{"id":3354,"date":"2011-08-10T01:41:21","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T08:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3354"},"modified":"2011-08-10T01:41:21","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T08:41:21","slug":"warren-haynes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/warren-haynes\/","title":{"rendered":"WARREN HAYNES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

WARREN HAYNES<\/h1>\n

Gov\u2019t Mule\u2019s fearless leader adapts and survives <\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Chris Neal<\/strong><\/p>\n

If playing in a rock \u2019n\u2019 roll band is a full-time job, Warren Haynes is successfully holding down three full-time jobs at once. He has fronted his own band, Gov\u2019t Mule, for the last 16 years; he continues to bring his virtuoso lead guitar work to the Allman Brothers Band; and since 2004 he has performed alongside several former members of the Grateful Dead in a reconstituted lineup known as the Dead. This is a man who loves his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn each band I\u2019m being allowed to utilize a different side of my musical personality, so it allows me an opportunity to express myself differently,\u201d says Haynes. \u201cThe key is to adapt to your surroundings. For me, it\u2019s a welcome challenge because it allows me to be creative in a lot of different ways, and each one brings fresh energy to\u00a0the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lately Haynes has been focused on his role as the singer and guitarist in Gov\u2019t Mule, which recently released its sixth studio album, By a Thread<\/em>. It\u2019s the Mule\u2019s first album featuring new bass player Jorgen Carlsson\u2014now occupying the spot once held down by founding member Allen Woody, who died in 2000. \u201cWe\u2019ve played with a lot of amazing bass players who all did a wonderful job,\u201d Haynes says. \u201cBut Jorgen has brought back the initial spirit of Gov\u2019t Mule and reminded us why we started this band in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

As always, Haynes has a busy work schedule ahead of him. He plans to release a solo album later this year that he says \u201csounds like soul music of the early \u201970s combined with B.B. King and\u00a0Albert King blues of that same era. It\u2019s something that I\u2019ve wanted to do and waited to do for a long, long time. I\u2019m really proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that he aims to make what he calls \u201ca singer-songwriter record.\u201d And he\u2019ll rejoin the Allman Brothers Band for a handful of dates\u00a0the group has planned for this year. We caught up with Haynes\u00a0during a rare day off from the road at his New York home\u00a0to discuss the state of the Mule\u2014as well as his many other\u00a0musical adventures.<\/p>\n

What does each member of the group bring to Gov\u2019t Mule\u2019s chemistry? <\/strong><\/p>\n

[Drummer] Matt Abts is an amazing improviser. He\u2019s listening to everything that everyone is playing and responding to it in a very uncanny way. Even though he\u2019s a rock drummer in a rock band, he\u2019s listening and responding like a jazz drummer. What he plays on a particular song could change from night to night based on what he\u2019s feeling and what he\u2019s hearing someone else play. [Keyboardist] Danny Louis plays, again, very much in a jazz musician sort of way\u2014Danny was originally a jazz trumpet player who taught himself to play many other instruments, one of which is keyboards. My relationships with Matt and Danny are both indicative of the fact that we\u2019re taking a very jazz-like approach to rock music. Danny also plays guitar, which is nice. Since the band started out as a trio, it\u2019s good to not always lean on the one-guitar, keyboards, bass, drums format. Jorgen, who is the newest member of the band, is the missing piece to the puzzle. When we started playing with Jorgen, it felt like Gov\u2019t Mule more than it has since Allen passed away, due to the aggressive nature that Jorgen instinctually brings to the music. When it\u2019s time to write, his instincts are very similar to Allen\u2019s in a way that kind of spooked all of us. He\u2019s become part of the band more organically and quickly than we expected.<\/p>\n

Had you previously avoided someone who played in a style that similar <\/strong>to Allen\u2019s?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t say we avoided it. We knew that it would be futile to try and rediscover the same kind of chemistry that we had with Allen. Any band that\u2019s ever been through a situation where they lost a band member can empathize with the fact that that chemistry dies with that person, so the most you can hope for is to discover a new chemistry. Had we heard Jorgen shortly after Allen\u2019s passing, I\u2019m not sure we would have been ready for that. But this far down the line it\u2019s a very welcome change.<\/p>\n

When the four of you write a <\/strong>song together, how does that <\/strong>usually work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The three songs [on By a Thread<\/em>] that we wrote together in the studio, which were \u201cBroke Down on the Brazos,\u201d \u201cAny Open Window\u201d and \u201cSteppin\u2019 Lightly,\u201d were all born out of jam sessions. Then we would\u00a0start putting the music together in some\u00a0sort of cohesive arrangement. We\u2019d take a break and I\u2019d disappear and write some lyrics, come back and, in the case of those three songs, start recording.<\/p>\n

Tell me about some of the guitars you played on the record. <\/strong><\/p>\n

I played my signature Les Paul, my \u201961 [Gibson ES] 335, my custom shop 335, my 12-string Les Paul and a [Gibson] Non Reverse Firebird with three P-90 [pickups]. I think I actually used another Non Reverse Firebird on one song, and my original \u201964 Firebird on another.<\/p>\n

You have a close working relationship with Gibson. How did that develop?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been playing Gibson guitars all my life, and somewhere around 1989 I started working more closely with them, and each year I\u2019ve become more involved with them. They\u2019re constantly building different stuff for me to try. It\u2019s a perfect situation for me, because we can collaborate and communicate on what it takes to get a sound that\u2019s only in my head.<\/p>\n

How about the rest of your studio setup? Do you bring a lot of stuff in? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, we bring a ton of gear\u2014like a semi truck full of gear. We bring a lot of different amps and cabinets. I have a Bradshaw Switching System that all my gear runs through, which makes it really easy to say, \u201cHey, let\u2019s try this amp on that song,\u201d or \u201cWhat if we mixed these two amps together?\u201d Most of the sounds on this record and on the previous record were a combination of three different amplifiers. Usually two big amps through 412 cabinets, then a small amp, like a Fender Pro Junior or a Gibson Skylark\u2014something that helps fill out the middle in a way that only small amps tend to be able to do. That\u2019s not to say that any of the three amps on their own wouldn\u2019t sound great, but the end result of blending the three always seems to be more satisfying. The ultimate goal is to not EQ if at all possible. Move the microphones, turn the knobs on the amps, change the microphones, whatever the case may be. To try to get a non-EQ\u2019d guitar sound is a really important thing for us. One of the things we\u2019ve been doing recently is to put two different mics on the same speaker\u2014one\u00a0mic will be brighter and one mic will be\u00a0darker, so if you want the sound to be\u00a0brighter you turn the bright mic up and if you want it to be darker you turn the dark mic up.<\/p>\n

Are you also thinking ahead to how you\u2019re going to translate the studio sound to the stage? <\/strong><\/p>\n

No. I don\u2019t think about that \u2019til much later. It may cross my mind for an instant, but for the most part I\u2019m trapped in the\u00a0studio headspace.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your onstage rig like now? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I have the same Bradshaw Switching System. I usually am running two amps, but not at the same time. It\u2019ll be a combination of either a Cesar Diaz or my modified Soldano or a Marshall or my new Paul Reed Smith amp that I\u2019m playing a lot these days, or a Fuchs amp. In some cases maybe even a Fender Super Reverb or something like that. But normally two amps that I switch back and forth to give me two completely different sounds, and then between the guitars and effects and whatever knobs I\u2019m turning there\u2019s a lot of sound variation.<\/p>\n

Do you change up your sound much when you\u2019re playing with the Allmans or the Dead?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I tour with the Dead I\u2019m playing different guitars and amps, utilizing more effects. In the Allman Brothers, it\u2019s Les Pauls and 335s straight into the amp with no effects. In Mule there are more guitar changes, more different tunings. So everything changes from setup to setup, from the speaker cabinets to the amps to the guitars to the effects.<\/p>\n

As a player, how would you ideally like to continue to evolve? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to get involved with situations that challenge me in different ways. All the different musical situations I\u2019m in influence me and inspire me from all directions. I\u2019m surrounded by great musicians, so every day can be a learning experience. You\u00a0never know from where inspiration\u00a0will come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WARREN HAYNES Gov\u2019t Mule\u2019s fearless leader adapts and survives By Chris Neal If playing in a rock \u2019n\u2019 roll band is a full-time job, Warren Haynes is successfully holding down three full-time jobs at once. He has fronted his own band, Gov\u2019t Mule, for the last 16 years; he continues to bring his virtuoso lead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[49,2314,970,2377],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3357,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354\/revisions\/3357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}