{"id":7453,"date":"2012-09-24T01:15:36","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T08:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=7453"},"modified":"2012-09-24T01:16:53","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T08:16:53","slug":"the-avett-brothers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/09\/the-avett-brothers\/","title":{"rendered":"THE AVETT BROTHERS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Bob Crawford, Scott Avett, Seth Avett<\/p><\/div>\n

THE AVETT BROTHERS<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Creative challenges keep these Americana darlings moving forward \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

One would think a band with as many influences as the Avett Brothers would have an extensive list of dream collaborations or future goals. But the North Carolina-based trio prefers to live in the moment, an attitude that\u2019s helped them deal with the fame that comes after scoring multiple Americana Music Awards and performing with Bob Dylan at the 2011 Grammys. That philosophy took on deeper significance when bassist Bob Crawford\u2019s 2-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor while the group was tracking their 11th studio album,\u00a0The Carpenter<\/em>. \u201cThat situation literally affected everything,\u201d guitarist Seth Avett explains. \u201cIt was a game-changer all around\u2014especially for Bob, but for the whole band.\u201d\u00a0For The Carpenter<\/em>, the group continued their partnership with Rick Rubin, the producer who helped create the polished roots-pop of their 2009 breakout album,\u00a0I and Love and You<\/em>. It was different from the ragged acoustic string-band music of their early years, but no less earnest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI and Love and You<\/em> was our first step into the second era of our lives, and The Carpenter<\/em> finds us much more comfortable there,\u201d says Seth, 31. Brother Scott, 36, agrees, noting that the group\u2019s 2008 signing with American Recordings helped usher in the band\u2019s latest chapter. \u201cMajor label support can help or hinder,\u201d he says. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s been a very positive change. With it comes bigger everything. It\u2019s neither better nor worse, but it is forward, and we feel like moving forward is the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did you select the songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SETH: Sequencing and variety are very important to us. A record needs to flow and make sense from top to bottom. We tried to get all the songs strong enough on their own so they could be on the record, and then find out what order works so the record doesn\u2019t feel choppy, too quiet or loud, too heavy or sentimental. It\u2019s not a question of these being the 12 best songs, it\u2019s more that these 12 are<\/em> an album.<\/p>\n

Will you save any songs you cut?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SETH: I hope. I believe in all of those songs as much as the ones that made it on the album. That could be my twisted perspective from working so hard on them, but I am proud of them. I\u2019d like for them to see the light of day sooner rather than later. I don\u2019t want to wait for the 10-year anniversary: \u201cHere\u2019s a bunch of extras. Re-buy the album.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What\u2019s your writing process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SETH: It\u2019s always different. We try to stay away from any kind of formula. Scott and I write very differently. For him, it has to be one lightning strike of inspiration. I\u2019m more studious. I\u2019ll sit for a couple of hours with hot tea or a beer, open my computer, sketchbooks or journals\u2014and just write ideas with my guitar, see what happens. Scott tends to write words first and then finds the chords behind them, whereas I\u2019m more on the kick of melody and possibly a first line, and then try to find the theme after the melody presents itself.<\/p>\n

SCOTT: \u201cA Father\u2019s First Spring\u201d was written in an instant, and so was \u201cThrough My Prayers.\u201d It\u2019s funny how those extremely intimate, heavy songs can be written quickly like that.<\/p>\n

SETH: Over the past couple of years, we have also increasingly written apart more than together. But there are a few songs on this record that are meet-in-the-middle, absolute collaborations.<\/p>\n

SCOTT: More of the songs were written apart because we don\u2019t see each other as much when we\u2019re home, where a lot of writing takes place. Ownership of the songs disappears as soon as we start working on it. They become our creation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What\u2019s it like to work with Rick?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SETH: We felt very comfortable with him. There\u2019s a great mutual respect. He doesn\u2019t say, \u201cIt should be like this\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m the producer, it should go like this.\u201d That would never come out of Rick\u2019s mouth. He\u2019s more likely to say, \u201cI\u2019ve got an idea and it might be terrible, but let\u2019s try it.\u201d He\u2019s very diplomatic, and his interest is always the art. When we recorded I and Love and You<\/em>, Rick was in the studio with us all day, every day, to help us deconstruct and reconstruct things. We recorded The Carpenter <\/em>in a local studio in the mountains of North Carolina. Rick wasn\u2019t physically there, but he felt completely comfortable with us doing our thing. Whenever we were in California, we\u2019d go to his house, listen to the tracks and talk about them. Plus, there were\u00a0emails and phone calls.<\/p>\n

What was the recording process like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SCOTT: We recorded over an entire year\u2014January 2011 to January 2012\u2014because of our tour schedule. We would go in and work, then go back on tour, where we\u2019d listen to what we recorded, and eventually come back and adjust. A lot more listening happened with this album.<\/p>\n

SETH: I think we did two or three 10-day sessions. One of the more simple songs to record was \u201cThrough My Prayers.\u201d Scott and I were sitting facing each other in the main tracking room. I don\u2019t remember how many takes we did, but it wasn\u2019t superfluous. We did a few, and then left it. We try to do as much as we can live. There\u2019s sort of a bell curve where it gets better and better and better for 10 takes, and on the 11th it\u2019s a little worse. And it keeps getting worse. We try to be aware of that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How has the band evolved?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SCOTT: We\u2019ve gone from a group of pieces into a single whole, and we\u2019ve gotten better at knowing what we are, what we are capable of and what we\u2019re not capable of\u2014knowing what to delegate.<\/p>\n

SETH: Our sound is more refined. Between each record, you\u2019re looking at a couple hundred shows, so you\u2019re bound to make revisions. And being sharp or flat or not knowing how to breathe correctly onstage\u2014technically speaking, you\u2019re going to get closer to what you\u2019ve always heard in your mind. I\u2019m proud of the records we\u2019ve made. I love Mignonette<\/em>, but when I listen to it I hear things that I wish I\u2019d done differently. But that\u2019s who I was at that time. I couldn\u2019t be who I am now then. So I can appreciate it for what it was, and it\u2019s charming.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Does a larger following add pressure?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SETH: We made those first recordings not knowing if 50 people would hear them. Now it\u2019s relatively safe to say that a couple hundred thousand will hear The Carpenter<\/em>. You try to ignore that but you can\u2019t completely. We try to make that a strength. You could say \u201cOh, God, there\u2019s going to be a lot of people listening so it needs to be completely perfect,\u201d but we try to say \u201cLet\u2019s just make sure we\u2019re proud of it.\u201d It doesn\u2019t have to be pristine, but it does need to be us, and it needs to feel like we\u2019re presenting what we want in the way we want.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is, can we stand behind these songs for years to come? Are we OK with playing \u201cThe Once and Future Carpenter\u201d thousands of times in the future? We\u2019re maturing as people, and that\u2019s going to change some of the message. When I was 20, I had different things on my mind than I do at 31. I think that\u2019s part of the\u00a0natural progression of an artist.<\/p>\n

\u2013Juli Thanki<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE AVETT BROTHERS Creative challenges keep these Americana darlings moving forward \u00a0 One would think a band with as many influences as the Avett Brothers would have an extensive list of dream collaborations or future goals. But the North Carolina-based trio prefers to live in the moment, an attitude that\u2019s helped them deal with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[4915,4919,4914,4916,3592,4918,4538,4920,970,4559,4917],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7453"}],"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=7453"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7456,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7453\/revisions\/7456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}