Jamestown Revival
It’s a bitterly cold mid-february day in Toronto. I can hardly think of a better place to meet jamestown Revival than a warm Queen street coffee shop called Niche. I’m here to chat with Jonathan Clay and zack Chance of the austin-based band. They’re in town to play the legendary horseshoe Tavern in support of their new album utah, released the day before.
Every track on the album was recorded straight from the floor with all of the band playing in the same room, at the same time. The result is a collection of songs unburdened by electronic embellishments. With tinges of western rock, folk and even a little southern gospel, it feels like music you’d hear in a pub or hanging out on a back porch with some über cool musician friends. It’s inviting, approachable material; fresh but also familiar sounding. And as I sit down to chat with Jonathan and Zack I’m excited to know more about how this recording came to be.
Can you tell me about the revivalist philosophy and how it played into the recording of Utah?
Jc: I think the revivalist philosophy harkens back to an age where people worked a little bit more with their hands. Where there was a little more self-reliance. There was a little bit more pride in craftsmanship and artisanship. It’s more rootsy. It’s more how people did things before there was an option to get things perfect in Pro Tools; before there was an option to tune your vocals to be on perfect pitch. When you didn’t really have the ability to go back and change it fifty million times, you just had to do it from your heart and you had to let that be it. And that was kind of what we were after.
The two of you have a great stage presence. The confidence you have in each other, as musicians, is evident. Was it hard to bring the full band into that comfort zone the two of you share?
I think it was a lot to throw them into. To be like, “hey, we’re gonna go record this record and sit around and play it.” Honestly, that was the beginnings of playing with the band. We were still learning things about each other. I think the cool thing is that once you’re playing music together and it feels good, then it transcends anything else. You can look around a room and share a moment with somebody you don’t know that well, if it feels good.
How does recording that way compare to playing live?
Zc: Not much different except for you know you’re recording it, so there’s a little more pressure.
Jc: Yeah, I think there’s more pressure and I think the energy is much different when you’re playing in the studio. You can play your instrument differently. I think when you’re playing live, a lot of times you’re digging in real hard. You’re playing a lot louder. It works in that environment. Whereas in the studio… personally, I can play my guitar with a little bit more finesse. Ed can play his drums and get a little bit more tone out of them. Play them a little bit more dynamically. I think that kind of stuff is different. Live I think you lose some of the tonal quality of your instrument because you’re just digging in really hard.
And maybe that’s something we’ll get better at as we mature. At least for right now, I think the songs breath a little bit more in a studio setting.
And when you play the song at six o’clock in the evening the energy is different than when you play it at four o’clock at night.
Jc: Or four o’clock in the morning, as we recorded some of the songs.
Zc: So there’s a sombreness that exists or you’re tired or you’re more reflective. And all those things change it. And so that’s the cool thing for me when I listen back. A song like Medicine, for example, that we recorded at five in the morning sounds like it was recorded at five in the morning when we had a lot of time to be thinking about everything. But it has this kind of sadness to it that the song needed.
Was video an obvious promotional route or was it more of a conscious decision to help spread the Jamestown Revival vibe? Jc: Honestly, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we have some really good friends who are very talented with a video camera. And they’ve been very gracious with their time and with their support of what we’re doing. There’s a guy named Paul Pryor and there’s also Josh Franer. Josh did ‘High into the Wastach’ (The Making of Utah) and Paul just did our California video. Those guys have helped us out huge.
Zc: Basically? We’re some lucky bastards. Our career, thus far in a three year period, boils down to having very talented friends. Whether it be video related or audio engineering or mixing, so you know, ‘it takes a village’. In our case it has for this band. We’ve had some really awesome, generous and talented friends to help us along the way. Jc: That’s no joke.
Zc: There’s no better way to put that.
See more of the interview online at Snapm.ag Tap to see an accoustic performance BY jamestown Revival at the Haus of hipstamatic as part of our Fireside sessions with Filter Magazine.
