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With LA based outfit Dawes about to release their second album, Nothing is Wrong on June 7th I was able to catch up with bassist Wylie Gelber while the band was in Georgia supporting Brett Dennen on a national swing.
What’s it been like getting lots of attention these last few months, from your support of Robbie Robertson and the plans to support Allison Krauss, lots of write ups in Rolling Stone, etc?
Its been great. We are stoked on it all, but most stoked to be playing with all those heavy dudes. The Rolling Stone stuff is obviously awesome, but getting to play with Robbie and Jackson Browne (the band is backing Browne in Spain on an upcoming tour) that’s the sweetest thing. It’s so cool to know a bunch of these old school musicians think about it the way we do!
How would you describe the way you guys think about it?
We aren’t trying to hide anything or fool anyone. We are just guys who love playing music and enjoy playing it as well as we can. The level of players those guys are used to playing with, from back in the day, is just so good and it helps us think we are doing things the right way.
When you played with Robbie (on Kimmell, Letterman, Jools Holland) did you get to play some of The Band stuff or any of your music with him?
No we didn’t. That would have been so great! We were hoping he was going to say, ‘I want to go on a Band reunion tour and you guys are going to be The Band!’
Tell me about the new album. How are you guys feeling about the nature of progression from the first to the second?
We had way more time to record this album. We got to stretch out a bit more. We moved into a bigger studio and were able to get a bigger drum sound, a bigger sound overall. The first record was recorded in a studio that was about ten feet big and it felt like everything had to be played super quietly and there was no separation between anything. All I was playing was a little bass amp at a low volume and now we had a multi-room studio. But we still all stood in the same room, no headphones, and what you hear is mostly us just playing live. But we were able to get a little louder, more like the live show.
That’s interesting what you said about the intimacy of the debut (North Hills). It totally translates on record. It’s a very hushed record but also very lush. When I saw you guys live here in Portland, Oregon it was a much more upbeat affair for sure!
Yeah definitely. We liked that intimacy, its like those old Band records when you can hear them talking and yelling to each other. You can turn it up but it always feels quiet enough to really hear all the parts of the song. Then when you come see us live we never want it to seem like we are repeating the record note for note. We like to take it up a notch live with people in the room so it goes where it goes. Things are unplanned in that way to respond to the audience and the moment. With the new record we tried to split the difference a little bit. It’s still not as big as a live show but it definitely has sections that are much larger than the first record.
I remember in Portland you had a guest from the opening band come up and play a ripping solo on “Peace in the Valley”. How often do you have guests come up with you?
Yeah we end up doing that all the time. Whenever our producer is in town or when we are playing LA he comes up with us. We’ve tried playing with saxophone players a couple times on the road. If we are in a town and know a guy is there who rips we will always invite them up to play with us. For as many songs as they want to.
How about improvisation?
We never write set lists ,though the set does end up being similar because certain songs work well in certain moments. We feel it out on stage, and as far as improv within songs that can change every night. Sometimes we’ll jam for five minutes at the end of a song, sometimes its 45 seconds depending on our feeling and if the audience is feeling it. That’s what keeps it interesting for us. Often one of us will look around and guide the others to take things in another direction.
I read a while back about the band being Grateful Dead fans and particularly liking the song “Ship of Fools”. Have you guys ever thought about covering that song and how often to you mix covers into your sets?
We used to play covers all the time before we were touring super hard. We had this gig where we played a lot of weddings because we would make much more money doing that than playing Dawes gigs. laughs) We would learn 4 ½ hours worth of cover songs and play a lot of Motown, Tom Petty, Bruce, and all that stuff. We played the hits! Now we have a couple of covers that we like to throw in. Some of the Motown ones we don’t get to play as much because they don’t always fit the feel of the set. Sometimes we’ll play Warren Zevon songs or John Prine songs. And now we are learning all of Jackson Browne’s songs because we are going to be his backing band on his tour of Spain. We are also opening all those shows as well. So we are learning “Take it Easy” and “The Pretender” and playing all his greatest hits.
Wow you guys are the go-to band for all the superstars.
Yeah it’s crazy. This Jackson stuff is amazing. Its what we had hoped Robbie wanted when we hooked up with him, you know, we get to play all our favorite songs! Now with Jackson we get to do things like “Fountain of Sorrow” and everything and it’s amazing. We haven’t even wrapped our heads around it yet. We’ve just been learning all the songs on our own and trying make it tight so when we get together with him and he calls out a song we will be right on it! Its one of those things that you can’t even imagine.
It must be crazy. You guys are all really young, right?
Yeah I just turned 23. Our drummer Griffin is 20, Taylor is 25 and our keyboard player, Tay, is 30.
With all the tours you are going on (Brett Dennen, Allison Krauss, Jackson Browne, M Ward solo, etc) are there any rooms or cities you are really looking forward to playing?
Well we are in the south right now and really excited about playing North Carolina, we’ve never played there before. We just played Athens, Georgia, which is such a cool town. I wish we could play in Chicago and Seattle; we have great crowds there. But Minneapolis is kind of our main jam right now. Its one of those random places. We do better there than in LA. There is a radio station in town that pushes great music and everyone in town backs the radio station. Everyone in town thinks we’re from there!
In reading the history of the band I noticed both the Goldsmith’s and your keyboard player have father’s that have been involved in the entertainment industry. Have those relationships impacted the band in anyway.
No I don’ think so. Their folks are not really entertainment industry types, you know. Yeah David Stratihairn. He’s an actor but he’s totally mellow. Griffin and Taylor’s dad was the touring singer for Tower of Power for a couple years in between some of their records. But music isn’t his life; it’s not his main profession. They are a positive example really of keeping things in balance.
So this tour will keep you on the road how long?
Well we’ve got this Brett Dennen gig and then we do a week with Bright Eyes. Then we hop back on the Dennen tour and home for a bit. Then we go to Spain for Jackson Browne, come back and do Allison Krauss shows. After that we headline. We will be out through November for sure. Its great. This is what we wanted. To be a touring band. All the best dudes are always talking about how they were on tour for 30 years and that’s how they made a career of it. It’s hard, but that’s what we want to do. I look forward to it. I think when the years start wrapping up on you its pretty bad ass, every day in a new city is exciting.
Photo Credit: Kevin Hays
