Adam Pfleider
01/06/10, 01:14 PM
Dead Confederate has seen some success with their debut album Wrecking Ball, and are set to hit the studio this year to record its follow-up, on top of releasing a live album as well. For a band that brings it on the stage, they sat down to talk about how the recording process would be a bit different this time around and their influences.
There's definitely a difference live than on record, an experience you need to see. Does that come naturally for you guys?
Brantley Sean: I think even the stuff we did in the studio was kind of similar to our live show, just more constrictive. Maybe that didn't work for us. I'm happy with [Wrecking Ball] but that's not the epitome of what we are I guess. It was what it was. I'm glad it's out.
Jason Scarboro: Naturally you get amped up playing live - if you have a decent crowd that seems to be into what you are doing. You're going to get amped up and play a lot more intense then you would in a studio.
Sean: When you have to do a lot of takes of something...a lot of the songs on Wrecking Ball we toured on for about a year before we went in [the studio]. It makes things a lot more constrictive, you know? The next album, we're going to do things a lot differently. We're not going to know the songs until we get in. I mean, they're written. We're going to try and capture more of that live feel to it. I think that there are other things involved, like a crowd. Of course, it's going to be a lot more wild live than in a studio.
How is the recording process going to be more different than Wrecking Ball? Are you saying there will be more of a dirt feel, moving away from the computer?
Sean: No, I think embracing technology is a good thing. Pink Floyd was the first band to make a stand on that, and they were fucking awesome. We are going to try and approach each album differently, just to try and shake things up. I think that's how you stay relevant. [For] the next album, we have a ton of songs written. We're going to wait and work on the songs themselves, and as a band we'll kind of figure out the songs together right before we go into the studio, without playing them live. Then kind of really work on building them together in the studio. Whereas Wrecking Ball was [where] we toured for a year and knew the songs front and back, no changes to be made, and then [went to record them]. This time it'll be more like a building process.
Scarboro: Brantly and Hardy [Morris] write most of it and John [Watkins] and Walker [Howie] are just starting to write. We haven't played any of the songs, with the exception of one, together as a band at all. I haven't heard half the stuff they've recorded yet. It's going to be completely blank...it's going to be a lot more fun I think. It won't be as much a repetition, as an experience.
You think you'll get a lot more out of it this time?
Sean: It'll be different. Certainly the songs are going to be different from the last album. As of right now, there's not a song that's over four minutes long. Obviously Wrecking Ball had a lot of lengthy tracks on it. I think what we've been listening to a lot since recording that album, I don't want to say "pop-oriented" because that scares people off, but we're learning how to say the same thing without taking six minutes to say it and still get across the same vibe - the same feeling.
Essentially critiquing your music with the ability to cut it down quicker?
Sean: I think people just have short attention spans. It's not bad to have short attention spans. I've become one of them. It's not that I think songs have to be three minutes long, there could very well be long songs on the [next] album, it could end up that way. Writing now, I feel like I can get from one place to another without playing out for five minutes to get to the point. Now I know exactly where I'm going with it, and I get there. Any songwriter, it's a matter of aging and figuring it out. A lot of the songs, like "The Rat" is one of the first songs I wrote.
It seems like Wrecking Ball has a 90's grime to it, but produced well. Is that something you were going for or natural?
Scarboro: We just wanted to try to make it as intense as our live show. That's all we've ever done [prior to recording] was playing live together. We only recorded very minimally as opposed to playing a number of shows together. That's all we wanted to do was capture that intensity of our live show. We felt a little constricted realizing you are not in a live environment. You can't recreate that energy of a receptive crowd.
Sean: You think of the timing of Wrecking Ball, it was very out of time and out of place for a lot of people. You think of these bands now using thirty backing tracks for a band. They can't play that shit live with backing tracks and loops and samplers going. We wanted the total opposite. We can do this exactly how it is live and better. I wanted the album to be what it is in a way that it's very straightforward and not embellished. True to form. I get bored watching bands stand on stage while a sampler is playing. Why can't you figure out how to do that live? I just think it's kind of lazy.
There's also a bit of twange on the record. Is that going to come out on the next album? Is that a natural thing? I can kind of tell by your accents.
[Laughs]
Scarboro: I don't think we can fight that or hide it. It's going to be there whether we wanted there or not.
Sean: We don't do it intentionally. There's zero intentional Sourtherness in the music. If it's Southern, it's just because we're Southern.
Scarboro: If that's how someone perceives it, that's fine. We grew up in Georgia.
What are some of your influences in Georgia?
Sean: It kind of varies. We all grew up going to Widespread Panic shows and seeing the Allman Brothers play. I think we got a lot of our influences from more jammier, Southern rock side of things. As we got older we started looking at stuff that used to get us fired up that wasn't from Georgia at all. Pearl Jam. Nirvana. We started listening to Sonic Youth a lot. I don't really know where to put it. We listen to a lot of Of Montreal now. We listen to a lot of Vic Chesnutt now. We toured with The Whigs, they're good friends of ours now.
How was the tour with Dinosaur Jr.?
Scarboro: I did see the neatess trick. I still can't figure out how he does it. [Guitarist] J Mascis stands in front of all his shit and puts two ear plugs in each ear. He just shoves them in and stands in front of his shit. It's amazing.
There's definitely a difference live than on record, an experience you need to see. Does that come naturally for you guys?
Brantley Sean: I think even the stuff we did in the studio was kind of similar to our live show, just more constrictive. Maybe that didn't work for us. I'm happy with [Wrecking Ball] but that's not the epitome of what we are I guess. It was what it was. I'm glad it's out.
Jason Scarboro: Naturally you get amped up playing live - if you have a decent crowd that seems to be into what you are doing. You're going to get amped up and play a lot more intense then you would in a studio.
Sean: When you have to do a lot of takes of something...a lot of the songs on Wrecking Ball we toured on for about a year before we went in [the studio]. It makes things a lot more constrictive, you know? The next album, we're going to do things a lot differently. We're not going to know the songs until we get in. I mean, they're written. We're going to try and capture more of that live feel to it. I think that there are other things involved, like a crowd. Of course, it's going to be a lot more wild live than in a studio.
How is the recording process going to be more different than Wrecking Ball? Are you saying there will be more of a dirt feel, moving away from the computer?
Sean: No, I think embracing technology is a good thing. Pink Floyd was the first band to make a stand on that, and they were fucking awesome. We are going to try and approach each album differently, just to try and shake things up. I think that's how you stay relevant. [For] the next album, we have a ton of songs written. We're going to wait and work on the songs themselves, and as a band we'll kind of figure out the songs together right before we go into the studio, without playing them live. Then kind of really work on building them together in the studio. Whereas Wrecking Ball was [where] we toured for a year and knew the songs front and back, no changes to be made, and then [went to record them]. This time it'll be more like a building process.
Scarboro: Brantly and Hardy [Morris] write most of it and John [Watkins] and Walker [Howie] are just starting to write. We haven't played any of the songs, with the exception of one, together as a band at all. I haven't heard half the stuff they've recorded yet. It's going to be completely blank...it's going to be a lot more fun I think. It won't be as much a repetition, as an experience.
You think you'll get a lot more out of it this time?
Sean: It'll be different. Certainly the songs are going to be different from the last album. As of right now, there's not a song that's over four minutes long. Obviously Wrecking Ball had a lot of lengthy tracks on it. I think what we've been listening to a lot since recording that album, I don't want to say "pop-oriented" because that scares people off, but we're learning how to say the same thing without taking six minutes to say it and still get across the same vibe - the same feeling.
Essentially critiquing your music with the ability to cut it down quicker?
Sean: I think people just have short attention spans. It's not bad to have short attention spans. I've become one of them. It's not that I think songs have to be three minutes long, there could very well be long songs on the [next] album, it could end up that way. Writing now, I feel like I can get from one place to another without playing out for five minutes to get to the point. Now I know exactly where I'm going with it, and I get there. Any songwriter, it's a matter of aging and figuring it out. A lot of the songs, like "The Rat" is one of the first songs I wrote.
It seems like Wrecking Ball has a 90's grime to it, but produced well. Is that something you were going for or natural?
Scarboro: We just wanted to try to make it as intense as our live show. That's all we've ever done [prior to recording] was playing live together. We only recorded very minimally as opposed to playing a number of shows together. That's all we wanted to do was capture that intensity of our live show. We felt a little constricted realizing you are not in a live environment. You can't recreate that energy of a receptive crowd.
Sean: You think of the timing of Wrecking Ball, it was very out of time and out of place for a lot of people. You think of these bands now using thirty backing tracks for a band. They can't play that shit live with backing tracks and loops and samplers going. We wanted the total opposite. We can do this exactly how it is live and better. I wanted the album to be what it is in a way that it's very straightforward and not embellished. True to form. I get bored watching bands stand on stage while a sampler is playing. Why can't you figure out how to do that live? I just think it's kind of lazy.
There's also a bit of twange on the record. Is that going to come out on the next album? Is that a natural thing? I can kind of tell by your accents.
[Laughs]
Scarboro: I don't think we can fight that or hide it. It's going to be there whether we wanted there or not.
Sean: We don't do it intentionally. There's zero intentional Sourtherness in the music. If it's Southern, it's just because we're Southern.
Scarboro: If that's how someone perceives it, that's fine. We grew up in Georgia.
What are some of your influences in Georgia?
Sean: It kind of varies. We all grew up going to Widespread Panic shows and seeing the Allman Brothers play. I think we got a lot of our influences from more jammier, Southern rock side of things. As we got older we started looking at stuff that used to get us fired up that wasn't from Georgia at all. Pearl Jam. Nirvana. We started listening to Sonic Youth a lot. I don't really know where to put it. We listen to a lot of Of Montreal now. We listen to a lot of Vic Chesnutt now. We toured with The Whigs, they're good friends of ours now.
How was the tour with Dinosaur Jr.?
Scarboro: I did see the neatess trick. I still can't figure out how he does it. [Guitarist] J Mascis stands in front of all his shit and puts two ear plugs in each ear. He just shoves them in and stands in front of his shit. It's amazing.