In this interview spotlight, I speak with No Dry County about the latest release, motivations, challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We’re based out of Lubbock, which is an area of Texas lovingly referred to as the Panhandle, and we play music that is mostly indicative of that area. It’s a good mix of bar band country and western/garage rock and whatever happens to fit our cinematic audio universe. Trent and I’s family’s are both from Turkey, Texas. My mom and his dad grew up together singing hymnals in the church of christ there. I know that music has had a big influence on me. We also have Bob Wills, who pioneered a whole new style of music that was a mixture of everything around. The way my mom explains it is that everyone used to be in the fields picking cotton, white, black, mexican, native, they were all in the fields together singing and working and the combination of all those things came out as western swing. It’s of course a little more complicated than that, but that’s still the basic idea of our music. It’s a melting pot of ideas, which is probably common for most people with internet access these days. We’re by no means jazz players, but we take everything we like and we just play it. It has it’s accent because we’re from where we’re from and we’ve got plenty of other great artists to be influenced by such as Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, The Maines Brothers, The Flatlanders, Terry Allen and so on, but we also really like newer bands from our area like Explosions in the Sky and At the Drive In/Mars Volta, etc. Of course, we don’t limit ourselves to artists just from our area, but the idea of this Panhandle Music record was to tap in to some of the common elements of our region. I did a lot of listening to all those artists in preparation for this record but I actually spend more time mimicking sounds I like than actual guitar players. Windchimes, creaky windmills and gates, different bird sounds. We have lots of wind here and super violent thunderstorms so there’s plenty to listen to. Those things are in your blood from a young age and when it comes time to play they just come out. The true music of our region is outside in the environment, so that’s where I like to go for inspiration.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
I’ve always been obsessed with music, the guitar specifically. My dad’s side had a family band and my grandfather was a musician and played with The Texas Playboys some. He died when I was young and all the older folks were done playing by the time I got old enough so I just had to figure everything out on my own. My parents were super into music and are responsible for my obsession with it, but they were too busy working cattle and too broke to ever buy me a guitar, until I was 14 and my dad bought me a Fender Stratocaster. I really got serious about guitar while recovering from a broken leg that ended my basketball career in college. Music was always there when I couldn’t do anything else and even acted as a healing tool for me. We have music going for almost every activity. It’s always around, once you learn how to participate in the playing of music it becomes almost impossible to stop. That sort of obsession with music keeps you in it. As you get older you find yourself having to stop other activities, but you can play a guitar in your rocking chair when your 90, if you enjoy it enough. Performing live is the ultimate drug, of course.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?
I would say that it builds on the previous records. It’s a good next step for us in our musical development. There’s an overarching theme to this album. Stories that interweave and music that nods to other songs on the record. We made an effort to be more conscious of the roots of our own region but also Texas and American music history, bringing those ideas into the current space and delivering it in a way that feels natural to us. There are some things that we wanted: bigger musical landscapes, lots of space in the verses, sing along choruses, instrumental melody sections, more reverb, more counting to three…things that we like, but also things we felt are mostly missing from our current scene that were so great about older records. As for the actual recording, we went to a more isolated location (Yellow Dog Studios in Wimberley, Texas) and spent a few weeks immersed in the tracking process and hanging out by the river. We had a really creative producer/engineer in Adam Odor that really allowed us to reach for the ideas we wanted.
Do you face any challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? On the flip side, how has technology helped you (if it has)?
I’m not too sure it really effects what we do all that much. Our writing is mostly an organic process and doesn’t rely on technology. All we need are some electrical outlets so we can plug our instruments in or even just some acoustic instruments and we’re fine. We went out to Turkey, Texas to write and practice for this record, there’s barely any cell and I think Hotel Turkey is the only place you can get any wifi. At night out there the silence is palpable. We don’t realize how inundated we are with sound on a daily basis. It’s good to get away from all that and reset. Escape and Isolation are themes that were discussed quite a bit. It has a lot to do with where we’re from… Technology does have it’s advantages, It’s much easier these days to record ideas on to a voice memo on your phone and text it out to the rest of the band, and definitely makes it cheaper and easier to record and distribute through the internet. A little easier than recording through a 4 track on to tape and passing out flyers to advertise shows.
Where can we follow you online and hear more music?
www.NoDryCounty.com, itunes, spotify, facebook, etc.
Anything else before we sign off?
Watch the documentary, Rumble: The Indians who rocked the world.
