Shownotes
Summary
From 2012: Bridget Kearney from Lake Street Dive kicks things off with a deep dive into the roots of her musical journey, revealing that her love for the upright bass began way back in fourth grade, and man, did she hit the ground running! The crew chats about how their eclectic influences and early jam sessions morphed into a unique sound that blends pop, jazz, and a sprinkle of funk, with plenty of witty banter about their less-than-stellar beginnings. They dish on their songwriting process, a mix of personal experimentation and collaborative magic, with each member bringing their own flavor to the table, all while enjoying the ride together. As they gear up for their next album, the excitement is palpable, with plans to capture the energy of their live shows and bring a fresh vibe to their music, promising a blend of whimsy and a touch more maturity in their lyrics. Tune in and catch the good vibes as they share stories, laughs, and a sneak peek into what’s brewing for Lake Street Dive!
Links
- REMINDER: IGNORE ALL LINKS OR EVENTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE FROM 2012
- Toss a few in our Tip Jar!
- Bridget Kearney
- Lake Street Dive
- You may also enjoy this conversation from 2015 with T. Hardy Morris
Show Notes
In this episode of Country Fried Rock, we sit down with Bridget Kearney, upright bassist of Lake Street Dive, for a heartfelt and candid conversation about music, creativity, and the band's evolution. Bridget opens the door to her musical journey and shares how the band found its unique groove.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
- Bridget’s musical roots:
- Her first experiences with music in a school orchestra
- The impact of growing up in a supportive, music-loving family
- How singing in church choirs nurtured her early love for songwriting
- The formation of Lake Street Dive:
- A chance meeting at the New England Conservatory that sparked a band
- Navigating the early days, from basement rehearsals to local Boston gigs
- How their friendship became the glue that held them together through growing pains
- Finding their sound:
- Melding jazz, pop, soul, and a touch of vintage flair
- Realizing the value of their eclectic influences and making it work
- Moments that marked a turning point in their identity as a band
- Inside the creative process:
- How the band approaches collaborative songwriting
- The push-and-pull of differing ideas and how it strengthens their music
- Personal anecdotes that shape their lyrics and arrangements
- Reflections on growth and connection:
- From small clubs to major stages: what’s changed, and what’s stayed the same
- Why their music continues to resonate with a broad and diverse audience
- The joy of creating music with people you trust and admire
Why You Should Listen:
This episode isn’t just about music; it’s about connection, persistence, and the beauty of creative collaboration. Whether you're an aspiring musician, a longtime fan, or just someone who loves a good story, Bridget’s insights and the journey of Lake Street Dive offer inspiration and a deeper appreciation for the art behind the sound.
Listen now and step inside the rhythm and soul of Lake Street Dive.
Chapters
- 00:09 - Introduction to Lake Street Dive
- 06:51 - Formation of Lake Street Dive
- 15:11 - The Evolution of Sound and Style
- 16:50 - The Evolution of Lake Street Dive's Sound
- 25:44 - The Next Recording Process
Takeaways
- The band Lake Street Dive originated from casual college jam sessions, evolving into a tight-knit group through friendship and shared experiences.
- Bridget, a member of Lake Street Dive, emphasizes the importance of early exposure to music for developing creativity and songwriting skills.
- Their musical journey reflects a transition from jazz roots to pop influences, showcasing adaptability in their sound and performance styles.
- The upcoming album aims for a more collaborative production process, highlighting the band's growth and desire for a cohesive creative direction.
- Rachel Price notes that the lyrics in their new material will lean towards more mature themes while still retaining a sense of whimsy and fun.
- Their live performances have become a crucial element of their identity, as they strive to create an engaging atmosphere that resonates with audiences.
Recommended If You Like
Country Fried Rock, Lake Street Dive interview, music creativity, songwriting process, musicianship inspiration, jazz band evolution, Boston music scene, pop music influences, live music performance, band dynamics, music education, indie music culture, songwriting collaboration, music production techniques, live concert recording, folk and pop fusion, contemporary jazz influences, band formation story, music career development, Lake Street Dive new album
Transcript
Speaker A
00:00:00.800 - 00:00:14.960
Welcome to Country Fried Rock, where we talk with musicians to find out what inspires their creativity. Country Fried Rock music uncovered. My guests today on Country Fried Rock are various members of the band Lake Street Dive.
Welcome to Country Fried Rock.
Speaker B
00:00:14.960 - 00:00:15.600
Thank you.
Speaker A
00:00:15.680 - 00:00:18.160
So we've got Bridget for the moment. Thanks for being with us.
Speaker B
00:00:18.160 - 00:00:19.360
Yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker A
00:00:19.360 - 00:00:21.200
Have you always been an upright bass player?
Speaker B
00:00:21.200 - 00:00:31.390
Yes. I started on upright bass when I was in fourth grade and never really spoke. Switch to electric.
I've experimented with the electric, but I'm pretty awful at it.
Speaker A
00:00:32.350 - 00:00:33.710
So was that like, school band?
Speaker B
00:00:33.790 - 00:00:35.070
Yeah, school orchestra.
Speaker A
00:00:35.310 - 00:00:37.310
Did you get to choose it or was that assigned?
Speaker B
00:00:37.390 - 00:00:53.470
Well, no, I chose it. The school orchestra started a year before the school band, so originally I wanted to play the drums.
I was really excited about playing an instrument, so I wanted to get started as soon as possible. And orchestra was what there was in fourth grade, so I picked the bass.
Speaker A
00:00:53.620 - 00:00:56.020
Gotcha. So what kind of stuff were y' all playing?
Speaker B
00:00:56.420 - 00:01:02.020
Pachelbel's Canon. Let's see a Shokin Farewell as a.
Speaker A
00:01:02.020 - 00:01:04.660
Fourth grader, you know, like, Pachelbel's Canon spoke to you?
Speaker B
00:01:06.020 - 00:01:24.260
Yeah, I guess it did. I mean, I guess I was mostly just excited about learning an instrument.
And then as I got into, like, junior high and high school, started playing more different styles of music. I had a rock band called Metro Pilot, and I had in the school jazz band as well, and I had a band called Sax Attacked.
Speaker A
00:01:24.260 - 00:01:25.460
Were y' all writing your own music?
Speaker B
00:01:25.780 - 00:01:47.620
Yeah, I started writing music. I guess I started writing music on the piano when I was pretty young. Like, probably maybe even before I started playing the bass.
Then in junior high, with the rock band, I started writing, you know, pop songs, lyrics and everything. I've always felt lucky that I started doing that early because I got some of the really bad ones out of the way.
Speaker A
00:01:48.370 - 00:01:55.810
I'm just curious. I haven't had a lot of people who started writing that early. What was prompting you internally to write at that point?
Speaker B
00:01:56.210 - 00:02:13.810
I mean, I think I just was really into music. Like, the youngest songs that I wrote.
You know, I was just kind of, like, sitting at the piano and liked coming up with things that sounded good to me, which is, like, to this day, kind of the way that I approach songwriting is sitting down with an instrument and trying to come up with something that I would want to listen to myself.
Speaker C
00:02:13.890 - 00:02:14.050
And.
Speaker B
00:02:14.200 - 00:02:25.440
And so I think it was just the, like, excitement of experimentation and also of, like, coming up with something that sounded good to me. And then I hear people humming, and I hummed myself. And I was like, wow, I invented.
Speaker A
00:02:25.440 - 00:02:32.200
That, you know, Were you being influenced by things that you were listening to at that point, or was it always just something that came from inside?
Speaker B
00:02:32.440 - 00:02:52.080
And I was listening to mostly, like, the stuff that my parents were listening to. You know, pop songwriters, folk songwriters. I guess, like, Paul Simon was always around. The Beatles were always around.
Probably there were some influences from, like, the top 40 radio stations that I was listening to, although I prefer not to claim them.
Speaker A
00:02:52.480 - 00:02:56.000
There was also family support for creating music.
Speaker B
00:02:56.320 - 00:03:21.610
Yeah, totally. Yeah. We all started taking piano lessons when we were in kindergarten, and we, you know, sang in the church choir and stuff.
So there was music around the house a lot.
I think that's definitely an important factor in just, like, being excited about music and also having your ears develop sort of, like, without you even doing any work. You become a better musician if you're listening to music and it's around your environment.
Speaker A
00:03:22.090 - 00:03:23.610
What kind of church choir?
Speaker B
00:03:23.770 - 00:03:50.100
The Lutheran church. And actually my church had three or four separate choirs. There was, like, Cherub Choir, which was, I think, even pre kindergarten.
You could start singing in the church choir. And then there was junior choir, senior choir, choristers. And we would sing, like, I don't know, just things that were adapted for church choir.
But there was, like, four parts. It was definitely a good introduction to, like, singing melodies.
Speaker A
00:03:50.420 - 00:03:55.140
At what point did it become obvious to you that this was going to be what you were going to pursue?
Speaker B
00:03:55.540 - 00:04:49.870
Guess it was, like, my main interest starting in junior high or high school. And I also, like, wanted to be a musician since I was very young. You know, again, like, as soon as I started playing, although it's like the sort of.
At that time, it was like saying I wanted to be a fireman or an astronaut. But, you know, it just happened to be the thing that I clung to from, you know, very young.
And then, you know, I went to college for English and for music. So, I mean, even at that point, I wasn't, like, totally sold that it was all going to work out.
I think a big part of what helped me to make the jump to, like, being professional musician was just meeting a lot of other professional musicians, like, through my college professors, different musicians that I would go see playing around Boston and New York. You know, there's definitely some, like, good role models that I would see.
Mostly, I guess, peers that were slightly older than me, where I was like, wow, you can really actually do this.
Speaker A
00:04:50.190 - 00:04:54.110
With double majoring with English. Did that influence the type of writing that you were doing?
Speaker B
00:04:54.350 - 00:05:08.600
I've never been a really cerebral lyricist. Or at least I don't think of myself that way.
So, you know, I. I've never, like, sat down with super academic type of goals for, like, the piece that I was writing.
Speaker A
00:05:08.680 - 00:05:09.720
Sure, sure.
Speaker B
00:05:09.720 - 00:05:28.070
Like I said earlier, I kind of sit down and try to come up with something that I would like listening to. But I think the education that I got from an English department informed my writing in a way that's kind of subconscious.
Like, words a lot and like reading. Do a lot of reading to this day. And I think those things come out.
Speaker A
00:05:28.070 - 00:05:38.750
In the songs as you were able to get out and about when you were in school, and particularly with the Boston and New York with such great opportunity to hear people. Where did that lead for you?
Speaker B
00:05:39.390 - 00:06:01.940
Well, I moved to New York as soon as I finished college. And at the time, I was kind of thinking that I wanted to move there to pick up some extra work as, like, a side musician, as a bass player.
You know, that's oftentimes, like, a good thing to do to supplement your own sort of creative endeavors is play in other people's projects. Everybody's always looking for a bass player.
Speaker A
00:06:02.100 - 00:06:02.660
Yep.
Speaker B
00:06:03.140 - 00:06:43.270
Just the way that things sort of worked out. It ended up that the two bands that I sort of play with almost full time right now were the ones that I was already in before I moved to New York.
Lake Street Dive. We started playing together our sophomore year of college. And, like, when I moved to New York, that wasn't even, like, close to full time.
We were playing maybe, I don't know, 40 gigs a year or so.
And things have just grown in a really nice way where, like, sort of unexpectedly, you know, I am making my living, like, completely off of bands that I am writing for and, you know, started and have seen from the ground up. That was really exciting to watch that all happen.
Speaker C
00:06:43.590 - 00:06:51.350
Hey, this is Rachel Price from Lake Street Dive. And if you want to know some more about us, check us out@www.lakestreetdive.com.
Speaker A
00:06:51.830 - 00:06:55.190
So how did you all come together as Lake Street Dive then in school?
Speaker B
00:06:55.510 - 00:07:02.310
Well, maybe this is a good point to pass you off to Mike Olson. He is the founder of our band. He'll tell you that story.
Speaker D
00:07:02.550 - 00:07:04.550
I love this story. This is Mike Olson.
Speaker A
00:07:04.550 - 00:07:07.230
Hey, Mike Olson. I'm Sloan Spencer. Welcome to Country Fried Rock.
Speaker D
00:07:07.230 - 00:07:08.750
Hi. Thank you very much for having us.
Speaker A
00:07:08.750 - 00:07:13.510
We're thrilled to have you. All right, so just from seeing you all live, I know that you all have two mics in the band.
Speaker D
00:07:13.590 - 00:07:17.190
We do have two mics, which is. I'm the yellow mic. That's right. The other one is Brown Mike.
Speaker A
00:07:17.190 - 00:07:20.390
Okay. We have Yellow Mike and Brown Mike. And Yellow Mike also plays the horns.
Speaker D
00:07:20.720 - 00:07:21.200
That's true.
Speaker A
00:07:21.280 - 00:07:25.360
The question was, how did you all end up getting together then as a band in college?
Speaker D
00:07:25.760 - 00:07:44.720
It was just totally like. I mean, it was more or less an accident. I knew all three of the other members as either friends or friends of friends.
The really cool thing about NEC was that New England Conservatory where we went to college. That you could essentially walk up to anyone and say, hey, you want to play? And they would always say, yes.
That was really, like, the coolest thing about it.
Speaker A
00:07:44.720 - 00:07:45.440
That is cool.
Speaker D
00:07:45.520 - 00:08:25.960
Yeah. So it was essentially just that, seeing them in the halls and saying, hey, when are you free to hang out and do some playing?
You know, we picked a room and sat down and just began. And it was pretty inauspicious, really, at the beginning, because it was kind of an odd instrumentation. Drums, bass, trumpet, voice.
And really, in all frankness, wasn't cool or good.
And so it was, you know, if I could somehow step through an ethereal door into the past and visit us that day with my thumbs up, I kind of wish I'd be able to do that. Because there was no indication that we would be good in that first day or month or first year.
Speaker A
00:08:26.040 - 00:08:27.320
So why did you keep at it?
Speaker D
00:08:28.360 - 00:08:32.680
That's a good question. Well, we're really good friends, which I think helps.
Speaker E
00:08:32.680 - 00:08:33.160
Yeah.
Speaker D
00:08:33.240 - 00:09:11.640
Because if we had been, like, intolerant or hostile towards one another, the fact that the music wasn't very good wouldn't have helped. But fortunately, we just purely and simply enjoy one another's company.
And over time, as the music improved, it was kind of like the icing on the cake, which is maybe backward from the model that a lot of other bands experience, you know, good music, and then they become friends over time. You know, it's probably unrealistic to think that we would still be playing awful music because we're such good friends after eight years.
But fortunately, thank God, the music improved. And so we can sort of hug one another after the gig and hug our fans.
Speaker A
00:09:11.800 - 00:09:20.920
When you all were going from what you describe as not very good to where you are now, how did the sound itself develop? Because it's become something very...
Transcripts
Welcome to Country Fried Rock, where we talk with musicians to find out what inspires their creativity.
Speaker A:Country Fried Rock music uncovered.
Speaker A:My guests today on Country Fried Rock are various members of the band Lake Street Dive.
Speaker A:Welcome to Country Fried Rock.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:So we've got Bridget for the moment.
Speaker A:Thanks for being with us.
Speaker B:Yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker A:Have you always been an upright bass player?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:I started on upright bass when I was in fourth grade and never really spoke.
Speaker B:Switch to electric.
Speaker B:I've experimented with the electric, but I'm pretty awful at it.
Speaker A:So was that like, school band?
Speaker B:Yeah, school orchestra.
Speaker A:Did you get to choose it or was that assigned?
Speaker B:Well, no, I chose it.
Speaker B:The school orchestra started a year before the school band, so originally I wanted to play the drums.
Speaker B:I was really excited about playing an instrument, so I wanted to get started as soon as possible.
Speaker B:And orchestra was what there was in fourth grade, so I picked the bass.
Speaker A:Gotcha.
Speaker A:So what kind of stuff were y' all playing?
Speaker B:Pachelbel's Canon.
Speaker B:Let's see a Shokin Farewell as a.
Speaker A:Fourth grader, you know, like, Pachelbel's Canon spoke to you?
Speaker B:Yeah, I guess it did.
Speaker B:I mean, I guess I was mostly just excited about learning an instrument.
Speaker B:And then as I got into, like, junior high and high school, started playing more different styles of music.
Speaker B:I had a rock band called Metro Pilot, and I had in the school jazz band as well, and I had a band called Sax Attacked.
Speaker A:Were y' all writing your own music?
Speaker B:Yeah, I started writing music.
Speaker B:I guess I started writing music on the piano when I was pretty young.
Speaker B:Like, probably maybe even before I started playing the bass.
Speaker B:Then in junior high, with the rock band, I started writing, you know, pop songs, lyrics and everything.
Speaker B:I've always felt lucky that I started doing that early because I got some of the really bad ones out of the way.
Speaker A:I'm just curious.
Speaker A:I haven't had a lot of people who started writing that early.
Speaker A:What was prompting you internally to write at that point?
Speaker B:I mean, I think I just was really into music.
Speaker B:Like, the youngest songs that I wrote.
Speaker B:You know, I was just kind of, like, sitting at the piano and liked coming up with things that sounded good to me, which is, like, to this day, kind of the way that I approach songwriting is sitting down with an instrument and trying to come up with something that I would want to listen to myself.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker B:And so I think it was just the, like, excitement of experimentation and also of, like, coming up with something that sounded good to me.
Speaker B:And then I hear people humming, and I hummed myself.
Speaker B:And I was like, wow, I invented.
Speaker A:That, you know, Were you being influenced by things that you were listening to at that point, or was it always just something that came from inside?
Speaker B:And I was listening to mostly, like, the stuff that my parents were listening to.
Speaker B:You know, pop songwriters, folk songwriters.
Speaker B:I guess, like, Paul Simon was always around.
Speaker B:The Beatles were always around.
Speaker B:Probably there were some influences from, like, the top 40 radio stations that I was listening to, although I prefer not to claim them.
Speaker A:There was also family support for creating music.
Speaker B:Yeah, totally.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:We all started taking piano lessons when we were in kindergarten, and we, you know, sang in the church choir and stuff.
Speaker B:So there was music around the house a lot.
Speaker B:I think that's definitely an important factor in just, like, being excited about music and also having your ears develop sort of, like, without you even doing any work.
Speaker B:You become a better musician if you're listening to music and it's around your environment.
Speaker A:What kind of church choir?
Speaker B:The Lutheran church.
Speaker B:And actually my church had three or four separate choirs.
Speaker B:There was, like, Cherub Choir, which was, I think, even pre kindergarten.
Speaker B:You could start singing in the church choir.
Speaker B:And then there was junior choir, senior choir, choristers.
Speaker B:And we would sing, like, I don't know, just things that were adapted for church choir.
Speaker B:But there was, like, four parts.
Speaker B:It was definitely a good introduction to, like, singing melodies.
Speaker A:At what point did it become obvious to you that this was going to be what you were going to pursue?
Speaker B:Guess it was, like, my main interest starting in junior high or high school.
Speaker B:And I also, like, wanted to be a musician since I was very young.
Speaker B:You know, again, like, as soon as I started playing, although it's like the sort of.
Speaker B:At that time, it was like saying I wanted to be a fireman or an astronaut.
Speaker B:But, you know, it just happened to be the thing that I clung to from, you know, very young.
Speaker B:And then, you know, I went to college for English and for music.
Speaker B:So, I mean, even at that point, I wasn't, like, totally sold that it was all going to work out.
Speaker B:I think a big part of what helped me to make the jump to, like, being professional musician was just meeting a lot of other professional musicians, like, through my college professors, different musicians that I would go see playing around Boston and New York.
Speaker B:You know, there's definitely some, like, good role models that I would see.
Speaker B:Mostly, I guess, peers that were slightly older than me, where I was like, wow, you can really actually do this.
Speaker A:With double majoring with English.
Speaker A:Did that influence the type of writing that you were doing?
Speaker B:I've never been a really cerebral lyricist.
Speaker B:Or at least I don't think of myself that way.
Speaker B:So, you know, I. I've never, like, sat down with super academic type of goals for, like, the piece that I was writing.
Speaker A:Sure, sure.
Speaker B:Like I said earlier, I kind of sit down and try to come up with something that I would like listening to.
Speaker B:But I think the education that I got from an English department informed my writing in a way that's kind of subconscious.
Speaker B:Like, words a lot and like reading.
Speaker B:Do a lot of reading to this day.
Speaker B:And I think those things come out.
Speaker A:In the songs as you were able to get out and about when you were in school, and particularly with the Boston and New York with such great opportunity to hear people.
Speaker A:Where did that lead for you?
Speaker B:Well, I moved to New York as soon as I finished college.
Speaker B:And at the time, I was kind of thinking that I wanted to move there to pick up some extra work as, like, a side musician, as a bass player.
Speaker B:You know, that's oftentimes, like, a good thing to do to supplement your own sort of creative endeavors is play in other people's projects.
Speaker B:Everybody's always looking for a bass player.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker B:Just the way that things sort of worked out.
Speaker B:It ended up that the two bands that I sort of play with almost full time right now were the ones that I was already in before I moved to New York.
Speaker B:Lake Street Dive.
Speaker B:We started playing together our sophomore year of college.
Speaker B:And, like, when I moved to New York, that wasn't even, like, close to full time.
Speaker B:We were playing maybe, I don't know, 40 gigs a year or so.
Speaker B:And things have just grown in a really nice way where, like, sort of unexpectedly, you know, I am making my living, like, completely off of bands that I am writing for and, you know, started and have seen from the ground up.
Speaker B:That was really exciting to watch that all happen.
Speaker C:Hey, this is Rachel Price from Lake Street Dive.
Speaker C:And if you want to know some more about us, check us out@www.lakestreetdive.com.
Speaker A:So how did you all come together as Lake Street Dive then in school?
Speaker B:Well, maybe this is a good point to pass you off to Mike Olson.
Speaker B:He is the founder of our band.
Speaker B:He'll tell you that story.
Speaker D:I love this story.
Speaker D:This is Mike Olson.
Speaker A:Hey, Mike Olson.
Speaker A:I'm Sloan Spencer.
Speaker A:Welcome to Country Fried Rock.
Speaker D:Hi.
Speaker D:Thank you very much for having us.
Speaker A:We're thrilled to have you.
Speaker A:All right, so just from seeing you all live, I know that you all have two mics in the band.
Speaker D:We do have two mics, which is.
Speaker D:I'm the yellow mic.
Speaker D:That's right.
Speaker D:The other one is Brown Mike.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:We have Yellow Mike and Brown Mike.
Speaker A:And Yellow Mike also plays the horns.
Speaker D:That's true.
Speaker A:The question was, how did you all end up getting together then as a band in college?
Speaker D:It was just totally like.
Speaker D:I mean, it was more or less an accident.
Speaker D:I knew all three of the other members as either friends or friends of friends.
Speaker D:The really cool thing about NEC was that New England Conservatory where we went to college.
Speaker D:That you could essentially walk up to anyone and say, hey, you want to play?
Speaker D:And they would always say, yes.
Speaker D:That was really, like, the coolest thing about it.
Speaker A:That is cool.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:So it was essentially just that, seeing them in the halls and saying, hey, when are you free to hang out and do some playing?
Speaker D:You know, we picked a room and sat down and just began.
Speaker D:And it was pretty inauspicious, really, at the beginning, because it was kind of an odd instrumentation.
Speaker D:Drums, bass, trumpet, voice.
Speaker D:And really, in all frankness, wasn't cool or good.
Speaker D:And so it was, you know, if I could somehow step through an ethereal door into the past and visit us that day with my thumbs up, I kind of wish I'd be able to do that.
Speaker D:Because there was no indication that we would be good in that first day or month or first year.
Speaker A:So why did you keep at it?
Speaker D:That's a good question.
Speaker D:Well, we're really good friends, which I think helps.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker D:Because if we had been, like, intolerant or hostile towards one another, the fact that the music wasn't very good wouldn't have helped.
Speaker D:But fortunately, we just purely and simply enjoy one another's company.
Speaker D:And over time, as the music improved, it was kind of like the icing on the cake, which is maybe backward from the model that a lot of other bands experience, you know, good music, and then they become friends over time.
Speaker D:You know, it's probably unrealistic to think that we would still be playing awful music because we're such good friends after eight years.
Speaker D:But fortunately, thank God, the music improved.
Speaker D:And so we can sort of hug one another after the gig and hug our fans.
Speaker A:When you all were going from what you describe as not very good to where you are now, how did the sound itself develop?
Speaker A:Because it's become something very identifiable.
Speaker D:I think that, you know, it has been a steady march in the direction of pop music, that's for sure.
Speaker D:You know, when we began, we were.
Speaker D:We were all jazz students.
Speaker D:And that was totally our frame of reference.
Speaker D:And really, like, to take it one step further, all of the jazz units functioned without A piano or guitar or, you know, harmonic instrument that we were familiar with were like the really sort of esoteric jazz ensembles.
Speaker D:So early on we were probably closer to Ornette Coleman, to Carole King, but that has definitely reversed itself.
Speaker D:Ornette Coleman is no more than a speck in the distance.
Speaker A:Jazz has its own language.
Speaker A:And there's so many different rabbit holes down which one could go.
Speaker D:Yes, for sure.
Speaker A:From the casual listener's standpoint.
Speaker A:Is it the vocals?
Speaker D:The vocals are suggestive of sort of the neo soul revival.
Speaker D:We have a lot to thank.
Speaker D:Bank in that world, whomever else in that style, the Adele, you know, they've really helped pave the way for us.
Speaker D:I think, in a lot of ways, you know, if anything still refers back to jazz, it's the trumpet and bass solos that you'll hear over the course of a night in one of our set, you know, because there's still a little bebop that shines through here and.
Speaker A:There as professional musicians with a jazz background who came together then have developed this sound.
Speaker A:How did your performances evolve, people?
Speaker A:Because it's a pretty well crafted show at this point.
Speaker D:Well, thanks for saying so.
Speaker D:Any band experiences a degree of trial and error.
Speaker D:And we have really.
Speaker D:The Boston fan base that we have is evidently a very forgiving one.
Speaker D:Because we just had to sort of figure out that the jazzier aspect of our show just didn't go over as well.
Speaker D:And the more pop music we started writing and listening to and performing, and when we would throw in a tune by hall and Oates, you know, by the Jackson 5, and to see the crowd's reaction to that was very eye opening for me personally.
Speaker D:Who doesn't Like, I didn't even listen to pop music in high school or even the beginning of college.
Speaker D:So to see the audience react to George Michael tunes was kind of like, wow.
Speaker D:I guess they call it pop music for a reason.
Speaker D:I think that that's therein lies the sort of forced evolution of the band.
Speaker D:You just like the music better, you know, pop music better than a lot of jazz that we hear nowadays.
Speaker A:So then what did you listen to in high school?
Speaker D:You know, I had this Count Basie import that I just loved.
Speaker D:Sounds so lame.
Speaker D:Yeah, it was just, you know, my dad played a lot of jazz in college and as an adult.
Speaker D:And he and I would play duets together at home.
Speaker D:He's a saxophone player.
Speaker D:We would just, like, play jazz.
Speaker D:And so I was really into listening to, you know, Miles Davis, Chet Baker and all these jazz guys.
Speaker D:And it wasn't Until I really started hanging out with the people in my band.
Speaker D:Specifically our drummer, Mike Calabrese, who turned me on to David Bowie and a whole host of other 60s, 70s rock and roll artists.
Speaker D:Wow.
Speaker D:This stuff is also really cool and valuable and has a lot of artistic merit and harmonic diversity and all these things that I thought were just hallmarks of jazz.
Speaker D:Watch MTV and I would totally turn my nose up, but there's no reason to because it's as artistically and creatively satisfying if you find the right band as any.
Speaker D:Jazz music music.
Speaker A:So did you all feel like you were shooting in the dark as you were evolving as a band, or was it even less than that?
Speaker A:It was more like, okay, this worked on this gig and this didn't, so next time, let's try whatever.
Speaker D:It's probably, you know, a combination of both.
Speaker D:You know, we didn't do a ton of playing, I guess, but we did a lot of sort of gigs over and over again at the same bars in Boston.
Speaker D:So we were able to observe the change over time.
Speaker D:But shooting in the dark is.
Speaker D:Is probably as accurate a description as any.
Speaker D:Especially it apply.
Speaker D:As it applies to.
Speaker D:I heard Bridget say that she got a lot of her bad tunes out of the way in high school.
Speaker D:I had no such luxury because I, you know, the first songs that I wrote with words were for Lake Street Dive when we were all in college, and there were some real doozy.
Speaker D:And so it has been a real, like, you know, the blind leading the blind, in a sense.
Speaker A:How do those either become better songs or get weeded out when y' all are working as a group?
Speaker D:They got weeded out when I observed the laughter from the rest of the band as I would play a demo for them.
Speaker D:Or like, I just got a scowl from Mike Galleries.
Speaker D:He doesn't agree with that necessarily.
Speaker D:Personally, there's such a tradition coming from jazz, critical listening and transcription and stuff like this.
Speaker D:And so I've applied a lot of that.
Speaker D:Some of my favorite pop records, learning a song, analyzing it.
Speaker D:And I do a lot of sort of.
Speaker D:Sort of modeling a tune after a tune that I love, saying, okay, it has this kind of progression, or it is this kind of like, you know, wordplay or a chorus, verse, chorus, verse, verse, whatever, and just experimenting with songwriting in that way and realizing what I like, what I'm, you know, perhaps most successful with, what translates best to the band.
Speaker D:It's been a long process figuring out what works the best.
Speaker A:You go for structure frequently.
Speaker D:Yes, structure sure is a big one.
Speaker D:Also, like, you Know, thematic content.
Speaker D:For the longest time, I didn't think I could write a song with the word love in it because that sounded too cheesy to me.
Speaker D:But then, you know, you listen to some records and every song has the word love in it.
Speaker D:You know, that sort of thing.
Speaker D:Like, just figuring out what works based on what has worked for people in the past.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:And so when did it start working for you?
Speaker D:That's hard to say.
Speaker D:You know, most recent record had some songs that I wrote that I thought were okay.
Speaker D:I still, every once in a while, write a song I think is okay, and then sometimes write a song that I think, why did I do that?
Speaker D:That's awful.
Speaker D:So it's still, you know, it's.
Speaker D:I would be really remiss in saying that the process is over.
Speaker C:This is Rachel, Michael, Bridget, Mike of Lake Street Dive, and you're listening to Country Fried Rock.
Speaker A:When you all got to the point of the first recording, where were you all in your development and your songwriting interaction as a first one?
Speaker D:That was our infancy, totally.
Speaker D:You know, Bridget won a songwriting competition.
Speaker D:So all of a sudden, we were flush with cash and thought that, you know, the best thing to do would be to record a record.
Speaker D:Didn't know what we were going for in terms of production style, what we wanted to have the overall sound to be.
Speaker D:We had these tunes, and they all made the record.
Speaker D:We really didn't have that many songs, so there wasn't even, like, which ones are best that we can choose from.
Speaker D:Still thought that we were.
Speaker D:Had a big foot in the jazz store.
Speaker D:That was such a learning procedure because we listened back and go, ooh, ah.
Speaker D:Oh, my feelings.
Speaker D:Ouch.
Speaker D:You know, that sort of thing.
Speaker D:Yeah, we were babies.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker D:I'm gonna pass you off to Mike Calabrese, our eloquent drummer.
Speaker A:Perfect.
Speaker D:It was nice to talk to you.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:You, too.
Speaker A:Bye.
Speaker C:Mike.
Speaker E:Hello.
Speaker A:Hey, Mike.
Speaker A:How are you?
Speaker D:Good.
Speaker E:How are you doing?
Speaker A:I am well.
Speaker A:I'm Sloan Spencer.
Speaker A:Thanks for being on Country Fried Rock.
Speaker E:Hey, Sloan, thanks for having us.
Speaker A:I already like you because you're a David Bowie fan.
Speaker E:Oh, awesome.
Speaker E:Yeah, I'm glad Mike brought that up.
Speaker E:So which era of David Bowie definitely just passed?
Speaker E:Early Bowie.
Speaker E:You know, he released that sort of, like, psychedelic folk rock album just entitled David Bowie.
Speaker E:And then he did Space Oddity.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker E:And then I sort of love him, starting with Hunky Dory.
Speaker E:And I love Ziggy Stardust, of course.
Speaker A:That's my favorite.
Speaker E:Aladdin Sane is I'm trying to get into right now.
Speaker E:I listened to it once before, and I was sort of sc.
Speaker E:But Yellow Mike recently brought it up again, and I'm gonna try.
Speaker E:But I also love Young Americans.
Speaker E:That's also a favorite of mine.
Speaker A:When Michael and I were talking, he was talking about your first record as being baby steps or first steps.
Speaker A:And I said, so as you all were getting ready to head in to make the next recording, what was it that you all knew, as a group, you wanted to bring to the process?
Speaker E:Well, we knew that we wanted to solicit some help from a good friend of ours, Christopher McDonald, who we also went to school with.
Speaker E:We knew him as not only a fantastic keyboard player, but a good recording engineer.
Speaker E:And we knew he had a great ear and knew that his keyboard skills could also find their way onto the album.
Speaker E:So we brought him in as sort of a producer, an engineer, and he ended up mixing the album.
Speaker E:And that was definitely a step in the right direction because it was good to have a set of ears that were a third party.
Speaker E:If we would necessarily get too attached to something, he'd be able to say, like, just calm down and let's try this.
Speaker E:He was also very calm, which was nice, you know, because making a record can be pretty stressful.
Speaker E:So that was one of the changes we made.
Speaker A:And so by working with someone with whom you were already familiar, how did that assist?
Speaker E:It assisted us in being comfortable with the choices he would help us make because we trusted him, trusted his musicality, and knew he would be positive no matter what the situation was.
Speaker E:It was a lifesaver to have him there because we were still, if I can continue the metaphor, adrift in a sea of ignorance, really, when it came to being in a studio.
Speaker E:Having him there to sort of just like, set the tone and the mood and have us feel trustworthy of the process made us feel really good.
Speaker E:And I think it opened us up in a lot of ways.
Speaker A:In terms of defining your style, at what point did that come for you?
Speaker E:For me, at least, I think it happened actually in the middle of making that record.
Speaker E:I had always felt that, for lack of a better word, we tried to be funky sometimes.
Speaker E:You know, we definitely had the jazz thing, but, you know, it was always my dream to sort, especially when I was that age, to, like, be in a funk band or a hip hop band.
Speaker E:And I think I sort of, like, always tried to play grooves like that.
Speaker E:And, you know, it's sort of.
Speaker E:As we introduced more rock and roll influences, it definitely started getting to that point.
Speaker E:And we were recording a song called this paddleball game, and that's on Promises, Promises.
Speaker E:And we were listening back to the mixes, and I remember very well, we were.
Speaker E:We were sort of like, wow, this sounds pretty different.
Speaker E:And I have.
Speaker E:You know, Rachel was just, like, grooving out to it, and she just, at one point, just went, we're funky, y'.
Speaker A:All.
Speaker E:You know, she just, like.
Speaker E:It started to.
Speaker E:It was like we, like, come across this side of us that I think we had never realized.
Speaker E:That was one of the points where we started to head in that direction.
Speaker A:Then as you went out and were performing the songs that were ultimately on that record, what changed for you all live?
Speaker E:Well, we just sort of got rowdier because it was around that time that we started a resident at a club in Boston up in Cambridge called Toad.
Speaker E:And they had a really.
Speaker E:They had a really great crowd.
Speaker E:Pretty much every night you went in there, and they always had really good live music.
Speaker E:And they were the type of crowd that would.
Speaker E:They would listen to what was going on on the stage, but they would also be sort of bawdy.
Speaker E:And that was really cool.
Speaker E:And I think we started playing those songs and they got more and more energetic and maybe faster, and maybe we added a little more activity once we realized we could do that.
Speaker E:It was those slower, you know, more sensitive numbers that didn't join in the set list rotation anymore.
Speaker E:So we sort of started to realize that that was where it was at.
Speaker E:It was like making people dance, making people feel good, giving them something exciting to listen to, was definitely within our ability and something we should pursue.
Speaker E:And I think after that, the songwriting changed.
Speaker A:And so in terms of the process of writing after that, Aha.
Speaker A:Experience for you all, how did you all then change the way you were working together towards creating songs?
Speaker E:You know, when we got together to learn new material and somebody had a couple that they were fleshing out, we would gravitate more towards the ones that were more upbeat, or we would think to ourselves, like, I'm.
Speaker E:You know, I don't feel like really bringing this, the Lake Street Dive, because it doesn't really sound like a tune that could be dance worthy.
Speaker E:You know, at least that's how I felt.
Speaker E:I was thinking.
Speaker E:You know, I remember at one point I was, you know, working on some songs in my little studio in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and, like, I'd been listening to a lot of Bill Wit Withers, and I sort of, like, wrote this little groove and recorded a demo of it, and I was like, hey, guys, just listen to this.
Speaker E:And once again, I think I heard Rachel say, wow, this is funky.
Speaker E:Like, okay, I guess this can be a Lake street dive song.
Speaker E:It's like, it has sort of a certain style of groove to it that, you know, we can all get behind and sort of know how to do now that we've been playing that way.
Speaker E:So, at least for me, that's what it was like.
Speaker E:And Mike got more into David Bowie and wanted to write more rock tunes.
Speaker E:And, you know, we would all listen to music together when we went on tour.
Speaker E:And I think everybody sort of subliminally figured out that they wanted to write the type of tune that we loved listening to in the van.
Speaker A:What do y' all agree on in the van?
Speaker E:Tons of stuff.
Speaker E:We agree on the Beatles, we agree on Paul Simon, but we also agree on some more modern stuff, even more chilled out stuff.
Speaker E:Like we like listening to Gillian Welch.
Speaker E:We popped one of her albums in recently and that was great.
Speaker E:We also listened to people that we know personally, like Anais Mitchell, sort of the queen of the folk scene, as some people put it, and she's awesome and writes great tunes and we like listening to that stuff, and she's pretty groovy, too.
Speaker E:And we also love this band called Rubble Bucket, and they're straight up, we're an afrobeat band.
Speaker E:Then went sort of in the direction of more like electronic production, but they still do it live really well.
Speaker E:And it's like this funky dance band and they're just unbelievable.
Speaker E:We agree on a lot of different things.
Speaker E:I think everyone in the band can agree when music is good, good, and that's sort of the only thing we care about.
Speaker C:Hey, Sloan.
Speaker C:It's Rachel Price from Lake Street Debt.
Speaker A:All of you write for the band?
Speaker E:We do.
Speaker A:And how does that work at this point?
Speaker E:We.
Speaker E:We've really gotten into making garageband demos and I think we were doing that before, you know, now that when we're off the road, we're always away from each other.
Speaker E:It's just gotten to the point where we use it more and send out emails to everybody, because when we were in school, we would have time to get together and rehearse a lot more.
Speaker E:Even if it were just like, you know, brushes on a New York Times in my living room and we'd be able to play these songs live for one another.
Speaker E:So, yeah, right now it's just like we produce our little garage band demos and send them out to everybody because it's still primarily, I would say, 99%.
Speaker E:We write songs ourselves and bring them to the band, and then the band realizes Them fully.
Speaker E:Each person has an idea in mind of what the song should be, and we figure out how this band should play it.
Speaker A:Y' all have been hitting the road really heavily recently.
Speaker A:How is that changing things for you all?
Speaker E:As always, we just get more and more comfortable playing with one another and sort of we're still figuring each other out and figuring out how to play live together in a variety of settings.
Speaker E:Because one of the things that a live band really needs to learn how to do is to adapt to the room you're playing in.
Speaker E:So with every sound system being pretty much different and the talent level of each sound guy from venue to venue, if there even is one, you know, varying all the time, we sort of learn how to deal with those eccentricities that arise, how specific each venue is.
Speaker E:So it's a lot of that.
Speaker E:It's a lot of just like remembering how we sound and figuring out how to adapt and apply that to every room we play in.
Speaker E:We're getting used to playing each other's songs faster, you know, and the writing is changing and we have this whole history now and sort of a focused direction that we think we want to go.
Speaker E:So everybody sort of agrees better now and sort of can bring all the elements together more quickly.
Speaker A:Where do you all see this heading in the near future?
Speaker E:Well, we see it heading towards an album that we didn't really expect us to make.
Speaker E:We actually heard from our.
Speaker E:The head of our label this morning, and he said that he had been listening to these demos that we made recently.
Speaker E:We came off of a tour and had some days off in Philadelphia, where my parents live, and went down to the basement, threw together 12 new songs.
Speaker E:So everybody had been writing.
Speaker E:We just like blasted through them and did these quick, rough mix ups of them and sent them off to him.
Speaker E:And he called us this morning and he's like, I've been exercising to your demos every morning on the treadmill.
Speaker E:And he's like, you guys are ready.
Speaker E:You're ready to do another record?
Speaker E:We were sort of like, huh, okay.
Speaker E:You know, we weren't, I guess, entirely convinced, but I think that's just because we're always thinking everything can be better.
Speaker E:Nice to have someone like him to be like, all right, you're ready to do it.
Speaker E:Let's do this soon.
Speaker E:So in the near future, we're.
Speaker E:We're writing a.
Speaker E:You know, we have this whole host of songs that we're gonna record in the studio, and they're sort of.
Speaker E:They definitely have a lot of similarities from the last record we Did.
Speaker E:There's also a lot of change.
Speaker E:There's a lot of growth that happened, not only in the quality of songs, but the style of the songs.
Speaker E:And I'm really, really, really excited to get into the studio and fully realize all these songs.
Speaker C:Hey, Sloane.
Speaker A:Hey, Rachel.
Speaker A:Thank you so much.
Speaker C:No problem.
Speaker A:So we're now wrapped around to the fourth member of Lake Street Dive, Rachel Price.
Speaker A:Thanks for being with us.
Speaker C:It's good to be here.
Speaker A:So we were just chatting and saying that poof.
Speaker A:Looks like there's going to be another record happening.
Speaker C:Yeah, we're all surprised.
Speaker A:It's a great surprise, for sure.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:What is it that you all would like to bring to this next recording process?
Speaker B:There's a lot.
Speaker C:I mean, we've learned so much from the three records that we've recorded.
Speaker C:Each time we've gone into a new recording session, you know, we discuss at length how it can be better, how it can be different, how it can be more positive.
Speaker C:And so we're basically just starting that discussion right now for this next record about how we want it to go, go down.
Speaker C:We're really into the idea of living at the studio that we're recording at.
Speaker C:I think that that's definitely going to be something that we're going to be shooting for, you know, finding some sort of secluded studio house situation where we can be there for a couple weeks and just, you know, sleep, eat and breathe, recording.
Speaker C:The tunes sound pretty different.
Speaker C:So, I mean, production is going to be a big process during what we're going to want to put on each song and the sounds of each song.
Speaker C:And I think we also just.
Speaker C:We'd like more of a producer role in this next record, like a third party, a fifth party in this case, kind of all co producing, you know, giving us some real insight, somebody that we can really trust and might have a vision even greater than ours.
Speaker A:What is changing for you all when.
Speaker C:You have four different songwriters in a band?
Speaker C:We sort of like, have tried to define our sound.
Speaker C:The fact of the matter is that our sound is just defined by the songs that we're writing at the time.
Speaker C:And inevitably we have been listening to different things in the last couple years and more things have been exciting to us and.
Speaker C:And what's contemporary now.
Speaker C:And so inevitably, just like your songwriting changes a little bit.
Speaker C:And it's also like the balance of whose songs, like the last record had a lot of Mike Olson songs on it, and that's a specific sound.
Speaker C:And this record might be a little more even as far as the songwriters so that's going to change it too because everybody has a different way of writing.
Speaker C:So I can't really say like stylistically how it's going to sound different.
Speaker C:The only thing I would say if you don't, I mean, the only secret thing is that I think it's a little more serious.
Speaker C:We're pretty silly and whimsical with, you know, lyrically, but it just seems like everyone, you know, wants is writing maybe more grown up songs right now.
Speaker C:I mean, there certainly will be a great amount of whimsy, but, you know, I think there's some more love songs and that sort of thing.
Speaker A:Well, so the one thing I didn't really get to ask about was your dvd.
Speaker C:Oh, our dvd, yeah.
Speaker A:Tell me about that.
Speaker A:Because I'm one of the people that is in the camp of I really like your recordings, but I really like your performance.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker C:This live album concert film that we released wasn't super planned.
Speaker C:Our really good friend and amazing musician Greg List plays banjo in Crooked still.
Speaker C:Now he has his own band called the Deadly Gentleman.
Speaker C:Anyway, he is a man of many talents and he started showing up at our gigs in various cities with his camera and being like, hey, I'm going to film you guys right now.
Speaker C:And we were like, awesome, Greg, we love you.
Speaker C:After he'd done that a few times, we'd watched the video and we were like, this looks really great.
Speaker C:He was like, well, you guys are doing two nights at the Lizard Lounge, which is sort of like our home spot.
Speaker C:We could play the Lizard Lounge every night of the week.
Speaker E:We would.
Speaker C:It's just like, it's our crowd, they know our music.
Speaker C:They've been hearing us for the last six years play these songs.
Speaker C:So he said, you know, you're doing two nights, so I'm going to film you both nights.
Speaker C:I'm going to have it professionally recorded and then I'm going to have a good friend mix and master it and we're going to release it.
Speaker C:So basically we had nothing to do with it except the actual playing of the show.
Speaker C:He just said like, this is what's going to happen.
Speaker E:This is what you guys need to do.
Speaker C:And we said, absolutely.
Speaker C:I think that that was great because all we did was go in each night and play to one of our funnest crowd and have a great time at the same time.
Speaker C:It was really well recorded and then it was awesomely mixed and mastered and the result was something that sounds as good as recording, but it captures us live because that's exactly what it is.
Speaker C:I think that for us, it's been really positive because there are certain songs, we just loved how they turned out.
Speaker C:We loved how they turn out live.
Speaker C:And on recording, it's hard to really capture that.
Speaker C:And a lot of our fans were just like, I love that there's a live recording of this song.
Speaker C:The way you do it live really, really kills it.
Speaker C:We are completely happy about it.
Speaker C:We don't know if or when we'll make physical copies of it.
Speaker C:Right now it's only available for a digital download, but I think we eventually will.
Speaker A:I am excited to hear that this next record is going to happen sooner rather than later.
Speaker A:That's pretty cool news.
Speaker C:Yeah, we are, too.
Speaker C:Did we tell you about our upcoming EP release?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker C:So on May 22nd, we're releasing an EP.
Speaker C:Six Songs.
Speaker C:It's called Fun Machine.
Speaker C:Features basically cover songs that we've been playing in our live shows since we've been a band.
Speaker C:And we just figured it was time to get in the studio and record them.
Speaker A:That's fun.
Speaker A:Wonderful news for you all on this next record, and thanks a bunch.
Speaker A:Safe travels and good luck to y'.
Speaker A:All.
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker A:Okay, bye bye.
Speaker B:Bye bye.
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