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When we rounded the corner on the way toward the Howlin' Wolf, New Orleans "home' of the Continental Drifters, we happened upon a sight not often seen outside sitcoms or cartoons. Drifters bassist Mark Walton and multi-instrumentalist Peter Holsapple were directing singer-guitarist Susan Cowsill into a parking space not quite big enough for her car.
It was a truly surreal beginning to a very special evening.
The traffic comedy over but the show not yet begun, we sat down with Walton for a conversation about the band's upcoming release, "Better Day," in Walton's opinion their easiest recording experience since the band formed 10 years ago in California.
"This is a neat, wide-ranging album . . . and it was done so effortlessly, with lots of first takes," he said. "Twelve songs mixed and overdubbed in 17 days.
"All the songs were fun because we didn't know them very well before we started recording, and they took on a life of their own during the . . . process." He said they even had some trouble choosing ones to use on the album, but they knew they wanted songs that would convey a similar vibe or emotion while being all over the map stylistically.
Specifically, "Tomorrow's Gonna Be," ostensibly the title track, "is about loneliness, sadness, about knowing what you want to find but not really believing that you will. A lot of people think its optimistic, but the song is kinda psychedelic and cynical. I wrote it a while back with someone else, (who) wanted to slant it more toward the positive, but I liked the way it came out."
Walton had high praise for Holsapple's banjo playing and horn arranging which, Walton said, added colors that the band had wanted to use for quite awhile. The Drifters had always wanted their Mulebone buddy Mark Mullins' trombone and trumpet skills on a recording, and Holsapple's songs were perfect for that.
Walton said he also believes that the new record is a "Polaroid of real life at this moment in time” for the band. While the widely acclaimed "Vermilion" (U.S. release, 1999) was a process of compiling songs over a lengthy period of time, and the self-titled debut album was immediate for vastly different reasons, the new album was completed without pre-production or a lot of live-song try-outs. In today's recording world, this is quite a feat.
According to Walton, the band continues to play most of the other new songs live, which bodes well for future projects.
The other half of the Drifters' rhythm section wasn't quite as talkative as Walton, but Russ Broussard did a bit of drummer-talk that may help enlighten folks about the snappy sounds on "Better Day"; he led off with his songwriting collaboration with Cowsill.
"It was really a Susan song, but she needed some words for a chorus, so she used a poem that I had written. Since then, we've written four or five more songs. Susan did this to prove a point. You see, it had been 15 years since I had written a song. I didn't think I could do it, so this was really cool. I have rhythmic and melodic ideas all the time, but this is a beautiful song. I'm glad we did it.
"I didn't really play much unusual percussion on this record," he said, "but I did something I've wanted to do for a long time. I set up two drum kits with different sonic qualities in two rooms. I would play with different feels or styles on each set, flip-flopping between them. Some songs, we used both sets. I'd play one style or feel on one set, then go back afterwards and play a swing or hip-hop feel on the other one. In mixing, we'd combine the two techniques or just get a bit from each one through punch-ins. This time around, I think we've captured the real feel of this band better than anything I've done. 'Better Day' definitely represents my playing in an accurate way."
By the time we caught up with Cowsill after the performance, she was obviously drained, but she had enough energy left to give a few clues into her songwriting process.
"All songs I write are therapeutic for me; I write songs because I need to. The most urgent one was 'Peaceful Waking.' It was one of those five-in-the-morning songs. I don't normally write songs in a few minutes, but I woke up early, grabbed a guitar and wrote this one almost immediately. I had the book of lyrics that Russ had written and those words just fit in for the chorus. I had lots of ideas for songs using some of his lyrics, but this one wasn't one of them. It just worked out that way."
The energy level rose further when she spoke excitedly about the band's CD-release party.
"We're gonna have a . . . party here June 4; that's the night before we leave on our summer tour. We're going back to Los Angeles for the first time in 10 years to kick it off. The party is gonna be really cool, even if I have to cook the food myself."
Razor & Tie, the band's label, probably will have the party catered; however, Coast music fans should make every effort to head to the Big Easy that night. Even if you don't get to hear them on the 4th, grab a copy of "Better Day" on the 5th. You'll be happy that you did.
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