Country Fried Rock 1233: Midnight Salvage's Brason Alexander From Craigslist to Concerts

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

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Country Fried Rock music uncovered.

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My guest today on Country Fried Rock is Brayson Alexander of the band Midnight Salvage.

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Welcome.

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Thank you.

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Thanks for having me.

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Thanks for being on Country Fried Rock.

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Let's set the stage for people who may not be familiar with Midnight Salvage yet.

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How did y' all get together as a band?

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It's been a different ride.

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Brian Keel, our lead guitar player.

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Been friends for a while, and in college I actually spoke.

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I left for Christmas vacation to go see my family.

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I stuck a bunch of stuff on his door and just left kind of in a hurry.

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When I got back, he actually had music to it and I thought it would kick off from there, but then it just.

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We both kind of went different ways for a while, but then we kind of got back together.

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He started teaching me how to play guitar.

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Finally we said, we need to.

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Let's see if we can get a band, see what we can do.

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So we talked to his friend, which now is his brother in law, into going from guitar to bass.

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And then we found a drummer on Craigslist.

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That's awesome.

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And so then we started that and it was more just a thing of, let's see, let's play a gig, okay, let's play two gigs, let's play this.

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Let's try and make an album in the garage.

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Essentially, we did.

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The brother in law just got too busy is our new drummer.

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He's been with us for about a year or so.

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We knew him from other bands and when our other drummer left, we were starting the process of finding a drummer and we were actually shocked.

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He called us and said, hey, you guys looking for a drummer?

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I'd be interested.

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And we found out.

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We were excited.

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We were like, okay.

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More and more bands are finding bandmates through Craigslist.

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Yeah, it's kind of like themats.com for bands.

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Poetry then started off.

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When I was in high school, I hated English because they always had seating charts by your first and last name.

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It's switching that semester.

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Well, being Brace and Alexander, I'm sitting in the front every time they switch the chart.

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So the key from getting in trouble without paying attention, I just wrote stuff, you know, Even when I got into college, I still, like, end up writing, like, more of my own stuff than notes I took and just kind of kept at it.

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And I didn't know what I was doing with it.

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I just kept doing it just for, I don't know, probably some kind of release.

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Or whatever.

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But that's kind of how that started.

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Were you into music as a fan?

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Yeah, I loved music a lot when I was younger.

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I didn't play anything.

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We had this piano in the basement.

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To this day, I still regret not doing more than anything banging on it really hard, pretending I was Jerry Lee Lewis for five seconds.

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I used to listen to a lot of our radio stations.

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I didn't sleep a lot and my mom actually bought me old stereo.

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And I remember I'd stay up nights listening that.

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Used to play all the new stuff later in the night.

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And I kind of like.

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It was my chance to try and predict which song would become popular.

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What were you successful with?

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You know, I can't remember back then it was, but pretty good.

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I think from the get go.

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It was entertaining, to say the least.

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What kind of stuff did you like to listen to at that point?

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You know, when I was younger, there's kind of three camps of music that I dealt with.

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My dad was a big country fan when I was with him and fishing and stuff like that.

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It was, you know, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, John Connolly.

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I think we played the John Connolly tape till it burned out.

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And my mom was kind of the rule of the roost as far as the music played in the house.

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So it always had to be something a little more prettier.

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Simon Garfunkel, Elton John, and then my brothers.

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I have three older brothers.

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They were the next big influence for me because they were old enough to start buying albums.

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But they actually had me into anything from a lot of rap, you know, Marvin Gay, to anything.

Speaker A: 00:03:19

As you all came together with the early stages of Midnight Salvage, how did you and Brian in particular, continue that relationship of the writing and the developing the song itself?

Speaker B: 00:03:28

Well, early on I'd have to steal riffs from Brian and try and match.

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For some reason, I'm pretty lucky in that when I get some music, I write a bunch of stuff.

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Like if he gives me something I really like in my head.

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There's three or four things that I've written down that match that now always takes a little massage.

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And so early on he would give me something and I would try and copy it.

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And then I really needed to be able to play it musically, which early on was very tough.

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I wasn't the greatest guitar player there was.

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Still not, but that's all right.

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And then I found out quickly that I had to get better musically at least.

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I didn't have to play anything great, but I had to be able to get through Chords and find chords I liked and stuff like that.

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So then I've gotten down the road where I can put stuff together somewhat musically.

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And then Brian is always kind of my savior.

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And the other guys are really starting to get good at it too, where, like, I'll get.

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Or I'll play something too repetitively.

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And he goes, no, we gotta go from here to here.

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There's a lot of give and take then in the process of developing a song at this point then, yeah, as you gathered and originally were forming kind of organically with, hey, let's play out, let's record.

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What routes did that take you all through?

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Were you hitting the road or were you just trying to play locally?

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We played a lot of local shows, you know, within about an hour radius of Tacoma, Seattle.

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We've always been a band that wants to sound good, so I think sometimes that takes preference over us trying to just go play a thousand gigs.

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Early on, we were just trying to play locally and say, okay, how does this sound?

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Later on, we added Aubrey Shelton on the keyboard, who's just awesome to have.

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But as we started getting different players and essentially better players, we all were playing too much, like, on top of each other.

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So as we played more, it was like, okay, who's going to back out here?

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That kind of became the process of trying to just make it a little smoother and not everyone just banging away at the same time.

Speaker A: 00:05:18

And so did that become real apparent for you in playing live, or was it when you finally got around to recording?

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I think the biggest ones, when we.

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When we got around recording, but live, it was live, were the littler lessons where.

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Where you learn, like, okay, we are doing it too much.

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But I think when we record, especially when we.

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We finally got to recording the album the right way and we got in with Conrad Uno, that's when, like, we play and, you know, record stuff.

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And then got to Nixon.

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We'd come in and he had pulled certain stuff out.

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We'd go, oh, wow.

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That's probably how we should have been playing that, where not everybody's jamming away.

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Like, let the.

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Let the.

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Let the piano go.

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Hey, this is Brayson Alexander with Midnight Savage Company.

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You're listening to Country Fried Rock.

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So how did you end up deciding to work with him?

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You know, when we started our album, we actually started with all the original members trying to do the album.

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We had recorded an ep, like just a demo to give to people to get in the doorway.

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It was what it was.

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You know, it's nothing.

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We're all playing nowadays.

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So we started, we said, okay, let's make a full length album.

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And we thought we could do it ourselves because we said, well, the EP is not our favorite thing in the world.

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But we got there.

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We started this process with all the original band members.

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We brought down a sound guy.

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We.

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We did a bunch of things and we just could not try to record individual parts.

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And even the drums and things, it just wasn't going well.

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And it kind of came like the.

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When we play out live, it became like the running question to dodge from people because they'd be like, hey, when's that?

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When's that album coming?

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And we'd be like, yeah, soon.

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And it literally about a year went by of when we first started recording and trying to do it ourselves.

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And then when Mike Haley joined the band and Dustin was now in the band for a couple months, we just really said, we got to do this the right way and get somebody in front front of us who takes care of it, and we can just worry about playing and not trying to do all that.

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So we contacted Conrad and we just kind of heard from other bands that he was a good guy to work through.

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And that's where Jimmy said, okay, let's go to him.

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It really sped up the process.

Speaker A: 00:07:45

As you went in initially to work with Conrad, you know, you had songs that had been fleshed out to a point.

Speaker A: 00:07:51

What else helped with having him there to kind of guide that process really.

Speaker B: 00:07:55

First, he's great to work with.

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I think we're all like the music enough and are proud of it enough, that when we go in there, we didn't want someone thinking they could just, you know, turn it into their album.

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We were all kind of on the fence, like, oh, this is our album.

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And he's just real easy to work with, but he gets his way at the end, which is great, so you don't feel like you're trampled on.

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The big one is still like, just when we listen to stuff back and he pulled things out and I think initially sometimes your feelings are hurt, but then you're like, wow, okay.

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I know for me, I played acoustic guitar at that time on everything, and we pulled a lot of it out.

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And at first I was like, well, geez, there goes my guitar parts.

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And then I was like, you know what?

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It's better that way.

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And even Brian would come and play some acoustic stuff.

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The big lesson for us is just trying to get it to sound a little more smooth and not ever limp on top of each other.

Speaker A: 00:08:41

How did that then translate as you had the record and took it out to play after the fact.

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I think it's made us a lot better.

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It's made where things are clear, where lyrics are clear.

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You can hear those clear or that guitar solo or drum solo or piano solo.

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And even on the.

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The one song, 21st street, we have Courtney Shelton, who's our keyboardist's wife, plays violin.

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And early on, she played a lot more than this on the album.

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And I.

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When they pulled a little bit out of it, it made it emphasized the parts and they.

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And it makes those parts even more special.

Speaker A: 00:09:14

What has changed about the songs in this?

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There's been quite a bit of time since this has happened.

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A big difference is the drummer.

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Mike Haley, our new drummer, is just very.

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He's very consistent.

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He knows when to pull out and kind of come in at right parts.

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Dustin Lau, our bassist.

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I mean, Dustin La, just.

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He can.

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He makes these great little bass parts where he does little bass runs.

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And when we listen to the album back, I was just like, wow, that's what he play.

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That's awesome.

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And I know when you play live, sometimes, depending on what venue you hear, I never know what I'm gonna hear, whether it's keyboards or this or that.

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I just didn't hear as much of the bass part.

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So I think, you know, the songs have all kind of grown and got, I'd say, more mature.

Speaker A: 00:09:54

What has been working for you all since that's come out and you've been out playing?

Speaker B: 00:09:58

The songs have always been good, and I think that's always worked for us.

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Play the gig Art on the Ave on 6th Avenue in Tacoma.

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It's a good deal.

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And I think the songs just kind of carried us because we're in the back of a flatbed truck with six people up there.

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We about fell over on each other and sound guy disappeared for 20 minutes.

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The songs have always kind of saved us.

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You know, the live performances are always fun, too.

Speaker A: 00:10:19

Where do you think y' all are going to be going with new stuff?

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I think for us, the music's going to get more full.

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I've stopped playing acoustic guitar lately.

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It doesn't mean I won't try and play some later.

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But I'm starting to play electric, so it allows.

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I think it gives Brian more chances to play other stuff because I can fill in kind of that rhythm guitar on the electric.

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And I think our songs are getting more intelligent.

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Not that we didn't have some intelligence number four, but a lot of them are chorus, verse, chorus.

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We're trying to get a little more experimental and break away from that.

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Still keeping songs people will hopefully like and that.

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But also saying, okay, we don't have to follow any formula.

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This is Brace and Alexander with Midnight Salvage Company.

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You can find us at ww.midnightsavageco.com do.

Speaker A: 00:11:01

You have, like, a time frame on making something else happen?

Speaker B: 00:11:05

Yeah, you know, I think it's kind of unspoken right now.

Speaker B: 00:11:08

We've.

Speaker B: 00:11:08

We're probably five new songs into a new album that we feel comfortable with, that if you said, hey, we gotta record in three months, we could keep banging on them and they'd be ready.

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We're kind of shooting for a similar timetable last year where we.

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We would like to be recording in the fall, maybe October or November.

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We have material.

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It's just a matter of getting everyone together and keep on cutting it up and trying to make it work.

Speaker A: 00:11:30

Now that you've had this experience of bringing in a producer to really help structure and guide the process this last time, what would you look for in the recording process this next time that would really be beneficial?

Speaker B: 00:11:41

I would like to see if we can make our sound a little bigger.

Speaker B: 00:11:44

I know it's pretty organic, some of the stuff we had on the last one, and I'm perfectly happy with that.

Speaker B: 00:11:48

But I would like to see if we can make some parts a little more dramatic.

Speaker B: 00:11:52

I'm a big fan of Bruce Springsteen and those early, like the river albums where there's, you know, the piano comes in and all that.

Speaker B: 00:11:58

You know, it's just like a big sound.

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It feels like a movie to me.

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That's what I. I hope we're headed towards.

Speaker B: 00:12:04

You know, we.

Speaker B: 00:12:05

We never said, like, hey, we want to sound like this or do this.

Speaker B: 00:12:08

We just kind of let the song speak for themselves, and that's kind of where how we've ended up.

Speaker A: 00:12:13

Several great musician Friends of Country Fried Rock generously donated songs for a free music sampler.

Speaker A: 00:12:18

Download it@noisetrade.com countryfriderock 19 songs to help raise awareness and money for Nucci's Space, a nonprofit serving the mental health needs of musicians in the Athens, Georgia area.

Speaker A: 00:12:31

Find out more about Nucci's at N U C I Dot or When Y' All Are Together.

Speaker A: 00:12:36

What is something that you can all agree on musically to listen to?

Speaker B: 00:12:39

The great thing about this band is we get along really well.

Speaker B: 00:12:42

So I think if somebody played something somebody might not like, be okay.

Speaker B: 00:12:46

But for Brian and I and Dustin, you know, we.

Speaker B: 00:12:49

Tom Petty's a pretty easy one.

Speaker B: 00:12:51

Roger Klein The Peacemaker is pretty easy for Brian and I.

Speaker B: 00:12:55

That's kind of where Brian and I started going to a lot of his shows.

Speaker B: 00:12:58

Gaslight Anthem is something I played loading in and out one night.

Speaker B: 00:13:01

And I'm always looking for Brian and Mike's approval of music.

Speaker B: 00:13:05

And they're like, hey, who's this?

Speaker B: 00:13:06

Okay, we like that.

Speaker A: 00:13:07

Nice.

Speaker B: 00:13:08

A little bit of everything.

Speaker B: 00:13:09

I think to make all five of us happy would be.

Speaker B: 00:13:12

I don't know what that album would look like and probably be like three albums playing at one time.

Speaker B: 00:13:16

For the most part, we're all pretty good.

Speaker B: 00:13:18

And I think we all like showing each other music and turning on the next guy to something we have.

Speaker A: 00:13:23

Have you had a chance to catch anybody live that made you go?

Speaker B: 00:13:25

Yeah, as soon as I kind of caught the bug of going to live music.

Speaker B: 00:13:29

I'm a junkie as far as it goes.

Speaker B: 00:13:31

And I'm even playing wise.

Speaker B: 00:13:33

I'm never going to be like the guy who doesn't go to show who I've seen lately.

Speaker B: 00:13:36

James Coates is a local guy who I just.

Speaker B: 00:13:38

I love to see him play.

Speaker B: 00:13:40

He's like a singer, songwriter, Ryan Adams, Bob Dylan is kind of guy writes some really good songs and has unbelievable voice and he's got a lot of passion in him.

Speaker B: 00:13:49

I love seeing him.

Speaker B: 00:13:50

It's.

Speaker B: 00:13:51

Every time it's different.

Speaker B: 00:13:52

The funny thing is, if I see him like a coffee shop, there's like 20 minutes of banter between him and I, we find rather entertaining.

Speaker B: 00:13:58

I don't know if anyone else does.

Speaker B: 00:13:59

You know, I saw Delta Spirit about a month ago.

Speaker B: 00:14:02

Yeah, I had a feeling they were going to be great.

Speaker B: 00:14:04

And they were awesome.

Speaker B: 00:14:06

In Seattle, they just, they rocked it.

Speaker B: 00:14:08

And Seattle crowds sometimes don't dance that much.

Speaker B: 00:14:11

And they actually got them going and I think it took some provoking.

Speaker B: 00:14:15

But they were great.

Speaker B: 00:14:16

Hold steady.

Speaker B: 00:14:16

I saw quite a while ago, but man, they, they were awesome.

Speaker B: 00:14:20

The drive by Truckers, I saw them a couple months ago.

Speaker B: 00:14:22

They were phenomenal.

Speaker B: 00:14:23

They're like the loudest love making music I've ever seen.

Speaker A: 00:14:27

That's a great description of.

Speaker B: 00:14:29

This is Brace from Midnight Savage Company.

Speaker B: 00:14:31

The two best places to find us are Facebook or Twitter.

Speaker B: 00:14:34

You can log on to those and start a conversation.

Speaker A: 00:14:37

What would you like to have happen with your live performances?

Speaker A: 00:14:40

I mean, are you all looking to be on the road heavily or are you looking more to be regional?

Speaker B: 00:14:46

I would love to play all the time, every second.

Speaker B: 00:14:48

And I think for us as a band, we're kind of regionally locked right now.

Speaker B: 00:14:52

We could be Talking to anything the last couple years, along with making records.

Speaker B: 00:14:57

Our bass player had a baby, and then Brian before that had a baby.

Speaker B: 00:14:59

And my son is three.

Speaker B: 00:15:01

So in a couple months, we'll be more ready to be like, okay, you know, family's set, everyone's okay.

Speaker B: 00:15:06

That's kind of landlocked us a little bit, but I think we.

Speaker B: 00:15:09

We want to get out and play more.

Speaker B: 00:15:10

We went on the road a couple of times to Montana and down to Portland and some other places and had just a lot of fun, and we'd like to do it more.

Speaker B: 00:15:18

I think we've been a little grounded.

Speaker B: 00:15:19

And then the recording process was one where we were just like, we got to get this album done before we start something else.

Speaker A: 00:15:25

What has been pleasantly surprising you about the continuation of the band?

Speaker A: 00:15:29

Because, you know, after that first record comes out, I know you've had a couple of band member changes, but in some ways there's that change that's hard.

Speaker A: 00:15:35

But then there's.

Speaker A: 00:15:36

You hit a point where you're like, this is the change we needed.

Speaker A: 00:15:39

Kind of reflective of what happened after the record finally came out.

Speaker B: 00:15:43

Yeah, the changes, you know, when they happened, were not bad changes.

Speaker B: 00:15:47

Guys left on their own terms.

Speaker B: 00:15:48

With the replacements we've had, it's gotten a lot worse.

Speaker B: 00:15:51

I guess I'll have to use the word serious.

Speaker B: 00:15:53

I think we've gotten more dedicated to the music and into the process, you know, and that was, I think, healthy for us because I think for the guys in the band, we kind of felt like we were pulling people ways they didn't want to go.

Speaker B: 00:16:04

So when the changes happened, at least I felt like, okay, we're all on the same page booking this and that.

Speaker B: 00:16:10

Everyone will share some responsibilities.

Speaker B: 00:16:12

Even though Bryan, the guitarist, is probably the best at booking gigs and talking to everybody.

Speaker B: 00:16:17

We'll keep that healthy relationship going.

Speaker B: 00:16:19

Everybody's bought in.

Speaker B: 00:16:20

Let's keep making music.

Speaker B: 00:16:22

The creation of the first album has went so well.

Speaker B: 00:16:24

Keep kind of waiting for the other shoe to fall.

Speaker B: 00:16:26

But we've gotten good reviews.

Speaker B: 00:16:28

You know, maybe we were on the.

Speaker A: 00:16:29

Right path, especially with a band after that huge project like that.

Speaker A: 00:16:33

Everything, including, like, the division of duties like you were talking about with booking, who's doing the social media.

Speaker A: 00:16:37

You know, sometimes those are the things that end up being the challenges.

Speaker A: 00:16:40

Not so much the music itself.

Speaker B: 00:16:43

Yeah, I mean, most definitely.

Speaker B: 00:16:44

I think it's a big shocker.

Speaker B: 00:16:45

Anyone who gets into it, you know, I didn't play in 10 bands.

Speaker B: 00:16:48

I think for Mike and Dustin, they played in a bunch of bands.

Speaker B: 00:16:50

And maybe the reason I didn't know, like, I thought it was just you just went to places and played music.

Speaker B: 00:16:55

And then I found out this whole other side.

Speaker B: 00:16:58

No, you got a book, and you got to call and talk to these 12 people and get this guy to answer his phone.

Speaker B: 00:17:03

So that old division of labor has really been shocking to me.

Speaker B: 00:17:06

You know, I don't want to lie at some times is very irritating to me.

Speaker B: 00:17:10

It's part of the beast.

Speaker B: 00:17:11

It's really a battle to me.

Speaker B: 00:17:14

It's like a bad poker game.

Speaker B: 00:17:15

Everyone's kind of half lying and half telling the truth.

Speaker B: 00:17:19

You know, they got some chips on the table and you can't see car.

Speaker B: 00:17:21

I mean, venues will tell you it's a funky poker game.

Speaker B: 00:17:24

I think we finally got kind of a rhythm where, you know, we're gonna be a little more selective with shows.

Speaker B: 00:17:29

Early on, we were just trying to play a ton.

Speaker B: 00:17:31

We played some pairings that would turn your head around.

Speaker B: 00:17:34

Like one time, I remember early on, we played a gig.

Speaker B: 00:17:36

We showed up, and we already knew the bill was like, some really hardcore stuff.

Speaker B: 00:17:41

You know, we don't need to be paired up that way.

Speaker B: 00:17:43

But I mean, it was like from Death metal band with this and that, and they were like, okay, you guys will go on third out of four bands.

Speaker B: 00:17:49

Like, fine.

Speaker B: 00:17:50

That's fine by us.

Speaker B: 00:17:51

And they're like, oh, the death metal band didn't show up.

Speaker B: 00:17:53

You're going on second.

Speaker B: 00:17:54

And then they were like, oh, the other band didn't show up.

Speaker B: 00:17:56

How long can you play?

Speaker B: 00:17:58

The booking thing is always interesting.

Speaker B: 00:18:00

Now that we've played a lot around here.

Speaker B: 00:18:01

We've.

Speaker B: 00:18:02

We got a good group of people we know and guys that we trust to play with.

Speaker B: 00:18:06

We did our record release.

Speaker B: 00:18:07

We did it here in Tacoma at a place called Jazzloans.

Speaker B: 00:18:10

It's a pretty big venue, and we kind of selected.

Speaker B: 00:18:12

We played with a band called China Davis and.

Speaker B: 00:18:14

And then James Coates played with us as well.

Speaker B: 00:18:16

It was just a good mix for us, you know, I think it was easy on the crowd, too.

Speaker A: 00:18:21

I'm finding that a lot of bands are really moving towards that kind of fight, having a circle of maybe six bands that they rotate with to do co bills, usually three bands on the bill.

Speaker B: 00:18:31

I know I've seen a few shows where, like, some bigger guys, kind of big regional guys, where they used to sell some tickets for the house but haven't got that big around here.

Speaker B: 00:18:39

The hurdle for, like, Seattle, Tacoma is it's got pretty good regulations.

Speaker B: 00:18:43

I mean, for a long time, you Couldn't drink on stage.

Speaker B: 00:18:46

And it's not like we're trying to have a drinking battle on stage.

Speaker B: 00:18:49

But, you know, a beer or two is not going to kill anyone.

Speaker B: 00:18:51

And there are those kind of regulations and restrictions around here.

Speaker B: 00:18:54

They've lightened up a little bit.

Speaker A: 00:18:56

And it's funny because it's such a free for all in most places.

Speaker A: 00:18:59

You know, the likelihood of even getting paid in a lot of towns is slim.

Speaker B: 00:19:03

Oh, yeah.

Speaker A: 00:19:04

Being in the Pacific Northwest, what sort of support is there for the music community?

Speaker B: 00:19:09

Obviously it's good.

Speaker B: 00:19:09

I mean, this is a music place.

Speaker B: 00:19:11

And even when I was kind of relocating in my life, I was like, you know, I know there's music there.

Speaker B: 00:19:15

It's always interesting to me.

Speaker B: 00:19:17

The different.

Speaker B: 00:19:18

We're kind of all lived down by Tacoma.

Speaker B: 00:19:20

There's a great metal scene and some other stuff like that.

Speaker B: 00:19:23

But there's a lot of good venues here that have popped up.

Speaker B: 00:19:25

And recently there's been kind of a lot of bands out of this Tacoma area.

Speaker B: 00:19:29

There's a little radio station that started off as a podcast called the Northwest Convergence Zone that's kind of grown with the band for the last couple years.

Speaker B: 00:19:37

Cool.

Speaker B: 00:19:38

And that's been a cool thing.

Speaker B: 00:19:39

But, you know, in Seattle is a great live music place and it has all its different areas from, you know, you get up in Ballard and there's.

Speaker B: 00:19:46

It can get pretty Americana and then you get up on Capitol Hill and there's, you know, more.

Speaker B: 00:19:50

A little more experimental.

Speaker B: 00:19:51

But it's a great music community.

Speaker B: 00:19:53

It is.

Speaker B: 00:19:54

Brace from Midnight Savage Company.

Speaker B: 00:19:55

You can pick up our album on iTunes and CD, Baby.

Speaker B: 00:19:59

And the album is what yout Hope For.

Speaker B: 00:20:01

You know, early on when we were playing, I do think we found some frustration.

Speaker B: 00:20:05

It was real popular in Seattle to have kind of like a countryish band with like either pedal steel.

Speaker B: 00:20:12

And we're not that band.

Speaker B: 00:20:13

Yeah, we're Americana sounding, but we were a little more loud and rocking than that.

Speaker B: 00:20:18

I know early on it was like they'd pair us with those guys and they'd be playing something kind of sweet and kind of off country.

Speaker B: 00:20:24

And then we'd come in and just start making a lot of noise.

Speaker B: 00:20:26

I think those bands have kind of went a little different ways and diversified a little more, at least in kind of our genre.

Speaker A: 00:20:34

What would you like to see happen in the short term before you get into to this next recording?

Speaker B: 00:20:39

I want to get out on the road a little bit.

Speaker B: 00:20:40

I'd love to go back over.

Speaker B: 00:20:41

We played Missoula, Montana, and I'd love to go back that way.

Speaker B: 00:20:45

I'd like to play a few more shows that aren't in Tacoma, Seattle area.

Speaker B: 00:20:50

Initially, I'd like to do that, you know, and then I'm kind of excited for the.

Speaker B: 00:20:54

The next album, but the first one took so long.

Speaker B: 00:20:57

I'm ready for the next one.

Speaker A: 00:20:59

Do you have a plan for working that next record that might be different than what you did for this first one?

Speaker B: 00:21:05

I think we'll stick to a similar plan, but I think it'll be even more refined and more ready to go.

Speaker B: 00:21:11

I think we kind of went into Conrad's place not knowing exactly how we record it, and we just kind of kept coming out of there, kind of wiping our brow going, hey, that worked out.

Speaker B: 00:21:19

So I think we know we're headed into a little better.

Speaker B: 00:21:22

I think we'll be better planned.

Speaker B: 00:21:24

I also think we are going to end up here when we get close to recording.

Speaker B: 00:21:28

I think we'll end up being a little more detail oriented.

Speaker B: 00:21:31

There's a song on the album called Nobody Told you'd that we really like.

Speaker B: 00:21:35

And when we recorded it, Conrad was really cool and it seemed like he enjoyed it.

Speaker B: 00:21:40

We're all kind of like, maybe we rushed it just a hair.

Speaker B: 00:21:43

You know, we love A Second Chance.

Speaker B: 00:21:45

We like how it is.

Speaker B: 00:21:46

You know, we love the record.

Speaker B: 00:21:47

But I don't think we'll do that with the next batch of songs where hopefully I think that feeling will not be there.

Speaker B: 00:21:53

I would love to say everything I've ever wrote down I liked, but a lot of times with me, some of the stuff I just absolutely write down I actually dislike will be something I come back to and the thing I liked early on becomes the thing I don't even want to hear.

Speaker B: 00:22:06

So I think it's inevitable we have some songs that we put on the EP that we're all kind of looking at going, well, maybe, maybe we should dust that off.

Speaker B: 00:22:15

Maybe there's something really good there that we just need to pay a little more attention to.

Speaker A: 00:22:20

Are there any sounds you would want to bring in that you have not used yet?

Speaker B: 00:22:24

Aubrey Shield, who's our piano player, his whole family.

Speaker B: 00:22:27

There's five brothers and one sister.

Speaker B: 00:22:31

They all play instruments from the trombone to the flute.

Speaker B: 00:22:35

Two of his brothers play the saxophone.

Speaker B: 00:22:37

And I've always kind of been a fan of the saxophone.

Speaker B: 00:22:40

I think it's back to the Bruce Springs Saint Clairs Clemens days.

Speaker B: 00:22:44

I would love to see that.

Speaker B: 00:22:45

We also would love to get Courtney to play another song.

Speaker B: 00:22:48

Figure out where that fits in.

Speaker B: 00:22:50

Those are the kind of the Two big ones, I would say.

Speaker B: 00:22:52

That's what I'm hoping for.

Speaker B: 00:22:55

We want a fuller sound.

Speaker B: 00:22:56

You know, it sounds ironic to say with less playing, I think we'll be where we end up.

Speaker B: 00:23:01

You know, I watched the Bruce Springsteen documentary on the river where he says they kept turning everything up, turning it flat, and they just realized everyone needs to just, you know, not be playing to get the sound he wanted.

Speaker B: 00:23:12

I don't think it'll sound anything like a Bruce Springsteen record, now I say it.

Speaker B: 00:23:16

But, you know, that's the idea.

Speaker A: 00:23:18

Well, that's kind of an exciting time to be looking towards that and really having a better concept of how you want to make it work this time around.

Speaker B: 00:23:25

Yeah, I think we're all excited to get the new stuff out.

Speaker B: 00:23:28

We love the.

Speaker B: 00:23:29

And I dare call it old stuff because literally released it, you know, a couple months ago.

Speaker A: 00:23:34

Right.

Speaker B: 00:23:34

Our band is pretty musically driven.

Speaker B: 00:23:37

You know, we love playing out live.

Speaker B: 00:23:39

But I would say if you put what's more important in front of the band, you know, the music is always going to be it for us.

Speaker B: 00:23:44

The next creation of music is the more important thing, even though it's probably, you know, playing live and having a great time is a close second.

Speaker A: 00:23:51

I really appreciate your time.

Speaker A: 00:23:53

Thanks so much.

Speaker B: 00:23:54

Thanks so much.

Speaker A: 00:23:54

Take it easy.

Speaker B: 00:23:55

Have a great day.

Speaker A: 00:23:56

Bye.

Speaker B: 00:23:56

Bye.

Speaker B: 00:23:56

Bye.

Speaker A: 00:23:57

Country Fried Rock.

Speaker A: 00:23:58

Find the full playlist from this episode on countryfridrock.org check us out on itunes.

Speaker A: 00:24:04

No music, just talk.

Speaker A: 00:24:05

Our theme music is from the Full Tones.

Speaker A: 00:24:08

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

Speaker A: 00:24:12

Country fried rock.

Speaker A: 00:24:14

Copyright: 2012

Speaker A: 00:24:17

All rights reserved.