Interview: The War on Drugs

 

Even the most staunchly radical ex-patriots have to admit that certain bands make you proud to be an American.  The War on Drugs seem to embody the ultimate indie rock spirit of rolling forward while thinking back.  In 2008 they released Wagonwheel Blues to critical comparisons of classic songwriters like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. 

I spoke with lead vocalist and guitarist, Adam Granduciel about Americana music, his affinity for Cook Out, and his dreams of taking a road trip to North Carolina with his dog and buying a farm in Raleigh. 

New Raleigh:  Thanks so much for chatting with me today!  How are you?

Adam Granduciel: I’m good.  I’m actually looking at the New Raleigh website right now.  I love it there.  I want to move down there.

NR:  Oh really?  Where?

AG:  I don’t know yet.  I’ve been wanting to for like, two years now.  I’m not sure yet.  I kind of need to go down for a week, when I’m not on tour obviously, because I have friends in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Asheville, and I’d just like to try it for a little bit and find a little cottage somewhere.  I just really like the whole thing down there.  Good restaurants. 

NR:  Do you have some favorite restaurants in Raleigh?

AG:  There’s this one place – I forget what it’s called – but we’re really good friends with Megafaun and they’re going to send us to their friend who owns a few different restaurants.  If I heard the names I would know it.  One is a really cool diner.

NR:  Poole’s Diner?

AG:  Yeah!  That’s it!  Poole’s Diner.  And I’ve been to Raleigh Times, which was really good. 

NR:  Chef Christensen just opened another new place called Beasley’s Chicken and Honey.

AG:  Yeah!  Exactly.  When we’re in Raleigh, hopefully soon, we’re going to go there.  They made a reservation for us or something.  It’s going to be awesome. 

Unfortunately, this band also has an affinity for Cook Out, which I know for you, must be the same as if you came to Philly and were like, “Let’s go to McDonald’s!”  But for us, something about Cook Out just reminds us of good times.  That’s all.  So we’re excited for the really good restaurants and also going to Cook Out.  That’s just like one of those things.  We’re definitely going there when we hit North Carolina.

NR:  I’m happy to hear that you have some Carolina roots.  I wanted to ask you about recording parts of the album in Asheville.  How did that affect the album and how did you like the town?

AG:  We had been in Asheville a few times before, and I always really liked it.  I always thought that there was a nice feel to the town; I think it’s really quaint how it’s just kind of stayed how it is.  But it’s really beautiful and there are so many nice people.  So when we were on tour last summer, going down, we did the Hopscotch festival, and I booked a day at this studio in Asheville that I had read about, and so we just did one day there, and we did the backbone of two songs, and then I ended up booking more time there a couple of weeks later.  We went back down and did some more work on stuff.  It’s just an awesome place.  It’s got a great energy in the town. 

We’ve just met some really really nice friends down there that we’ve stayed in touch with over the years.  It’s just a really great little town for sure.  I love it down there.  I imagine it’s really pretty this time of year so I’m excited to visit.

NR:  You mentioned that you’re friends with Megafaun.  Are you influenced by North Carolina music at all?

AG:  Maybe, not so much, no.  We became friends with them when we played a show together, and they were aware of our music, and ever since then, a couple of years ago, we’ve played a bunch of shows together and been kind of like these musical brothers in a way. 

I mean, I have some knowledge of the North Carolina Appalachian stuff.  I don’t really think that affects our music so much.  But definitely it’s part of the American lineage of American songwriting so I guess in that regard, yeah we do.  I mean, I love that music.  I’m not really fluid in a lot of it but what I know is amazing. 

NR:  Do you consider yourself an Americana revivalist in a way?

AG:  I don’t really think so, just because I think the stuff I’m attracted to with writing is like – I don’t know if it’s really Americana based –it all just kind of starts there.  But, if anything, I’m kind of more of a student of pop writers that were looking at folk, maybe when folk was looking at the early Americana music.  The stuff that I listened to as a kid, when I was growing up, and the stuff I still listen to is definitely where I think the songwriting comes from.  And obviously also the weirder side of music from the past 10 or 15 years, is the other side of The War on Drugs stuff. 

But I don’t consider us revivalist because – and I’m also not as knowledgeable of early Americana stuff as I feel like I would have to be to be influenced by that sort of stuff – I don’t really feel like I’m keeping any of that sort of stuff alive because it’s really just, to me, classic pop songwriting, without that sort of attention to dynamic of the classic pop songwriters.  We don’t really have a lot of big choruses and stuff. 

[I’m] just about building the songs that feel sort of natural to me, and honest to me.  It comes out of the stuff that I’ve listened to my whole life, and then just experimenting with how to record them in the 21st century. 

NR:  What is your approach is taking classic songwriting and making it more modern?

AG:  It’s just about how the songs come to life in the studio, really kind of experimenting and letting the song take on it’s own life once you continue and continue to work on it.  Obviously I could have a song, and I’m thinking about writing songs while I’m focused on going to the studio to record them, but I prefer to go in with a general, basic idea and just spend a lot of time kind of flushing it out and seeing where it goes, and sometimes those moments where you see a new avenue to go down.  It might be more time consuming but you always kind of follow those paths of invention rather than just sticking to the plan.  And that’s kind of the way that a lot of the songs on this record kind of came to life – just by letting them be what they were, and starting with a loose idea and just kind of going from there, and keep changing them. 

NR:  I know that Slave Ambient has been labeled this quintessential road-trip type of album.  Did you take a lot of road-trips growing up?

AG:  I actually didn’t take a lot of road-trips growing up.  We didn’t really travel so much as a family.  I would say that I started traveling a lot when I was about 18 or 19.  Up until then, we did a few drives as a family but nothing really significant.  I have done a ton of traveling in the last 10 years.  I took a train across the country.  I love traveling. 

But yeah, people say that about [Slave Ambient] being a road-trip record.  It’s weird.  I don’t understand where that comes from.  Like, I don’t know what it is about the music that lends itself to that, because obviously it was made in confined spaces.  But, I think just something about the feel of the songs or the spirit in the songs that people might equate with stuff that became road-trip songs for them. 

I mean, road-trip songs, to me, are things that come on classic rock radio when you’re driving through, and you hear a song that is a familiar song to you, something that you know.  It’s not like that awful Joe Walsh song that comes on the radio, it’s like finding a song on the radio that you actually like, and you’re like, “Oh yeah!” and you turn it up and you hit the gas.  To me, that’s what a road-trip album is.  I don’t think there’s anything in the music.  So maybe for theses songs people are hearing something that is kind of identifiable or something that they can kind of latch onto that has kind of the same spirit of songs in the past that they would turn up to 10. 

NR:  I think the album has a sort of expansiveness and momentum about it that lends itself well to long drives.

AG:  Yeah, definitely.  Definitely stuff that I’m attracted to right off the bat is a song that really moves.  I’m not really one for a lot of dynamics.  If a song goes down or goes into this quiet part, or if it goes like, “Dun-dun-dun”, I like it to stay really steady, and let the song, within those boundaries of the rhythm just kind of open itself up. 

So, you’re right.  I think there is something about the movement of the songs.  They are pretty wide sounding and open.  So yeah, you’re right. 

NR:  Well, kind of in the spirit of that I have a silly question.  If you were to take your dream road trip:  Who would you bring?  Where would you go? And what albums would you listen to on the drive?

AG:  Obviously, if I could only bring one person, I would bring my girlfriend.  But I’d also bring my dog, which would be awesome.  I never really got to take a road trip with my dog before, or our dog I should say.  So I’d probably go with my girlfriend and my dog, or just my dog.  It’s not like it’s between the two of them but there would be something romantic about going just with a dog. 

To be honest with you, I’d probably bring a bunch of stuff that I’d been working on so I could just play it in the car, which is the best place to hear it.  And just going out with, I know it sounds boring but, just demos that I’d been working on, so I could just really get on the road, and have no distractions, and just listen to a bunch of stuff.

And with other stuff, I’d probably bring a lot of early Pink Floyd.  And I’d probably bring some Echo & The Bunnymen, some John Lennon, The [Rolling] Stones for sure.  I’d probably bring Born in the U.S.A., by Bruce Springsteen, and probably Megafaun’s records actually.  We listen to those and they’re awesome.  I’d probably bring some [Bob] Dylan, some early Brian Eno records, and a whole lot of stuff.

NR:  Do you know where you would go?

AG:  Ideally, I’d be going into Raleigh to buy a farm somewhere, or down in Asheville looking at a barn that I was going to turn into a studio.  If it wasn’t down there, it would probably be somewhere across the Midwest or the Southwest.  Maybe going to all these different thrift stores around the country and collecting stuff.  That’s what I’d love to do. 

I’ve been talking about [moving to North Carolina] for a long time, and people think I’m crazy, and that I’m not serious, but I’m totally serious.  It’s a good thing down there – a lot of nice people.  Oh man, I can’t wait.

Sign up to win a copy of Slave Ambient by The War on Drugs by clicking the album below.

Also, read Whitney's interview with The War on Drugs opener Carter Tanton by clicking on the image below.

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