songs and really explore them, playing
them a little differently every night,
sometimes being an acoustic band and
other times electric. We always pushed
ourselves to become better musicians and
songwriters in an organic way, rather than
follow trends or react against them.
While your latest album, Flux, covers a
lot of stylistic territory, you remain true
to your Southern roots, especially on a
song like “Time to Leave.”
Yeah. I view that as a Gram Parsons type
of song—slightly left of center. I love
the simplicity of it, but there’s this kind
of really cool airy element that country
doesn’t normally have, with all that echo
and delay. I was thinking of the Flying
Burrito Brothers [the country-rock band
that Parsons co-founded with Chris
Hillman] when I wrote it.
On the record, you really explore alternate
tunings. Which ones do you favor?
In general I use probably about 15
different tunings, but on the album I kept
things simple and went with just a few.
“The Upstairs Land” and “Shipwreck,”
for instance are in open G; “Music That
Will Lift Me” is in open F; “Life” and
“Astral” are in dropped D; and “For to
Give” is in open G.
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How did you get into alternate tunings?
Alternate tunings definitely appealed to
me early on. I remember as a kid hearing
Crosby, Stills & Nash’s “Suite: Judy
Blue Eyes” and just being memorized by
the tuning that Steven Stills was using
[Editor's note: an unusual E5 tuning, low to
high: E–E–E–E–B–E] before I even knew
what an alternate tuning was. Later, when
I got into old blues, the tunings that
players like Mississippi Fred McDowell
were using really spoke to me.
But Nick Drake is the musician who’s
had by far the biggest influence on me in
terms of alternate tunings. I heard him
for the first time in the mid ’80s. I had
a friend who worked in a record store
and he sent me Time of No Reply, which
included the last four songs that Nick
ever wrote and recorded. Hearing that
was a game changer.
Mike Poulin & Jake Woodruff of Defeater know you can’t be an original if you’re playing what everyone else is. Visit reverendguitars.com to start your journey.
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