137: Strung Like A Horse
On Episode 137, I'm joined by Clay Maselle, the lead vocalist of Strung Like A Horse. The Chattanooga, Tennessee outfit released the excellent new album Whoa! a couple of weeks back (Friday, Oct 30). With producer/engineer Matt Ross-Spang at the helm, SLAH delivers a rich and vibrant full-length that captures them at their best. Whoa! embraces the band's raw and dynamic live energy while also highlighting their broad spectrum of country funk roots and garage rock spirit. The infectious album-opener "Fuck What You Think" really says it all in one large swoop and serves as an iconoclastic anthem of sorts. Other highlights include odes to Maselle's Mississippi roots with "Gold in Their Souls" and "Pelahatchie Nights" or the album's swirling sendoff "Dreamin'."
During this interview, we talk about recording Whoa!, how 2020 changed the band's plans, writing about those Mississippi roots, hometowns, dream songs, Maselle's time in Durango, Colorado, and eventual move to Chattanooga, and building a home on the side of a mountain during Quarantine.
This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol. In addition, this episode is sponsored by WYLD Gallery, The Blue Light Live, and Hot Damn Coffee.
Interview Transcript
Note: Transcripts aren’t always accurate since they are computer automated and haven’t been edited for spelling, grammar, etc.
Thomas Mooney 0:03
everyone welcome back to New slang. I'm your host music journalist Thomas Mooney. This is Episode 137, where I'm joined by Clay Masselle, the lead vocalist in front man of Chattanooga is strong like a horse. I've been really digging these guys lately, they just put an album out called Whoa, just a few weeks back, they worked with producer Matt Ross Spang, who, if you've been listening to any good Americana or country in the last few years, more than likely, you've heard a Matt rosbank album. And really talk about like a perfect partnership here. You know, sometimes a band's energy and specific style, it can kind of become lost when they record an album. Sometimes it's just gone from the songs that energy sometimes that space and context matters a lot. Maybe they need that live audience that live raw looseness to perform those songs better if you go and watch any of the YouTube videos from strong black horse performing. Whether that is a live show or a session, you get a lot of those fun and loose vibes you get that raw energy that pulses through a lot of the music and this is really all just say that those moments aren't lost on Whoa, there's still that garage rock meets bluegrass meets country punk and funk blend, they're still pop to songs like glowing or till the wheels fall off look in Golden their souls or smile while we go all those sounds, they're vibrant live. And that's largely due to Matt and strung like a horse, recording this album Live, it helps capture that spirit. And of course, because it is a studio album, you get that best version as well. It's the best aspects of both worlds, that raw live energy. And then of course, all those vibrant tones and textures that you're able to capture in a studio setting. One of my favorite things is listening to albums with a decent pair of headphones on. Now, that may be a great way for someone to sneak attack you in your own house or something. But I digress, listening to an album like whoa, with a great pair of headphones on, you feel all those Sonic punches, you obviously hear it all better. But a large part of that is because you hear all the specifics, all those swells and shimmers and so on. There's really a vibrant richness to this album. It's kind of like a pop up book when you open it, how it just kind of blossoms with color and shape. That's the same thing that happens on this album. You hear all that specific and intentional richness. We get into all that and much much more on this one. Today's presenting sponsor is desert door Texas Soto. If you know anything about me, it's probably that I'm from the heart of West Texas and absolutely love everything about West Texas. And that's really why I love desert door so much. You may be asking yourself what exactly
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Clay Maselle 5:32
I'll be alright. As long as I know I can say fuck, I'm good. Because that is like the first thing we put out.
Thomas Mooney 5:36
Right? Yeah.
Clay Maselle 5:39
We did it on the radio yesterday. And I was I had to sing forget and I was like, let's get it out. Right.
Thomas Mooney 5:47
Yeah, that's, uh, I guess like where I first let's just start off right there. When I first heard that song, it was one of the videos that you guys did with jam in the band. When when that was I guess it was that last year?
Clay Maselle 6:02
That was last Americana fest that we you know, that we did in person. So that was I guess it was two. I guess it was about a year ago. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 6:11
Yeah. Well, first off, like, how are those kinds of things because I obviously I've never been into, I've never done any kind of live video kind of or not live but recording, session type stuff like that. What and but I'm like such a big fan of like the jam and the band kind of people and like, those sessions, what is that, like, whenever you you guys get into like a setting like that when it's so crammed in there. And it's like, just cutting it cutting some songs in a short amount of time and all that what is that kind of like,
Clay Maselle 6:45
I mean, it's cool, it's different. You know, it's more like when we were that sort of punk rock bluegrass band at the beginning, and we were playing all these little clubs, and everybody's really close together and tight, and you hardly have room to move around on stage. It's a lot of fun. I mean, I enjoy being boxed into a little spot like that, obviously, we can't do it now, with everything going on. But it's cool, because the energies there, everybody feeds off of each other. And they're just those are really cool cat. So we had a lot of fun messing around with them and, and hanging out they've and the van is really awesome. You know, it's cool. I got it decorated with you've got all the bands that you know, all their stickers are everywhere. And it's there's an audience outside. So it was like a live audience outside watching on TV screens. So that was that was a cool experience. We've never done jam in the van before. So we were really excited to do it. And it worked out really well. It's a lot of fun.
Thomas Mooney 7:39
Yeah, obviously, like you mentioned, this was like Americana fest last year. You guys are like a lot of bands. You guys are playing around a bunch of shows a year, triple digit numbers. What, obviously this year so much different like what what was the kind of like the I guess, like that transition into, you know, just jumping off the the moving train?
Clay Maselle 8:05
Well, it was it wasn't it wasn't like real abrupt, you know, because it was, at first it was like, Alright, we got to take a week off, you know, we got to let this thing blow by everything's gonna be fine. And so it was kind of like, well, Let's postpone some gigs. And then, you know, the week goes by and you get more information. And it's like, oh, no, it's gonna be like two weeks and you're like, shit, two weeks, really, we got to take two weeks off. Like, that's insane. We can't just stop everything for two weeks. And then, you know, two weeks goes by and three and then a month and then you know, then it's like, oh, it's not gonna be till the end of the year. You're just like, ah, but we all I mean, I think everybody adjusts however they can. I started building a house, you know, so, yeah, it just was one of those things where you got all this free time. And it was also cool too, because I've got a two year old daughter. And so I was able to be home a lot more and spend time with my family, my daughter and my wife, which is always great. I enjoy that and that's something that you miss out on a lot when you're traveling, you know on the road they they don't really come with us very often they do sometimes depending on where we're going but most of the time they're not around so you know it just adjusting however you can you know, and I think everybody's circumstances are different and they all have to do different things to survive. So I went and started building a really cool house on the side of this cliff and spent more time with my family and wrote more music you know, as I'm sure everybody did. Yeah, hard right. Music goes a bit 2021 is going to be like the year of the album. Everybody's gonna be putting out like double records and show that's
Thomas Mooney 9:49
how I was gonna say like all these records are going to be 20 songs long and
Clay Maselle 9:54
you're like trying to scrape together some old demos now. It's like, I've got way too many to choose from Do we want to do a rock and roll record? Or we want to do a bluegrass record or experimental noise music because I was kind of wacky in 2020, you know?
Thomas Mooney 10:08
Yeah. Dude, that's really interesting. Like, as far as talking with people this year, a lot of people you know, it's like, oh, trying to fill up that time, I guess like, a lot of people were, have talked with taking a painting or like drawing or gardening the house though building a house. That's the first that's like, I'm always interested in that kind of stuff. Because I, I typically, I like to watch a lot of like, YouTube videos of people like, kind of building stuff or like, even out of just like this tiny home kind of stuff. I'm, I'm always interested in like, those kinds of things. So yeah, building a house like, What do you mean? Like, dude, I'm, like,
Clay Maselle 10:53
yeah, I'm building it myself, but I to the to the thought of the YouTube videos, like I'm a sucker for those time lapse videos that shows you how they made something that takes like two minutes, but really, they spent like a month on it, right? Like, I'm a sucker for those. I'll click on them all day long. They're like spin and wood and adding resin, and all this color and lights and the tables and all that stuff. I'll click on that all day long. But yeah, so I started building the house myself. It's a project that my dad and I are doing together, which he was, he was a carpenter for, you know, most of my childhood. And then I've long the way, been in the trades, you know, for most of my adult life doing different things. So I've remodeled some houses and everything, but I've never built one from start to finish. And we had this cool idea. I found a lot on the edge of Lookout Mountain. And it's kind of out of the city limits. So there's no codes on what you can and can't build. And we decided to build like, first it was gonna be this huge tree house. And they were like, wow, that's not what doesn't have the right trees on the lot and all that stuff. So I started excavating, because I can drive heavy machinery and stuff too. So I started digging out this rock Cliff on the edge and found this like perfect little perch, where we could hang the deck like it's like 35 feet up in the air, but it goes out like 15 feet past the rock wall. And so we're building a little birdhouse, kind of it's like a birdhouse themed little cabin kind of thing on the edge of the Lookout Mountain so but, you know, it's got its own difficulties, and I'm learning as I go, you know, because I haven't done everything. I've just done parts of building here and there, but I kind of generally know how it all works, you know? Yeah. So enough to get by and then making some little mistakes here and there. But I'm learning as I go, and it's turning out really, really awesome.
Thomas Mooney 12:40
Yeah, it that's, um, I mean, it has to be kind of like, a lot of things where, you know, you kind of go, alright, I read all this. I've watched some videos, I've got some first hand experience, but there's nothing quite like just jumping in and starting it. Like there's only so much you can prep for and then you go oh, you know, actually just just starting it is what's going to help the most and yeah, and then like those little mistakes along the way, hopefully little ones not to,
Clay Maselle 13:16
yeah, giant 1000 that's gonna make the house fall down. It's like, Yeah, but and then I didn't choose an easy one either. I mean, it's literally on the edge of a cliff. And the foundation is was just pure mud, you know, so I had to take an excavator out there and dig out just to create a spot to build a house. But I think we got a really good deal on the lot too, because I don't think anybody else thought they could build on it.
Thomas Mooney 13:39
For us, yeah, well, that's really cool, man. I mean, like, like I said, like, that's not I'm not really, I'm not talking with anyone who's building a house right now. So that's as far as like taking and utilizing the time. I mean,
Clay Maselle 13:53
that's I started building I started building some guitars to Okay, yeah, yeah. So like I said, My dad was a carpenter. And he's an electronics geek too. So he was into it. And, and he started kind of buying different parts of guitars and putting them together. And he brought me a few of them. And I was like, you know what I need to, I need to just build a body and a neck and all that stuff, since he's putting all these things together. You know, we could team up I'll build all that stuff out of wood, give it to him, and he can put the electronics and put it all together. So I started building some telecasters just for fun. And but they turned out really cool. So now I've got some extra guitars too.
Thomas Mooney 14:32
Yeah, I remember I was in, I guess, like in shop class in high school. And one of the one of these guys started, he, uh, he built a guitar. And it was like, all of us are building like, crappy shelves that like we're putting in our parents house and like boxes and dog houses and stuff like that. And he's like, and of course it's one of those things like I have no idea if this guitar was any good, you know? freakin years old. But yeah. Yeah, that's, that's the first thing I kind of thought of. It's interesting how, like building guitars is, in a lot of ways just like an art as far as like, getting that kind of stuff together because it's it's it's a the mechanical part, like you're talking about, like the physical thing. But yeah, there's also like all of the, I guess, like the science behind it, but there's the the creative, artistic aspect of getting it to be right.
Clay Maselle 15:31
Yeah, I mean, you gotta have a little bit of a vision for it. You know, like I found, I found a big thick piece of sinker Cypress. And then I was able to cut it down into blocks and kind of matchbook it to create a plank wide enough for the guitar, you know, and so yeah, but it's, it's a lot of fun. Because you, there's so many different options, there's so many different things you can do. On a guitar, there's all the inlay stuff that you can do, and all the different materials you can use, and all the different finishes and stains and paint if you want, and you can carve the tops or leave them you know, I mean, there's just so many different ways to make it unique. Which is why I think people like collecting guitars and stuff. It's because it's just, it never gets old, you know?
Thomas Mooney 16:14
Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's been interesting talking with everyone about this year and seeing how they utilize that time. Because it seems like you guys have been, like, you've been just taking the, and making this time worthwhile. Because I guess like, where I'm going with this is it's one of those things where a year ago had I asked you like, what's the thing that you could use the most to, to, like, help your the creative process, you'd go, Oh, you know, I wish I had more time to write songs and stuff like that. Then all of a sudden, you know, this year, you just given this like, open here, here's like, a year off. And then everyone's kind of like, Well, I didn't necessarily mean it like this. This episode is, in part brought to you by Austin, Texas's wild gallery, a virtual Art Gallery, featuring traditional and contemporary art by Native American artists. As you're probably aware, I'm not just a avid fan of music, and film and novels. I absolutely love visual art as well. And as you probably also know, if you've been listening to new slang for a while, you'll know just how often songwriters, they also dabble in various other mediums and are largely also inspired by other artists. One of the giant reasons I was drawn to wild gallery is that all the art is produced by Native American artists not only produced by, but inspired and influenced by other Native American artists, history, tradition, nature, stories, music, and just culture in general. If you head over to wild dot gallery, that's WY ld dot gallery, you'll see exactly what I mean. I've spent probably an hour scrolling and clicking through the various pieces, there's just some incredible pieces featured is such a vast array of styles as well, everything from newer pieces inspired by both like the American West, and a bright and bold pop art feel to more traditional Fine Art oil on canvas paintings. And then obviously, there's plenty of pieces inspired by Native American traditions as well. Like I mentioned earlier, they're currently a virtual gallery. What's so great about that for you is that you're able to purchase these pieces from anywhere. And with Christmas coming up, they'd make perfect gifts, talk about just like one of a kind, unique, and probably more importantly, well thought out gifts that excite anyone from your parents, your grandparents, your in laws, siblings, yourself, really just whoever. And also I'll be perfectly frank, it's time we have this talk with everyone working at home these past few months, I've been on so many zoom calls. And I've seen so many zoom call screenshots on social media. And we really need to talk about some of you all's home office spaces. Too often, it's just that generic desk, maybe a poster that you had from college, maybe a calendar or like a whiteboard that you write on. And just those bare bland walls, I'm just saying, We've all been there. But like right now would be the absolute perfect time to fill those walls with some great art. Go visit Wilde gallery and order a handful of these paintings that'll just really spruce up your background and make you look a little bit more adult and lively. When you're surrounded by art. You're more productive, you're more creative, and the space that you're more happy for me. That's why I fill up my walls with different art. Because obviously, you walk by them multiple times a day, and you're able to like just take those little moments, you're able to appreciate all that effort and energy that was put into the art and hopefully that kind of inspires you to go on and do more stuff in your day.
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Was that No, I
Clay Maselle 20:19
didn't really want this much time.
Thomas Mooney 20:21
Yeah. But you know, it's, I guess like, it's fun. And everyone's kind of found. How to get into the groove of, of, of utilizing the time? Was there like a period in this early on that you kind of went? You know, oh, I'm kind of wasting these days or anything like that? Did you have any trouble I guess adjusting.
Clay Maselle 20:45
Now man, I'm, I'm, I'm a busy body, like to the core, I think I got it from my mom and my dad, they're both that way. So I just can't stop really, it's like, my wife has to pull me aside and be like, yo, you got to sit down for a minute, you know, like, so I'll always find things to do. It didn't matter. I'm always busy, too busy, you know, I need to try to slow down sometimes. So if anything, it's kind of helped me slow down when I needed to. In this at this point, at this juncture in my life, I think that it was something that was actually a blessing for me to, to realize that I was doing too much. But go into the basement to work on the guitar is a little bit, you know, less stressful on the family and all that then hitting the road for several days at a time and then just talking on the phone once or twice a day. So no, it's been good. I mean, honestly, slowing down for a minute has been good. It's been healthy. I think so.
Thomas Mooney 21:46
Yeah. Well, how is that? How is it all affected? The release of this record? Did you guys have originally plans to release the new record earlier in the year or anything like that? Or was it?
Clay Maselle 21:59
Yeah, kinda we, I mean, we, we didn't quite have the date set, but we were planning on like, late spring, mid summer. So obviously, that changed when all this this happened. And then then it was kind of like, Alright, well, we're waiting around, you know, to see when there's a good window or when things are better, so that we can do it and still tour to support the record like we normally do. And then it got to the point of Well, shit, I don't think things are getting better for a while. So let's just put the damn thing out. I'm ready to record another one kind of thing you know, without but and also sitting on this music, like the the whole band where we were all really, really excited of the way that it came together. You know, and we feel like it's the, it's the best thing we've ever done. So it was, it was really hard to sit around on it, not share it with people. And I feel like it's got the sort of messages that work even though it was recorded before all this happened. I think it all is it suits the time really well. And so we just wanted to get it out there. We feel like people need music now more than ever. And we were really excited to share it and wanted to get it out there. So we decided just to go ahead and release it even though we can't tour like we used to, to support it. We're not sure when that will happen. So if we sit around forever, we might not ever release it, you know?
Thomas Mooney 23:20
Yeah, it's a it's interesting talking with people about like, these songs feel like they're for this time, even though the songs were written X amount of years or months ago. And I think it's like that's partly like human nature on this like aspect of going and let me I now I see like how this applies to now. But then also like, there's this little touch of like, you as an artist, maybe going let's say, for example, obviously that there's a full length, but like what if you just had like a single or something that's or a song that maybe you hadn't worked on or didn't cut? And then you guys were like, Oh, I need it, we need to cut it now to release it as a quote unquote, single or something you don't I mean, there's been some times Yeah, it's been a few people like that, too, who have done that. So I think that's it's really interesting to see how, even though songs can be a little bit older, you kind of apply what's going on in your life? Well, I think that's about it.
Clay Maselle 24:22
Yeah, I mean, that's, that's kind of how music works. Even though, you know, this song is, you know, a song about death. You can have like tons of people that relate to it as a breakup song, you know, or, you know, I mean, it's kind of like, we're always we're always going through struggles in our lives. And that'll never change. Our focus just changes on what those struggles are, and the reasons and all that stuff. But we're always gonna have the same sort of issues and problems and things that we're dealing with. They just look different in different times. So that's why music so cool. That's why it's relatable to everyone and That's why it's universal, it's because it's, you don't have to be so specific about the thing, you know, what the song is about could be different for different people, and they could all, you know, arrive at different places through the music. And that's what's so cool about it. You know, like, that's why that's why it's, it's, it's more mystical than just talking to someone, because that's usually so specific. But music is a little bit more abstract. And it evokes feeling, even when you're not focused on the words, it can still give you a mood, and it can still give you the feeling, and you can still connect to it. About your own story, even if you're not focused on the lyrics, you know, which is why it's sort of a release, it's sort of a way out of reality, which, whenever you're struggling, that's what you want, you know?
Thomas Mooney 25:50
Yeah, it's, I've kind of talked with people about like, the, this, I guess, the idea that when you release a song, you know, obviously, you still have ownership of it. And it certainly means certain something to you, because you wrote it. But once it's released, once you start playing it for people, they get to have like, their own imprints on on what it means to them. And yeah, it's such, it's so weird, because like, it is kind of like just trying to decipher, like getting, you can just get a million things out of a, out of a song or a piece of art in general. And so that's what I wanted to ask you, though, about was also, you know, you guys recorded these songs. A while back, it's not like you've recorded them earlier this year or something. And you kind of always want to, like you were saying, it's hard to just sit on songs that you're excited about. What I guess like, was there any hesitation thinking like, Oh, we we need to get these out before we're tired of them in a way you don't make because like, I think like, it's it's a very understandable thing as an artist if you've if you're around the songs for as long as they were written. And then obviously like all the the process of recording and like the the mixing and mastering and you guys are probably listened to the songs 1000 times. Yeah.
Clay Maselle 27:20
I mean, no, there's there is like an excitement when you first finish a project and you listen back to it, you know, when you when you first get those masters back, or the first mixes and, and that is really, really exciting. And that does. I mean, I guess that first initial excitement wears off, but I don't. I mean, you know, we've got songs that we've been playing for seven or eight years. And if there's an audience in the crowd, that's excited to hear them, and the energies there, and we can feed off of that, then I really don't get tired of them. There's very few songs that that we've done that I'm that I'm just kind of overplaying. But even those, like, they go through phases, and they come back around, and they're like, your favorite song All of a sudden. So it wasn't that I wasn't really worried about getting tired of them. It was it was more just that we were we were still excited. I mean, we're still excited about the record. We know we recorded it in June of last year. So it's been a minute, but I'm still so excited to get them out there. We just put out another new single, you know, and, and I'm just excited for everybody to hear it. You know, because I want everybody to hear it. I've been holding on to these things. I'm like, come on, I'm ready to give them away. You know? Yeah,
Thomas Mooney 28:39
I just like excited is probably the wrong word. Like the, the, I guess like we're, yeah, the excitement of wanting this records that are the songs out because you are sitting on them. And then maybe I guess, like your passion going towards new songs, just because that's Oh, yeah, that aspect of it. But yeah, well, we
Clay Maselle 29:04
do. Yeah, we have we're we're excited about some new songs, too, that we that we haven't recorded yet. But they're those feel different. You know, those are more like, those are more like a project or those are like in the works, you know, so they feel different than a complete project. You know, the complete the final thing, the one that you're holding on to that, you know, is this is what it's going to be when you put it out there. It just feels a little bit different than a ongoing project, one that you're still working the kinks out on. And are Yeah, and so our focus does shift your focus becomes not how do I make this better, which is your focus on the open projects. It's more about how do we get this out there? You know, how do we get it heard, because that's the important part. I feel like you know, if you've got a product that you know, people will connect to, you know, people will, you know, get something out of it, then the important part is how do we get them to hear it? You know, because there's so many people out there, it's so hard to reach a lot of people. So then your focus does change, but it doesn't really you don't, you know, I just don't get tired of them. I don't think, yeah, it's not like I listened to him every day. We hear him live, when we play him more than we listen to the record, you know, we listen to the record a few times to make sure everything's how we want it. And then you kind of set it aside. And, and so we don't wear it out, you know, like that. We just, we play them a lot. But they're exciting songs to play. So we still get excited, and it's more about the crowd. And feeding off the energy of a room, which we don't get to do a whole lot of now. We're starting to trickle into some some little shows here. And there, you know, we're doing we're doing some stuff where we're selling little pods, little groups of tickets, and everybody stays in their own space. And it feels different. But it's great to get in front of some real lab folks and have some. I mean, the first time I think the first time we played a show, after all, this was about three weeks ago, and it was in Asheville. And you know, and it's sold out whenever we booked it, but a sell out was like 25% capacity of what we used to be able to do in that room, you know, because everybody's got their own tables and all that stuff. But I think after the first song whenever everybody cheered, after we played the song, we all kind of looked at each other like whoa, haven't felt that in a while. You know, that feels good. We forgot what that sounded like.
Thomas Mooney 31:36
Yeah, it's a it's such a weird thing. Because obviously like certain rooms and certain bands, you you kind of get these different the moods of the of the a certain room is just changed by the capacity. Like here in in Lubbock, where I'm at probably like the the best venue here is the blue light and it's the smaller room and it's a little bit more just type spaces and of course going down to like 25% capacity, makes it going from a more of like a rowdy kind of Honky Tonk kind of atmosphere to a listening room. Yeah. But you're still getting a whole lot more of those people who want to be more Honky Tonk more. Yeah. Rock and Roll and
Clay Maselle 32:28
what they're for is sit down. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 32:30
So
these just different dynamics, I guess it's it's such a strange time as far as seeing shows.
Clay Maselle 32:39
And we used to do both. I mean, we used to play a lot of gigs that were in small, little dive bars, where everybody's just packed in the floors bouncing up and down, and people are falling over. You know, and I mean, head banging and I mean, we have a really high energy interactive show, you know, that used to be that was like the core I mean, it still is it's just on a break right now but that's part of strung like a horse was the was the lab performance was always just a big time. And now and but we used to love it when we got to that certain venue in that certain town where everybody was there to listen, and you could hear a pin drop between the songs, because that was really cool, too. Now, they're all like that, you know, it just kind of shifted. Now you don't have the shoulder to shoulder club where everybody's getting knocked over. It's it's like all of them are turned into a sort of a listening room. And we like and we do like both of them. But it's it is kind of weird not having the other one anymore.
Thomas Mooney 33:38
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Clay Maselle 35:31
I guess we had never, we had never worked with a producer before, it was always just me producing the stuff as we went. And we had never worked in a legit studio before. So it was all kind of new to us. We're usually in like, close friends basement on the weekends and recording our stuff, you know, one piece at a time and all that. So whenever we decided to use a producer, it was kind of, you know, well, who shit who we're going to use. We got a list of the label sent us a list of possible producers like people that they knew, or they knew their work and they liked and thought would be a good fit. And that was one of them of the list that they send us. And we just, we've worked through all these producers and kind of listen to some of their work in the van while we were traveling around. And, and we listened to some interviews with Matt, where people were interviewing him about his style, and how he likes to do things and how he works in the studio. And we all just kind of got a good vibe from that. So we hit him up and send him the demos. And he liked. So I mean, it was it actually worked out really, really easy. I understand that, it can be hard to find a fit like that. So I think we got really damn lucky. Because Matt is just he's like the hippest cat ever. And, and it worked out, we loved his music, the stuff that he did the stuff that he worked on. And, and he's just a super cool cat. And he he dug the project. And he liked the songs. So it all just kind of came together really easy on that front. Which, which is great. Because we we really enjoyed working with him. We we went in the studio, kind of like, you know, like I said, we've never worked with a producer before. So we went in there going, I don't know about this, you know, wasn't gonna do is he gonna try and change everything on us? And just worried. You know, like, what if we don't get along? I mean, I had some phone calls with him just to make sure we jailed you know, and it seemed like we did but you still you never know till you go work with somebody and being in the studio can be kind of stressful. So you don't know how somebody is going to react. But we knew he was pro and so we we figured he would probably be able to work all that out just fine. But we went in there just a little hesitant and then asked man, it only took one day, and we were all signed on. You know, it was like we we put one day in with him. And then when we were able to listen back to it, based on how it sounded and how comfortable we all felt, and just the sort of friendship we had struck up in the first day. We were all like, yep, we'll do whatever. This sounds great. Yeah, we rock out. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 38:09
Yeah, it seems like you guys got a, we're able to capture a really an organic aspect of the band. Since you guys did record. all live in the same room and not doing it one one instrument at a time. Not a lot of like overdubbing kind of stuff. What what kind of like, I guess, do you think that that was like, the the essential aspect of this recording for the record was, yeah, live sound and being able to? I guess, like be able to read everyone. Yeah,
Clay Maselle 38:46
in the sound apps? Absolutely. Yeah, like I was saying before, we'd always worked in small spaces, little home studios, and we never had enough room to put everything out there and sort of perform together. And so that was kind of a restriction that we just, you know, we had to deal with. But that's kind of what our recordings always lacked, because like I said, it was a it's a live band, it's a we we have tons of energy, when we're performing together. Everything's really tight. You know, the musicians are great. And we all play well together. So that was kind of what we always lacked in the recordings before was like, man, it just doesn't feel like it's jailed together. And that's why whenever we went and listened to his interviews and stuff and heard that he was all about doing it live with minimal mics in a room not worrying too much about bleed, and all that was kind of what pushed us towards him in the first place. So But yeah, I mean, the energy of us being able to perform it together, you know, lab is a band tracking the vocals at the same time we're doing the instruments. It really does come through the wires and you can you can hear it, you can hear the energy. And, and and he's really good at it. So you know, he was engineering too. So he was working on All the time. And he's he just, he's, like, super smooth at it. So you don't even realize all the stuff he's do and everything that he's worried about, because he's just, he's, I don't know, it's just, he's great, man, he's awesome. So he's able to get everything sounding great. Get Everybody feeling great at the same time. And then so the vibes there, the quality's there, and we're all in a in a comfortable space. And all we got to do is play the songs, you know, which, that's what we do. So,
Thomas Mooney 40:28
yeah, yeah, it's, I find that like the the producing stuff so interesting as far as like, because I think like we romanticize the producer, right? In this like, role, you know, Rick Rubin, or like, Phil Spector kind of way, like, and then you talk with some people, and it's like, well, it's a little bit more technical than that. It's like making sure all the, like, we're on a schedule, and the schedule is going well. And then, of course, there is the coaching aspect, like you got to think of all these producers as like, coaches like Phil Jackson, or like, you know, Jerry, or I don't know, like, you know, what I'm saying, like, just a bunch of like, because it's kind of like getting every, like you said, it's a stressful situation it can be. And, and I guess, like making, making sure everyone's comfortable enough to get the best out of themselves. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 41:25
all of that stuff. Yeah.
Clay Maselle 41:26
I mean, it's like, it's a trust thing, if you trust, if you trust the guy that's getting the sounds, and all that, and then you're not having to worry about that, then you can focus on the creative aspect of it. And so, I mean, it just takes away some of your worry, which, you know, opens it up to where you can get a lot done, creatively, the music can breathe better, if you're not stressing over some mic placement, or whether your amps, like just stuff like that, if you get if all that's taken care of, then it really does open you up to be able to perform better. And, and producers are like, I mean, they got to deal with musicians, which I mean, shit. You know, it's like herding cats. So you've got you've got different personalities, and they're trying to manage all those personalities. And someone like Matt can just do that flawlessly, and you don't realize he's doing it. So it's perfect. You know, it's like the best way to get things done efficiently. And, and get the get the highest quality that you can, you know, get the most organic recording and, and he he's just, he's sort of magical with that. So hopefully, hopefully, he's not too famous for us. By the, by the time it rolls around to do another record. Hopefully, you'll still have us.
Thomas Mooney 42:44
Yeah. What did you guys record this like in? Like one kind of swoop? Or was it you know, a couple days here a couple of days day. And that was kind of the
Clay Maselle 42:54
we went up to Nashville for two weeks. And we just basically stayed in the studio as long as we needed to all day every day for two weeks? Oh, no, I think we took it to two day break. We had a little break in there. It was like two days off. But we had, you know, we had Studio A at the sound Emporium, which is just, it's a magical room. It's this really huge room that's super dead, with a lot of cool history and everything. And it's just, it's a really, really awesome space to live for a couple weeks, you know? Yeah. And we've never had that either. It's always been time constraints. It's always some evenings and weekends. And then you're so disjointed when you're putting together a song that you recorded the drums and bass a month ago, and then you're going in there and you're over overdub and some keys and some vocals and then maybe you come back later and do guitar. It's just like, it's just not the way to make a record. I mean, you can and people do and people are great at it. But for us, it's not the fit our fit is, let's get in the room together. Let's get all the mics but put up and hit record and go for it, you know, and play it until you get it right. So you know, I mean, you might be in there for dicing and same song, but that's okay.
Thomas Mooney 44:07
Yeah, well, I think that's such a Yeah, you can do it where you're going home every night. Back to your quote unquote, like regular life. You can cut and paste and all that kind of stuff. But it seems for me, like, if I was doing that it would feel I would have so much easier time doing it in a two week period or whatever the case is. Because you don't lose the the momentum. If Yeah, so it's
Clay Maselle 44:38
Yeah, I mean, there's certain details or certain things that that come along while you're recording. And if you're not, if you're not coming back to that part or that thing for a week or two, then that stuff's just kind of lost and then you're, you know, you're sort of starting over but so if you can go in there and do it all in a block, then that's that's definitely the way to do it. Even if you're not tracking everything live, I think that's Better for record to just be in one headspace kinda while you're making the record. Hopefully it's a good one. But depending on the type of music, maybe it needs to be a bad one. I don't know.
Thomas Mooney 45:12
Since you guys are like, you know, a traveling band out there playing shows at a constant base, I guess. With the songs being a little bit probably more road tested than a lot of other bands. What what kind of changed changes happened as far as like maybe like Sonic qualities or like, just Was there any songs that really took a turn or, or shift once you guys started? actually recording them? Yeah,
Clay Maselle 45:47
there's there's a couple on the record that changed quite a lot. At Well, one of them was one that we had never performed live but called and lonesome, which we had Nicky Blum, Come sing vocals, it's a duet, that one changed a whole lot. I mean, that one was I wrote it in six, eight, and it was a bluesy sort of slow bluesy song. Kind of sent real sentimental, sounding, emotional. And then I think we already had that on the record with without you And one other track. So whenever I brought that one to Matt, he kind of had the idea of, well, let's put it in for four and make it a little bit more upbeat and see what happens. And immediately when we did it, we were like, shit, yeah, that's what that song needed. You know, we were like, everybody in the room was like, yeah, that is, that's awesome, because we got, it's like a acoustic funk song. Now, you know, you got upright bass, basically playing funk music. And, and it's just acoustic guitar. I mean, it's really simple, but it's sad. It's just grooviest shit, you know. And so that one took a big change. There's one smile while we go, which was probably the oldest. Yeah, it's probably the oldest new song on the record. And we probably played that one on the road more than anything else. And that one, changed a lot to he had some really good ideas with that. Sometimes when you're in a song, and you've been playing it live for a long time, it's weird to change it, but then it feels good. As soon as you do, you know, because it just kind of gives it a does give it like this fresh quality to you, I guess it just tricks your brain, you know, but that so those two changed a good bit. A lot of them, a lot of them we hadn't we had not played live, they were just new songs that I'd worked on and just put in a Dropbox somewhere, some demo files, you know, just set them aside. And because we had, we had, I mean, we've got a lot of songs. So it was never, like we were never lacking music to play live. So you know, a lot of the new new songs I like to just kind of put them aside and wait until we get in the studio cuz I don't want to get them stuck in my head a certain way cuz then it is hard to change. Whenever we get there, and we start making real decisions, you know, on what they're gonna sound like, right? Now, I would say those two are probably the biggest changes that we made.
Thomas Mooney 48:12
Yeah, I find that really interesting because the played them out, they're alive. So much of luck in make it make a song is like basing it off of what kind of rooms you're playing as far as like the crowd and like the actual space, and what it sounds like, through speakers going out to a crowd. And then once you come into the studio, you can maybe see some of those where it's a little thin or something, you know what I mean. So I have a lot
Clay Maselle 48:44
of songs, a lot of songs, we have two versions, you know, we, we put them on the record a certain way. And then when we get on the road with them, it's like you just you make certain changes that you know, are going to be really effective in a live room. And they feel great, you know, and so we will have two different ways of doing that song. And so even some of the record is like that the new record is like that we play some of them long. We extend we extend a couple of them. And we we just add some different parts and take out some other stuff. That even stuff that we've come up since we recorded it, you know, like oh, here's a new idea, you know, and we never thought about that. And then we add it we really like it. So things The songs are always changing a little bit here and there and you definitely prep them different for a lab situation than you do a record.
Thomas Mooney 49:37
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Clay Maselle 51:27
yeah, there's two songs on there that are about Mississippi, golden their souls, and pelahatchie Knights. Heel hatchie Knights was the first song I ever wrote. That was like, the most elementary sort of songwriting one, four or five, sort of just the first thing I ever tried to do in songwriting, and I never recorded it, it just kind of sat back there. And then when we were putting this album together, as far as the tracklist, and stuff, I just felt like it might fit. And so I just do it in the demo thing and the end, everybody liked it. So I was like, Alright, well, let's do it. You know, when a song is that old, it's like you don't see it the same way as someone with fresh ears. So I was just kind of like I'm out in there and see, but it got a whole new life to like we put on some really, we built this like trash drum kit for crispy to play where it's just one of these road cases that are built turned up sideways and some shakers on a beater head and, you know, random things to bang on. It gives it like this really cool, swampy sort of feel. And everybody played loose, you know, so it's not real tight sound, and it's just kind of groovy, swingy. But that one is really just written about this bay on the Ross Barnett reservoir where I grew up. And it's just, it's really beautiful. It's like super still swampy water lily pads everywhere, and flowers and big giant oak trees hanging out over the water. And we go fishing and build rope swings there in the summer and drink under age, you know, and, and then you could go out there at night. And this is in the song, it's part of the lyrics. But you can go out there at night with a spotlight, we used to do it and shine it around the banks and just see red as with all the alligators that are around the bank. It's got this really cool, like, I don't know, there's this thing about Mississippi. It's like, kind of spooky, and it's really, really lovely at the same time. So there's this really cool dichotomy that it has. And, and so that's what that song was about. And then, yeah, you know, I was I'd left. I grew up in flowood, Mississippi, and I left the day after I graduated high school, I moved out west and I couldn't get out of there quick enough. But now you're right. Yeah, looking back at it. It's like, man, I love Mississippi. I love the culture. I love the people, especially the people, all like rural Mississippi is just some of the, like, sweetest people in the world. And, I mean, it's the home of American music, you know, like blues music changed the world, you know, and it's leaked over into every every sort of every genre that exists now has like a little bit of touch of blues music to it, you know, so I'm proud of that. I'm proud of being from Mississippi where the basic where the roots of American music started. And I don't know I just like it, dude. I like the old growth woods. All the bugs in the wild animals fried catfish, bold crawfish. You know, you got bold peanuts, tamales from the Delta. I mean, and just the rural Mississippi people are so awesome. I just feel like they got golden their souls. So that's where that song came from.
Thomas Mooney 54:37
Yeah, yeah. It's uh, it's, it's I just love whenever. I guess like whenever you get away from a place, you look back and then you kind of realize like, Oh, that's actually really awesome. What Oh, they don't have this here where I'm at now. And you're able to like point out all those I think it's hard to, it's hard to
Clay Maselle 55:02
tell, it's hard to tell when you're in it, you know, but then it's like, and then when you go back to visit you just like, I don't know, it's got Mississippi's got like a feeling to it, you know, and it's like this, it feels like, it feels like my grandfather, which is really comfortable, you know, and, like, sweet. And, you know, you miss that kind of stuff. But you don't want to live there too, because you get tired of it when you're there. But it's really, really awesome to come back and visit. And so I love Mississippi, I think it's just, it's one of the coolest places ever.
Thomas Mooney 55:37
Yeah, it's, I like what you said about like, you know, like this, that mix of kind of scary, kind of spooky, yeah, to that. And then like, also just all the niceness of it like the, the easy flowing. Yeah, that mix
Clay Maselle 55:54
of, it's really slow. You know, it's slow, and it's peaceful, but then it's kind of dark and spooky at the same time. It really is a cool dichotomy, if you think about it. And that's, and that's kind of like how that that pelahatchie Bay song came around, you know, it's like, really, really spooky, but then it's, you know what, I think I just kind of want to float here for a while, at this time, so, but and it would be the same spot, we'd be looking at those alligators. The next day, we'd be building a rope swing and swimming in that muddy water that you can't see your hand in front of your face. And you know what it was like, you didn't have a care in the world about that, you know, and that and now you're like, Well, nothing ever happens. So I guess we were fine. You know. So.
Thomas Mooney 56:36
Yeah, that's,
Clay Maselle 56:37
it makes me think of a so john. Hartford is like my favorite dude ever. And he said, your worry is wasteful. Your head is on fire, and you better untangle your mind. It's kind of just makes me think of like, how, how worry can get in the way of just about everything fun, you know, or everything that you enjoy. So it's like thinking about something like that, where? Yeah, if we were worried about those alligators, we'd probably never went swimming in that water built those rope swings. We knew the alligators were there, but they were never gonna mess with us. And we didn't, you know, we just didn't even think about it.
Thomas Mooney 57:09
Yeah, it's the Yeah, I guess like I was talking with someone just the other day about how, I guess like, those little anxieties like that where you can, if you just let them build in your head, you just worry so much about stuff that or is that just becomes a hypothetical. That may never even happen. And then you kind of look back and you go, like, well, I just wasted a day or I just wasted hours or just whatever. Yeah, I don't know. It's it's john Hartford. I mean, like, that's kind of a American, like, treasure as far as I feel like the not enough people know, his work, even though they do know some of his songs. Because generally, yeah, like some big giant covers, you know, but
Clay Maselle 57:58
yeah, john Harford was like, the perfect carefree example. You know, I mean, like, I heard a story of when he first got his, his first record deal. Probably after gentle on my mind, I could be messing this up terribly. But he went in the he went, and they just gave him a budget in the studio. And he got the musicians together. And he went in there and started recording, I think, his airplane. And, and went in there and just started doing all this wacky stuff. And then whenever the label heard it back, they were like, this is what you've been doing this whole time. And he's like, yeah, you know, like, this is me. But I think he basically just hit it big with gentle on my mind, and then lived off the royalties of that song for the rest of his life and was able to make any music he wanted at that point, you know, it didn't really matter. But I and I was doing a I had a radio interview the other day with a guy here in Chattanooga, who was talking about this festival, called river bend. And it was right out here on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga. And he was like, man, I remember I saw john Hartford at riverbend Festival, and he and he wasn't even on a stage, they just threw a piece of plywood down on the grass, and he tapped dance and played fiddle. And you know, and he was like, and I was as close as I am to you from him just sitting in the grass in front of him watching him like, wow, this is pretty neat. You know, Man, I wish I could have seen that because that's one of my biggest regrets is not going to see john Harper, but I didn't know who he was when he died, you know, so, but he's got he's got that sort of carefree feeling that I get from Mississippi, that sort of nostalgic thing, even though I think he's from Missouri, but living on the river and traveling like that, you get that same sort of vibe that you know, that mellow, slow, easygoing, sort of.
Thomas Mooney 59:46
Yeah, there's something that comes off the water. Yeah, like it's out here in West Texas. We don't have a whole lot of it so there's not there's not a whole lot of those easy vibes. As far as that goes, but yeah, it is interesting to see how river people just kind of, they can learn something
Clay Maselle 1:00:07
about Slow, slow moving water to you know, like the oceans different obviously, that's the vibe. And then you've got that sort of swampy, that swampy vibe and that slow moving river that big river type vibe. That's that's different, too. And it's just, it's easy to go and you know, hurry for anything.
Thomas Mooney 1:00:27
Yeah, yeah, it's just the, I always love whenever you'll meet these people in life where they, they just can never keep to a schedule. And like, it can like be where that can be aggravating for other people. If you're like, I guess like a personality. But yeah, I feel like you just gotta adapt to their time. And if you do, so much more enjoyable. You know that the, the the easy going part, but wanted to talk to you one more time about Hot damn coffee at Eastern Tennessee. The morning comes at you hard. And there's only one thing that can charge you for the day. That's coffee. Sure, you could fill up with whatever you can find on the bottom shelf at your local giant box store. But do you know what works better? Hot damn coffee. Why? Because our single origin and high quality. They're downhome company passionate about great cups of coffee. And of course, they love great music too. Which is why we've partnered up here on new slank go visit Hot damn dot coffee and order yourself some robust, smooth and high quality coffee grounds and beans join their subscription club as a new slang listener. Put slang in all caps in the coupon code box at checkout for 20% off your order. You'll be saving some cash getting some of the finest coffee around and helping support new slang. The music podcast that you know and love again, that's hot
damn coffee. All right,
let's get back to the interview. I was gonna ask you about Chattanooga. Because I think a lot of times people people outside of I guess Tennessee. When you think of like Tennessee as far as music you think of Nashville and you think of Knoxville is like being kind of and Memphis obviously as hubs of music. What is Chattanooga like, as far as a music scene goes? What? What's that, like down there? Well, I guess
Clay Maselle 1:02:29
Chattanooga, it's, you know, the music scene has like I talked about everything, like, from eight months ago. until eight months ago. You know, the the music scene in Chattanooga was really growing over the past few years and doing really well. A lot of people are moving to Chattanooga, I feel like it's growing, I think per capita faster than Nashville. And you know how Nashville is just blowing up. But I do feel like the growth here has been a little bit better thought out or something because it doesn't feel like overbearing yet. But it's a really, really cool town, man. It's a it's sort of, it's a small city. I moved here from Durango, Colorado, which is four hours from the interstate. So when I moved there I was when I moved to Chattanooga, I was like I'm moving to the city. You know, there's big buildings there. And But no, it's it's small town, you know, like you still run into everybody, you know, when you go to the bar, or whenever you go to a venue or something like that. So it's a it's a cool city, because there's a lot going on, it's right on the river. There's a lot of young people and but it still has that small town vibe to it, which is really cool. And there's, you know, beautiful mountains right here. And there's tons of lakes and rivers. And there's old woods, which is what I miss the most about going out West was the really old growth, the big oak trees and all that stuff. Like that's kind of why I wanted to come back to the east coast was because I missed that I love the mountains. And I love the desert out west to like that's, that's, I mean, it's wonderful. I love spending time out there, but I really missed the woods, you know, which is why which is why I decided to come back to the east coast. But I lived in Durango, which is you know, I mean you're right there at the Alpine tundra and the San Juan mountains. So it's beautiful, you can snowboard like all that is just awesome. And then an hour and a half, two hours west of there. You have southeast Utah with canyonlands and arches and you know all that which is just the best that's like the biggest playground ever, you know? But I really missed the woods so that's why I came back out here in Chattanooga is great, you know?
Thomas Mooney 1:04:39
Yeah, I I guess like my family. We went to Durango a few years. For I guess I was probably like, a couple summers I guess I was probably like nine and 10. We went on the river as far as what it was called. When you're on the Have
Clay Maselle 1:05:00
you went rafting? rafting? Yeah,
Thomas Mooney 1:05:01
I can think of rafting
the part on that was like, this is a dumb side story. But I got like, thrown out of the raft and like sort of floated down. Like they couldn't like pull me in. And I was like, trying to, like, get on to the, you know, towards the bank. And there's this, like mom and kid who like helped pull me in. And I grabbed onto there, or as they were on the side, and they pulled me in there. Like, we didn't know if you were joking, or if, if you will, and I was like, yeah, just a nine year old kid floating down the river bottoms. Like, what what do you think? Oh,
Clay Maselle 1:05:39
good. Okay, here, nothing to see here.
Thomas Mooney 1:05:42
Yeah, but it was just like, Oh, well, thank you guys so much for you know, just actually just helping me out and not just thinking, I don't know, we're filming a movie or so
Clay Maselle 1:05:53
I don't know. The river is great there at the Animus is awesome. Like, it's such a cool River. I used to fish, you know, catch tons of trout there. And then I used to take, I used to get one of those double tall queen size, blow up air mattresses. And we used to, we used to raft down the river on that. I mean, I'd have my lab, my chocolate lab would ride down the river on that thing. And we'd go through the Big Rapids at the end of it, you know, and just spill out everywhere. Like it was Carnage but but man that is such a cool place like Durango is so awesome. Because it's that tiny little mountain town. And it's and the reason I moved there, I mean, I'd never been there when I moved there. And I didn't know a soul there. I just looked for I literally looked for the closest ski resort to a college and, and I found Fort Lewis College in Durango and I just drove out there and literally the day after I graduated high school, I was like, I'm gone. Here, come here comes Durango. You know, we're gonna see what's happening there. But I ended up staying for like six years, you know, because it's a great place. It's a cool little town, but you get stuck there. It's like living on an island, you know, is four hours from the interstate. So the closest thing you have is Albuquerque. And then when I started doing music, I was kind of like, Well, you can't really tour out of Durango because you got to drive a day to get anywhere and everything out west is so spread out. You know it's and that was part of that was part of the Chattanooga choice was we've got Atlanta an hour and a half we got Nashville's an hour and a half you got Asheville, North Carolina is like two and a half, three hours. You got Knoxville, it's a couple hours. This is like a great little central hub to get just about anywhere on the east coast. You know,
Thomas Mooney 1:07:33
right? Yeah, absolutely.
Clay Maselle 1:07:34
It's a cool, it's, it's a really cool place to tour out of. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 1:07:40
When it comes to like riding but what is like kind of your, your, if you I know every song comes out different every time but for you like what is kind of like your go to if you had like the little bit of a perfect setup, or you like a pen and paper kind of person laptop out type in what what's kind of like your go to,
Clay Maselle 1:07:59
man, I don't you know, if I'm sitting down to try to write a song, then I'll go sit down with an acoustic guitar. And I'll sit down with my phone to record just garbage stuff. And then I'll let you know, I like it. And it depends. It's just different different for different songs. But a lot of times it's on an acoustic guitar, and I'm just coming up with melodies. Sometimes I'll be riding down the road, and I'll come up with a melody, you know, and then I'll just like sing it into my phone. And then I come back to those ideas like way later. And like, what was that thinking? Like? That sounds like shit.
Yeah. Or, hey,
that's a fabulous idea. And I didn't even realize it when I did it. You know, I mean, it's just never know. But I, I would say that most of my songs start with a melody first. And then I add lyrics to them. And I definitely, like, I feel like my songs. I don't know that I also change. Over the years, I feel like my songwriting has gotten a little, it's gotten stronger. You know, obviously, you get better at it, I think. But it's the storytelling has become more easy to follow less vague, you know, like, most of the songs that I'm writing now are you can, you can pretty much tell what I mean. And what I'm saying and the vibe comes across pretty well. Whereas before, maybe it was just like I was embarrassed or something to put it all out there. You know, so maybe I was a little bit more vague in the way that I wrote music. And I also used to write more linear, which, you know, was like, Okay, here's a, Part A and Part B, Part C, Part D, you know, and just keep going like that and like almost nothing would ever repeat. So just be like this long story, you know, which I think it's cool and I still do that. Sometimes I want to because it feels good and not I think it's interesting and different, you know. But lately I feel like I've focused more on, on stuff that can be consumed a little bit easier. Just because I want it to reach people, I don't want to push people away too much. So I can kind of figured out how much of that I can sprinkle in there and get away with, you know, instilled reactivate captivate most people. Which is, which is my goal. I mean, I'm not writing music, just for myself all the time. Like, if I was I would just sit around and play it myself, you know, I want to reach people with the songs, I think people need music. And, you know, I just, I guess I try to, I try to walk that line between creating something that that I just want to create that just comes out and, and that line of people can actually consume this, you know, like, I mean, and we do the other thing, too. I mean, we just, we've recorded a whole noise album, that I don't know if we'll ever release it. It's just like, all experimental noise and garbage. But it's really, really awesome. It's called Dang. And maybe we will release it one day. But I enjoyed doing both. So you know, I mean, it's just like it. However, it comes out some songs are stories that you want everyone to be able to understand. And some of them are just more like, you know, take what you want from it, you know, this is just a feeling or this is just an idea. And so they're all different. And they all come about different ways. Like I said, sometimes driving down the road, sometimes sitting with a guitar, sometimes you're working with someone or you just have a lyric idea. And you're like, Man, that's perfect. We need a song for that. You know, it comes out all different ways.
Thomas Mooney 1:11:44
Yeah, I love I think like the, if there's one thing that's been like, the big tool for everyone is, is the phone and being able to jot down something or record a little something. It is funny that like, I always kind of relate it back to Were you ever like a Seinfeld fan? Did you ever watch? Oh, yeah. So there's like that one, there's just one episode where Jerry wakes up in the middle of the night. And he thinks of this joke, or whatever, this bit and he like, writes it down on a piece of paper, and he's like, Oh, this is gonna be great. yada, yada. Yeah. And then he wakes up and he can't read it. And so then like, he's trying to, like, get everyone else that what does this say kind of thing. And I felt like that has to be part of it is like, you you have these little flashes of, of what you think can be a song or a part of it, or whatever, you know, and it's like, let's, let's document it. And then yeah, go back and look at it later. And you're like, I don't know what this was. Yeah.
Clay Maselle 1:12:43
Dude, I've got I've got some really, really strange recordings on my phone that I'm like, what was I? Well, I can't even make that. Like, it's funny. Like, even. So I'll sing to my daughter, when she's going to bed. You know, we've got the whole, the whole routine worked out, and I'll sing to her. And sometimes I'll just, I'm not even singing words. I mean, if she's not making me sing wheels on the bus, then I'll sing just some random melodies that just come out as I do it. And there's been a couple times where I'm like, that's a really good, I need to get it down. So like, I'm holding her and I'm like getting my phone out trying to hit the record button without her being like, oh, phone, what are we doing now? You know, so I'm, like, sneak in that and set it over there and then hitting record, and then I go back and listen to him. Like, what? Like, what was she thinking when I was singing that to her? That sounds so weird. Like, that's not a melody that's just like some garbage stuff. But, but then there's other stuff like glow and off the record, I still have the video of me driving, driving down the road. And luckily, we have that capability of just being able to hit record and not worry about it. And it's the it's the
Unknown Speaker 1:13:42
wow
Clay Maselle 1:13:46
factor. And now Tyler plays that on the electric guitar that exact same way that I sang it into the guitar. I'm saying it into the phone that day. And it's really cool. Like, I almost wanted to use it on the, on the album, like just to go from that real garbage sounding, recording into his big guitar when he's playing that. You know, it's got the preamp like dimed in the studio and it just sounds like really awesome. But so yeah, it's it's, it's cool to be able to get all those recordings really fast. Like you got an idea and you don't want to lose it. It's like the same with the Jerry Seinfeld thing. I've woken up with, like, lyrics that, I don't know, some sometimes it's weird. I've like written songs in my sleep. It's more of like, I'll have a dream, but it's not it's the dream is about me making the song up. You know, so I like have a dream that I came up with the song idea. And then I'll wake up and it's like, then you have that internal debate like, well, do I go back to sleep and try to continue the dream so I get the rest of the song or do I write it down now so that I remember it when i wake up tomorrow and don't forget it, you know, because half the time it's like you go back you can't find that dream again, and then everything's lost. You're like dammit, that was such a good idea. I remember in my dream, it was like the best song I've ever written. But it's gone now, you know? Yeah, that makes me think of Tenacious D and like the tribute song. It's not the greatest song in the world. It's a tribute to the greatest song in the world.
Thomas Mooney 1:15:15
Yeah, it's, I forgot about that. So. Yeah, it's, uh, I don't know, it's, I don't do the same thing as far as like writing songs in my sleep or something. But, like, if I have, like, so many people do. If I have like a, an interview coming up that I'm, like, you know, been prepping for like, I'm just kind of thinking about sometimes I'll, I'll have like these little moments of where I think about that saw or that interview when I'm dreaming. And I'll wake up and be like, I okay, I'm not even I'm not even done this yet. So like, what am I like? I don't know. Like, it's probably more anxiety with deadlines and all kinds of stuff. But like,
Clay Maselle 1:16:06
I gotta get this done. I'm, like, sweating it.
Thomas Mooney 1:16:08
Yeah, but yeah, man. It's been really great talking with you today.
Clay Maselle 1:16:13
Yeah, man. I've enjoyed it. I you know, I've got one before we go, I've got one song. That's not on this record. But I think it's gonna be on the next record that I actually did have the idea in my sleep and then woke up real quick and literally jotted down the whole song in about 30 seconds. It was like, it was just all there. And now it'll be on the next record, but that's how some of them come about. It's really funny.
Thomas Mooney 1:16:33
What's it called? It's called cold weight. Cold weight.
Clay Maselle 1:16:38
Yeah, yeah. Awesome. It's It's a sad song, but it's a really, really moving. It's it's an awesome song. And it'll probably be on the next record. Well, that's
Thomas Mooney 1:16:47
good to hear. Yeah, it's a I don't know. It's, I think like, Townes. Van Zandt said, you know, he wrote a few songs from dreams. And it's like, these are like, maybe too perfect. There's like, no way you were able to pull all this out of the dream. Plus, like,
Clay Maselle 1:17:07
some people are really good at that, like, some people can wake up and like, in great detail, describe, like an entire dream, you know, and elaborate long dreams. I usually, you know, I'm not that good at that. But there's been a couple times when I woke up and just had that song. And it's more, it's some of it's like, even kind of like imagery that you write down. You know, but then it turns out, and it's a great song. So I don't know where those come from. But
Thomas Mooney 1:17:33
yeah, I always kind of like, whenever that weird feeling of when you're in a dream, there's nothing necessarily that makes it feel weird. Like, it feels like real life. Yeah. And then, like, I've been got, I've gotten pretty good at like, being come becoming aware in the dream, that it's a dream. But also, like, obviously, that doesn't happen every time. What I'm talking about, though, is like when you wake up, and then you're like, you fucking idiot, like you thought this was real? Like, you know? Because, like, like, no matter what, like, there's always a part of you that when you're in that dream, that's real life for that moment. Yeah,
Clay Maselle 1:18:15
for real? Yeah, for sure. There's no there's what the last song on the on Whoa, the record is called dreaming. And, and that one is that one's about sort of like something feeling so good a feeling and everything's working out so well, that you're, you're worried that you are going to wake up from it, you know, and it is going to be a dream. It's kind of like that pinch me idea, like, pinch me, but it's also don't wake me up because if I wake up, then I won't be able to get back into this spot. You know, yes, that's the kind of like, Don't wake me up because I know that I'm dreaming. And I realize that and I just don't want to like be woken up out of this dream because I'll never be able to get back into it sort of thing, you know, and and then it ends out in like this really cool psychedelic sort of jam, you know, so it's kind of it kind of puts you out there leads you out there for the end of the record. I felt like that was a really good way to end the in the album.
Thomas Mooney 1:19:06
Yeah, I always love when, when a record will kind of like have that outro if you will. Just kind of like the car. Yeah, you know. So. Yeah, man. Like I said, like I enjoyed talking with you today.
Okay, that is it. For this one. Be sure to check out whoa by strong like a horse. Check out our partners over at Hot damn coffee, desert door, wild gallery, and of course, the blue light live here in Lubbock, Texas. All right, I'll see y'all next week for a few more episodes of loosen
Transcribed by https://otter.ai