John: Alrighty!
Trinidad: What`s going on, man?
John: It`s the pre-show. Training for Emissions.
Trinidad: Right on!
Curt: A little warm-up.
John: Last night I was up to four in the morning drinking bourbon.
Curt: We did that sometime until the sun came up.
Trinidad: Orange Goblin, man.
Curt: I saw the sun come up and I was like, "Oh shit, I gotta lie down."
John: Anyways, first up, because I`m going to make this shit up as I go along � the new album. How`d you wind up with Joel Hamilton?
Trinidad: We`ve done a lot of shows with Player`s Club. He`s been a fan of the band and he basically kept talking to us about doing it. We did the first record on our own, the second one with [Jeff] Pinkus. He was basically the one candidate.
Curt: He pretty much told us he was doing it (laughs). It wasn`t an option.
John: Now you were in New York for a week or so?
Trinidad: About five days.
Curt: The whole thing was done in about five and a half days.
Trinidad: We tracked it in three days.
John: Obviously you had all the songs written beforehand.
Trinidad: Oh yeah. The Arclight studio in Austin was kind enough to let us go in for pre-production. We went and cut it there and went and listened to it a little bit.
John: So what was the main difference between Joel�s production and the stuff you did on your own and what you did with Pinkus?
Curt: The stuff we did on our own was just weird because it wasn�t really done in one session. It was done late at night over a period of nights. Plus it was a pain in the ass doing it ourselves. With Pinkus it was� I dunno. It was strange.
Trinidad: With that one, there were a couple of technical things we had to deal with that we didn�t realize we�d have to deal with.
Curt: Computers kept crashing, we kept having to go back. There was a lot of time wasted that wasn�t really anybody�s fault.
Trinidad: Nobody�s fault�
Curt: That whole session was just a pain in the ass. Plus, everybody was kind of in a weird frame of mind. I know I was going through some weird shit. I was going through a divorce and I hated everybody. And this time, man, we�re all getting along. We got out of town, we got away from our jobs.
Trinidad: It was good getting away from all that stuff.
Curt: The Player�s Club guys, the Unsane guys, they were the only people popping in, so we didn�t have all these people wanting to hang out.
Trinidad: The pre-production too�
Curt: All the rhythm tracks are the three of us playing together live. The last one, man, it was like a puzzle. But this one was pretty much live. A lot of it was first take. There�s no doubling of rhythm tracks or anything.
John: Now how do you decide who�s going to sing? You (to Curt) do about what � three or four songs?
Curt: I probably do about half on the new one.
Trinidad: It just kind of happens. You come up with some rhythms and then go, �I think I can do something with this� or Curt�s like �I could do something with that.� It�s also technically too, sometimes with playing and singing. I�m still learning how to do that. We tried to find a lead vocalist in the beginning but we could never find anybody, so it was like, �We�ll play some shows and��
Curt: ��Let�s do it.�
Trinidad: It�s whatever feels comfortable. There are a few songs that will just jump out at us. There�s also songs like �Out in the Cold� and �Gunfight� that we�re both singing. We�re digging it. We like doing that, y�know.
John: Now how do you guys do the writing?
Curt: Sometimes I come up with riffs, sometimes Clay comes up with a riff. There�s not really a formula. Sometimes we�ll jam on something, think it�s kind of crap, and eight months later we�ll come back and decide we can use parts.
Trinidad: We definitely do it together.
John: Now how about �Last Call�?
Trinidad: That was a one-take jam.
Curt: The record wasn�t long enough. We had the whole thing pretty much done, but it wasn�t long enough. It was one of those deals where it was like� a lot of the time whenever we do a sound check, we going into kind of jam and Joel was like, �Why don�t you just set up in the room and jam?�
John: So is there a 30-minute version out there somewhere?
Curt: Nah, that�s the whole thing. We were just going to use tidbits of it in-between songs. There were some guys at the studio who played Hammond organ and Wurlitzer and all that. Tony Maimone was there - he was in They Might Be Giants and a bunch of stuff like that and is Joel�s partner in the studio. He did the piano and some of the Hammond. And another guy named John did some keyboards and a guy named Matt who works there did some stuff. We actually set up in the room and played live. We came up with the chord progression right there.
John: Now for each of the albums, which are the songs that you think turned out best? What are your favorites from each of the albums?
Trinidad: �Into the Sun� off of Into the Sun. Is that the first song we wrote?
Curt: �Freewheel Rolling� is probably the first song we wrote.
Trinidad: �Into the Sun� is kind of cool for me because it�s kind of a breakaway. My life changed then. Dixie Witch started. We were in a band together, another band that was real trying.
Curt: It was like pulling teeth.
Trinidad: Dixie Witch was born and it was kind of like a release. �Into the Sun� was kind of like to me the turning point. I like that song a lot. I like �Freewheel Rolling,� �Makin� Time.� I always dig that one. And then on One Bird, it�s �The Wheel� and uh. Let me think about that one.
Curt: I like, um.
Trinidad: I forget the songs on �em! (laughs) We don�t even know how to play some of them anymore.
Curt: We�ve forgotten a bunch of old songs.
Trinidad: Songs like �Traveler.�
Curt: Shit, I don�t remember that one. I like �More of a Woman� on that one. Just because that was kind of� That was my divorce song. I like �The Wheel� off that one. Man, I can�t think of half the names of the songs.
Trinidad: �Get Busy.� That�s pretty cool.
This record, man. It�s everything. I like �em all. I like the different directions it kind of goes. �Bridges� is kind of cool. �Ballinger Cross� is really cool because it�s a tribute to my brother who passed away a couple of years ago. Also, �Set the Speed� is cool.
John: Now how do you guys pick the set list?
Trinidad: We try to keep it more with the new stuff but we�re playing some oldies.
Curt: It depends on the flow and it depends on how much time we have.
Trinidad: I think it�s like two from Into the Sun and two from One Bird and the rest is all new stuff.
Curt: Every once in awhile we�ll throw in a James Gang song. Now we�re doing �Rock Candy� by Montrose.
John: You guys are touring pretty extensively for this, aren�t you?
Trinidad: There�s plans for Europe. We�re gonna see what�s going on with that. And we�re going to try to work around that. And we�re going to try to get another full US in.
Curt: We�re tying to figure out how to work it out so we can still pay our bills.
John: And not lose your job.
Curt: Job�s not a big deal. But losing my house?
Trinidad: We�re trying to hook up with shows and tours with bands like Clutch. We�ll see what happens.
John: What else can I ask? Er, what�s some of the best bands you�ve played with?
Curt: There�s a band out in Seattle called The Mos Generator. Fucking amazing.
Trinidad: Yeah!
Curt: There�s also a band from Vancouver called Bright Tiger. They�re like real Thin Lizzy. Dueling guitars, harmonized. Total Thin Lizzy sound.
Trinidad: The Hitch. I like The Brought Low a lot too.
John: Now is it just in New York that you guys play so loud that you blow out the fuses?
Curt: It�s crappy power.
Trinidad: We�ve blown out a couple.
John: You did it at Emissions.
Trinidad: Did we?
John: You were doing �On the Hunt.�
Curt: Oh yeah, we did.
Trinidad: I don�t know why. We�re not that loud.
Curt: We only have 900 watts of tube shit.
John: Now you ever think of recording a live album?
Curt: We actually talked about it. There was one that was supposed to come out for a while.
Trinidad: One day we�ll procure a club for a couple of days. Live track it. We�ll do it one of these days. Gotta find someone who wants to do it with us. I�ll definitely be down with doing it.
