recesses of my own soul. I found it to be really informative,
creatively. I had to take music that’s not my own, in a genre
that’s completely foreign to me, and I’m forced into a situation
where I’m in a room with people looking at me and I’ve got to
come up with something that’s awesome on the spot. They’re
paying me by the hour. So I might have just a few takes, and
I have to sort of respond to that, and I think it has a way of
organizing your mind.
We worked with one of our favorite producers, Phil Ek, and
there’s only so much time you have with him, so it’s a matter
of like, “Ok, these are the parameters, these are the limits, do
something awesome here.” I think overworking it can really
suck the life out of the thing. I think that’s one of the reasons
why our record has a real vibrant feel to it, it feels very alive.
WB: There’s definitely a lot of different views in the creative
process. It’s interesting to see the different approaches and
feelings for the same process.
DD: Yeah, and I would say, to put it in perspective, that we’re
just up against the practical reality of being a perfectionist.
It’s one of the things that probably draws you to art in the first
place. Under that guise, you’re never going to be happy or fully
satisfied.
WB: You’re just never going to be just over the moon about
anything, ever.
DD: Exactly! It’s frankly impossible. Become the best performer,
the best writer that you possibly can be, then go make things,
then go make more things, then go make MORE things. You
could spend two years on it, and you’re not going to be happy.
You’re going to be happy, but you’re going to basically know that
there’s other things you could have made better.
We really knew what we wanted to do when we got into the
studio. We were able to execute it in that 6-week time frame. We
did our homework, we didn’t show up with a blank page. So go
do it, and then go do something else; that’s kind of the mentality
of the band. There’s definitely things I would have changed if I
could do it again, but that’s not really the point for me.
I think a recorded song is a snapshot of the life of that song;
it’s like a photograph. It does represent the song, but it only
represents part of it. The rest of that is what happens as the song
continues to develop on the road. It’s like, the song has a life of
its own and the recording is just a photograph. You wouldn’t
want to take a photograph of your girlfriend and then just look
at that. You want that picture, but then you want to go have
dinner with her. To me, a song is the same kind of thing.
WB: With this new beginning, this second debut, how do you
feel like this sets you up for the future? What are you looking
forward to with Greylag as a project? Does this set you up for
any expectations?
DD: Well, there’s the professional side of things where the
focus really is: making this into a commercial viability. We need
to be able to pay rent. But what also comes along with that is we
want to get the music into as many people’s hands as possible.
Now we’re trying to do that exact thing, to tour as much as we
can; to visit many places and hopefully share with as many
people as possible. That’s a really big part of the reason we
make music and play in front of people. There is a collaborative,
communal aspect of music making that we really value. It’s not
just about your own personalization, there would be no reason
to put records just for you. That’s where a lot of the focus is for
now.
We’ve definitely done the best we can with what we have.
I think it would be great to have our own studio someday. It
would be great to be able to spend time just dicking around. It
would be fun to just be like, “I wonder what THIS does,” and just
start playing it; to own that instrument and just screw around
on it. We don’t have a lot, we’re kind of scratching out our own
existence here, and if we were able to stir some things up and
just create more opportunities, it would give us more stuff to
work with, which I’m really excited about. Just one of the reason
why we’re working so hard on getting this record out there.
The further we get this record, the more opportunity there
will be available to us. I think these guys really know what
they’re about and having more opportunities will be used to our
advantage to make beautiful music, versus just getting cool shit
for ourselves. I hope we can to do all of those things. I hope we
do well.
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