This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Avett Brothers could be deemed the "old souls" of the folk revival that took over the past decade, exploring the depths of Americana over nine albums.
Folk — and music at large — is inherently tied to the idea of melancholy, a theme that the band — comprised of brothers Scott and Seth Avett, Bob Crawford and Joe Kwon — named its latest record after: "True Sadness."
But Scott Avett, who spoke with The Tribune this week ahead of the band's Red Butte show on Tuesday, believes the bitter in this world provides the balance that makes the sweet experiences worth it. That and more in this interview:
You were part of the "American Epic" documentary special event at Sundance earlier this year that will air soon on PBS. What was it like working with Jack White and T Bone Burnett on that?
I'm excited about it. … They mentioned this roster of acts that were going to be coming into the studio to perform on this recording machine that the Carter Family had used and Charlie Poole, the type of machine they used in the '20s, so we were really excited about the project. We went in that day and gathered around a mic in a room with T Bone Burnett and Jack White and the film crew, and we just played songs. … It was a chance to go and do just that, a chance to go play some songs. I'm curious to see it too because it sounds like such an amazing project.
What was it like recording on that machine that sends the song straight to vinyl, with the mistakes and all?
It was unique. Hearing yourself recorded straight to vinyl with no do-overs, no overdubbing and everything. We have a great love for old-time music and in our earliest form and in our core at all times, we're dedicated to the baseline of just performing a song. … One chance, live performing, that's what our band is at the core, no matter what. Doing that, it's very much in our wheelhouse, and I remember feeling very at home with the process of "OK, one take, here we go." Knowing that whatever mistakes are made, they're a part of the process and package.
I read an interview recently that said your live show isn't about taking a selfie and then being forgotten. How do you maintain that visceral, memorable feeling that sticks with audience members?
I think remembering first and foremost that it's a gathering of people to experience something together versus a gathering of people to watch someone magnificent, that we really do link up us and the audience and the show happens together. … We've experienced that for all of our existence, which leads us to believe it's maybe not as mystical as we expect it to be. It's readily available when people are aware of each other and basically communicate. In a lot of ways, us performing is our voice, is how we interact with people and how we express and exchange with people. If we're doing that, it's not like reaching out and grabbing them, it's more like opening a door to offer a chance to experience each other.
Your last album, "Magpie and the Dandelion," was released three years ago. "True Sadness" was just released. What's different about you and the band and what's remained constant?
Mostly our lives as men and women have grown and changed within us individually, but as far as the trajectory of the band and the way we've changed as artists, that's very much been on a steady path of continuous change. We've always drawn from lots of influences and get inspired by many things, and we've always tried our best to express that. In this record, I think mainly we extended the take on each song. We did more versions of each song than we've ever done before. That's really the key, each song had three or four treatments to it. Who wouldn't want to do that? That's an amazing experience to look at that and dissect that as an artist.
Coming into this album, your ninth, do you feel an obligation to reinvent your process for yourself and the fans? And what did you learn from recording the same song differently a few times?
For me, if someone throws something out there like: "Hey, have you ever thought about doing this?" If it sounds like a positive learning experience, I want to find out and explore it. It was more like us sitting down with [producer Rick Rubin] and talking about where we were coming from and then him saying, "If you're coming from there, what if we tried this too?" It's just more of an opportunity than obligation. But I think the obligation to present something for our fans came into play when we were trying to decide what do we put on record and how do we release it? That's the offer to our fans and the gift out to the world. … At the end of the day, the overall philosophy is try to find individually each song the best version and the most appropriate for its expression. That's our obligation to the people that are listening.
This far into your career, can you influence yourself from past sounds and choices on other records?
No doubt, no doubt. At the core of all of it, between Seth and I and what we're writing about conceptually and the subjects, it's purely personal and intimate. I think within that, you go to work and find the melodies that are readily available all over the planet. But you can definitely look within and behind and still draw from the same things we've been drawing from since we started. Just like every other human, we experience things, it makes us who we are, we carry it through our lives and we revisit it. No doubt about it.
The album title is interesting, just because sadness is as much a part of music as love and happiness, but it's rarely at the forefront of album concepts. How did you decide on that as the theme of this record?
The title sort of found us as we were putting it together. … We always talk through these concepts if we're going to name a record, why has this come to the surface as the title of the record? There was a secondary meaning that I kept coming back to that was sort of like patheticness, like that's truly sad. I'm not a hopeless person, I believe and hope and I really believe in positivity. … This band as individuals have experienced real life, real time non-romantic sadnesses like loss of someone through divorce, child illnesses. Real things that rocked our world since we recorded our the last record and flipped it upside down and changed our perspective completely. … I believe that it's difficult to accept those truly joyful moments without understanding those glimpses of true pain and true sadness. With that, you get the balance and start feeling the key component, which is gratitude.
bsmith@sltrib.com Twitter: @BrennanJSmith —
Brothers at Red Butte
Indie rock-Americana band The Avett Brothers will perform.
When • Tuesday, July 26, 7 p.m.
Where • Red Butte Garden and Arboretum, 300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City
Tickets • Sold out; redbuttegarden.org/the-avett-brothers