirring everything into.
You mentioned Deren Ney earlier. I live on the east coast where I finally was able to see him with Nicki this last summer. He’s a heck of a player. Who else comes to mind from the Bay Area that people out here would be excited to learn about?
That’s a good question. Let’s see, Deren just because he’s in the Gramblers with Tim and Nicki is getting some notoriety. But you know I mentioned Alex Nelson, who happens to be Jackie Greene’s little brother and very much looks like it. He’s a fantastic guitar player and singer, who’s been playing with us a little bit with the Family Band. His band, Walking Spanish, has done a couple shows with Grahame Lesh and Friends.
Some other bands, I haven’t met these guys but they’re from San Francisco, I think, a band called the Brothers Comatose who are also opening for Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers recently. They’re just a super fun, super catchy bluegrass band. They write really, really catchy songs and they’re all great string instrument players. There’s a band Acacia who also happens to have a Nicki Bluhm connection. Their guitar player, Mike Pascale, has played bass for the Gramblers a few times and they’ve come to Terrapin occasionally, as well. They’re great, sort of slower, more atmospheric rock songs. Really catchy, great harmonies, kind of like My Morning Jacket in their more chilled out moments.
One of my brother’s favorite bands from a while back is a band called the Deep Dark Woods, who just completely, unbeknownst to us, just opened, or co-headlined a tour with Jackie Greene in England, or the whole U.K. I guess. That led Jackie to invite them down to Terrapin, and my dad became a fan of them. They’re sort of slow, really melodic folk/rock music. Again, big harmonies, it’s another trait I seem to like in all these bands. We’ve had Ryan Boldt, their singer, come down and hang with us and sit in with a couple of times. They’re super cool. They’re from Saskatchewan in Canada. Very, very good band.
We’ve had a local guy, Tommy Odetto, he shreds. He’s from Fairfax in Marin. He plays a lot of Stevie Ray blues with his bands but he’s come and sat in with us, and he’s like, “What key is this in?” We’re like, “E-minor” and he’s like, “Okay!” and shreds over it. I’ll give you one more. One of my oldest friends, I told you about going to Red Rocks in ’03 and ’04 and having some friends come and join us. One of those friends is a guy named Ryan Lerman, whose actually based out of L.A. right now, but I went to high school with him and he’s currently the lead guitar player for Nataly Dawn’s band. I went to see them open for Ben Folds at the Warfield and they were incredible. Nataly was half of Pomplamoose, who are YouTube sensations, and she went to Stanford with Jack [Conte] and I. Jack is the other half of Pomplamoose and he went to Stanford and high school with me. So there’s a personal connection there, even though they’re no longer based in the Bay Area.
Growing up, to some degree you were isolated from your dad’s fans, that whole community of people. Now that you’re a performer, I’m curious what it’s been like for you, playing for a group of people who are certainly quite opinionated?
It depends. People have been nothing but supportive of Terrapin and us playing at Terrapin, at least from what I’ve heard. I don’t go seeking out those opinions, especially on the internet. But you know, we just do the best we can and play the best we can. I would disagree a little bit that we were sheltered, because we met a lot of people. I would go to my dad’s blood drives, we’ve been on tour for so long that I’ve had plenty of interaction with the whole scene.
I meant it more as a musician. It’s a whole different ball game when you present yourself as a performer.
That’s true. Well yeah, I would say that from what I’ve heard, everyone’s been extremely supportive. I’m very happy for that and you know, at Terrapin it is such a community. People are just hanging around us and we try to talk and hang out with everybody afterwards. I think that blurs the lines between being a performer and being a part of the scene, especially at the bar shows. We’re part of the community, but we just happen to be the ones with the guitar. It is different and mentally challenging in a way to wrap your head around playing in Phil Lesh and Friends, which we’ve now done three times at festivals. But, you know, through the channels that I do check, everyone has been very supportive and I’m very happy that people seem to like it so far. We just are going out there and playing as well as we can and hoping that people enjoy it, and we do want to continue the sort of blurring of performer and audience lines at Terrapin and I hope that extends to future concerts as well.
Is there a night that stands out for you as an exceptionally profound experience on the stage over the past couple years?
Well, both of the Rambles-I should say all three of the Rambles-but the first two with Levon there were pretty special for various reasons. I mentioned that I love “Standing on the Moon,” and during the opening run at Terrapin when John Kadlecik did that it was pretty stunning. I was on stage, sort of strumming along, being like, “Holy shit, this is incredible.” There have been tons of bar shows…there was one, I think the first Wednesday after New Year’s this year, which was just great with the Family Band, just the five of us playing the best we can. There are special moments for all kinds of different reasons. I think the music, especially with the Family Band, is just getting better and better because we’re playing more together and we’re playing so often and getting those reps in. I guess those would be the mains ones. And playing with Phil and Friends at Gathering of the Vibes was pretty incredible too.
You’ve grown up exposed so many world-class players that I imagine you’re not stage struck when you meet them. As a performer though, have there been moments when you’ve been overwhelmed by the caliber of a particular musician that is on stage with you?
My brother and I, Ross and those guys, we’ll sort of look at each other and be like, “Is this actually happening? Is this really our life?” And it’s with the people I’ve mentioned before: Warren and Jimmy and Jackie, and Ryan Boldt from the Deep Dark Woods, it was awesome to have him come and join us. I’ve now sat in with Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers four times, and each time that’s just fantastic. Those guys are the coolest and the nicest. There’s a million…I mentioned the festivals with Phil and Friends, playing with Warren, and Larry Campbell and Teresa, Joey Russo. It doesn’t stop, they’re all the best, it’s hard to pick one.
What’s on the horizon for yourself and the Family Band over the coming year?
Really just playing as often as possible at Terrapin, that’s at least Wednesday night and Sunday brunch with the Family Band and whenever else they ask. I might start joining American Jubilee on Tuesday as well, or the occasional Tuesday at least. With my band we’ve got a few shows in the Bay Area coming up but we’d love to leave the Bay Area to expand our reach a little bit. We also have an album coming out, that we’ve already recorded and is mostly done, with Grahame Lesh and Friends. I just heard the most recent mixes of and it’s sounding great. Those are all my originals and Elliott’s originals. We’ve got ten tunes and it should be really cool. It might not come out as Grahame Lesh and Friends because we are still constantly thinking of the band name, which is my least favorite part of being in a band. It’s so frustrating, all of our ideas are so terrible. It’s fun to shoot the shit and come up with them, but they are not good band names.
Did you produce that yourselves?
Yeah, we took a day and went up to a studio up North by Sebastopol in Sonoma Country and we laid down all the things you need to do in a studio. Drums, bass, lead vocals, and a big grand piano, those are the things that sound really great when you do them in the right studio with the right people. So we nailed that out in September and since then we’ve been overdubbing everything and making it sound as good as we can. Connor also mixes, so we go to his house and work on it as much as we can and it’s very close to done.
