Country Fried Rock 1215: Brett Anderson of Ha Ha Tonka on Talent Shows to Touring

Speaker A: 00:00:00

Welcome to Country Fried Rock where we talk with musicians to find out what inspires their creativity.

Speaker A: 00:00:06

Country Fried Rock Music Uncovered My guest today is from Haha Tonka.

Speaker A: 00:00:11

Welcome to Country Fried Rock.

Speaker B: 00:00:13

Thanks for having me.

Speaker A: 00:00:13

Appreciate you being with us.

Speaker A: 00:00:14

How did you get started in music as a kid?

Speaker B: 00:00:17

Well, me personally, I grew up in a suburb of Kansas City mostly.

Speaker B: 00:00:23

I had a lot of my parents listened to a lot of roots music.

Speaker B: 00:00:26

My grandparents a house at the Lake of the Ozarks which is in central southern Missouri and spent a lot of summers down there coming from then listening to a lot of, you know, bluegrass and southern rock and lots of gospel and things.

Speaker B: 00:00:40

So for me growing up as a kid, it was just mostly about harmonies and acoustic instruments and that's kind of what I was exposed to at a young age.

Speaker A: 00:00:49

What kind of bands did your parents listen to?

Speaker B: 00:00:51

My mom was.

Speaker B: 00:00:52

She was actually mostly into Motown, but she also was a big hardcore country fan, I would say early country, Patsy Cline, things of that nature.

Speaker B: 00:01:02

I also specifically remember her listening to Bonnie Raitt actually was a big, big influence for me as a young kid.

Speaker B: 00:01:10

My dad was mostly majority of stuff going to be like Southern rock, 70s type things.

Speaker B: 00:01:15

Bruce Springsteen was a big influence for him.

Speaker A: 00:01:18

When you were at your grandparents place at the lake, your grandparents were into the bluegrass and stuff too?

Speaker B: 00:01:23

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: 00:01:23

My grandpa, he listened to a lot of.

Speaker B: 00:01:26

And honestly I didn't really know who I was listening to, but he had a.

Speaker B: 00:01:30

Had an old reel to reel player that was on constantly down there.

Speaker B: 00:01:33

Lots of the bluegrass stuff.

Speaker B: 00:01:35

I'm not exactly sure who he was listening to, but I do remember thoroughly enjoying enjoying a lot of the music.

Speaker A: 00:01:40

So that's cool.

Speaker A: 00:01:41

So at what point did you start getting into music then?

Speaker B: 00:01:44

I mean I was always felt like I had a big connection with it at a younger age, but didn't start playing any instruments until I was in high school.

Speaker B: 00:01:51

I picked up a guitar when I was probably about 13 or 14 and had a friend of mine who kind of knew how to play and just taught me sort of the basic things.

Speaker B: 00:02:00

And then I just kind of taught myself the rest as the years went on.

Speaker A: 00:02:04

So were y' all always writing original stuff from the beginning or were you learning other people's music at first?

Speaker B: 00:02:10

A little bit of both.

Speaker B: 00:02:12

I always tried writing in earlier stages, but I never was satisfied with what I was doing.

Speaker B: 00:02:17

So I tried to pull in a lot of.

Speaker B: 00:02:20

Try to maybe kind of mimic some, some of my earlier influences, Neil Young and Pixies and things like that.

Speaker A: 00:02:28

And so what Led to you performing for others.

Speaker B: 00:02:31

Honestly, it just was kind of a gradual progression.

Speaker B: 00:02:34

And really, in high school, there wasn't too many musicians the high school I went to, but there was always a talent show.

Speaker B: 00:02:42

And so my junior senior year, started a little tiny band there and performed at the talent show.

Speaker B: 00:02:48

And then as I went to college, met more people that were interested in music.

Speaker B: 00:02:52

That's where I met the rest of the guys in Haha Tonka.

Speaker B: 00:02:55

I met Brian and Luke in college at Missouri State University in Springfield.

Speaker B: 00:03:00

And I was in another band at the time, but I had seen them kind of play a couple shows around town in the formation they were in at the time and asked if they needed another member.

Speaker B: 00:03:11

And that's kind of how that all started.

Speaker B: 00:03:13

That's cool.

Speaker A: 00:03:14

So what did you play in those talent shows?

Speaker B: 00:03:16

Oh, what did I play?

Speaker B: 00:03:18

What kind of music or what songs?

Speaker B: 00:03:19

If you remember, they were all pretty much original.

Speaker A: 00:03:22

Oh, really?

Speaker B: 00:03:23

So, yeah, at the time, in high school, it was more.

Speaker B: 00:03:26

We were kind of going through a Weezer phase.

Speaker B: 00:03:29

We were doing a lot of covers then.

Speaker B: 00:03:30

But in college, it was pretty much all original stuff.

Speaker B: 00:03:33

I was really starting to kind of figure out what kind of style of musician I was in college.

Speaker B: 00:03:38

So I was definitely doing a lot more original writing then as y' all.

Speaker A: 00:03:42

Got together then in college, where did that start for you all, creatively?

Speaker B: 00:03:47

Well, at first, I.

Speaker B: 00:03:51

It wasn't as creative as we all thought it would be.

Speaker B: 00:03:54

It was more kind of like we really just enjoyed playing live.

Speaker B: 00:03:58

And we like the whole aspect of people watching and.

Speaker B: 00:04:01

And we like to, you know, party and stuff like that.

Speaker A: 00:04:03

Sure.

Speaker B: 00:04:04

Once we graduated college, we all kind of.

Speaker B: 00:04:08

When Lennon finally joined the band, our drummer as well, is when we all kind of tried to get more serious about making a career out of it, we really kind of fell down and made a game plan on what we wanted to do.

Speaker B: 00:04:18

We made our first record on our own.

Speaker B: 00:04:20

We took out a loan and got a van and tried to do a little bit of touring in the Midwest.

Speaker B: 00:04:24

And eventually we got hooked up with Bloodshot Records out of Chicago.

Speaker B: 00:04:29

And we really enjoyed the first record that we.

Speaker B: 00:04:32

We made.

Speaker B: 00:04:32

And so they ended up signing us and putting it out.

Speaker B: 00:04:34

And from there it was kind of.

Speaker B: 00:04:36

We kind of really started to get deeply into the music industry.

Speaker A: 00:04:40

In those early days.

Speaker A: 00:04:41

When it went from that first record on your own to the original relationship with Bloodshot, what was changing for you all because that there's so much evolution in a band in the early days?

Speaker B: 00:04:52

Yeah, Honestly, I think for us, it was Pretty neat because we all have completely different influences.

Speaker B: 00:04:59

And I think that's kind of what we were figuring out when we started writing our first record.

Speaker B: 00:05:03

And as we grew and started writing our second and third record, you can kind of hear that we all kind of got more comfortable in our skin as artists.

Speaker B: 00:05:11

So we all kind of know which areas are strengths for each individual when it comes to writing a record.

Speaker B: 00:05:18

And I feel like on this, our last record at the decade, we really harnessed all of that.

Speaker B: 00:05:22

So the growth that we got to was all based on these influences all meshing together and finally coming out into.

Speaker B: 00:05:30

Into a form that we thought fit for Haha Tonka.

Speaker A: 00:05:32

So was there a particular song in the process or a stage in the process that you all were finally like, yeah, yeah, we finally got our groove here?

Speaker B: 00:05:40

Well, actually, it was really.

Speaker B: 00:05:42

Yeah, it was kind of earlier on when we were writing the first record, we all were just kind of joking around.

Speaker B: 00:05:47

When we were on the road one time and we had just watched the movie Anchorman, there's a part in the middle of that movie where they do like, Skyrockets in Flight or whatever, they do this harmony song.

Speaker B: 00:05:57

And we.

Speaker B: 00:05:57

And we just jokingly in the van one day, like, tried to figure out parts and we all got comfortable enough with it to where we were like, geez, you know, this actually, it sounds decent, so we should maybe try to, you know, incorporate harmonies in our music.

Speaker B: 00:06:10

At that point, I think was when we really established our specific sound, was when we all knew that we could actually contribute vocals and do it live in a way that is pleasant to the ear, which most of the time happens.

Speaker A: 00:06:23

As you kind of had that aha moment as a group.

Speaker A: 00:06:25

Did you then start testing that on the road?

Speaker B: 00:06:28

Yeah, yeah, we did.

Speaker B: 00:06:29

Once we kind of got the songs that we were seeing together, and on the first record, there's only a couple, really, that we did a lot of harmonies on.

Speaker B: 00:06:36

But Hangman is the acapella tune that we drew on there, which.

Speaker B: 00:06:40

Which at the time we didn't know if we were gonna.

Speaker B: 00:06:43

We were getting a singer to be able to actually pull it off live.

Speaker B: 00:06:46

But the more we rehearsed it on the road and live show, we started to get much more comfortable with doing that.

Speaker B: 00:06:52

And then on this last record, Death of the Decade, we.

Speaker B: 00:06:55

We really told ourselves as we were writing all the songs that we should just sing every.

Speaker B: 00:07:00

At all times.

Speaker B: 00:07:01

Like everyone should listen to each song and sing whenever they want, and we should just record as much vocals as we possibly can.

Speaker B: 00:07:08

And I think that Turned out really well.

Speaker A: 00:07:09

So as you all have been able to move forward and keep the harmony and the vocal and the focus on that, you've developed a pretty distinct sound in terms of your instrumentation as well.

Speaker A: 00:07:18

Did finding that sound with your instrumentation come as easily?

Speaker B: 00:07:22

Well, I don't know about easily, but it was sort of kind of an accident because we were playing south by Southwest a few years ago, and we were at this after party, and there was an upright bass and, like, a banjo and a mandolin and acoustic guitar.

Speaker B: 00:07:37

And I at the time did not know how to play anything else but a little bit of keyboard and some acoustic guitar or some guitar.

Speaker B: 00:07:45

And a friend of ours, kind of.

Speaker B: 00:07:46

He knew how to play mandolin, and so he's like, oh, you know, we should play some songs or whatever.

Speaker B: 00:07:50

So he handed the mandolin to me and just showed me a few chords, and we did, like, this bluegrass version of all these cover songs that they knew, and it was pretty hilarious.

Speaker B: 00:07:58

But I had grew an interest to play mandolin at that point, and so I kind of dug a little deeper into that, and that's where the mandolin came in.

Speaker B: 00:08:06

And whenever we were writing those songs for Death of a Decade, I kind of.

Speaker B: 00:08:10

I guess, sort of came natural to me for the parts, I guess, because I still don't really know exactly what I'm doing on mandolin, but I think I can.

Speaker B: 00:08:17

I'm to a point where I can at least write a melody or play.

Speaker A: 00:08:20

A few chords well, so were you looking at any particular other band or type of music that incorporated mandolin into more rootsy rock?

Speaker B: 00:08:29

You know, that's funny.

Speaker B: 00:08:30

We actually really weren't.

Speaker B: 00:08:31

It was.

Speaker B: 00:08:32

It was just kind of something that was there at the time.

Speaker B: 00:08:35

And I feel like there really isn't a whole lot of.

Speaker B: 00:08:38

Of bands that put mandolin into kind of what we're trying to do.

Speaker A: 00:08:42

Right.

Speaker B: 00:08:42

I mean, the best example, I guess, would be maybe R.E.M.

Speaker A: 00:08:46

Yeah, that's where I was thinking.

Speaker B: 00:08:48

Yeah, with some of their stuff, which is.

Speaker B: 00:08:49

We got compared to that quite a bit, which is great.

Speaker B: 00:08:51

Right.

Speaker A: 00:08:52

Thank you.

Speaker B: 00:08:52

Because we are.

Speaker B: 00:08:53

We are big REM Fans, especially Brian.

Speaker B: 00:08:56

He's probably the biggest REM Fan.

Speaker B: 00:08:58

But, yeah, it was cool to get compared to that.

Speaker B: 00:09:01

And I think it was also, you know, we felt like we were really creating something original with adding that instrument to our style of music.

Speaker B: 00:09:07

So.

Speaker B: 00:09:08

Hey, this is Brett from Haua Tonka.

Speaker B: 00:09:09

You're listening to Country Fried Rock with.

Speaker A: 00:09:12

Death of a Decade.

Speaker A: 00:09:13

And being on the road with that record in particular.

Speaker A: 00:09:16

What sort of new audiences opened up for you?

Speaker B: 00:09:18

All we Try to tour with, with all different types of bands.

Speaker B: 00:09:23

So for us it definitely opened up a different audience.

Speaker B: 00:09:26

But I don't know if it was specifically because of the music that we were playing or if it was specifically because of the audience that we were in front of.

Speaker B: 00:09:33

We've toured with a lot of different types of bands, anywhere from like the Violent Films all the way to this last band we went on tour with Tea Leaf Green, who was actually kind of a jam based band.

Speaker B: 00:09:45

And we, which is different for us because it was a complete.

Speaker B: 00:09:48

Never played in front of an audience like a jam band audience before.

Speaker B: 00:09:52

Which is good for us, you know, because we were.

Speaker B: 00:09:54

We can cross over those different genres and pull in, you know, all those different types of fans which, which we find we're very gracious for that and working well.

Speaker B: 00:10:03

So I think, I think mostly with the new stuff, it's, it's really just been the people we've, we've been exposed to.

Speaker A: 00:10:08

So as you're looking at being on the road, are you intentionally seeking out some.

Speaker A: 00:10:13

Not exactly contrasting but you know, the not perfect overlap or is that something that just happened?

Speaker B: 00:10:20

I think it's just something that happens really when you're talking about, you know, gaining, you know, fans, period.

Speaker B: 00:10:25

You know, if you can overlap, that's, that's perfect.

Speaker A: 00:10:27

So whether it's with being on the road and doing different events or showcases or festivals or whatever.

Speaker A: 00:10:33

Do you all ever get a chance to catch any new to you music?

Speaker B: 00:10:35

You know, we do.

Speaker B: 00:10:37

You know, we'll hear glimpses of here and there.

Speaker B: 00:10:39

Mostly it will be at the festival.

Speaker B: 00:10:41

We played Austin City Limits this last year and you always hear names thrown at you, but a lot of times you don't, you know, either, you know, you don't have time to go watch them or listen to them or you just never, you just forget about, you know, maybe trying to listen to them on the Internet or whatever.

Speaker B: 00:10:55

But yeah, I think like at festivals we mostly get introduced to bands that maybe are similar to our genre that we get compared to or people say we should tour.

Speaker B: 00:11:05

One in specifically would be like Delta Spirit.

Speaker B: 00:11:08

I know that, which is a name I heard before.

Speaker B: 00:11:09

But I actually watched them for the first time live at Austin City Limits and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Speaker B: 00:11:14

But yeah, I mean we get, we get wind of a lot of new bands and we listen to a lot of, I guess a lot of music that gets handed to us in our van we have while we're traveling.

Speaker A: 00:11:27

So what's something that y' all can agree on to listen to in the van.

Speaker B: 00:11:31

Well, lately, let's see, this last year was a lot of the big ones.

Speaker B: 00:11:34

I mean, we listened to the new Bony Bear quite a bit.

Speaker B: 00:11:39

We listen to new Fleet Foxes quite a bit.

Speaker B: 00:11:43

We've been listening to lately, we've been listening to Middle Brother.

Speaker A: 00:11:47

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:11:49

Listening to that a lot.

Speaker B: 00:11:50

And you know, just really recently started getting into the Deer Tick and things like.

Speaker B: 00:11:54

I mean, so we can all agree on a lot of things musically.

Speaker B: 00:11:58

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:11:58

So those are just a few examples, I guess.

Speaker A: 00:12:00

Then there's maybe a little bit more cohesion in terms of your interests.

Speaker A: 00:12:04

Even though the influences may be from different directions.

Speaker B: 00:12:08

Yes, exactly.

Speaker B: 00:12:09

There's obviously some stuff that we don't agree on, but for the most part, I mean, we're all like.

Speaker B: 00:12:13

Some people like things a lot better than others.

Speaker A: 00:12:15

Sure.

Speaker B: 00:12:15

But for the most part we can all listen and enjoy lots of different types of music creatively.

Speaker A: 00:12:20

Then where are y' all headed now?

Speaker B: 00:12:22

Well, that's a good question.

Speaker B: 00:12:23

We just started kind of getting ideas flowing for our next record and we're hoping that we can record maybe in the fall of this year.

Speaker B: 00:12:31

We don't really have a whole lot of direction at this point.

Speaker B: 00:12:35

All we know is, is that we are going to probably keep it pretty mandolin driven.

Speaker B: 00:12:39

I would assume kind of similar death of decade.

Speaker B: 00:12:42

What we wanted to do.

Speaker B: 00:12:43

We were thinking.

Speaker B: 00:12:44

We're just tossing ideas around now, but we were thinking about trying to do maybe some like on site recording.

Speaker B: 00:12:50

My grandparents, who I was talking about earlier, passed away and they left their lake house to my family.

Speaker B: 00:12:55

And I was thinking maybe it'd be pretty neat to like turn the house into kind of our summer like recording studio and right down there and like maybe do some on site recording in like caves or something like that.

Speaker A: 00:13:08

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:13:08

Which might be interesting.

Speaker B: 00:13:09

But as far as direction goes, I mean, I think we kind of don't really figure all that out until we get the songs ready and then we go into the studio and then we kind of.

Speaker B: 00:13:17

We kind of think about how we want it to be produced and which direction we want to head.

Speaker A: 00:13:22

That leads to several different questions for me.

Speaker A: 00:13:25

So you weren't road testing new material on this last run?

Speaker B: 00:13:28

No, not this last one.

Speaker B: 00:13:29

But I'm sure that we will later this summer we will definitely be road testing a lot of new stuff concern.

Speaker B: 00:13:34

I mean, just because we literally just started throwing around some.

Speaker B: 00:13:38

Some ideas.

Speaker B: 00:13:39

So we don't have anything new that's finished at this point.

Speaker B: 00:13:43

But I'm sure we will within the next few months.

Speaker A: 00:13:45

The other thing Related to that is what does working with a different team in the recording process bring for you all, like different engineers, different producers.

Speaker B: 00:13:53

I think it's great.

Speaker B: 00:13:54

With our first two records, we use the same guy at St. Louis, Jason McIntyre, who is an excellent producer.

Speaker B: 00:14:00

He knows us inside and out.

Speaker B: 00:14:01

He knows our personalities, he knows what we like as individuals and what we don't like as individuals.

Speaker B: 00:14:06

He's a great producer to work with.

Speaker B: 00:14:07

On Death of a Decade, we wanted to branch out and see what it would be like to work with a different producer.

Speaker B: 00:14:13

So we contacted Kevin McMahon, who has a studio in New Palt, New York.

Speaker B: 00:14:17

He's done all the Titus Andronicus things and Felice Brothers and the Walkman and things like that.

Speaker B: 00:14:23

It really kind of sparked our interest the way that he recorded, he records the records.

Speaker B: 00:14:27

He has this barn, 200 year old barn, where he likes to keep all of the ambient noises inside the record.

Speaker B: 00:14:35

So when we recorded our acoustic instruments, basically just be in the middle of the barn.

Speaker B: 00:14:39

And he encouraged people, you know, to walk around and try to get the floor creaks and background noises and things like that.

Speaker B: 00:14:45

So I think that going with different producers for each record can be a good thing or a bad thing.

Speaker B: 00:14:50

And my personal experience for Death of a Decade, it was a really good thing.

Speaker B: 00:14:54

I felt like Kevin opened up a lot of windows that we never opened in the past and he really kind of got us creatively, got us to a different, different level.

Speaker B: 00:15:03

We, we actually used two producers on the last record and the other producer we called Orion Tis, he's from Kansas City, he put in all the.

Speaker B: 00:15:11

He basically put in all a lot of the digital aspects to the record, which are very subtle but really good for headphone listen.

Speaker B: 00:15:19

So which I'm sure we, I think for the next record we will definitely use the Ryan Tis again.

Speaker B: 00:15:23

And then I think we might, might try to use a different producer other than Kevin this time to do all the raw tracking.

Speaker B: 00:15:29

But we haven't really figured that out yet.

Speaker A: 00:15:31

But we'll see in terms of what the person could bring to that creative process.

Speaker A: 00:15:36

For you, what do you think you all might want to explore?

Speaker B: 00:15:39

For us, new instruments is always something that we are very intrigued about.

Speaker B: 00:15:44

It was very exciting adding like Mandalyn to Death of a Decade.

Speaker B: 00:15:47

And we added a lot of other, you know, like keyboard and things that we haven't really messed around with.

Speaker B: 00:15:53

I think noises, maybe certain like weirder instruments that we're not used to playing are good things that.

Speaker B: 00:15:58

Creative things that other producers can add to a new Record different sounds and things.

Speaker B: 00:16:05

Hey, this is Brett from Haha Tonka.

Speaker B: 00:16:06

Make sure you visit our website at www.HahatonKamusic.com.

Speaker B: 00:16:11

you can find all our tour dates on there as well as our Facebook and Twitter.

Speaker B: 00:16:16

We'll see you on the road.

Speaker A: 00:16:18

In terms of that collaborative process as you are getting ready to develop your new set of songs, how does that work for you all as a group?

Speaker B: 00:16:25

It's definitely four part four man process.

Speaker B: 00:16:28

Usually what happens is one of us will come up with either like a riff or a melody line or a chord progression and usually maybe just a 30 second to one minute bit kind of thing.

Speaker B: 00:16:39

And then we send it off in emails to everybody and then people comment, maybe add, subtract, talk about where that song needs to be, go what kind of feeling we want from it.

Speaker B: 00:16:50

And then Brian, Brian, he writes all the lyrics for everything pretty much, except for some of the songs that I sing.

Speaker B: 00:16:58

But yeah, then we just kind of basically just kind of argue and collaborate and brainstorm until we get together, which is in Kansas City linen's basement.

Speaker B: 00:17:10

We kind of hash the songs out until we feel like they are at a point where they're ready to be recorded and structure is there and all that.

Speaker B: 00:17:18

And then once that, once the song is finished, we usually record them in a demo and then we send them off to our producers and we say this is, you know, song number one.

Speaker B: 00:17:27

And then they kind of give feedback on what they think they're hearing in the recording process or what they feel like should be added or taken away.

Speaker A: 00:17:34

What does that pre production bring for you all in terms of developing those songs?

Speaker B: 00:17:38

Well, I mean, honestly it's good for us because a lot of times we'll take a song or however many songs and we'll, we'll like talk about it, listen to it a bunch for like two or three weeks, maybe add part segues.

Speaker B: 00:17:48

And then we'll just leave it alone like a month while we go on tour or you know, two months or whatever it is.

Speaker B: 00:17:53

And then you come back to it and you kind of do the same thing.

Speaker B: 00:17:56

So the pre production for us is a very healthy thing I think because with so much time you can really get everyone to understand everyone else's opinion and you can leave it alone.

Speaker B: 00:18:06

And if someone says I hate that part and you say you love it, and then maybe you leave it alone for like a month or two and come back, you're like, okay, maybe he was right, that part's, you know, whatever.

Speaker B: 00:18:13

So I think pre production for us Is it helps in the creative process and it also helps us really get the song to where it needs to be.

Speaker A: 00:18:20

As you then take those songs after that process into the studio.

Speaker A: 00:18:23

Do songs tend to change a whole lot for you at that point?

Speaker B: 00:18:27

A lot of times they don't change structurally usually.

Speaker B: 00:18:30

I mean, maybe tiny bit structurally.

Speaker B: 00:18:32

But the only ways that they're changing is the fact that we're adding a lot of layers on top of what we maybe originally demoed.

Speaker B: 00:18:40

So when we take the song in the studio, we're adding all of our harmonies.

Speaker B: 00:18:43

Probably the most thing that changes is going to be the harmonies.

Speaker B: 00:18:46

We change the harmonies quite a bit in the recording process, but we're adding a lot of layers, adding a lot of percussion, a lot of keyboards and instruments on top of.

Speaker B: 00:18:54

So the songs, when you get to the recording stage, they mostly, I guess, just change a little bit in feeling because of the different instruments that are being layered on top.

Speaker A: 00:19:01

So with that process, and especially as you're getting ready to write some songs, hit the road, come back, you know, have time for those things to brew and stew with the work that you have put out thus far, what has changed the most from where it came out in the recorded process to where it is as you perform it now?

Speaker B: 00:19:17

A lot of the songs that we play are death of a decade are going to be pretty much, for the most part, the same as they are on the record, minus some of the instruments that we couldn't add live.

Speaker B: 00:19:28

I think though, our second record, a lot of the songs we play off our second record are the ones that changed live mostly.

Speaker B: 00:19:35

And I think it was because since we added mandolin, there's a specific song off of Novel Sounds called Tinder Gas Machine.

Speaker B: 00:19:41

It's the first track and when we recorded it, we did it with electric guitar and it was kind of a slower song.

Speaker B: 00:19:46

And for the record, it was.

Speaker B: 00:19:47

It was really perfect.

Speaker B: 00:19:48

But then once I picked up the mandolin, kind of messed around with that song and now it's become a mandolin fast, four part harmony, kind of stomping song in the middle of our set.

Speaker B: 00:19:58

Which is great, I thought, you know, for people to experience something like that, so.

Speaker B: 00:20:02

But for the most part, the songs are going to be pretty similar to what you're hearing when you listen to the record.

Speaker A: 00:20:07

When you build your set list, do you have a specific thought process behind how those songs fit together?

Speaker B: 00:20:12

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker B: 00:20:13

It really kind of depends on, first of all, if we're headlining or if we're opening.

Speaker B: 00:20:17

Usually if we're opening, you know, we Only like, even if we have 45 minutes allotted to us, we usually only like to do about 35 minutes or so or 40 during the opening set.

Speaker B: 00:20:26

Our set list usually consists of like eight or nine of our most up tempo, kind of rocking, rocking songs.

Speaker B: 00:20:33

And we just really just try to go up there and just play a really quick, energetic set and then get off and let the headliner kind of do their thing.

Speaker B: 00:20:40

But when we're headlining, we like to slow it down a little bit in the set and play some of the slower songs.

Speaker B: 00:20:45

So we're kind of, you know, creating a wave of energy.

Speaker B: 00:20:48

And we like to switch it up the sets up quite a bit.

Speaker B: 00:20:51

You know, whether we want to start soft or start, you know, right out of the gates or whatever it might be.

Speaker B: 00:20:56

It really kind of depends on how amped up the audience is or what kind of show we feel like it's going to be.

Speaker A: 00:21:02

Have you had some venues that have really brought out just, you know, sometimes you get into a place and just the vibe is just there.

Speaker A: 00:21:08

And maybe it's the place, maybe it's just that night, who knows?

Speaker A: 00:21:11

But have there been some places on your recent runs that have just been like, yeah, this was a great night.

Speaker B: 00:21:16

Absolutely.

Speaker B: 00:21:16

You know, and: 2011

Speaker B: 00:21:20

We felt like a lot of the venues that we had played in the past, previous to last year, you know, we're just okay at shows.

Speaker B: 00:21:26

But then this last year when we headlined those rooms, the energy was completely different and, you know, amazing.

Speaker B: 00:21:32

Good example, I guess would be our Thanksgiving shows that we played last year.

Speaker B: 00:21:37

We did the Record Bar and we did a show in St. Louis, the Firebird.

Speaker B: 00:21:41

And those shows were just.

Speaker B: 00:21:43

The energy was completely amazing.

Speaker B: 00:21:44

I mean, the people were ready for us.

Speaker B: 00:21:47

And it was just like the second we stepped on stage till the last song of the encore, it was just non stop cheering.

Speaker B: 00:21:52

And it was very great, great feeling.

Speaker B: 00:21:55

The Blue Note was another one last year in Columbia, Missouri, where we finally headlined that venue for the first time.

Speaker B: 00:22:01

And it was just, you know, amazing.

Speaker B: 00:22:03

A lot of the Chicago shows, the Subterranean we sold out last year.

Speaker B: 00:22:07

I mean, just amazing energy.

Speaker B: 00:22:09

But I think that the best, the best show in my opinion of last year was definitely Austin City Limits.

Speaker B: 00:22:13

We played earlier in the day, but it hadn't rained in Austin for about three weeks.

Speaker B: 00:22:18

And you know, we're in front of like five or six thousand people.

Speaker B: 00:22:21

And during one of the softer, during the Hang or Acapella song, hanging in, it started raining.

Speaker B: 00:22:27

It was just very emotional.

Speaker B: 00:22:29

I mean, the crowd was going crazy and that many people getting to witness that and us being up there was pretty special.

Speaker A: 00:22:35

Have there been any places that have been a pleasant surprise?

Speaker A: 00:22:38

Whether it's the audience, not necessarily in size, but in the way they received you all?

Speaker B: 00:22:43

Yeah, honestly, really this last year and a half, a lot of the new places that we'd been before increased in size.

Speaker B: 00:22:50

think we played there like in: 2010

Speaker B: 00:22:54

We played there.

Speaker B: 00:22:55

We headlined late in: 2010

Speaker B: 00:23:00

And you know, we've had probably like 30 people there.

Speaker B: 00:23:02

came out and we went back in: 2011

Speaker B: 00:23:07

We had gotten a really nice review from the Washington Post.

Speaker B: 00:23:10

And we went and played a room a little bit bigger than DC9, but it was only 200 cap room and it pre sold out and we were just ecstatic.

Speaker B: 00:23:19

No idea that was going to happen.

Speaker B: 00:23:21

D.C. is just really.

Speaker B: 00:23:22

A lot of cities like that have really just completely turned and been a complete surprise.

Speaker B: 00:23:26

Actually one recently was Louisville.

Speaker B: 00:23:28

We just played there last month.

Speaker B: 00:23:30

We could never go to Louisville in the past because we'd never really been there.

Speaker B: 00:23:33

And we didn't really want to play in front of like 10 people.

Speaker B: 00:23:36

But we ended up playing this.

Speaker B: 00:23:37

The radio station there start playing us quite a bit.

Speaker B: 00:23:39

And we played this big event called Waterfront Wednesdays.

Speaker B: 00:23:42

Since then, we just had my Louisville and sold it out.

Speaker B: 00:23:45

And it was.

Speaker B: 00:23:46

It was amazing.

Speaker B: 00:23:46

A shocker and completely amazing.

Speaker A: 00:23:48

So that's very cool.

Speaker A: 00:23:50

If you were able to bring something or someone to the process for this next record, what is it you all would want to do?

Speaker B: 00:23:58

Well, I mean, all of us would probably say Brian Eno, if money were not an object, just because he's a huge mentor of all of ours, I believe.

Speaker B: 00:24:07

But it's hard to say because a lot of people, you know, they say, well, if you have this producer, if you have this guy, you know, maybe he costs ever much money, but this guy could really, you know, make you guys like this next huge record, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker B: 00:24:19

But in all honesty, I think what it really comes down to is the songs that you as a band are creating.

Speaker B: 00:24:25

Because even if they're recorded on one microphone and you put it out like as a bedroom album or whatever, I think it all comes down to the songs.

Speaker B: 00:24:33

And producing is a big part of how your record sounds, of course.

Speaker B: 00:24:37

But I don't think that having like a overpriced producer, minus having his name on it is really going to Shoot your band to the next level.

Speaker B: 00:24:46

I think it really all comes down to the songs that you are creating at the time and the emotion that you're.

Speaker B: 00:24:51

You're putting out there to your fans.

Speaker A: 00:24:54

As you all are developing songs, do you find that they present themselves in sort of a theme or something that binds them together?

Speaker B: 00:25:02

A lot of times, yeah, we like to do.

Speaker B: 00:25:04

A lot of times what we'll do is right before we begin the writing process, we'll kind of come up with either a feeling or an idea or something that is thematic without making it conceptual.

Speaker B: 00:25:16

Yeah.

Speaker B: 00:25:16

So for each record, we kind of like to focus on a specific feeling or specific idea and try to wrap the songs into that kind of blanket and see where they go from there.

Speaker B: 00:25:28

So we'll see what happens with the next record.

Speaker B: 00:25:29

We've.

Speaker B: 00:25:30

We've had some ideas that we're kind of throwing around, but we're not specifically sure yet exactly which direction.

Speaker A: 00:25:34

But so then, for past records, how did that start and then how did that change as you actually got to making the record?

Speaker B: 00:25:41

With Novel Sounds of the Noble south, we.

Speaker B: 00:25:44

That was kind of mostly based off of lots of different influences from novels, I guess you could say.

Speaker B: 00:25:51

And what.

Speaker B: 00:25:52

Shepherds of these Hills would be a good example, where Brian usually comes up with those themes just because he's writing the lyrics about a lot of those things.

Speaker B: 00:26:00

But usually, you know, he'll kind of come up with these ideas.

Speaker B: 00:26:02

And then for us, we kind of integrate, you know, maybe some other ideas that could go with the maybe novel theme.

Speaker B: 00:26:09

You know, whether it be like a mob of people, like kind of just add to the idea to make it a little bit more expansive, I guess, in the idea.

Speaker B: 00:26:17

So.

Speaker B: 00:26:18

And Death of a Decade was similar to that.

Speaker B: 00:26:20

That one for us.

Speaker B: 00:26:21

There was lots of different little ideas.

Speaker B: 00:26:23

The title track, Death of a Decade, was.

Speaker B: 00:26:25

Brian came up with the idea of every decade, there is always a significant pop or political figure that passes away that means a lot to people.

Speaker B: 00:26:35

For instance, Michael Jackson or JFK or whomever it might be.

Speaker B: 00:26:39

And so that was kind of the thought process behind death.

Speaker B: 00:26:42

And it's always changing just by adding different ideas and elements to that one basic idea.

Speaker A: 00:26:48

So were there any specific or significant events that really were standing out for you all?

Speaker B: 00:26:54

You know, the death of Michael Jackson was definitely a pretty big event.

Speaker B: 00:26:57

And I think that's kind of what sparked a lot of the ideas for death, just seeing, like, how people react to something like that, whether it be his personal life or, you know, the fact that he was the greatest performer of all time.

Speaker B: 00:27:10

You know, people are disgusted by him.

Speaker B: 00:27:12

People, you know, praise him.

Speaker B: 00:27:14

It's just.

Speaker B: 00:27:14

It was just very fascinating.

Speaker B: 00:27:16

I think that was a pretty big event there that.

Speaker B: 00:27:18

That really inspired some of the direction and ideas and themes for death.

Speaker A: 00:27:24

Well, this is pretty exciting to hear about the.

Speaker A: 00:27:26

The very early stages of your creative process as a group.

Speaker A: 00:27:29

Where are y' all headed this summer?

Speaker A: 00:27:30

You kind of hinted that there's going to be some road time.

Speaker B: 00:27:33

You know, we're always on the road.

Speaker B: 00:27:34

We're still trying to figure out a lot of things.

Speaker B: 00:27:37

Our next shows are we're playing Old Settlers Fest.

Speaker B: 00:27:40

Oh, yeah, that's in Austin, Texas, which is April 18, 19 and 20.

Speaker B: 00:27:46

And we are actually playing two shows.

Speaker B: 00:27:48

We're playing Thursday night is kind of like a welcoming party or something.

Speaker B: 00:27:52

And we're just playing like a acoustic show maybe that night.

Speaker B: 00:27:54

And then Friday is when we play our big stage show there at the Old Settlers Fest.

Speaker B: 00:27:59

We're doing that.

Speaker B: 00:28:00

And we're also doing Floyd Fest this summer, which is in Virginia.

Speaker B: 00:28:03

And we're doing a couple festivals in Chicago.

Speaker B: 00:28:07

One of them is Sausage Fest.

Speaker B: 00:28:09

Mostly this summer is there's a lot of festival things and we're still kind of working on.

Speaker B: 00:28:14

We might be doing some more tour support.

Speaker B: 00:28:17

We're still kind of working on that.

Speaker B: 00:28:18

But as of right now, those are kind of major ones that are coming up while we dig deeper into this songwriting process.

Speaker A: 00:28:23

Right.

Speaker B: 00:28:23

We have quite a few friends that are playing festival as well, so that'll be pretty fun.

Speaker A: 00:28:28

Thank you so much for all of your time.

Speaker A: 00:28:29

I really appreciate it.

Speaker B: 00:28:30

Hey, no problem.

Speaker B: 00:28:31

Thank you.

Speaker A: 00:28:31

Take it easy.

Speaker A: 00:28:32

Bye bye.

Speaker B: 00:28:32

All right.

Speaker B: 00:28:32

Bye bye.

Speaker A: 00:28:33

Next week on Country Fried Rock, we're talking with Canadian roots band New Country Rehab, their debut self titled record.

Speaker A: 00:28:40

In today's song, angel of Death.

Speaker A: 00:28:43

Check them out.

Speaker A: 00:28:44

Newcountryrehab.com Country Fried Rock Find the full playlist from this episode on countryfridrock.org to check us out on itunes.

Speaker A: 00:28:53

No music, just talk.

Speaker A: 00:28:55

Our theme music is from the Full Tones.

Speaker A: 00:28:57

Our Country Fried Rock stinger is from Steve Soto in the Twisted Hearts.

Speaker A: 00:29:01

Country fried rock.

Speaker A: 00:29:03

Copyright: 2012

Speaker A: 00:29:06

All rights reserved.