Ben Bridwell and his Band of Horses brothers are soon to be out in Australia for Splendour in the Grass, an Australian return many fans have been long hanging out for. The band’s latest record, Why Are You OK, saw the South Carolinian group re-enter the radar of long time and new fans alike, demonstrating a return to form in some ways, even though the recording process behind album number five was remarkably different to previous albums.
“I deliberately took a different approach, honestly.” Bridwell admits, thinking back to the end of the Mirage Rock album cycle and eventual Why Are You OK sessions. “The last two we had done were so collaborative with each other that I felt like I just needed a change. The band, and the fans even, just needed a change in mode of operation. With this, I think that’s why I sought out Jason Lytle also. I needed a new co-conspirator, in a way.”
Linking up with the Grandaddy vocalist and songwriter to produce the new Band of Horses album saw Bridwell and his bandmates’ dynamic change up slightly but it was never not going to be an intrinsically Band of Horses album, as he explains.
“I made a point of saying, ‘Even though this is a different process and I want you all to be around, if you want to be there and even if you don’t get used all day long, you’ve got to be prepared for that. I want you to be there, so you can be a part of the experience and because when it’s time to use you, we’re definitely going to grab you!’”
“Jason is a bit meticulous in his approach,” Bridwell admits. “He hears things in a very certain way and wants them, at times, performed how he hears them. At times, he’ll be like, ‘I’ve got this part,’ and at times, you’ve got to tap him on the shoulder and remind him that this isn’t a Grandaddy record, this is a Band of Horses record. I think that’s a testament to us all being around each other for long enough now, that whatever serves the song and whatever serves the project, is all that matters.”
Currently in the early stages of touring Why Are You OK, at the time of our chat, Band of Horses have only been doling out initial acoustic sets instead of tours of fully fledged stage shows, like the ones Australian fans are to be expecting this month. Bridwell’s having fun with the material, exploring them in an acoustic setting and testing his memory with the new songs.
“We’re doing a lot of acoustic performing right now for radio and promotional appearances,” Bridwell explains. “I’m surprised that that’s giving us more of a challenge than the big rock stuff; you feel like you have to live up to the album in the rock show and it’s funny that it’s the acoustic stuff, trying to strip them down, that has been more of a challenge lately. When you ask me, ‘How’s it feeling?’, it’s hot and cold.”
“Your soul is laid bare for all to see,” he says. “Even just in the enunciation of the words! Getting all the words right in a sloppy rock show, you can get away with fudging a line or two, but at this in-store we did recently, there’s a line on the album that’s like, ‘The mention would make your skin start to crawl,’ and I accidentally said, ‘Just mentioning it makes your skin start to fall off’. I think I’d made a joke about it weeks ago or something and it somehow slipped back into my mind; I don’t have the muscle memory of these songs yet to actually do them correctly, so I need to keep a lyrics sheet near me!”
“This is very early in the touring process for the record, so you’re getting us on fresh legs, at least!” Bridwell laughs, referring to the band’s upcoming Aussie shows. “We’ve had one full rock show with the new stuff and it was a little bit terrifying, honestly. I think we debuted eight songs that night, but they fell in nicely with the set list and it didn’t feel like too much of a deviation. They sat well with the other songs, which was nice to see.”
Band of Horses’ Australian headline shows are few in number, but they’re coming packing in quality. Set to perform at the Sydney Opera House and at Melbourne’s Forum Theatre, Bridwell is confident that these shows are going to be as much fun for the band as they will be for the fans.
“The flight is always a bit daunting,” he laughs. “It’s completely washed away by all of the wonderful memories that we have of going over there for over a decade now. We have a lot of great friends out there who we are really looking to seeing. We just really love the Australian audiences too, there’s a great kinship there. I don’t know if it’s because we’re Southern or something, but there’s a great connection with the folks there, so we’re going in with complete excitement. Especially with a new batch of material, that has kind of given us a shot in the arm, you know?”
The reinvigoration Band of Horses have apparently experienced as a result of Why Are You OK‘s success so far is one Bridwell speaks of with much enthusiasm. While he’s admitted to periods of awkwardness between the band with the above-mentioned change up of recording process, the final result is one that Bridwell couldn’t be happier with. Being able to work with some of his musical heroes while also entering this new chapter with the band tapped into some as-yet unrealised potential, he says.
“Some of that realised potential also come from people like Rick Rubin or Dave Fridmann or Jason Lytle. There are two guys from this band called the Archers of Loaf, that I grew up with, they play on a couple of songs. Then, there are these two women who I used to be in a band with back in the day, I got them to sing on a song. I got J. Mascis to sing on a song. A lot of that is also circling the wagon or returning to the source of inspiration that got us in to the music. My heroes are peppered throughout and there are some movements and textures that are a direct tribute to that music fan within me, you know? Jason especially, he’s one of my heroes, to have his fingerprints all over the album is a great honour, you can’t really go wrong there! At least your intentions are pure.”
“We all see the big picture,” he adds. “It’s not all about someone’s personal opinions right now, it’s about, ‘How the hell can we get this thing to realise its potential?’. As awkward as that probably was, I believe we did realise the potential of the songs and the songs were served as they needed to be.”
—
Why Are You OK is out now. Catch Band of Horses touring in Australia this month at the following dates:
July 22nd | Splendour in the Grass, BYRON BAY | SOLD OUT
July 24th | Forum Theatre, MELBOURNE | Tickets
July 25th | Sydney Opera House | Tickets
———-
