since the beginning of making this record
and now, I’ve produced, like, five other
albums for other people. But I picked
up a lot of things from other people’s
projects, which kind of bled into my
project. Even though I was frustrated that
I couldn’t finish it, it was good because: a)
I added these other elements productionwise, and b) I worked on my vocals.
What inspired you to step out as a lead
vocalist on this record?
I didn’t go in thinking, “Oh, I’m going
to be a singer.” It just kind of happened.
Originally, I wasn’t sure I was going to
sing lead on the album. I wanted to sing
some, but I felt like, “Oh, maybe some
other singers will come in. I’ll feature
some guests.” I’ve always sung on my
demos, and as it evolved, it was like,
“These songs are done! The demos are
good.” I just needed to nail it a little better
in certain cases—but also really develop a
[singing] style I can perform live.
Playing guitar
is natural for
Krasno. The
challenge for
his new album,
which focuses
on vocal tunes
rather than
instrumentals,
was to come up
the curve as a
singer and, then,
frontman.
Was it challenging to make the
transition from band member and
producer to solo artist?
Having been a producer on a lot of
projects that were different styles, it
was hard for me at first to kind of zone
in on what style I wanted to represent
on my own album. I feel like we have
elements of all of it in there. But that
was an interesting thing with this record.
The record covers a lot of different stuff,
because I have really eclectic taste.
It was really cool to work with David
Gutter, who wrote the entire album with
me. He was the lead singer for Rustic
Overtones, a popular band in the ’90s.
We’ve been friends for a long time, and
I’ve always loved his songwriting style,
but he’d never really written for other
people. When I started making this
record, I had some lyrics written, but I
mostly had grooves and ideas. I sent him
a couple of my tracks, and he called me
and was like, “Aw man, I have [a lyric]
for that.” He hit the ground running.
How did the songs come together?
I went up to where he lives in Portland,
Maine, with the intention of getting some
100 PREMIER GUITAR SEPTEMBER 2016
demos together. When we got in the
room, it just totally caught fire. We didn’t
really sleep for 10 days. We just went hard.
And, last minute, we kinda pulled a band
together. The London Souls’ drummer,
Chris St. Hilaire, was off the road. I knew
he would add the right touch to it, so
he came up. And Stu Mahan, the bass
player—he also played in the Souls at the
time—lives in Maine, so he came. We got
into the Rustic Overtones’ old rehearsal
space and cobbled together gear to take
into a studio. We took an old 8-track tape
machine and hooked it up to a laptop
with ProTools. Most of what you hear on
the record was initially recorded that way.
What we thought would be demos ended
up being tracks on the record.
The musical styles are varied, but the
album as a whole has a unified quality.
How did you create that?
That was the hardest part. We created
a bunch of the tracks up in Maine and
then I brought Dave down to New York.
While this album was being made, I had
a million projects that I had to do. I kind
of put it on the back burner while I did
Lettuce [2015’s Crush] and Soulive. And
Did most of the material grow from
that initial Maine session?
We recorded about 15 tracks, but I kept
recording other ideas, so I had about
30 songs. The songs that didn’t seem
right for me were used on other people’s
albums. A couple for Tedeschi Trucks, a
couple for Aaron Neville, and a couple
I’m holding onto for other people. So we
have a stack of songs that didn’t make
this record for one reason or another.
Now, fast-forward to six months
ago or so, and I was hanging out with
Jeremy Most, who’s one of my favorite
young producers. He produces an artist
named Emily King. I listen to her
albums religiously and I really wanted
some of those elements on the record.
Jeremy and I did “On the Rise,” which
was one of the last songs I did for the
record. And you can hear how that one
is very different, approach wise. We did
that all pretty much in my apartment,
starting with a percussion loop. He
added a lot of cool samples and different
textures. And when that track was done,
I was like, “Oh man, I want to make an
album that sounds like this!” But then I
also loved all the other songs we had. I
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