Already veterans of Austin’s vibrant music scene, Steve Terebecki, James Petralli and Josh Block finally joined forces in 2005. Calling the union White Denim, the trio combined garage rock tendencies with flashes of psychedelia, country and jazz. The fertile creative environment resulted in a half dozen full-length albums and EPs over the past five years.
Previous releases were all over the map musically but still offered individual pleasures. Last year’s album, D, on Downtown Records found the members perfecting a cohesive sound that contained echoes of My Morning Jacket, Meat Puppets and XTC’s side project, the Dukes of Stratosphear yet still maintained its own personality. The most direct example of the Dukes’ influence can be heard in the addictive single, “Drug.”
Not content to let their unused material collect dust, the group also put out EPs in 2011 before and after “D” – “Last Day of Summer” and “Takes Place in Your Work Space” – as well as a live session produced by Jack White. Like their earlier recordings, the EPs were released independently whereas D marked the first time White Denim allowed a record label control over their music. While the association started off rocky, it has paid dividends with additional exposure on radio, TV (“Last Call with Carson Daly”) and support slots with Wilco and Manchester Orchestra.
I spoke with Terebecki in the middle of the group’s dates opening for Wilco. Following those gigs, there will be more headlining shows in the spring with festivals this summer including a stop at Bonnaroo.
JPG: How’s the tour going with Wilco?
ST: It’s been great. It’s cool touring with a band that we all like and respect. We feel like we’re in line with them as far as the crowd that we’re playing to. It’s been really great so far.
JPG: So, it hasn’t been a challenge being an opening act?
ST: We’re used to playing to new people but as far as new people are concerned they are way more receptive than other new people that we’ve played for. (slight laugh) The feeling that we get when we’re playing is that way. Crowds can give a pretty cold vibe sometimes but the Wilco crowd has been really warm.
JPG: You also opened for Manchester Orchestra and, obviously, toured on your own. Do you have any idea at this point who makes up White Denim’s audience?
ST: (pauses) It seems to be a pretty interesting variety of people but I don’t know if I can put one name on what kind of audience we have.
JPG: Do people come to you for different things? One portion of the crowd is song-oriented, another is looking for the jams and then another that just enjoys everything.
ST: Definitely, because we throw in a lot of different genres from record to record and even in the midst of a record, different people might respond to one song and not respond to another. We recently played a show in Austin where we took requests. We were thinking that it might just be our most poppy songs, our most popular songs, as far as the internet goes but it was a complete wide range from obscure instrumental songs to our poppiest songs. We couldn’t get any information from that request show. It was cool.
JPG: I was reading an article that ran in “The Guardian,”, and in it you were unhappy about the idea of the record company wanting more pop tracks or tightly-written songs on what eventually became D. Out of that is how “Drug” originated. Are you okay that that song gained a deal of popularity?
ST: Yeah, we like that song. We look at it as a new challenge. We had to make a song under new circumstances, with different things in mind than we normally had to. We like to do that anyway on our own terms. We weren’t expecting it but we’re not bitter about it. We’re fine with the song.
JPG: That’s the song that really grabbed me and made me want to check you out. So, I was hoping that the rest of the album lived up to that track and, happily, it did, even with the songs where the band stretches out. Overall, D seems more cohesive, soundwise, than your 2009 album Fits.
ST: Yeah, that’s because we wrote all the songs and demoed them out in our home studios by emailing each other tracks. So, when it came time to record, we recorded the entire record in three weeks whereas the previous record we did it in our own studio and would take a year to record it. Over the course of a year, our ideas would change or just setting up a mic for the same song, but two weeks later there would be a lot of differences and vibes going on.
This D record, we had everything set up and just knocked it out really quickly. That’s part of the cohesive feeling that it has.
JPG: Some of the songs that are extended, is that a matter of things happening in the studio and you just went for it or was it written in there?
ST: For most of the stuff if we demoed it out and we felt that a part needed to be longer maybe on the day that we recorded it we might have said, ‘Let’s go an extra four bars on that part.’ We planned it out. It didn’t just happen.
JPG: I’m thinking of something like “River to Consider” ...
ST: That one has a little bit more of a loose framework as far as the beginning section and the end section. And then the direction that we gave Alex Coke, the flute player, that was definitely the freest song on the record as far as when we got to it having a little less planned behind it.
JPG: I read where the band doesn’t really want to talk about influences and inspirations but in my mind what really grabs me is hearing echoes of Meat Puppets and Dukes of Stratosphear in the material on D, especially Dukes on the song “Drug.” Am in the right territory with these groups?
ST: Right. Totally. Bands like XTC and the Meat Puppets, we’re similar to them where they like to cover a lot of different genres. Them and Frank Zappa and Ween and all those groups, it’s easier to say that we’re influenced by them because they didn’t stick to one thing.
JPG: You did the live session with Jack White producing. I always envisioned him as someone who was into artists that were straight blues or straight punk or straight garage or…and your band is all of that and more. How did that recording come about?
ST: I’m not exactly sure. We heard about the Third Man records thing – bands going there and doing live records –and we had talked about doing a live record. I’m not exactly sure how that was connected there. It was pretty quick. They contacted us, ‘Do you have time in early April?’ and we said, ‘Yeah.’ And then we went in and banged it out. We had always wanted to do an actual live record so it was perfect timing all the way around.
JPG: It was like a BBC session.
ST: Yeah, exactly.
JPG: Was it multiple takes of each song or you played an hour’s worth of material and you were done?
ST: it was actually a concert. There were people there. There was supposed to be more people there but the fire marshal came. It couldn’t hold the 250 people it was supposed to, so we played a concert for a private party, maybe 30 or 40 people. But it was just one take all the way through, just like a normal concert.
*JPG: Besides that release, you’ve put out a number of EPs such as Last Day of Summer because you were tired of waiting for D to be released by your record company…
ST: Yeah.
JPG: …now as far as the EPs, is it a matter that you record so much and then realize that there’s material that doesn’t fit on the album so you put it out in this format?
ST: That particular record, Last Day of Summer, a lot of the songs were around a lot longer. Some of the songs were around for two, three, four years. We write a lot of songs. When we put together EPs and group songs together there’s always danglers. I’m not saying Last Day of Summer is a dangler record but we ended up having a group of tunes that we reworked and re-recorded in [drummer] Josh Block’s studio over the course of a month, the last record we were going to do at Josh’s studio. It was a time to commemorate, to say goodbye to his studio and re-record and rework these tunes that we had been demoing for a long time. As we were making the record, we were thinking about how the tracks would work with one another and make it more of a cohesive thing.
JPG: You gave it away as a donation-based release on your website but I’m looking at Amazon.com and it’s now available as an import. It brings up this. What is it about White Denim that listeners in the UK have taken to the band a lot sooner than U.S. audiences?
ST: I don’t know what to tell you about that other than enthusiasm. Whenever we go over there and play over there people are just a lot more enthusiastic – press, people at the shows, people at the venues, everybody all around. Also, England is a lot smaller than the U.S. and has millions of people but is way more concentrated. So, if you get played on BBC radio it’s reaching an entire country whereas here you have to get on 200 radio stations to get to the entire country.
JPG: And you said that you’re always writing, have you worked on songs for the next album?
ST: We have some ideas. We have a bunch of tunes and are trying to decide where they’re going to go because we have enough to make an EP as well. So, we’re thinking about releasing another EP and getting together and banging out the full-length. We’re still writing as well, trying to figure it out.
JPG: Are you still going to be associated with Downtown Records?
ST: We have one more record with Downtown.
JPG: Things are going okay with them because you seemed unhappy about the waiting period before D came out?
ST: The initial period, it took forever. We released Fits in October of 2009 and the EP in May of 2011, and so that period of time in between there was pretty frustrating because we’re ready to release a record. We could release a full length record in a couple months if the record cycle would allow us to. (slight laugh) We’re just adjusting to the whole cycle of how the record industry works. It’s new. It’s okay We’re getting around it by releasing EPS and various other things along the way.
JPG: Was it a matter that after years of releasing things yourself you felt it was time to go to a record label because you did all that you could do and needed that machine behind you to take it to another level?
ST: We didn’t really go to a label. We got some offers from labels over the years that we turned down. We met with Downtown and it seemed to make sense. It seemed to be a good deal. And it was a tipping point in our band. We either needed to move forward and grow the band or figure something else out. So, we just decided to grow the band and Downtown seemed like the right fit.
JPG: I just spoke with another Austin act, Heartless Bastards, and we discussed the length of time it takes for a band to finish an album to when it actually gets released. For them it was eight months. I could see how that break could be frustrating.
ST: Yeah, that’s a long period of time to finish a record and for it to come out eight months later, and then you have to tour for a year. Not ideal for bands. And I know a lot of bands, they’ll record and put out a record but when you see ‘em live they’re already playing new stuff. We do that a little bit as well just because it keeps it more interesting. It’s good to work tunes in a live setting before you go and record them as well.
JPG: Are you including any new tunes on these dates?
ST: We only have a 30-40 minute slot with Wilco. So, we’re to the point with them. We’re playing a lot of D, “No Real Reason” off the Takes Place in Your Work Space EP, a couple of old ones, one from Last Day of Summer. We’re mixing it up but nothing brand new. We have been rehearsing some stuff. I think when we play on our own after we split from Wilco we might bring some new stuff in.
