The Avett Brothers are an exceptional band that puts up no front and simply tells it how it is. If it hurts, they sing the pain. If it's uncertainty, they sing the questions out loud. If it's happiness, they sing notes covered with smiley faces. The men behind the soul-touching songs are no less exceptional. The band draws inspiration from their roots, the gifts they've been given, and their undeniable love of music and artistic expression. TLS Music Editor Jason Estopinal sat down with frontman Scott Avett to talk about books, life on the road and God. More...

 

JE: What are you listening to right now?

SA: Right now I am listening to Townes Van Zandt. The record is Flyin’ Shoes. I listen to it constantly.  

JE: Do you ever unwind to your own music or is it weird hearing yourself in that way?

SA: Definitely not. Certainly not. There is no unwinding to that.  At this point it’s hard to unwind listening to anything.  It’s very much like study time when I’m listening, so that really dictates how specifically I spend most of my time listening.  But doing shows you can enjoy it and keep it fresh as well.

JE: What do you love about music?

SA: Hmm, that’s a very big question.  It’s yet another vehicle or form of art and I love art and I love creating art.  I guess I love that music can change so much in so many facets.  Songs that are recorded can be very different from those same songs live , and even from live show to live show.  I like the glorious fickle nature of music.

JE: Often when I listen to your music, I feel like I’m listening to an older me talking to a younger me.  Do you have specific experiences/mistakes in your past that you write about?

Sure.  90% of our songs are started with a concrete feeling or experience that can be a dramatic experience in our life, and from there the songs build into their own drama and their own series of dramatic events.  It can be very far in a different direction than the original feeling, but some of the songs can stay right along the path.  I’m not the only one who has those feelings and you probably share the same feelings just being human. I think that’s where people start to relate with our music and it can start to feel like songs are written for them or about them or with them in mind.

JE: What inspired the Weight of Lies?

SA: The people, or we certainly know people, and they travel around quite a bit and a lot of times it feels like it’s in search of something, you know?  I’m guilty of it and I think a lot of times you find that in each town, although San Francisco is very different than New York City, there are probably more similarities than differences in the way people are in every town.  If you’re trying to get away from something you’ve messed up in one place by moving the setting, it most likely doesn’t work.  We were taught growing up that you need to have some kind of movement forward in every endeavor you’re involved in, and if you’re going anywhere trying to change that you’ll probably find yourself pretty cold and lost.  I know people I feel for that I think are in those positions and they run to figure it out when the answer was probably right there.

 JE: What inspired The Ballad of Love and Hate?  

SA: My interpretation is a struggle between the two emotions that could surface as a love/hate relationship, that all relationships tend to have corners that are like that.

JE: I’ve heard your music referred to as almost a new genre, a morality rock.  Did you have something like that in mind?  

SA: Luckily we had nothing in mind at all and we didn’t know or plan.  When we first started playing acoustic instruments, we just enjoyed playing them and wanted to play as they were supposed to be played and we went about it as we thought we were supposed to.  I guess we were wrong in that realm, but now is the time in our life when we can recognize what we are more so, and being able to do that is allowing us to free up the searching for what we are.  Now it’s time to exaggerate it and use it for what it is.

JE: What was the concept behind Emotionalism?

SA: It started a little bit with a visual arts talk about in the new millennium. We’re seeing a new rise or validity or credibility to represent art work and have warmth put back into art, whereas some of it in the 1900’s was less about warmth and it was art for arts sake and that was definitely reflected in music in the 80s.  We were talking about what the common denominator is.  We’re not great musicians necessarily, but we put a lot of time in the song writing and we try to write from real emotion and sometimes that takes away from our ability to play.  Emotionalism is the equivalent to alcoholism, what alcohol and emotion would have in common, and with that in mind we were thinking of the common denominator of what we are and what we like and the other bands we like.  Music is based on emotion before its based on capability or composition.  It’s not always the most proficient or best sounding recordings, but the song writing and the feeling that it came from which surpasses those.  We’ve found that to be true with a lot, and that was what we were recognizing with that.  We never made a claim as to what we represent...we’re very careful about claiming to be anything because it changes so much, but we knew this was the thought, and the idea of emotions being so focused upon that it became a problem was such a beautiful idea.

JE: Tell me about the dynamic of the band.

SA: Our core is my brother Seth, me, and Bob- acoustic guitar, banjo, stand up bass. We are a bit of a different thing than when we’re recording 'cause when we record we use quite a bit more as far as instrumentation.  We use a full drum kit and some electric guitars, and we now travel with electric equipment and use them on stage some.  We do travel with a cello player who plays about 50% of our sets with us to add depth and color to the music. As far as the dynamic of the relationships, it’s very supportive and about being supportive and supporting each other when someone’s down and the others are up.  Even if someone is having a terrible show, which happens, and the others are having a great show, the one having a terrible show will recognize it’s a good show as a whole, whether he or I had a great show or not.  That’s a real big dynamic in what’s kept us positive and with our heads up as opposed to many bands and friends that we see that fold before they should and fall before they should.  There’s plenty of negativity out there that can affect the band or the structure of the band if its not based in something relatively positive and strong.

JE: How do you deal with the stresses of touring?

SA: There’s a lot of rest stops and exits with a lot of resources.  It’s not like it once was when the prairies were vast and lonely, but as far as being away from home we try to take our time when we can and we try to stop in places that are a little more intimate and less… I shouldn't say corporate 'cause some of the corporate offerings are useful and good to us.  It’s got to be balanced with that 'cause if you spend too much time on the road in corporate restaurants and stores and venues, which is easy to do 'cause that’s all that’s there it seems sometimes, you tend to get the life sucked out of you pretty quick.   So we try to take the time to spend outside of that world.  We read a lot and talk quite a bit and keep connected with home, and we try to get home as much as possible.  If there’s a two day window and we can be home for two days we’ll fly in from the west coast to be home for two days.

JE: Does the road ever feel like home?

SA: Yeah, more so than ever. There’ve been times when I think I’ve frightened myself 'cause, with me, my defenses are dulling because I'm getting comfortable, and being comfortable on the road is a bit frightening cause it seems to be a façade.  You get comfortable as to think of doorsteps of the RV as the front yard and it’s all just fine and you have everything you need when home is much more than just a house that you go to.  It’s the friends and the family and the familiarity that we need and that we depend upon and that we carry with us to keep us strong.  Being a drifter has its ups and downs but there’s got to be a balance for how much you do drift or you can lose touch with love and the warmth of home.

JE: What do you like to read?

SA: Right now I’m reading a book about Thomas Eakins, a painter from Philadelphia, and I’m reading a book called The Good Life, which is about a couple that disappeared in the 30’s and moved out to the country to live and be self sufficient, and I’m also reading a book called Guns, Germs and Steel, which is a book about society and basically why some societies progressed as hunter/gatherers and why some progressed as farmers and food producers.

Seth is reading some Walt Whitman and a book called On Hitler’s Mountain.  It’s about overcoming the legacy of a Nazi childhood.

I think there’s a balance there that is reflected in our music. It’s kind of the idea, and I haven’t thought about this, but I’m just thinking about it cause I’m looking at this, and there’s a balance of art and sort of tradition and history that we try to keep flowing and I think it helps feed us quite a bit.

JE: What’s been your favorite or most memorable part of the tour so far?

SA: Well, I’ll say in the form of a show- we just came from the west coast in Seattle, the Bumbershoot Festival, which was really, really memorable and fantastic.  August was probably our busiest month that we’ve ever had in our career and very productive.  We found ourselves in front of crowds and towns that we’ve never been before that were just holding us up and singing our songs and support was pretty memorable.

JE: Has your mounting successes changed you and your band in any way?

SA: Well I want to say there is this mount of success, but, nah, it's been a great reflection in the shows and it’s awesome right now and if anything it's made us extremely happy to be doing what we’re doing.  You know when you hear people say something like 'I met Paul Newman and he was so cool and so nice, I couldn’t believe it?'  You wanna be like, 'well why wouldn’t he be so cool and so nice?  He’s super successful, super good looking, super great, why not?' But that improves upon his happiness, and hopefully that’s the point that is reflected and shared with other people. So, hopefully if there’s a change t,hat’s what happens, and I’m sure there are other minor changes that we don’t notice that much.

JE: Do you ever find yourselves taking it all for granted?

SA: Sure. Yeah. I mean if you complain about something you can quickly get a slap in the face.  It’s like, wait a second, you’ve done a way worse job with this before so why are you complaining right now?  So definitely, we try to keep that in check, and again everyone reminds each other of how good this kind of life is as opposed to some that others are forced to have. Hopefully we’re helping them get through those kinds of situations that they find themselves in.

JE: Do you see yourself performing forever, or is there some kind of post music plan?

SA: Well no plan necessarily, but the forms may change. I feel obligated by some really big something that some will call God, that I would call God, to use the talent that I’ve been given, and I try to match that with the work I put into it.  That being said, whether it’s in the form of music or in the form of dancing, poetry, painting, whatever it may be, I feel obligated to follow that throughout my life.

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