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After almost six years since Why Are You OK, Band of Horses are back with their new album Things Are Great. Many are the news on this record: the band lineup partially renovated, a talented producer and the most sincere and transparent songwriting ever. To balance this out, what does not change is the iconic sound of Ben Bridwell’s band, that circles back to its roots and their indie and alternative rock attitude. We dug into these topics – and many more! – with drummer Creighton Barrett, touching also the global suspension of our lives due to the pandemic and, last but not least, a question about The Funeral, that we have recently found in the soundtrack of a successful Italian Netflix production.
Hello Creighton and thanks for being here with us. Let’s start talking about your new album, Things Are Great, out on March 4th after almost six years since your last release. Although some time has passed, is it possible that some underlying atmospheres and inspiration were already seeded in Why Are You OK? As if that record, besides having a connection within the title, already contained an end and a new beginning?
“Yes, well, we’ve had some different members that have come and gone since the last record: that’s nothing new, our lineup changes pretty regularly for better or for worse. But yes, I think this is a continuation in the way that Why Are You OK was a record that we made distinctively to make the record the way that we want to make the record, as opposed to, maybe, not so much outside influence but maybe getting back to the roots of us, just making the records that we wanna make and the records that we want to listen to. So, I think this newest record Things Are Great is even more of that, of been the little punk rock kids we used to be and not worrying so much about what other people are gonna think: let’s just make this record the best for us and make the best that we can.
I think those two records definitely show a bit of a departure from the record before Why Are You OK, which was kind of exercise, with someone else kind of telling us which way to go and how to make it, and that didn’t sit very well with us. So we kind took the reins.”
In terms of sound, we can find the iconic sound of Band of Horses. However, in the production of the album the contribution of Ben Bridwell, who also worked a lot with the sound technician Wolfgang “Wolfie” Zimmerman, had much more weight. What happened at that stage of the process and how did the recording sessions go?
“We had started the record with our previous producer from Why Are You OK, Jason Lytle, who is from a fantastic band called Granddaddy. We made Why Are You OK with him and it was great, but we started the session for Things Are Great with him again and it just wasn’t vibing properly, just it didn’t feel right.
We recorded a few tracks with Jason and kind of had some time and we played some shows and kind of sat with what we’ve done thus far. It just wasn’t where we thought we should be and we decided that it was so early in the process that it wasn’t too big of a loss just to be like “You know what? Let’s start again!” basically.
We have a great friend that lives in our town which is Charleston, South Carolina, named “Wolfie”, Wolfgang Zimmerman. He’s this younger kid who’s making really great music with these local bands in our town, and he was doing really great things out of the storage shed, it wasn’t even a real studio. So, if this kid is that talented where he can make these bands sound incredible with not being even in a real studio, what happens if we put him into a real one? We worked out fantastically and I think to Ben and I, I can speak for both of us, Wolfie was just a breath of fresh air. He came into it, saying: “I want you guys to sound like you guys”, which, you know, people always say they do when they go to make a new record but things get pushed, things get pulled in certain directions outside your hands. Sometimes, and this time, all he wanted to do was to trust to go back to the way we made our earlier records. Ben and I don’t have any musical training, we taught ourselves how to play our instruments and I think he wanted to hone in on that, more than try to make grandiose sounding thing, he wanted us to just to sound like we were with our instruments and making music. Which is what it sounds like, I think. Long answer, sorry” (laughs)
Within your discography, lyrics represent a fundamental part of every record: what stories do the songs on Things Are Great tell? Is there a track you are particularly fond of?
“My favorite track on the record is called Ice Night We’re Having which is just this really weird kind of gallop, really indie rock sounding song, which is kind of my heart. That’s my favorite song. As far as the lyrics go, Ben was going through a lot of heavy stuff during the making of this record. So I can’t really answer so much for the lyrical content, but Ben, he really comes over and really thinks about what he’s saying. I do think on this record, he said in previous interviews, I don’t know, it’s as if he’s a bit more unmasked in this record. But I think this record would have come out: we’ve got pushed back because of the pandemic and of this shit that everyone’s been in, I think it helped him to write the words to where maybe it’s easier to access them in a way everyone’s going through kind of a bad time right now. I think it’s easier to break down those walls that maybe he had in place previously to where everyone is kinda like in a shitty situation and his words on this record lend themselves in a little bit easier than past records, where it’s like: “Look, I kind of feel what this guy is going through and even though what I’m going through is completely different”, it paints a pretty easy picture for all of us.”
The album title hints to a positive meaning, we could say of “purpose”. However, within the tracklist we find songs like Tragedy of the Commons, In The Hard Times or In Need of Repair that refer to complicated situations. Did the planetary upset caused by the pandemic influence the writing of the album in any way? How did you live or are you still living these years of suspension and away from the stage?
“In July, last summer, we finally got the go ahead to play our first few shows and it was two shows leading up to Lollapalooza. We’ve played some shows, got back at it but, that year or so off, you question a lot of things: for one, we were sitting on this record and it was done and you know, idle time can be so horrible. You just have more time to think about “Is it a good record? Does this suck?”.
It’s been so long in the making, It just kind of like a painting you’ll never finish. You just let it go. That time was pretty hard for all of us, not just financially, you know, Ben and I both have families, we have children, so trying to navigate that was of course rough.
But it also made you question a bunch of stuff that maybe we didn’t get the question before. It was just like everything just came to a stop, there’s nothing on the books, no one knew what to do, no one knew how to do anything with it. It seemed that for the first time – even when there’s been financial breakdowns and stuff before, people still went to shows and people still went to the movies, like in the Great Depression and stuff like that, like they had this artistic outlet – for the first time that wasn’t even possibility. And so when you break it down to “What about musicians who played live?” ,no one knew what to do. Everything during the pandemic was focused on not letting that happen, it was so overwhelming. It was hard even break it down to like “Shit!”.
We’ve been doing this for twenty years and it’s such a second nature to us. For the first few months, we didn’t even know what hit us. It was just like: “Wow, Do we start something new? Do we? Do we not do this anymore?” No one had any answers, it was pretty crazy and luckily the clouds lifted and we got the emails about going to play those two warm up shows for Lollapalooza and it was just like… “Holy shit, it’s back”.
So, it was crazy time…”
I don’t know if you’re aware that your song The Funeral has been recently featured in an Italian Netflix production titled Tear Along The Dotted Line. It’s an emotional coup de grâce, as soon as the notes its signature intro start sound, the protagonist reaches the climax of his inner journey towards self-awareness and consciousness of the reality he’s living. How is your\the band relationship with this particular song, that made so many appearances both on the big and the small screen, usually to underline intense emotional moments?
“To be honest, the weight of that song didn’t really hit me till we started playing it live and then it just becomes this other thing. It’s like, for better or for worse, ‘cause there are some people that only know that song, in, there, at the show, they’re just waiting for that song, so we have to do our showbiz act which is like “You don’t get to the end”, that little act. That’s one side of it. But to be perfectly honest, it’s never lost on me playing that song live for people because the room changes, it means so much to so many people in so many different ways. Not just about like someone actually losing somebody… it’s an earmark for so many people’s lives and to be a part of a band that did that, I’m insanely grateful for it. I love the use of it in movies because it is a perfect song for that stuff. It resonates and I can’t ever tell that resonates ‘cause people have heard it and they’re going to expect it, you know? But it’s still to me at least my side, it doesn’t ever lose its awesomeness. People keep putting it in movies…that’s a great use of that song, yet again! It works there! It’s obviously somatic and cinematic. I think it’s great. Is that show good?”
Yes, it was a really good production. It’s actually an animated comic by Zerocalcare, who is a very talented comic artist and is very successful in Italy. We thought it was sarcastic but instead, at the end, when The Funeral started, we all burst into tears. It was a very coming of an age experience.
Wow, Zerocalcare? I’ll look him up, thanks!
Laura Faccenda
Editing and translations: Francesca Garattoni
Photos: Stevie and Sarah Gee