Post by rose on Sept 26, 2007 5:23:37 GMT -5
Two Gallants: The Underwire Interview
By Angela Watercutter September 25, 2007 | 1:01:32 PMCategories: Music
Once again, it's new music Tuesday and this week, without an over-hyped record sales battle to bite our nails over things feel a little, well, empty. Enter Two Gallants. Today the gritty bluesy duo of Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel release their self-titled third studio full-length on Saddle Creek records. And frankly, hearing from these San Francisco natives is like a breath of fresh air. Underwire sat down with singer/guitarist Stephens a couple weeks ago at the Treasure Island Music Festival to talk about the new record, the rigors of constantly touring and the band's plans for the future (or lack thereof).
Underwire: So, welcome back to San Francisco, you guys have been touring for a while right?
Adam Stephens: Well we’ve been touring pretty much forever. This summer we were recording in April and May, if memory serves me well, and then we started touring right after we finished recording. I haven’t been home pretty much since May, which is horrible. I miss San Francisco a lot.
Anything in particular?
It’s like that indescribable feeling of home, you know? It also just happens to be that my home is one of the most beautiful places in the world, it’s a fortunate coincidence. Just seeing familiar faces and people you care about. But also just seeing the city too. So many bad things have happened in the city since I’ve been gone. Mostly just the way it’s changing and the way that the buildings are getting torn down and these hideous new buildings are rising up all over the place. I mean it’s inevitably going to have a huge affect upon the city culturally. But I almost feel like I don’t have a right to complain or criticize the city for that because I’m not even here to really do my civic duty and be involved in trying to prevent the decline.
It seems like touring is a big part of what you do, and you’re a great live show. Do you like touring or does it get grueling?
It gets really tiring, especially in America. America is not the most fruitful place to tour for many reasons. Anything you do becomes tiring, so I think it’s kind of to be expected. I think now it’s just been so long that we’ve been gone our whole mentality has changed. We don’t even know what it’s like to be home any more or have that familiarity.
So, tell me about the new album.
For us it’s pretty different. I don’t really know what it’ll seem like to other people. It’s the first time we ever worked with a producer before. So he had a big effect, it was the first time we had a third opinion. Before we just worked with engineers and they’re pretty indifferent and sometimes extremely unenthusiastic about it. [Laughs] So we worked with this guy, who’s now a very good friend of ours, this guy Alex Newport. He really enjoys our music and was very involved and extremely critical at times and also extremely inspiring. It was also the first time we recorded songs that we’d never even played before.
Oh really? So you didn’t try them out on the road?
Well some of them, a lot of them we had, but there were at least two songs that we’d never played before. So that for us was a completely new thing. It felt right, and I haven’t listened to the record since we recorded it. So, I don’t know how it turned out from that perspective. And I probably never will listen to it again, actually. I just get too caught up in small mistakes. I don’t really like to think about the past, I’d like to look ahead and try not to make the same mistakes. I’m also extremely critical about what we do and I don’t like recording at all. That’s also, I think, why we tour so much.
So what are some of your influences, I think your music sounds very literary so I’m wondering who you listen to or maybe who are your favorite authors?
As far as songwriters, Leonard Cohen, Ray Davies and obviously Bob Dylan, but I think that’s kind of unnecessary to say. I don’t really like the word literary because to me that’s saying that music itself isn’t literary and I don’t think it has to be defined that way. I think that songwriting should be allowed to have its own literary category, especially when you take into consideration people like Leonard Cohen. I like treating every song like a novella.
Any favorite authors?
William Faulkner’s always been my favorite author. Thomas Wolfe. Cormac McCarthy. Ted Hughes. Federico Garcia Lorca.
What are your goals musically? Any goals you haven’t reached yet?
I’ve never really had goals with music. I remember when we first started playing it was like, we always thought playing at Bottom of the Hill would be a huge thing and then we would have made it once we played there. And it was a big deal that first time. But with each step you realize once you get there that it’s great to be there but there’s another step you didn’t forsee right around the corner. Not that I’m saying it’s a good thing to constantly grow, because you can grow out of proportion and just get totally lost. But I just think it’s better to avoid having goals all together and just view every show and every record as extremely important. And just to know why you’re doing it the whole time. I guess the only goal would be to still be playing music in 40 years and still be doing something interesting and still appreciate the audience and not just get caught up in the repetition of it.
By Angela Watercutter September 25, 2007 | 1:01:32 PMCategories: Music
Once again, it's new music Tuesday and this week, without an over-hyped record sales battle to bite our nails over things feel a little, well, empty. Enter Two Gallants. Today the gritty bluesy duo of Adam Stephens and Tyson Vogel release their self-titled third studio full-length on Saddle Creek records. And frankly, hearing from these San Francisco natives is like a breath of fresh air. Underwire sat down with singer/guitarist Stephens a couple weeks ago at the Treasure Island Music Festival to talk about the new record, the rigors of constantly touring and the band's plans for the future (or lack thereof).
Underwire: So, welcome back to San Francisco, you guys have been touring for a while right?
Adam Stephens: Well we’ve been touring pretty much forever. This summer we were recording in April and May, if memory serves me well, and then we started touring right after we finished recording. I haven’t been home pretty much since May, which is horrible. I miss San Francisco a lot.
Anything in particular?
It’s like that indescribable feeling of home, you know? It also just happens to be that my home is one of the most beautiful places in the world, it’s a fortunate coincidence. Just seeing familiar faces and people you care about. But also just seeing the city too. So many bad things have happened in the city since I’ve been gone. Mostly just the way it’s changing and the way that the buildings are getting torn down and these hideous new buildings are rising up all over the place. I mean it’s inevitably going to have a huge affect upon the city culturally. But I almost feel like I don’t have a right to complain or criticize the city for that because I’m not even here to really do my civic duty and be involved in trying to prevent the decline.
It seems like touring is a big part of what you do, and you’re a great live show. Do you like touring or does it get grueling?
It gets really tiring, especially in America. America is not the most fruitful place to tour for many reasons. Anything you do becomes tiring, so I think it’s kind of to be expected. I think now it’s just been so long that we’ve been gone our whole mentality has changed. We don’t even know what it’s like to be home any more or have that familiarity.
So, tell me about the new album.
For us it’s pretty different. I don’t really know what it’ll seem like to other people. It’s the first time we ever worked with a producer before. So he had a big effect, it was the first time we had a third opinion. Before we just worked with engineers and they’re pretty indifferent and sometimes extremely unenthusiastic about it. [Laughs] So we worked with this guy, who’s now a very good friend of ours, this guy Alex Newport. He really enjoys our music and was very involved and extremely critical at times and also extremely inspiring. It was also the first time we recorded songs that we’d never even played before.
Oh really? So you didn’t try them out on the road?
Well some of them, a lot of them we had, but there were at least two songs that we’d never played before. So that for us was a completely new thing. It felt right, and I haven’t listened to the record since we recorded it. So, I don’t know how it turned out from that perspective. And I probably never will listen to it again, actually. I just get too caught up in small mistakes. I don’t really like to think about the past, I’d like to look ahead and try not to make the same mistakes. I’m also extremely critical about what we do and I don’t like recording at all. That’s also, I think, why we tour so much.
So what are some of your influences, I think your music sounds very literary so I’m wondering who you listen to or maybe who are your favorite authors?
As far as songwriters, Leonard Cohen, Ray Davies and obviously Bob Dylan, but I think that’s kind of unnecessary to say. I don’t really like the word literary because to me that’s saying that music itself isn’t literary and I don’t think it has to be defined that way. I think that songwriting should be allowed to have its own literary category, especially when you take into consideration people like Leonard Cohen. I like treating every song like a novella.
Any favorite authors?
William Faulkner’s always been my favorite author. Thomas Wolfe. Cormac McCarthy. Ted Hughes. Federico Garcia Lorca.
What are your goals musically? Any goals you haven’t reached yet?
I’ve never really had goals with music. I remember when we first started playing it was like, we always thought playing at Bottom of the Hill would be a huge thing and then we would have made it once we played there. And it was a big deal that first time. But with each step you realize once you get there that it’s great to be there but there’s another step you didn’t forsee right around the corner. Not that I’m saying it’s a good thing to constantly grow, because you can grow out of proportion and just get totally lost. But I just think it’s better to avoid having goals all together and just view every show and every record as extremely important. And just to know why you’re doing it the whole time. I guess the only goal would be to still be playing music in 40 years and still be doing something interesting and still appreciate the audience and not just get caught up in the repetition of it.
