It all started when a much younger Jackie dove into her parents’ record collection, grabbed that trippy Magical Mystery Tour album, and played “Strawberry Fields” over and over again until it was engrained into her soul. She grew up on the dreams and stories of Simon and Garfunkel, “Bleeker Street” being one of her favorites, the seduction of The Doors, Van Morrison, because “Brown Eyed Girl” is definitely her song, and the likes of Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Jimi Hendrix…you get the picture. It may not show on the outside, but Jackie has a hippie heart, and that reflects in her musical tastes today. While some of her favorites may or may not be jam bands, her taste in music feeds into many genres. From alternative, Brit, and indie rock - OK, maybe all rock - to pop, to rap, to electronic, she loves it all. As a northerner, she thought she would never understand country until she found herself on a Georgia farm in cowboy boots watching Luke Bryan shake it for her- yeah, she got that. She is a chronic wanderluster, she doesn't believe in guilty pleasures, enjoys a great Moscow Mule, and is an absolute music festival fanatic- you’ll find her wherever the music takes her.
Down the winding Georgia backroads just 20 minutes outside of Athens stands Cloverleaf Farm. Upon arrival, manicured lawns and gardens that pop with vibrant colors radiating from heirloom flowers welcome you. Walking down the gravel driveway, our cowboy boots kicking up grey dust with every step, the late summer sun extends through the trees and shines down on the pristine white antebellum home. A focal point of the property, the structure stands out among the lush greenery of the farm with its impressive façade and slender, finely crafted cloverleaf columns.
Behind the house, sandwiched between an open courtyard and the beckoning meadows, attendees of Wildwood Revival gather in and around a ventilated barn structure. Twinkling white globe lights shine above as The Lone Bellow command the stage.
Welcome to Wildwood Revival.
Once in awhile, a festival will completely capture your heart and make you fall in love with it; with every aspect of it. At Wildwood Revival, the attendees felt like family, the bands felt like friends, the food tasted like comfort, the drinks tasted like fun, and Cloverleaf Farm felt like home. Needless to say, we fell in love, hard.
Every detail, straight down to the hand painted signs, the hanging candlelit mason jars, the communal farm tables with flower centerpieces, the hay bails that provided seating…was handled with extreme care. The genuine Americana, southern country ambiance was organic and the energy was infectious.
The three-day event kicked off on Friday and concluded on Sunday with a closing set from Houndmouth. The rest of the lineup for the entire weekend was impressive and boasted the likes of Gillian Welch, Hackensaw Boys, Legendary Shack Shakers, and many more. All artists played on the festival’s single stage, allowing for easy decision making when it came to the music. No competing sets is something we can get behind.
The vendors and sponsors fit in with the esthetic of the event. Local and seasonal foods were served up from Athen’s own infamous Mama’s Boy and everyone’s favorite Hip Pops was on site dishing out refreshing ice pops on those hot festival days. Additionally, Cathead Vodka, Union Wine Co., and Athen’s Terrapin Beer Co., were all pouring quality crafted libations.
Small but mighty, young (only in it’s third year) but old souled, Wildwood Revival reminds you of all the reasons why music festivals were started in the first place. And as long as this quintessential event keeps taking place in our backyard year after year, we will gladly return to stomp our boots and kick up some Georgia dust all while drinking out of mason jar cups.
Enjoy some additional moments we captured from Wildwood Revival below!
Just outside of Athens, GA, on a historic 30-acre farm there is an intimate, thoughtfully curated boutique festival being held this weekend. Tailored towards a truly unique music and cultural experience for all, Wildwood Revival‘s three-day event combines the soul of a juke joint, the wild spirit of a honky tonk, and the camaraderie of a supper club. It’s a little bit country, a little bit rock n’ roll, and everything in between.
“One of our goals with WildwoodRevival is to ‘revive community’ as well as support the style of music and makers who are bringing back the sounds and craftsmanship of older times,” says Festival co-founder Libby Rose.” We wanted to take the feeling you get from visiting places like small town juke joints, honky tonks, farmers markets, swap meets, front porch parties and supper clubs and bring those elements to the farm in the form of a festival.”
The lineup boasts the likes of Gillian Welch, The Lone Below, Houndmouth, Hackensaw Boys, Legendary Shack Shakers, and many more. In addition to the music, Wildwood Revival features a plethora of activities. From nights that are filled with dance parties, sing-a-longs under the stars, and bonfires, to morning yoga classes, wiffle ball games and farm-to-table brunches, this festival is truly unlike any other.
If you find yourself close to Athens this weekend, make sure Wildwood Revival is on your radar and you make your way to one of the most unique festivals in the Southeast.
This weekend, Montage Mountain in Scranton, PA, is playing host to the 5th Anniversary Celebration of The Peach Music Festival. With the likes of Trey Anastasio Band, The String Cheese Incident, Gov’t Mule, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, Umphrey’s McGee, and moe. hitting the stage all weekend long, it’s sure to be a rockin’ and memorable weekend. Take a look at some of our photos from Friday including highlights from the highly anticipated The Allman Brothers Family Incident with The String Cheese Incident and ABB members Butch, Jaimoe, Oteil & Marc, along with Bruce Katz & Scott Sharrard.
There are a select few venues in the United States that will make your jaw drop to the floor upon your initial walk through the venue’s doors. Kings Theatre is one of those venues.
The historic Kings Theatre re-opened its grand doors last year after the wondrous theater shuttered 38 years prior. After an over $90 million restoration, the neglected venue was reborn into the opulent “Wonder Theatre” it was always destined to be.
Tonight, The String Cheese Incident will hit the stage at The Peach Music Festival for their own set as well as the highly anticipated Allman Brothers Family Incident featuring all members of SCI along with Butch Trucks, Jaimoe, Oteil Burbridge, Marc Quinones, Bruce Katz, and Scott Sharrard. Following these Peach performances, Kings Theatre will then host The String Cheese Incident as they close out their summer tour with a two night run this Saturday and Sunday. The next time we will see The String Cheese Incident will be at their annual Hulaween fest at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park.
For those planning to attend the shows in Brooklyn, make sure you come early and kickstart your evening by hanging in the new courtyard at Kings Theatre. Beer garden, food trucks and the chance you may even see a band member or two. Can this weekend possibly get any better?
Raw. Old soul. Americana. Roots. Foot stomping. Soaring Harmonies…these are only some of the words that can be used to describe the sound being amplified by our speakers as we listened to Forlorn Strangers‘ self-titled debut album (out this Friday, August 5th).
Forlorn Strangers is comprised of sisters Abigail Dempsey (fiddle, percussion, vocals) and Hannah Leigh Lusk (mandolin, percussion, upright bass, vocals); Chris Banke (guitar, mandolin, vocals); Benjamin Lusk (banjo, guitar, vocals); and Jesse Thompson(upright bass, dobro, guitar, vocals). With these five unique songwriters, ascending family harmonies and energetic percussion, the string-forward quintet entertains a comparison to an ‘Americana Fleetwood Mac.’
We sat down with Abigail to get an inside look into the band, chat about the creative process behind the new album, and where you can catch them on tour over the next several months.
Vinyl Mag: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. Being that you all are from varying states, I would love to start off by getting into the story behind how you all came together to form the band.
Abigail Dempsey: My sister is in the band, Hannah Leigh [Lusk], and she and the guitar player Chris [Banke] and the banjo player Ben [Lusk], the three of them went to school together in South Florida. They actually started out as a writing group. They would all get together and share their poetry and stories, and then they started playing music together. They eventually moved out to Waco, TX, and lived on a farm for a little bit out there and then moved to Nashville. The three of them then met our now bass player Jesse [Thompson] here and then I moved down in September of 2013. After I moved down, that’s really when we started taking Forlorn Strangers seriously.
VM: With your sister in the band, have you learned anything new about your sister or each other?
AD: Honestly, it’s hard to even say because we’ve been with each other every single day for the past15 months. We’ve been on the road touring for those 15 months, so it’s hard to even think about previously, like, ‘Oh man, I didn’t know she was like this and now she’s like this…’ We come from a really close family so we’re all friends anyways.
VM: You mentioned that the group started out as a writing group, what does the creative process look like behind the band’s songwriting style?
AD: All of five of us write and sing, and we all play the guitar. Usually, we’ll all individually write a song…Before we started touring so much we would have practice every Sunday and Wednesday and it would be like, ‘Oh, guys! I wrote this new song’ or ‘I came up with this idea..’ or something like that. And it’s kind of funny that it just all works itself out where if everyone is diggin’ on the song and you know it goes ‘Hey Chris, play that song again and lets figure out the parts.’ And I’ll pick up a fiddle and we just kind of jam it out until we feel like it works. If people don’t really respond to a song then you’re like, ‘OK! That’s just going to be one I’m going to keep in my back pocket.’
VM: I love the fact that you all write and then you all come together and work it out like that. On this new album, each band member is taking a lead on varying songs. How was each band member chosen for their given song?
AD: It’s pretty much whoever wrote the song sings the lead on it. We haven’t really dove into a lot of cowriting which is something I think we’d really love to explore once we have some time to be more creative. Overall, if I wrote the song I would sing lead on it and usually Hannah and I will do harmonies together. The one song, ‘Down in the Trenches,’ that all of us sing a part on it; Hannah originally wrote that song and when we were in the studio our producer was like, ‘Man, it would be cool if all of your took a verse.’ Because there are five verses in the song, and we were all like, “Yeah! That sounds great.’ So that was the first time we did something where the person who wrote the song wasn’t singing lead and I love the way that it turned out.
VM: Listening to the album, I feel that the album is very raw and has an old soul to it. How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it before?
AD: I would say, it’s roots. We use the word roots a lot and meaning roots based in American music, but also personally and individually. Cohesive is a word we use a lot; it’s something that has a lot of different moving parts, but overall it has one vibe and one feel.
VM: In 2015 you guys did extensive touring and right now you are towards the end of your summer tour. Do you have any favorite venues that you have played or are you looking forward to playing for your upcoming tour to promote the new album?
AD: We love the Carolinas. Our booking agents live in Charlotte and Charleston, and both of those places have been so so good for us. We’re playing Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, GA, and then our Nashville show is at Little Harpeth Brewery. It’s going to be awesome, they are setting up a stage outside and I think it’s going to be really fun in August. We’re also going out to the West Coast for the first time, so that’s really exciting!
One of our favorite northeastern festivals is back for it’s seventh year. Catskill Chill was already boasting a jammin’ line-up that included Mike Gordon, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Greensky Bluegrass, Electron, Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass, Break Science Live Band and Duo Sets, Dopapod, Goldfish, Perpetual Groove, Deep Banana Blackout, Rob Garza DJ Set, Turkuaz, Kung Fu, and The Werks…just to name a few.
Now, there have been four more funky additions to the 2016 lineup. Joining the bill are longtime #chillfam and funk masters, Lettuce. Several members of the band including Eric Bloom, Adam Deitch, Ryan Zoidis, Nigel Hall, Adam Smirnoff and Erick Coomes will also perform together with Borahm Lee in “Bitches Bloom: A Tribute to Miles Davis.” Catskill Chill will also present the East Coast debut of Reed Mathis & Electric Beethoven who describe themselves as ‘the world’s first CDM (classical dance music) band.’ The lineup includes heavy hitting musicians Reed Mathis (Billy & the Kids, Tea Leaf Green), Jay Lane (Primus, Ratdog), Todd Stoops (RAQ), Cochrane McMillan (Tea Leaf Green) and Clay Welch. And last, but certainly not least, is the addition of the 10-piece soul/funk act Funky Dawgz Brass Band.
Additionally, continuing their tradition of offering a unique twist with returning artists, the Chill also features a number of first-time collaborations and tribute sets. Dopapod and Turkuaz will join forces for Dopakuaz Does Yacht Rock, Pink Taking Fish and Kung Fu will take on the music of Prince and David Bowie, while Particle and The Werks come together as PartiWerks. The weekend will also feature a Chillfam Allstars Michael Jackson Tribute.
If you can arrive early, for the first time, Catskill Chill will host an onsite pre-party at “New Minglewood” the night before the festival, on Thursday, September 22nd featuring two sets of Twiddle, along with Jimkata, Aqueous and TRAKSTAR.
Last month, many festival attendees returned to a place they consider home. Nestled in Rothbury, Michigan, on the Double JJ Ranch, Electric Forest raged on for four days and nights. Between the seven stages, frolicking in the magical Sherwood Forest, and The String Cheese Incident’s annual Saturday night extravaganza, Electric Forest 2016 did not disappoint.
Known for his magical keys, creative brews, and having a thing for cats, Kyle Hollingsworth, keyboardist for The String Cheese Incident, is one of our absolute favorite musicians today. With his quirky personality mixed with his many talents, Hollingsworth isn’t afraid of taking risks, especially when it comes to his music or his beer. This year at Electric Forest we sat down and had a chat about the multitude of facets that make of the world of Kyle Hollingsworth, including new Kyle SCI music, the expansion and evolution of Electric Forest, and cat flavored beer?
Vinyl Mag: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us today. I would love to start off by asking you how the whole cat craze began?
Kyle Hollingsworth: Am I allowed to talk about the ‘cat craze?’ I don’t know…I started wearing cat shirts…I’m not sure why. Actually, I do know why, I just can’t tell you why. It’s a secret. But, I starting wearing them everyday on a tour; that was my theme and this summer’s theme is ‘Nothing but Flowers;’ so I’m doing the whole Talking Heads’ ‘Nothing but flowers…’ So two years ago was ‘Nothing but Cats’ and people started thinking I liked cats; which I’m actually not that fond of them. So then all of a sudden people started bringing me cat shirts and thinking ‘Oh my God, he loves cats!’ I think the original conception was from a bad post on Facebook where I posted a meme about cats, so then I felt like I had to make up for it and I started wearing cat shirts all the time. And then people forgot about the Facebook post and said, ‘He loves cats.’
VM: And I guess the cat story is history from there! So with this whole cat theme, obviously you’re going for a floral theme this weekend and for the rest of summer tour…With your beer Hoopla, it’s hooper themed and ties back into Cheese, do you think you will or have any plans to put in production a new feline themed beer?
KH: Gosh, I love that. Cat flavored beer…
VM: Maybe not cat flavored beer…
(Laughing)
KH: I love that, let’s quote that, ‘Cat flavored beer.’ Yes I’m working on that…No. I don’t know, but I love that idea. I definitely tie it into whatever I’m doing and cats have become a thing for me. So whenever I can, I brand something in a way that’s feline related. What about ‘Feline Good IPA’ or something like that?
VM: That could definitely be a great beer! Speaking of Hoopla, what do you personally like to pair with it?
KH: I’ve made over 28 collaborative beers all over the country, and Hoopla just happened to be one of them that I have in production in addition to two others. I have one with Stone Brewery and Alice Cooper’s guitar player Keri Kelli (Stone Collectrive Distrortion IPA) and one with Cigar City (Happening Now Session IPA) and they’re all connected to my last solo release where I made three singles and then paired three beers for them, and made three beers to release with the singles. So Hoopla, I was thinking when I was making it, it’s a summer sessional type of IPA so the whole concept was that if I wanted to go see Phish, or the Grateful Dead, or Widespread Panic, or go to Bonnaroo, in the blazing sun and have a good tasting beer that’s also sessional. So that was the idea, I think it goes best with festivals. In fact, we were going to call it an FPA, “Festival Pale Ale.” So we were thinking festivals, summertime, hoola hooping, and camping.
And then food wise, watermelon, anything summery.
VM: So anything summery and I have to say that music goes best paired with Hoopla.
KH: Yes, absolutely. Music goes best paired with Hoopla.
VM: With all of those 28 plus beers, and you just did a collaboration with Odd13 for your Brew Fest coming up in Colorado, and those two other beers in production, your brewing started at home. How did the crossover from home-brew to production occur for you?
KH: It all started home. I started home brewing probably when I was eighteen. So that was like three years ago since I just turned 21 last week..Ha no…I’ve been home brewing for quite awhile, but I made the connection in the last 5-6 years to my creative process, similar to making music on stage, the risk I take, the accidental surprises that happen in improvisational music can also happen in how I brew. Sometimes the best brew you can make is the one you kind of mess up the recipe, but you don’t know how you did it. Like the best jam you make is from taking chances.
VM: I also think it boils down to allowing your creativity to expand and you have to be very inventive when it comes to both music and brewing. And you can take it wherever you want to go.
Photo by Bethany Jayne
KH: And I think it’s the same with cooking also. Even though I’m not huge on cooking. I love eating, just not cooking. I brew.
VM: I did bring up your brew that you are currently working on for your Brew Fest with Odd13, and you just have so much going on with other Brew Fests, festivals, touring, producing, writing…how do you manage your time?
KH: It has been challenging and the wife has found it challenging as well. I was having a conversation with my father-in-law last night about how being a part of modern media is having an awareness and presence in multiple circles from Facebook to all the different outlets you can do. So keeping part of what my job is now, is to be relevant in different creative spaces. Whether it’s brewing, or music, producing too, I’ve also been thinking about writing a book, so I’m trying to tell my wife and my family that this is part of my work, ‘I swear to God I have to go in the backyard and dress up in a cat shirt and make a silly video.’ And she’s like, ‘Really?’ So part of it I think is that my presence is important in my career and as part of my job, but I also have fun. I’m a goofy guy so I like doing weird and goofy stuff. So when I find the time, I make the time.
VM: We’re currently at Electric Forest and it’s been a couple of years now for the festival with Cheese playing every year. The festival has changed quite a bit over the years, do you have any favorite aspects of the festival that you have seen change/grow/get added?
KH: Two things: Obviously the forest within itself is evolving. Andy [Carroll], our good friend, has been making the forest more unique every year. I went to see it for a moment this year, and heard it’s the best ever. So I’m going to go out tonight and explore. The other aspect I think, which I like from Jeremy Stein who puts on the festival, is that the last couple of years I’ve been noticing the addition of artists that are not just DJs, more real bands occurring with real instruments. I have nothing against DJs at all, I actually think they are super great producers, but I also do miss, and I’m glad it’s coming back, is definitely live performance bands. I think that is something as we all evolve our musical taste, and we come back and play more. Even if it’s just like Big Gigantic style with drums and sax player. To me, that’s more exciting than just having a DJ.
VM: I definitely agree, and I enjoy seeing those live electronic acts get added to the lineup.
KH: So I have been noticing that, and I hope those artists continue to be added and evolve. Community wise, I went to another festival recently and the spirit of the festival was missing and I feel like Electric Forest has a spirit that people respect. I feel like the community respects the Forest and each other, and I see that growing every year.
VM: I’ve seen that grow as well in the EF community and it’s a really beautiful thing. You don’t find that at many festivals.
KH: Exactly.
VM: Going back to what you said about Stein bringing in more live bands, over the years with your performances at Electric Forest, seeing new acts, and collaborating with artists you may not perform with on a normal basis…
KH: Skrillex for example…
VM: Yes, exactly. Do you and the other members of the band ever see your music influenced or evolving from music you have seen and interacted with here?
KH: That’s a really good point I should have brought up. Absolutely. We have done a lot of collaborations here over the last few years. From Lauren Hill to Skrillex, things like that. For me it feels a little like, in music you work with the same five people, when your brewing you’re working with same five friends you brew with all the time, and when you step a little bit outside your circle and invite someone else in, it changes the formula from five to six. Now, everything has changed. And by default, having that extra person on stage is going to influence you and it’s going to change the music. And once again, just like brewing it can be better or for worse. But generally I think having someone else and bringing new energy on stage is always for the better. And then you learn, even if it’s a bad experience you learn, ‘Let’s not do that again.’
VM: I think it’s also great to surprise the audience as well. Like last year with Skrillex on the guitar. That was a collaboration that caught a good amount of people off guard, but it worked. As an audience member I thought it worked.
KH: It did and it worked great!
VM: And it was fun to see him not behind a booth and just on a guitar playing off of you guys.
KH: We are definitely working on some other stuff like that for this year, so we’ll see what happens.
VM: Well I know we can’t wait to see what SCI has in store for us this year.
Photo by Bethany Jayne
VM: We’ve talked about your beers, and Electric Forest, let’s get into the new music SCI is releasing through the Sound Lab. That first release definitely surprised a lot of people. I know I was sitting on my computer and I was like, ‘ Wait a minute, What is this?!’ Very excited.
KH: I’m really glad it came across that way. We were all like, ‘Did anybody even notice?’
VM: Yes, trust me, we noticed! It was just the surprise of the drop that I think got everyone excited.
KH: Good, good, good!
VM: So, I know you guys will be releasing new music, when will we be hearing a new Kyle tune?
KH: I wrote a new SCI tune with Bonnie from Elephant Revival called “My One and Only.” She and I co-wrote the tune that we recorded and it should be coming out in the next couple of weeks. It’s more of a mellow song, kind of goes from the Elephant Revival perspective so it’s more acoustic type Cheese and then ramps up into more of a Mumford alto singing. Then there’s a couple of other ones. I’m releasing, somehow it always happens, but I have an overflowing amount of songs, and I went into the Lab myself, so I’m going to release two of my solo songs in July with my solo project all through the Lab. All of us are taking our solo projects in as well, and the Lab is a place where we can creatively examine. So I have a couple of tunes coming out in a few weeks, but we’re trying to make sure the String Cheese songs come out first, but mine might come out a little sooner. In addition to the song with Elephant Revival, there will be new music from Kyle, it will be on the SCI website but it wont be from SCI specific.
Photo by Bethany Jayne
Vinyl Mag would like to thank Kyle Hollingsworth for taking the time to chat with us at this year’s Electric Forest!
You can catch The String Cheese Incident on tour now:
For more than three years, Silversun Pickups fans waited patiently for new music. Since the release of Better Nature, Brian Aubert, Nikki Monninger, Christopher Guanlao and Joe Lester, have been busy promoting the album, touring, and running their own label.
Following their Hangout 2016 performance, we sat down with drummer Christopher Guanlao to chat about the latest album and the future of the band.
Vinyl Mag: How are you doing post-Hangout?
Christopher Guanlao: I’m recovering a little bit, we played on Friday and I ended up staying the rest of the weekend with my girlfriend and my sister and my niece, we made it a little mini-vacation. So I’m kind of recovering from that. It’s a great festival.
VM: Have you been before?
CG: No, this was my first time. And I didn’t really know anything about it until late last year when we got booked onto it. I kind of heard something about it but once we got booked to do the festival I did a little research, and I was like wow, it’s on the beach. It’s pretty insane.
VM: Were you able to catch anyone else’s set while you were there, did you have any favorites?
CG: Yeah, I saw a lot of my friends bands that have been touring this year, it was a little bit of a reunion because a couple months ago we did this co-headlining tour with Cage the Elephant, Foals and Bear Hands, and they were all there so it was really nice to see them all. All three of them were on Saturday. We just came back from a tour with Foals. I saw Courtney Barnett again, I saw her at Coachella and was just blown away. And she’s got a great band, I love her band. I saw Leon Bridges, I was really amazed by Leon Bridges and he’s really amazing. I didn’t really know anything about it but I checked out his set and he was great.
VM: Now you said you just came off a couple weeks on tour and I know you’ve got some tour dates coming up, with Joywave and with Bear Hands and then some festival dates, are there any shows or festivals in particular you’re looking forward to playing?
CG: Yeah, definitely. I always love Lollapalooza, so we’re really excited about that and we also love Osheaga in Montreal. Speaking of great festivals, that’s a really great one. And we’ve only played it once, so this is our second time and we’re really excited about that. And we love Joywave, we’ve been with them for the last three weeks and they’ve been amazing. And Bear Hands, we go way back so we’re keeping it in the family apparently.
VM: Well you guys have a busy summer coming up, and I wanted to get into the latest album and some of the songs. I read that this album was more of capturing the band at that specific point in time, it was more of a current album, not so nostalgic. So are there any themes on the album in particular that pop out to you that were pretty much paralleling what was going on in real life with the band?
CG: Well specifically, I definitely agree with what you just said. As nostalgic as Neck of the Woods was, this is very current for us. I think we just have a lot of life things happening. Like Ryan was having a kid, having a boy, and Nikki was having twins, and it’s kind of a weird circle of life thing. Specifically for “Circadian Rhythm,” which Nikki wrote about a friend of ours that passed away. And so I think it meant a lot to us that we were able to get that song on the record and it became a single, that felt really good. And not to get too corny, but it was like all of that stuff was happening while we were recording. So that’s a really sad thing but there were also good things that were going on as well. And it kind of paralleled to our band, the progression of our band. From the beginning to where we are now, we’ve had a lot of ups and downs, we’ve walked through a lot of things. When people bring up the fact that we’ve been together for 15-16 years, it’s just mind boggling because it doesn’t feel like that. But it has been a good chunk of time. When we started the band we were best friends, and then we became a little bit like business partners and kind of lost the friendship a little bit. And then we went through all of that and we came out of it and were actually closer, and we’re more like family now than just friends. So I think it ended up coming out, subconsciously in the album. And like I said with Ryan and Nikki having families, we had a lot of those things come together in the past couple of years and I think that kind of solidified us as families more than just a band. And I think a lot of that speaks to writing to Better Nature.
VM: Listening to the album and reading the lyrics, I just think all of the songs have beautiful imagery, and one song that sticks out to me is “Pins and Needles,” and I could be totally off and totally misinterpreting this wrong, but for me I think that song is very about beginning again, and moving on after the end of something. But what was the inspiration behind that song?
CG: Well pretty much that. It’s about letting go of things and starting fresh, starting new. I don’t necessarily know the exact picking, because Ryan wrote that song. But it’s definitely that. I think Neck of the Woods was so, holding on to the past, that I think we wanted to get away from that a bit.
VM: And as a whole, what does the album mean to you?
CG: Really that, I really do kind of feel like we’re in a new chapter of our career as a band. I think that we’ve gone over to the next level, not necessarily of fame, but of personal being. And I think that’s part of the title Better Nature, let’s focus on our “better nature” and take what we’ve learned, and try to have our better nature shine out. More than the negatives or the bad things about us and try to better ourselves. And I think that’s something we became more aware of now, and because we were able to figure out and go through the difficult times that a lot of bands go through and often can’t get past it, or end up breaking up. Not being creative anymore, and we’re really fortunate that, I feel we’ve gone past that. And this record kind of feels like that. It’s not like each album that we have is a chapter, but I definitely think this record would be a different chapter if we had a big book, autobiography. Better Nature would definitely be a different chapter.
VM: This album was a debut release on the new label, New Machine Recordings, how has that entire process been for you guys, doing everything solo from your former label?
CG: It’s great. The freedom that we have to decide how we want to promote things, where we want to spend our money, all of that’s really cool. It is a little bit more stressful because now we have discussions with our record label about tour budgets and less accessible options, because we’re on the record label we don’t get tour support anymore. We were talking this week about an upcoming European tour that we might potentially do and we were talking more about management and we were kind of stressing out about it a little bit. And finally our manager sat me down and was like look, remember when you were on a record label and you didn’t really care about the numbers because you figured you would recoup it all anyway? What’s the difference between now and then? And I was like you’re right. At the end of the day the whole idea is that we will recoup It somewhere else. So it’s stuff like that. Things I didn’t necessarily think of before and now all of a sudden I kind of obsess about but at the end of the day it’s okay. And we’re lucky that we can play shows and that people come. And we can make some money that way.
VM: What does the future look like right now for New Machine?
CG: Well right now we’re touring for Better Nature, and we’re pretty much booked the rest of the year. And we’re having a great time, we’re all kind of re-energized and are really appreciating the shows that we’ve been playing. And the crowd. But after that we’re going to go back and try to do another record. We’ve got some projects that are coming up in the next couple months, but I’m not sure I can talk about it yet. But it’s good stuff, we’re venturing into new territory and we’re excited about that.
