by Joe Fielder
Like we mentioned earlier this week, breezy indie pop act The Western States Motel -- who Buzzbands call "like a more taciturn but no less bittersweet Grandaddy" -- will be headlining our free Tuesday night new music showcase at LaBrie's in February.
They've got some stellar line-ups planned and will be playing music from their new album.
We spoke with lead Carl Jordan earlier this week about the album and much more.
Hey, Carl. How you been? What have you guys been up to?
Hey, Joe. Things have been going really well... What have we been up to? Well, we had a nice little living room practice last night, trying to get our act together for next Tuesday!
We usually rent an hourly room at a rehearsal studio, and that tends to mean its business time when you are in there, cause the clock is ticking. If you take a long time getting your gear set up or are running late, that just means less time you get to rehearse. It was a nice change to be at our guitar player John's place, because suddenly you're not watching the clock. We'd get through a few songs, then shoot the breeze for a bit, or watch some of his Best of The Detroit Red Wings Fights compilation DVD. Pretty good cover art for a bootleg.
So, this new album. How did it come together? When does it come out?
It's called Freeway Freeway Riverbed, and I'll be wrapping it up for good over the weekend. It's been in the works for a couple of years, but mostly its taken that long because the first 8 or 9 songs I wrote for it were scrapped pretty far into the process of getting them recorded. I just kept writing and writing and seemed to be happier with the later material. I think its becuase the early songs were a bit dark, and the more I thought about it, I realized that I wanted to do a record that felt more optimistic, more positive. I guess the end result is somewhere in the middle.
I believe in the past, you've worked out a lot of your songs on your own (in your basement) and then found people to play the parts. Is that correct? Did you do that for this latest release?
It's sort of correct. I don't have a basement. Does anyone in LA have a basement? The first album was done in what was a spare bedroom of a house I no longer live in. I walk/drive by it a lot, and sometimes wonder who lives in that room now. Other than the drums tracks, the Painted Birds EP was recorded where I'm currently living, also in a bedroom. But for the new album, I've relocated to the garage, which has been great. It's a finished garage with carpet and some pretty sweet wood paneling. And it has a big sliding glass door that leads to the back yard. So it's very un-basementy. Lots of natural light, and I work with the slider open a lot. Much of this album has been done very early in the morning. I'll set my alarm and get up while its still dark, head out to the garage, and start working as the room begins to fill up with light. It's a great way to start the day... both seeing the sun rise and also working on music.
So yeah the songwriting and recording is basically a solitary process, but I like it. It also makes gearing up for playing live a lot of fun though, because it's a complete change. Suddenly there's five of us. And the songs take a bit of a different shape than the recorded versions. The chemistry within the live band tends to be really good. Paul, our former and perhaps future keyboard player used to call it The Western States Bro-tel. Paul didn't crack a lot of jokes, but they were usually pretty solid when he did.
How are the new songs different from your earlier material?
Well, if you are familiar with the western states motel, you could say there are some staple sounds. Acoustic guitar would be one. However it is that I sing would be another. But starting with the EP and now with the new album, I've tried to think of ways to create a specific palette for whatever project I'm working on. To help give that particular project its own sound. For Painted Birds Flying in the Orange Mirror Sun, I wanted to use primarily real drums, and I used mellotron strings on each of the five songs. That kind of gave it a certain sound.
On the new album, there is no drum set. It's all beats. There's no bass guitar either. And there's a twang to this album that was definitely not present on the last release. There are probably some notable changes in the approach to the lyrics, but sometimes it can get to be a bit much, listening to some dude talk about the lyrics to his songs. Although I did see one of those "Classic Albums" documentaries about Paul Simon's Graceland, and that was pretty awesome. He had a lot of interesting things to say about the words. And apparently the second half of that crazy slap-bass solo in "You Can Call Me Al" is just the first half played in reverse.
What's you favorite song on it?
Oh wait, I just said I wasn't gonna do this... "Ghost Town" is a fun one to play live. It's sort of about a guy who freaks out when his lady goes out of town. It's late at night, the wind is blowing; he's not used to being alone anymore, and starts hearing things. Eventually, he's seeing candlesticks floating down the hall, and imagines there to be tombstones out in his front yard. One could also say that it's more of an existential freakout. The song has a happy ending though.
What's next for the band? Do you have touring plans?
I haven't looked too far into the future on this one...the record should be out by the end of the month, and until then, it's all about doing the Labrie's residency. We did a little six date west coast tour in December, and that was a lot of fun. It just feels really good to be finishing up this album. It has a good range to it. Some laid back tunes like Country & Western Song, some really uptempo, pop business in songs like All the Stars and Mid-Century Modern Chair. There's a couple of slowjams. It would be great to be able to get out there and tour behind it.
We'll seeeeee...
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