Welcome to over -educated and under -employed.
Today I am here with my interview with Sloan
Simpson from the Sloan Brothers is a project
that you'll learn all about in the interview.
I'm not even gonna tell you why it's called Sloan
Brothers, but I will tell you Sloan Simpson is
the only Sloan. We didn't really know each other
very well when I recorded this interview. But
in the last few weeks since then, we've become
pretty good friends. We talk a lot about different
stuff. He's been super productive, writing new
songs, working on a whole new full length. When
I recorded this just a few weeks ago, the Sloan
Brothers versus Jay Gonzalez split EP, Seven
Inch had just come out. So we talked quite a
bit about that process. He's already onto the
next thing. He talks about that too. It's been
an ongoing project that and I got to say, check
out that split EP. It's fantastic. It's a lot
of fun. I went to the release party and Jay played
one of Sloan's songs off the EP because Sloan
never plays live. And we talk about why. So anyway,
without further ado, here's my interview with
Sloan Simpson of the Sloan brothers. Sloan brothers
never perform live. So you can't catch them anywhere
near you. But you definitely can check out their
music on Spotify and keep your eye out for new
stuff coming every day. Here's my interview with
Sloan Simpson. Let's do this. I think the sound
levels should be good, but I'll keep an eye on
it the first couple of minutes. Yeah, we should
be okay. I think go and say something. Sloan
Simpson checking levels. All right. Perfect.
I'm here with Sloan Simpson. I don't even really
know where to begin, except I'd be where I begin
with everybody else. What was your favorite song
that you the first favorite song your first song
that you ever loved? Your and maybe it's not
the first one you did but what's the first one
you remember? The one that pops into my head
right now as as far as Playing over and over
when I was a kid. It's probably gonna be Jim
Jets. I love rock and roll Awesome. Ask me on
a different day. I probably have a different
answer. Yeah, but I guess Think back to like
your earliest memories of music Was there like
a first song, like a first song that you remember?
Maybe not playing over and over, but just like
having an attachment to it. Probably not really
before then. So that was, I would have been about
seven when that record came out. That sounds
about right. That's probably about as far back
as... I think it's around the age that most people
have said that they jump on something. My parents
weren't big music listeners around the house.
So it didn't start until my sister was old enough
to buy a couple of 45s and me hear her playing.
Man, older siblings are responsible for so many
people. Just getting record collections and being
turned on to all kinds of stuff that they never
would have heard. Were your parents into any
kind of music or just not into the kind of music
you were into? The latter. My mom played the
organ and piano in church. So very musical family,
just different kind of styling. Between church
and rehearsals for that I guess that was all
she needed music was so at home They they either
read the newspaper or play TV or whatever. I
got you They weren't playing records in the radio.
I see. Okay, so Now there's I think for every
musician like a point where it goes Oh, I like
this song or I like these songs too. I love music
Do you remember what kind of made that happen
for you? Probably a lot of people have a different
view of this but to me The early 80s, top 40
radio thing, at least in retrospect, seems incredibly
diverse. And it was... I might not like this
song, but the next one or the one after is going
to be something I like. There was so much different
stuff going on. Again, I know a lot of people
hate the era and feel like it was cheesy, but
there were just so many things and it was...
This was really before I started buying very
much music. It's not... Wouldn't have been album
oriented stuff for me. It was just one -offs
by a single for an artist Yeah, that's the way
you put that's really interesting to me because
even if you're somebody that didn't like all
of that music or something like that I think
the point that you made that if you didn't like
this song you might like the next one or the
next one Yeah, that's the reason I listen to
the only radio station I listen to now is because
of that diversity that switching up and yeah
a lot of times I'm not gonna plan but I'm probably
gonna be fine with the next thing. Yeah I think
that's a really succinct way to understand what
was appealing. Yeah. And at this time, top 40
as a format, it was really just what hit the
top 40 versus later on, it became about the corporation
pushing down lists of songs that fit a format
they were defining. So that top 40 could include
synth pop, little bits of post -punk, a little
bit of country. It seems like it was not nearly
as rigidly defined as radio became later. And
I think the labels obviously had a lot to do
with that. Radio, corporate radio taking over
a lot of these stations had a lot to do that.
And I don't want to get too far ahead of myself
here, but would you say that is like part of
the frustration that you felt when you stopped
playing music live, for instance? Not for me,
but I had already checked out a radio and MTV
by that point. Okay. When I became frustrated
as a musician would have been early to mid nineties.
And it was because I was listening to jam band
stuff at that point. And I wanted to flow like
Jerry Garcia and Trey from Fish and, but was
not willing to put it in the practice in an effort
to pull that off. Let's take a step back then,
but like before that, like what kind of led you
from being a music fan to being a musician? So
you fell in love with music. with the eighties,
early, diverse, top 40, what, you remember what
made you pick up your first instrument? Like
on your own accord, not because the school made
you or something like that. Probably when I started
getting into metal, I got a guitar at 15 and
I would have probably been into metal for a couple
of years at that point. Had a buddy who started
drums at the same time I started guitar. So that
as that kind of thing normally goes. And after
a couple of years of playing On my own, I got
involved in jazz band in high school, which I
enjoyed a lot and started listening to jazz because
of that. Cool. And ended up actually released
my senior year of high school, maybe a little
bit of my junior year. I played in the local
college's jazz band while I was still in high
school, just because they were shorter musicians.
And so I would actually skip a little bit of
school on a couple of days at high school at
the end of the day. And I come back from lunch
and go off. to the college jazz band rehearsal.
That's awesome. So I'm going to now so we can
everybody's childhood is has these moments, right?
Now I want to talk about what you do now and
then talk about what led to that. So you do basically
bedroom recordings with a bunch of different
typically Athens based musicians. Yep. And you
never perform live anymore. You haven't performed
live in 30 years. Is that right? Something like
that. Yeah. I was playing in the college jazz
band when I was a passenger in a wreck, broke
a collarbone, and so was not able to play for
however long I was in a brace. And like I said,
I'd been frustrated with it anyway. And that,
that sort of broke the habit. By the time I physically
could play guitar again, I just didn't. Yeah.
I had said I was into jam bands a lot then by
the end of the nineties. inherited some taping
gear and started taping live shows from 1999
on. And then the way I got back into music and
into recording my own music was when COVID hit
and the venue shut down, there was no, I couldn't
go record live shows. And I watched what I could
on Netflix and was just bored to tears and started
messing around and actually was working on I
played around with a mix of a friends and I thought
this could use a little bit of a drone synth
on this. And so I downloaded a pre -synth and
messed around with my actual laptop keyboard.
And I was like, this is really fun. And before
very long, I had bought a MIDI controller and
took mess with synths. And I realized that since
I had no technical facility for playing keyboard,
that allowed me to hear music in my head. And
then figure it out on the keyboard whereas having
practiced guitar and learned scales and all that
stuff in the past I had developed a muscle memory
for guitar and one of the things that would frustrate
me on guitar is if I pick up a guitar the hand
and arm muscles take over and play things that
I've been playing since I was a teenager without
the direct input of my conscious brain I don't
enjoy what comes out of the guitar so that sort
of broke that, that mold to start messing around
with sense because I, you didn't have anything
until I had an idea. Yeah. And you didn't have
any rules to break. You were really truly free
to just kind of experiment. So what do you view
your role as when you do these recordings or
even before that, like in general, in the music
scene, I look at you as almost in a way outside
of your home recordings, like a documentarian
of sorts. I was for sure. Since it became possible
to record live shows again, I have not anymore.
I did a couple, I recorded Jay and Dollas a couple
of times during that gray area where it was mostly
outside outdoor shows and the clubs had not opened
back up yet. But it took a lot, not even aside
from recording, just the fact of going out many
nights a week. Once I broke that habit and learned
to be comfortable, at home by myself, I really
leaned into that. That was not... recording shows
means getting there before everybody else and
leaving after everybody else. And there's a lot
of physicality involved and hauling stuff out,
keeping it safe throughout the show. And you
have to really want to do it. Yes. And so I just,
I just wasn't as motivated to record live stuff
anymore. And the more I got into recording my
own stuff, that was... My new hobby. So what
kind of kicked it off? Who was the first person
to be like, all right, let's do it. You wasn't
this thing that you added sent to, or was it.
Yeah. You know, that even, I don't even think
that ever got completed. That was just. Yeah,
cool. And I ended up writing a couple songs and
I meant to go back and re listen to those. I'd
say that the first one was. I guess synth poppy,
but maybe in that new romantic sort of way. And
I had no idea that was what I was going to do.
I just came up with a couple of lyrics and then
some music sprang from that and I was like, Oh,
I guess this is making synthy poppy kind of thing.
But it then took me, my first LP was me trying
out different styles and seeing what I liked
the most. And working out with a variety of artists.
Yes. So I want to go back to Something Jay said
at the EP release party and I'll have told everybody
of all about that by now before before this interview
starts but he said that you have the same love
of pop hooks that he does and I would just wonder
if you could elaborate on that and what that
where that came from and like how you think that
affects your songwriting and Because I would
agree. I think I hear it in your song that you're
It's almost like the hook seems to be the anchor.
Absolutely. And I didn't know. I didn't know
that the hooks were my favorite thing. There
was one song on my first LP called Songs Like
This that turned into a real hooky power pop
kind of thing. And when the album was done and
released and I had a little more distance from
it, I listened back and I was like, this is really
the blueprint for what I want to do going forward.
When I was working on that record, I would have
that song go about my daily business and have
that song playing in my brain constantly. And
it would annoy me that I couldn't get it out
of my head. But then I was, I realized that was
what we were talking earlier about the eighties
top 40 stuff. Even some of the songs I thought
I disliked because they were so maddeningly catchy.
That's a strength. Yeah. I think the worst thing
a song can be is forgettable. Yes. Absolutely.
Even if you hate it, if you remember it, it's
still better than a song you forget. And I started
thinking, I've always hated that. And I started
listening to it again. And I'm thinking about
it and like, no, I don't hate it. It's just manually
effective. And now that I've tried my hand at
riding my own. Wow. That's something that I want
to aspire to. If I can get it stuck in my head,
that means maybe I can get it stuck in somebody
else's head. Yeah. It's just a little devious,
but. No, that's, I think that's the goal though.
Right? Yes. That's always. Toxic is a banger.
I hated that song when it came out, but you have
some kind of time and perspective, and you get
to where you're not... I think a lot of the problem
with some of these songs, too, when they came
out, they're shoved down your throat. They're
played all the time. You never can escape them.
And once it becomes a choice to listen to them,
it's almost like the books you're forced to read
in school. 1984 probably sucked when your teacher
made you read it. Right. But then you read it
on your own and you're like, Oh, exactly. What
were you listening to during COVID? What were
you, what was, what were you surrounding yourself?
It sounds like you have music interests all over
the place. And I do too. I listened to literally
everything, even a little dubstep occasionally.
What were you listening to? Like when you were
recording at first LP or when you were thinking
about starting to record in the first place?
I don't know if this was necessary, but. contracted
in my listening and still do when I'm working
on something. I'm a little afraid of hearing
something that I wasn't thinking about before
and letting it influence what I'm doing, which
is not what I'm looking for. I feel like, at
least in my brain, the formula for Sloan Brothers
is set. So I mostly would listen to comfort food
music, stuff that I had listened to. Since high
school. Not new stuff, not even stuff that you
didn't even necessarily have to listen to. You
could play it in your head. Exactly. Rolling
stones, tons of rolling stones, tons of Pink
Floyd. The only somewhat nonstandard answer would
be the cure. Cause that they're Cynthia and Poppy
in places, but it's a totally different kind
of Cynthia and Poppy. So there wasn't any danger
of that influencing what I was doing. I didn't
think. I'm really interested in. this idea of,
because you're just drawing a line, right? Because
at a certain point, everything that you've ever
listened to is influencing what you're recording.
But when you go into the process, you're drawing
a line and you're like, I'm no longer putting
in new things. And that specifically, if I was
working on a different project that I might not
feel the same way, but I feel like The Sloan
Brothers sound I have in my head is sort of a
throwback to something not really specific. Stay
with me. This is a retroactive concept I applied,
but I realized that I think what I'm thinking
about with this is if in the 70s synthesizers
had not faded away from mainstream rock and specialized
into R &B and synth pop and all that, If you
still had crunchy guitars and many mug synthesizers
at the same time, what would that sound like?
So it's like, interesting, interesting. It's
like a revisionist history. I love that. I think
that's really, I think it's really cool when
a music project has, even if it's not super strict,
but like a focus or a goal, or at least a set
of parameters. I was talking with Cole and I'm
not sure whether this will air before his or
since they're basically recorded at the same
time, but constraint can be a really important
thing for creativity. Absolutely. And I think
of it, this idea I've come up with for what this
project is about service as training wheels for
me, gives me some guidelines within which to
ride, which makes it easier because before that
I'm opening up a blank text file. anything. Right.
I had no idea what else I was about to write.
Now I know that not only am I looking for hooky,
poppy stuff, but that, at least in my mind, that
naturally lends itself to love songs or love
adjacent songs. And for the LP that I've got
finished and releasing later this year, it's
called Love and Other Diagnoses. And it's all
either straight up love songs or unrequited love
songs or I screwed up love songs, but I figured
the songs are good. You just screwed up the love.
I just want to do that. Love, love. Maybe we
can patch this up love. But yeah, I, I'm going
to lean into that for the foreseeable future.
If I can, I'm going to write as many love songs
as I can and just keep doing it until I run out
of different angles to approach from. Let's talk
about your songwriting process a little bit.
So there's a lot of different kind of, there's
a lot of different ways people write songs. But
honestly, I think it boils down to two different
ways. There's, and then the variations within
those two. There's people that sit down and write
a song because it's, and some songwriters do
both, but I feel like they know which when you
ask them about a specific song. But some writers,
it's like they have an antenna up and they just
grab the song and they're just the vessel in
which the song comes from. And some people sit
down or some songwriters sometimes Sit down.
I'm gonna write a song about X. I'm gonna write
love songs What does that look like for you?
Because I think there's variations of those two
methods But I think it really does boil down
to one of those two things It's a weird blend
for me in that I think on the day I'm actually
writing a song It feels like I'm putting in intentional
effort. I have a concept of where I want to go
what I'm thinking about specific lines thinking
about rhyme scheme and that sort of stuff. Typically
the day or a day or two after I finish it, the
memory of that process is very quickly obscured.
At that point it begins to feel like I just pulled
it down from the ether. Interesting. And I'll
hear certain lines or certain words or if it
gets, once I'm to the instruments, certain licks
or rips that I'll be like, don't remember that,
don't remember writing that. Well, I guess it
sounds like something I would have come up and
clearly come up with clearly I did but yeah It's
a neat and interesting feeling that at first
it feels like I did this all all on my own and
then as time passes I feel maybe I've just received
this or some mix in between there. It's really
interesting because I think when I think about
the way I write jokes, I think it's similarly
a blend But it almost happens in the opposite
direction. So it's like the joke will almost
happen to me or come up naturally. And then I
have to sit down and write and refine and figure
out how to get it, get through that place on
stage because jokes happen in the world and funny
things happen, but being able to construct that
into something that makes sense in a five minute
story or whatever. That's where I feel like that's
where the meticulousness and the But the joke
and the initial spark to me is what? That's when
my antenna is up. So I think it's, that's really
interesting that, and like I said, I think there's
a bunch of different variations, but it really
does come down to those like kind of two categories,
even in the same song sometimes. Do you think
that you will ever play any of these songs live
ever? I don't really enjoy, excuse me. To my
recollection, I don't think I ever particularly
enjoyed playing live. My hands are a little shaky.
I've always been a little shaky. At home, I can
always redo that solo or whatever you don't get
do over live. And it's become so particular about
exactly what I want to hear out of the song.
I don't want to give myself a chance to screw
it up. But there's so many... I used to joke
that I was gonna... write down a list of all
the reasons that I wasn't going to play because
there are so many of them. I've got a little
arthritis. Little things that they add up. It
just doesn't sound like you enjoy it or even
like it's, you don't feel like you're missing
out on it. No, even if there's things that are
preventing you from doing it, it's also like
you're like, I don't care. I like for physical
records to exist of the stuff that I made because
I grew up in an era when everything was physical.
And, but to make those physical records, you
got to be able to get rid of them. And to get
rid of them, people say you got to play shows.
I've gone to so many shows of my friends where
they made records and they played those shows
and they're not selling them at the merch table
either. So it would be a gargantuan effort for
results that aren't guaranteed. Another big part
of it is that with it being a recording project,
I'm free to use musicians. whose schedule wouldn't
allow them to play live. I think about Patterson
Hood's latest record that's got Waxahachie and
Lydia Loveless and he was able to take Lydia
on the road with him for I think a little less
than a month but that's the only time probably
that those songs will be sung with her and who
knows if Waxahachie and then we'll ever be able
to perform those songs, that song together. So
I think that's really... Mike, I'm gonna go back
to what you said There's so many bands, I think,
view their only source of income from merch.
And it's not that you're, but they have to travel
to sell it. Like Mike Cooley one time, I remember
him saying, we got it all figured out. We're
traveling t -shirt salesmen. But you don't even
figure it out without having to travel. Or you've
at least the CP that just got released. How many
do you have left? None. Exactly. We've got our
personal artist copies. You're at least selling
what you think you can sell. How does that, how
does that make you feel about the people that,
that really, and I don't necessarily mean the
people, but the method that you have to travel
to sell this stuff. It's certainly at a certain
point, it's definitely going to be a limiting
factor. This, we're talking about, we did an
addition of 75. If I wanted to do a thousand
records, there's that's no, in no way viable
without touring. or some sort of fluke where
TikTok or people talking about it, which of course
going viral or whatever. Yeah. Which you can't
count on. No, of course not. So it is a limiting
thing, but my goal is probably smaller than that.
At least for now, the goal in my head is that
I would like for some of the people buying the
records to be people who don't personally know
that. Right. No, I'm not just kidding. I love
that my friends support the project. Sure. The
next step is people who don't have to support
me. Yeah. It's nobody's career is made off the
backs of just their friends support. And the
way I've always thought about it is like, they're
the people that are going to talk to the people
the first time they come to your show. So they're
not lonely, but then the next time your friends
don't even shouldn't need to be there. All these
new people should have brought friends. So Guess
my next question would be then like how do you?
View the when you're picking artists to work
with do you think about the marketability at
all? Or is it you literally just people you want
to work with? It's just people I want to work
with and it's the flux so that first album I
got a friend or two to help and then it snowballed
and I thought the more people I'm adding The
more reason to add even more and I ended up with
I think 35 people helping me on that album Wow.
The new LP is, in a reaction to that, is a set
lineup for, I've got a standard band for every
song. There's some guest vocalists, but the instrumentalists
are the same for the whole record. Okay. I was
like, I want a little more coherence, a little
bit of a band sound. And it's, you said that
the first one you were experimenting with a different
sound with each kind of artist that you were
working with. Yeah. And so it sounds like maybe
you drilled down a little bit of what you want
things to sound like. Yes, for sure. Can you
talk just a little bit about how that, the process
of that first record, how getting one to another
and also just how long it took the scale of logistics?
I feel like when you get 35 people involved with
a record, there's, it's helpful, but it can also
create new problems. It was fairly painless because
Part of the criteria was, so this was, let's
see when I started, I think I started in the
fall of 2020. So COVID was still very much a
thing. And part of the choice of musician was
driven by who could record themselves remotely.
Not entirely, but most of the people on there
were able to record and just email me their track.
I had some sort of recording equipment at home,
some sort of wherewithal to be able to make sure
it didn't sound... Like garbage. There were people
that I wanted to have on the record and they
just didn't have a way to record themselves.
As far as I recall this was before there were
any vaccines. I record everything my own stuff
in my apartment. I did have a couple folks come
over and record guitar from my front porch. Very
long cable. Nice. And I had a couple singers
come over and record with me. They would be in
the apartment and I would go outside with the
iPad and control the laptop from there. So you
do all the engineering, all the production on
these records as well? Yes. And it's funny that
I left this out earlier. A big part of that,
when I first started experimenting with the sense
and with the writing, those first double songs,
this was, I've always enjoyed mixing multi -track
recording. I don't have deep experience with
it because Most of the time when I recorded live
shows, it was just a stereo pair of mics. No,
no mixing involved. But part of why I started
writing songs is so I would have stuff to mix,
to practice. And there's been times when I was
frustrated with the mix of a particular song
and I thought, I have so many friends that I
could get to do a better job of this than me,
but I couldn't let it go because it's, I get
better. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's when You
get frustrated as an artist is not when you're
not as good as other people. It's when you stop
making progress. Yeah. Not that there's not a
competitive nature in all of it too, but, and
I actually talked to Cole quite a bit about that
of his competitive nature and how that kind of
translated into starting a wrestling league,
but would you call yourself competitive really
at all? You don't, it doesn't seem like it. Not
really at all. Are you into Do you watch anything
competitive? Are you a fan of any sports or anything
like that? No sports. I'm all music. I watch
movies, but if there's something making sound,
it's almost always a record. Yeah. Yeah. I watch
a lot of like music documentaries and stuff like
that too. Or I'll put on like a live concert
as instead of an album and just have it on in
the background while I'm doing stuff. But when
you have Somebody especially when you're there
when somebody covers your song. I'm sure that
yeah, I can tell that you like that Yes, you're
sure but do you get critical at all? No We J
&I texted last minute about some of the lyrics
and in retrospect instead of just telling them
what those specific lines where I thought I probably
should have just sent him the whole lyric for
the whole song somewhere different, but it's
also But that's cool because that's whether it
was a misheard lyric or he'd like the way he
did it better. It's an interpretation. And we've
all had plenty of songs or we misheard the lyric
for years. Exactly. I'm still finding stuff that
I've listened to my whole life. That's what that
said. Anything recent come to mind? I have really
bad memory recall and stuff like that. Man, I
I've got a few with. even honestly, even when
drive by trucker songs and they print their lyrics
and everything. And I still didn't get it right
away. What happens to me a lot is I live in an
apartment and the way TV and movies are mixed
now, you have to have the subtitles on. Yeah.
So I will, there'll be a song that I know used
in a movie. And then the lyrics are, cause I
don't always look at the liner notes when I'm
listening to a record. I had no idea those were
the words to that song. I think it's interesting
that you trust those subtitles more than your
memory. I'll back it up. No, that really is what
they're saying. This is weird to say, but I've
always been a lyric second person. Interesting.
For most things, not for every genre. Yeah. Yeah.
But yeah, the, what the guitars and scents and
everything else we're doing was always my first.
the first thing that draws me. Gotcha. Quickly
followed by the lyrics, but are you a singer?
No, I do sing, but I never sang before I made
my first record. And at that point, I guess I
could have gotten someone else to sing my songs,
but I didn't. The more personal some song is,
the more weird I would feel asking someone else
to sing it. And the reason I asked was I've found
Bassists listen to the bass part. Drummers listen
to the drumming. At first, at least. And even
if you're singing all your songs, whether you
consider yourself a singer or not, I think is
part of why you might be a lyric second person.
Cause I feel like if you were like, yeah, I'm
a singer. It would be weird to me that you don't
pay attention to lyrics first. Not only have
I never considered myself a singer, but I consider
what I'm doing now. this music to be very vocal
centric. So that was a surprise to me. In fact,
the new album has a lot of stacked backing vocals.
My voice is low and I have a fairly limited range.
So I would do what I can in those areas as far
as stacking my own voice. And then I got Jason
Neesmith from Holland Reenactment Society. He's
got a great high voice. So where I needed that
on about half the album, I got him to record
backing vocals for that. So, yeah, I actually
heard a couple of their songs last night while
I was waiting for my Uber after Hayride, but
I had to call it a night, but yeah, it sounded
great. So yeah, he's a, he works at Chase park
transduction and we just booked a day and I took
like half the record and I meant the computer.
He would set everything up and then run in the
other room saying he'd come back and set up the
next one and I would hit stop and start. So how
much of a song is done before you call in the
guest? Or did he start working with you from
the very beginning of the track or is it, okay,
I've got this song and now I just come way down
these parts for me. I will typically record a
demo version of the entire song with like scratch
vocals and things like that. Except the high
vocals. I don't do it because I can't. I like
to play guitar solos myself. It's fun. But over
a certain, if a certain tempo, over a certain
tempo or if a certain intensity level is needed,
I got friends who can do better. So I, when it
gets to the point where I know that like Kevin
Sweeney might be the guitar player, I don't bother
tracking a demo solo. Gotcha. But like for the
second LP, I did rhythm guitar, bass, and programmed
drums for everything. And then the guys that
I used for those parts just replaced it. Gotcha.
But so it sounds like you almost have a similar
approach with if somebody's coming in to record
a solo, you don't want to put anything in their
head. Typically, no. There is one where I did
have I thought I was going to be the lead guitarist
in a song. Did a solo that wasn't awful, but
wasn't what I needed. But Jay, Gonzalez took
some ideas from my solo and built on it. So that
one was a hybrid where he actually, I guess we
co -composed. Cool. Let's go back a little bit
to when you did a lot of recording of shows,
because I feel like we jumped over that, but
you spent years and years doing it. What are
some of the shows that That you remember the
best that you record that maybe the recordings
maybe might have gotten spread around is anything
like that. You can think of off the top of your
head. I have the weirdest recall. If you asked
me about a specific show, I can tell you what
nine of the week was on. It was on who I went
with the interesting, what happened, but with
the open ended, the recall is weird because there
was so many of them. Yeah, they blend together.
the fall of 99 until the spring of 22. Half that
time I lived in Atlanta, then I moved to Athens.
Were you doing specific bands or really just
anything that came to town that you were interested
in? Were you traveling or mostly staying local?
Mostly staying local. What happened is I was
recording jam bands when I first got started.
I lived in Atlanta, so most of them come through
there. I was never somebody that needed to catch.
a bunch of dates on the same tour. So I was more
into the variety of the various acts that would
come to town until I, two things happened at
once. It feels like I just woke up one day and
didn't enjoy jam bands anymore. I think it was
probably a little more radical than that, but
it felt like it was just suddenly I just don't
care. Yeah. I feel like a lot of people had that
feeling. And then some of those bands like evolved
with that feeling and some didn't. Yeah. And
at the same time, Right at the same time that
was happening. I saw drive -by truckers for the
first time and that got me hyped on I've been
just a little bit of a lull where I was like,
I don't feel like going out recording anything
then I got into this new to me band and I started
Not only recording them when they played Atlanta,
but driving to Athens a lot that it really spread
out from there because I would Record the bands
that open for the truckers in Athens who were
typically, it's typically their friends. They
picked them up. Yeah. Or these bands that they
really wanted to lift up. Yeah. Yeah. So it's,
it wasn't just random. And just so like people
understand at home, like some of the openers
that they brought to town and then the Alabama
Shakes were an opening band at one of these weekends.
St. Paul and the Broken Bones was an opening
band at one of these. And then Like Alabama Shakes,
for instance, I went to Birmingham and saw Patterson
open for them. Six months later, they brought
a lot of bands that have then gone on and been
more commercially successful than them at certain
points. And they're almost like a muse in that
way. Now, I think the other thing that I think
is really important about that time period from,
especially from 99 to 2005. And I do think the
truckers. got put on that jam band circuit for
a little while and so I think a lot of people
that were in the jam bands got to see them because
they were playing like festivals and things like
that quite a bit especially after the Dirty South
came out I felt like they got put on those circuits
but in 1999 the only bands that would let you
record their live shows were jam bands by 2007
nobody gave a shit Can you talk about, like,
how that dynamic affected what you were recording?
Yeah, there used to be a couple online lists
where you could go check to see who allowed recording.
And like you said, it was heavily skewed towards
Jam Band. I don't think I actually realized that.
So that's really, there was actually like published
lists online you could find. Yeah. Unofficial.
Was on there didn't mean that there might not
be an issue on a specific night. The venue, back
then the venue sometimes would... have a real
issue with it. But when I started recording the
truckers a lot, I would, since the opener would
be their friend, I would record them too. Typically
they wanted copies of it because a lot of bands
don't get a chance to hear how they sounded.
Yeah. And it became a matter of just asking.
There's so many bands that were not jam bands
that I would either reach out to ahead of time
or show up at the club. and say, hey, I'm recording
the headline. It's cool to record you guys too.
And a lot more yeses than nos. I want to jump
back to the Sloan brothers for a minute because
you've been really modest and I'd like you to
just drop some names of people that you've worked
with and what projects that our listeners might
know them from as well. Because I think worked
with a really long list of notable, especially
And I haven't seen specifically, but this is
like one of the richest scenes in the world.
Yeah. Musically. You're really working from a
treasure trove here. And it was brag a little
bit of the, I think it's the 35 musicians on
my first record. They were all people whose shows
that I hadn't recorded. Interesting. So we led
directly from one project to the other. Yeah.
I mean, they are. Different degrees of friendship.
They all at least knew who I was when I hit them
up and that's the thing That's the other thing.
I think that's so cool about Athens and the musicians
that come from here They're usually very accessible
to their fans. Yes Maybe to a fault. Maybe they
might regret it sometimes But it's we're really
lucky to just be able to literally just walk
up and ask these people sometimes questions like
that There's no choice but to hang out with the
fans. Yeah. There's venues where I'm from that,
that very similar kind of thing. Like you're
sitting at the bar with the band until they go
on stage. What was, so drop some names. Who are
these people that you recorded that then recorded
with you? The key to this was at least for my
first album, Robert Schneider from the apples
and stereo and the element six collective lived
in Athens. for a couple of years and we got to
know each other socially. And he was the first
person I asked, Hey, I've been, I started writing
a couple of songs and I've got one that I think
would sound good for you to sing back in vocals.
Would you be into that? And he was like, of course,
I don't remember the exact order, but I want
to say the next, whoever the next person was
that I asked, I said, Hey, I'm working on this
song and I've already got Robert Schneider and
then the next person that I've got Robert Schneider
and Patterson hood on this. Yeah. So it just
built. Snowballs a little bit. Yeah, by the end
of it. I actually had a couple people ask me
Hey, were you gonna reach out that? That had
to feel good. Yeah, it was very cool because
it was a totally new role for me I had I was
as shocked as anyone that I could write a song
I've heard other artists say I've been writing
songs since I was a little kid before I ever
Really became music the thought never occurred
to me. Yeah, and now I want to wrap things up
here shortly, but the What just occurred to me
is like you brought in all these musicians that
you were fans of you've been going to their shows
recording their shows What was it like to sit
behind the recording console with some of the
people that you really admired musically? Mostly
it was remote. So I didn't so you got the hide
your Nicole part of that is it made me a little
hands -off as a producer because somebody would
do something And the email me the track they
did. If I wanted them to make a change, it's
a pain. They'd have to set everything up again
and do a second round. So it's not as it's a
different dynamic than when you're sitting in
there in the control room saying, could you try
it again, but do X or Y. It sounds almost in
a way you're allowing the musicians to just be
musicians and you're just documenting it. Yep.
And you're still doing the same thing you were
doing with the live shows, but. And I think different
producers have different roles. I think like
Rick Rubin would argue that's not what he's trying
to do at all. He's really trying to shape the
sound of whoever he's working with. Whereas I
remember his name, he just passed away. He was
the engineer that he did Pixies. Oh, Al Beanie?
Yeah, Steve Al Beanie. His philosophy was literally
just, I want to be a fly on the wall with a microphone.
And it sounds like you're closer to that. My
thing was just... the surprise of seeing what
I get back. And I used to tell people when I
was recording live shows that it was like fishing.
You go out there and you do your best to prepare
to do what you're going to do, but you don't
know what you're going to go home with. Yeah.
Through no fault of your own. The fish may not
have been biting, may not have been a great show,
may have been, there may have been people in
a boat next to you. Although I've heard the fish
don't actually care if you're talking or not.
Grandpa just wanted. It's been a pleasure. Anything
else you want to, let's talk a little bit about
the LP you've got coming out this year and anything
else you want to talk about, promote real quick
here before we wrap things up. Yeah, just I've
got the second LP, 11 other diagnoses. We are
about to send it off for manufacturing. So I
think we're fall slash winter 2025 for that.
It's going to be on science project records who
put out my first one. She's run by a good friend
of mine. excited about that. I plan to keep plugging
away. I wrote a new song last night. Awesome.
There's always a delay from when I finished them
before they can become public. So I just keep
moving and do some more. Yeah. Actually you mentioned
the way that this EP was pressed and it was fascinating
to me. Can you just talk about that process and
that plant though in the way they press records?
It's a lathe cut, which means that traditionally
when records are manufactured they cut a lacquer
from which a metal stamper is made and that can
usually last about a thousand copies something
like that yeah and that's those are the bulk
of the expense pressing it because you're making
fabricating something out of metal that sort
of drives the economics of it and it means that
under a hundred records or so you get too much
money in the front end for it to be viable to
press a small quantity. Right. So with lathe
cut records, they actually cut directly onto
each record one at a time from the source. So
we got 75 copies of this EP made and that means
it was played in real time 75 times during manufacturing.
And the advantage is you're not paying for the
metal parts or the lacquer and you could do They
offer an addition of one copy if you want, which
I always thought was really cool. You could,
yeah, yeah. Significant others birthday is coming
up. You could write them a song and record just
one copy. I feel like everybody needs backup
though. You're going to play that one. They make
it, it's all priced so that the more you get,
the better. The first one is always the most
expensive. Exactly. Yeah, for sure. I've really
enjoyed talking to you. I look forward to this
new LP. It sounds like a really cool concept
to just center everything around. It reminds
me of magnetic fields, 69 love songs or something
like that. So I'm really looking forward to hearing
it. Let me throw one more thing in. Yeah. And
you may want to cut this or move it around, but
the choice of the band on this new record was
heavily influenced by my favorite Athens power
pop institution, which was the possibilities.
Okay. And three of the guys who make up the core
Sloan Brothers band on the new album were in
the possibilities. That's Kevin Lane on rhythm
guitar, Matt Lane, who was the first drive -by
trucker's drummer plays drums and Jay Gonzalez.
All three of those guys were in the possibilities.
And when I realized that I was writing hooky
poppy love songs, I was like, well, those are
of all this pool of friends. Those are the guys
that I. And I strongly recommend to anybody in
the world to listen to the Possibility to Weigh
Out album. Weigh Out by the Possibility? Yeah,
the masterpiece. I'm adding it to my list as
we speak. I have one last question that I feel
like I would kick myself if I didn't ask you
and I'm gonna get emails if I don't ask you.
It's just you. Why the Sloan Brothers? I felt
if I just listed it, this is my bias, I felt
if it just said Sloan Simpson, Then it's looks
like it's a solo acoustic performer. That makes
a lot of sense I wanted it to sound like a and
you're playing they're all your brothers. Exactly
Thanks a lot, man. There's been pleasure. Make
sure you check out the Sloan Brothers I'll give
you a list of all of their in the links in the
comments here. Thanks a lot Thanks for having
me. Alright, that was my interview with Sloan
Simpson from Sloan Brothers. I Really love their
music It's got a bunch of really great musicians
on it, including kind of bunch of amazing musicians
on it, including Jay Gonzalez, who I'm going
to talk to next week, Patterson Hood, Brian J.
Howard from Cracker, Hardy Morris, John Neff,
Robert Schneider, Matthew Williams. Just the
list goes on and on. I really, you got to check
it out. SimSims System Update is available. for
streaming, as is the split EP, Jay Gonzalez versus
Sloan Brothers. One side starts with a Jay track,
ends with a Sloan Brothers track. The next side
starts with a Sloan Brothers track, ends with
a Jay track. Check it out. I'm gonna go chew
some of that bubble gum that came with my record.
Next week, we got Jay Gonzalez from the drive
-by truckers. Don't miss that interview. He's
one of the nicest guys in the world. one of the
sweetest men I've ever known and I Really appreciated
his conversation. He also he was really just
generous with what he was willing to share This
is an over -educated and under employed take
care