Q: Can you both tell us a bit about yourselves and how your childhoods impacted your musical direction?
A:
- David – Each of my four immediate family members was born on a different continent; I’m the only U.S. native. My earliest musical influences were the Yiddish lullabies and Argentinian rock songs I heard as a child.) I got deeply into Paul Simon and Gillian Welch, and that pushed me toward songwriting. Then bluegrass and later jazz brought me up to speed on my instrument.
- Taylor – As the youngest of 3 kids, I spent a lot of time in the car with my mom listening to the oldies station. The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Sinatra, and the rest defined what music was for me. I didn’t take up music until the end of my childhood, but I was hooked.
- Everett – I started playing dulcimer and tambourine in my family’s band at 4 and started studying violin at 7. Learning clogging early in life led me to hyper-focus on rhythm, an obsession I have continued throughout my career in rock, Celtic, bluegrass, you name it. I always think rhythmically, and you can usually hear me driving the band in some way.
- Sol – I spent my early childhood living in RVs and tipis while my hippie parents busked their way across Europe in a caravan. I started guitar at 4 and picked up a mandolin at 6 when I moved to Colorado. The jamgrass scene of the Rockies shaped me and my style, and then playing 5 nights a week in Austin during my college years honed my chops.
Q: Can you describe the musical style of Big Love Car Wash in three words?
A: Found family dreamgrass
Q: How do you stay connected with your fans, and what role do they play in shaping your musical journey?
A: We try to keep the fourth wall broken and maintain communication with the audience, whether at a show or in our daily lives. We’re very reachable, on social media, in person, or on our email list. The band grew organically out of the music scene, and we still see ourselves firmly rooted in that community. Many of our ‘fans’ are also collaborators, whether it’s other musicians, visual artists helping us with merch, people coming up with zany ideas to try.. We feel that anyone who listens to our music is part of our community, because our songs are pretty vulnerable and real at times. We’re inviting people in, and we hope they invite us into their world as well.
Q: You have just released your new album, ‘Daydream’. Is there a story behind it?
A: We started as a live band–we knew what we could do live with 4 instruments, and we wanted to see what we could do in the studio with as many as we wanted. We started as more or less a bluegrass band, but we knew there was a more plugged-in sound we could access, and we searched for a producer to help us capture that. In the end we didn’t find one and self-produced, which was very serendipitous, because it forced us to find our own sound. To do that, we needed a studio with limitless tools and expertise, and Arlyn Studios was just that. We felt almost zero barrier between our ideas and what we were able to put down on tape. Like our band itself, the album was born from love. We started every day at Arlyn standing in a circle talking about our emotional states and our needs before looking each other in the eye and saying “I love you”. It may sound cheesy but it helped us all stay connected and regulated and to put “humans first” as we way (i.e. we make sure everyone is taken care of before we focus on efficiency or “getting the perfect take”).
Q: What is your favorite track from the album and why?
A:
- David – Silver Lining – Sol wrote the lyrics, but he let me sing it, and I felt so identified with the character of that song. It allowed me to step outside myself and to comfort myself as somebody else. It processed a lot of heavy stuff I was carrying by embodying the story.
- Everett – 21st Century Telegraph – It resolves the emotions of the album and reflects uh, what’s it called? The “Gestalt” of humanity
- Taylor – In the Morning – that song makes me cry when I try to sing it <3
- Sol – Silver Lining – I wrote this song six years ago, and although I wrote it on the mandolin, I always pictured it as a rock ballad. On this album we realized that dream and then some, and David’s hard-hitting vocals put the exclamation point on it.
Q: Can you walk us through the creative process of producing the album, “Daydream”?
A: Sol was overseas (he lives part of the year in Ireland), so were on Zoom working out this album. We had 40+ songs or ‘song nuggets’ in a folder, and we narrowed down to our favorite 16, thinking we’d cut more, but we just couldn’t let go of any more. Some were fully written when we went into the studio (about half and half by Sol and David, and one by Everett), and some were just embryos. But even songs that were fully written took on new dimensions in the studio – a new instrumental bridge, new lyrics, an instrument we’d never imagined working on the track that just hit right. We worked out our process of co-writing for this album and all came together to write “Memorial”. If we had had a producer, it would have been a totally different record and we were glad for it.
Q: What has been the most memorable concert or performance for you so far?
A: The first time we all 4 were in the same place was at a gig, at Neighbors Kitchen and Yard in Bastrop, TX. From about three songs in we knew something special was happening. Never having played together before, we were intuiting each other’s improvisations as if we had been a band for years. It was “stage telepathy”, and after the first set we were all giddy. Those three hours were powerful enough to form the entire beautiful magical mish-mash that we now are and keep it going for years. We only got in one more show after that before Sol left town for Europe, but it was enough to know that this was something real. We resolved then and there to keep the band going, and we went on tour the next summer, all organized from abroad.
Q: Reflecting on your body of work, each song holding its unique significance, could you share a particular track that stands out to you personally? What makes that specific tune special, and why does it hold a place of pride in your musical journey?
A:
- Taylor – Windshield – The lyrics tell a present first-person imaginary tale of self discovery that really resonates with me, and it’s the greatest bass solo I’ve ever recorded
- David – Memorial – On a record where we flirt with being a bluegrass band, this song embodies that. It’s a huge tease. It’s bluegrass for a bit, and then it completely changes to do what the song wants. It’s very Big Love Car Wash. Also, getting to arrange for a choir felt like a milestone in my musical journey
- Everett – Memorial – We all wrote that song together. It’s a sheer collaboration – we all brought something to the table, and the final result is greater than the sum of those parts
- Sol – 21st Century Telegraph – I channeled that song straight from the ether. I didn’t write those lyrics as much as pulled them from somewhere, a deep mine of inspiration that I’ve only accessed a handful of times. It’s far and away the best song I’ve created, and I hope to get a chance to channel more like it.
Q: Exploring the diverse creative processes within the music industry is always fascinating. Could you provide insight into Big Love Car Wash’s unique approach to crafting music? From the initial spark of an idea to the finished song, how do you navigate the creative journey and bring its musical concepts to life?
A: We sometimes feel like archeologists – discovering a song rather than creating it from scratch. We’re not sitting down with sheet music and parts first, although that does happen. We often don’t know where the ideas come from or which order they’re going to come out in. A big part of what creates the safe space for that is trust. We all trust each other to have better ideas than we could come up with alone. There’s no ego in the process, and each idea is allowed to fully fly. This safety allows us to not be precious about individual things.
Q: As we wrap up our conversation, looking ahead, what aspirations or dreams do you have for Big Love Car Wash, and what message would you like to share with your fans as they continue to accompany you on this musical journey?
A: As a fortune telling machine in the public restroom in Durango once told us once, “our goal will be delayed, but we will succeed”. This is a long-term venture. Sol lives overseas, but we are committed to getting together every few months to tour, make more records, and grow this found family. For anyone listening to us or to any music or to any art or story for that matter, remember that art always has a message. If you’re intentional about the message you’re putting out there, you’ll just be playing out your unconscious biases and the status quo. Stay curious about yourself and others. Listen to those around you, and take chances on yourself.
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