ISSUE #29 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #29 MMUSICMAG.COM Q&A time. We’re pretty open to following a song are generally live on the floor. There’s not a people trust his judgment. We can trust wherever it goes. With Doyle, you’ll begin lot of studio trickery going on. ourselves, but not everybody else trusts us. with a riff and then start putting the demo together. He’ll play bass and I’ll play drums. Did you struggle with any songs? Did Oteil’s absence affect production? Some guys will sit down with an acoustic TRUCKS: Some were harder than others. TRUCKS: I think it worked out for the better. guitar and write a tune, and others will come When we tracked “Do I Look Worried,” we Everybody in the band had to get in line up with something off the top of their head. were really close, but we just weren’t all the and pull a little extra weight. Everybody we That’s the beauty of working with different way there. It got to the point where the band played with taught the band something people—there are a lot of different methods. was growing frustrated. We finally got the about itself—and it showed us the different take and it hit me that it was best for the possibilities. We had serious players step How much material did you have? song if everyone was a little angry. It fit with in, and everybody brought a completely TRUCKS: We had about 16 or 18 tunes that the sentiment of the lyric, which had a little different color and character to the music. we were pulling from. For this record, instead piss and vinegar. We weren’t really planning on recording with of stacking up as many tunes as we could, four different bassists. When we went into we focused on making sure that each one What’s it like working with Jim Scott? the process of replacing Oteil, my thought we wrote was a legitimate contender for the TRUCKS: Jim really feels like another from the beginning was that we shouldn’t record. When you have a home studio, you’re member of the band at this point. He’s jump in and hire the first person we found, constantly adding to your recorded material. been there from the beginning and is a but take six months to play with different There’s easily three or four records’ worth of real calming influence. With him, I feel like players, and when we found the right fit, it stuff we’ve recorded there that hasn’t made we’re getting the best of the band. Ninety- would be obvious. We played with some it to an album yet. eight percent of the time, our instincts are amazing people. While we were making the the same. Jim makes records the old way. record, we were rehearsing for tours with How long were you in the studio? It pushes us to be braver and not rely on different bass players who would be down TEDESCHI: With mixing and everything, it’s things like Pro Tools. With digital recording, there, and if we had extra time after hard to judge because we broke it up into segments. It wasn’t like we just sat and made an album—we’d go out and tour in between. Mark Seliger But I’d say about six weeks total. We worked for maybe three weeks on songwriting, and then about two solid weeks of tracking the record. TRUCKS: The engineer, Bobby Tis, and Jim Scott and I spent a lot of time listening to things. Because it’s a home studio, Susan and I can always add things. We had Kofi TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND Burbridge come down for an extra few days so he could listen to all the tracks and see if For these Grammy-winning blues rockers, the bar is always set high there were any parts he wanted to add. He’s playing B3, grand piano, clavinet and flute, THE TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND IS O N LY produced the album with Jim Scott (Wilco, “Now that we’ve been playing together for so sometimes there might be a part that he three years old, but its namesakes, Susan Robert Randolph) while balancing ongoing so long, we’ve really started to create our didn’t get to play live on the floor that he Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, have been touring duties with the Allman Brothers own sound.” Tedeschi and Trucks discuss @iamhunterphoto wanted to add. A lot of the time was spent married more than a decade, and they’re Band. “It’s one of those bands that, after the new album, the creative process, and after the basic tracking, which is always about to take their best collaborations— every show, someone is mildly beating standards in the studio. pretty quick—usually a song or two per day. their two children—to watch the Pittsburgh themselves up over what could have been The fine-tuning, mixing and minor editing is Pirates’ batting practice before tonight’s better. Every time we hit the road or go into How do you write? where the heavy work goes in. Onstage in Albany, N.Y., 2012 concert. “The kids are a balancing influence the studio, we try to up the ante.” TRUCKS: We have to schedule it. When on the road,” Tedeschi laughs. “Everybody Recorded in the couple’s Jacksonville, we started talking about doing the record, How do you arrange songs? acts a little better when they’re along.” Fla., home studio with a revolving cast we set aside time in the studio to write. We ‘We planned to be TRUCKS: Some of it’s intuitive, but Susan you can have 50 tracks and do all these When the 11-piece blues-rock band of bassists (their original bassist, Oteil started calling our friends—[musicians] Doyle and I have to steer the ship the way we want things, but does it really make the record recorded Made Up Mind, their first studio Burbridge, left the band last year), Made Bramhall, Oliver Wood and John Leventhal— more experimental it. Susan has to feel comfortable with the better? We mixed to tape, and I think on the album since their Grammy-winning 2011 Up Mind encompasses a wider spectrum to come down for two or three days at a way a song is laid out, and the feel of the next record, we’re going to experiment with debut, Revelator, any pressure they felt to of music than its predecessor, incorporating time, and we’d write. That’s been our method lyric and the vocal has to be respected when recording to tape. We go in the studio with with the sound of live up to their prior success was entirely shades of Motown and Americana. “We for the last half-dozen years or so. Some you’re putting together an arrangement. the mentality of not having a million takes. self-generated. “We have high standards planned to be more experimental with the songs start with a lyric or title, some with a This record was easy that way. When you You do your homework on the front end—get this record.’ for what we do,” says Trucks, 34, who co- sound of this record,” Tedeschi, 42, explains. chord change or melody—it’s different every surround yourself with world class-musicians it right, play it right, and don’t use the studio you want to hear their take on things—the to practice. In a lot of ways he restores your –Susan Tedeschi way they interpret the music is a big part of faith in record-making. rehearsing, we’d cut some tracks. We’ve ‘Every time we hit the road or go into the studio, we what we do. The beauty of having musicians TEDESCHI: He’s done this for so long that been blessed to play with some of the best of this quality is that you can just roll tape. everybody knows how great he is. Whether it’s bass players in the world. try to up the ante.’ –Derek Trucks You don’t have to fix much. Susan’s vocals the band, record company or management, –Juli Thanki 66 67 M mag 29.indd 66 8/26/13 1:13 AM M mag 29.indd 67 8/26/13 1:13 AM.