A Conversation with Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks – HuffPost 6.8.11

Mike Ragogna: Why, it’s the dynamic duo of Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks with their debut album Revelator. So, first things first…how are you?

Susan Tedeshi: We’re great, Mike. Thanks for having us.

MR: Let’s talk about “Come See About Me.” It’s the perfect track to start off this album.

ST: It is such a great song. That’s one of those songs that after we wrote it, we went in and recorded a working demo that wound up being our final. It was just one of those magic moments that you sometimes have where the band is having a blast and has a really good time. That comes through in the music. I always liked it because I thought it sounded like Little Feat meets…I don’t even know what. I don’t have a really good way to describe it. (laughs) It’s got good energy, it’s really upbeat, and it’s a lot of fun, and Derek just plays the heck out of it. I love his guitar playing on that song.

MR: What was the process like recording this album? Did you basically go in and play live and build on that?

ST: Well, it was one of those experiences where we kind of wrote the record as we were going. We had written a bunch of music together as a band and thought we had the record all figured out. Then, we started writing with some other songwriters. Derek and I got together with writers like John Leventhal, Gary Louris from The Jayhawks, David Ryan Harris who is a fabulous singer-songwriter, Oliver Wood from The Wood Brothers, Jeff Trott, and the list goes on and on. There were a lot of great songwriters that came down to our house that we got to write with, and as we were writing with these people, we just kept writing songs that were kicking our original songs off the list, maybe because those songs were fresh, I’m not sure. The songs were really great, and it was just one of those things where we would write the song and the next day, the band would come in and we would show them the song and then record it. A lot of the time, at that pace, those tracks ended up going right on the record. So, we just had a lot of luck with this band–they’re just so versatile and talented. We tried out a lot of different things, and basically, just went into the studio we built in the backyard of our house and worked on the record. A lot of the stuff went down in the first or second take when it came to basics, and then we would build on top of it. Maybe even some of the original vocals stuck.

MR: Beyond you on the vocals and Derek on the guitar, who were some of the other people that visited your backyard studio?

ST: Well, of course, The Burbridge Brothers are on the record. They’re also on tour with us. We have an 11-piece band on tour with us right now and everybody out on the road is on the record. That’s actually a very unique thing. Usually, you have a different horn or background vocals that you use on the tour, but this is actually the touring band that’s on the record. The only people that were on the record that didn’t join us on the tour are some of the songwriters like David Ryan Harris and Oliver Wood…they sang on the record as well. We have two fabulous drummers–J.J. Johnson and Tyler Greenlaw III, aka “The Falcon.” We have Mark Rivers and Mike Mattison singing beautiful vocals–you can hear them singing on “Come See About Me.” Then, there are the horns. We have Kebbi Williams on tenor sax, Maurice Brown on trumpet, and Saunders Sermons on trombone. It’s just a blast. It’s a really fun band and it’s pretty much the same group that was in the studio.

MR: Nice. Is seems like the reason that everyone is now on tour with you is because it was a so much fun recording the album. Is that a safe assumption?

ST: Yeah. It was a very fun record to make. I think the key element on making this album, though, is Bobby Tis who is our guitar tech and monitor engineer on the road, but in the studio, he’s an engineer and he’s fabulous. He has an amazing ear and really great taste–he’s very talented. So, he and Derek, along with producer Jim Scott who is also an outstanding veteran in the industry, did an amazing job putting together this record. I’m very proud of it, and I think they really captured the essence of the band on record, which is really hard to do.

MR: Derek, why do you think this album retained such an “honest” feel?

Derek Trucks: Well, I think a lot of that is the maturity of everybody that’s on the record. We kind of formed this band in our home studio, so the band is really comfortable playing in that room. A lot of times, you get a live band that’s used to just playing on the road and then you get them in the studio and you get that sterile vibe. Since this band has played a little more in the studio and really found its chemistry in that room where we recorded, you feel that comfort and musical honesty where everyone knows where everything sits and you’re not second-guessing it. Also, I think recording the songs right after we wrote them gave it a real freshness as well, you know, because that way, you’re getting the first take on an idea. And the way Jim Scott and Bobby Tis are creating records is just classic–there are no frills, you don’t over EQ things, you just get great sounds and you let the musicians create music. It’s a really simple equation. But you have to have people who can really play and listen to be able to do that. Having the right chemistry is right as well. We spent a good year and a half putting this band together and making sure the chemistry was right, and it really peeked when we started recording this record. It was great to be able to catch the ideas fresh and it kept the band’s chemistry really fresh. I’m really happy with the way it all came together.

MR: At this point in time, why did Tedeschi and Trucks finally merge talents for a full album ?

DT: Well, we’ve been talking about it since we got together 10 years ago. But I really think the timing wasn’t right until now, you know? We were so busy with our solo careers and having kids and raising a family that this was the first time that we could take a deep breath and do it right. I think, personally and in our relationship, we’ve matured to a point where it just seemed like the right thing to do. The timing couldn’t have been better. My group was together for 16 years, so it was kind of the right time to take a little break from that too. We just have so many musical similarities in our background that we really felt like we’d find the right place. We took our time with it, we didn’t rush into it, because we wanted to make it right musically rather than just doing it because it seemed like it was right on paper. (laughs) We wanted to make sure that musically it was really flying and holding its own. We did a New Year’s show in Jacksonville, and that was the first time that we had the 11-piece band together and it really took off. That’s when I knew we were fully onto something.

MR: When you first begin listening to this record and you hear Susan’s vocals, you could just assume that this was a Susan Tedeschi album. But because of the arrangement and the way your guitar joins her vocals you can really see that this is a duet album, would you agree?

DT: Oh yeah. And it’s a band album, too. There are so many talented musicians on the album, but everybody really just supports the tune, serves the song, and serves the group. That’s a rare thing especially with really great players. It’s nice that we found the right group of people that are willing to just do whatever it takes to make the song king, and if there’s room to do anything on top of that, you add it. Really, the album is just the tip of the iceberg. The live shows have really started to break open and go in a different direction, but that’s the exciting part–starting with great songs and knowing that you can always build upon that. With good musicians, you can make any song sound good, but with this album, we wanted to make sure we started with really strong tunes, which is why we ended up writing 35-40 tunes before we landed on the ones we cut on the record.

ST: I agree. To reiterate what Derek said, this album was such a group effort. It’s such a fabulous effort by so many people. This album is more polished and professional, and I think this is really the first time that a record has actually captured my voice the way that it really sounds.

MR: That’s very interesting, especially your having been nominated for five or six Grammy’s in you career.

ST: Yeah, five or six.

MR: (laughs) Nice. Susan, what does a creative session between you and Derek look like?

ST: Basically, we’ll grab a bunch of guitars and go out to the studio, and if anyone has an idea, maybe a guitar riff or a hook or a melody idea, we kind of start from there. We all just sit around in a circle and throw ideas out from there. Someone might say, “Oh, that’s really cool. But can we try it in this key?” or whatever, and it’s just really a free-for-all. It’s whatever anybody is feeling. There’s no specific way to start it, usually it just starts from somebody having an idea.

MR: How did you end up with Sony Masterworks?

DT: Well, I was signed to Columbia in 1999, which is also Sony. Since then, I’ve just been kind of bounced around. We somehow survived all of the cuts that the labels have been through in the last few years. We found a great team of people at Masterworks who were very musical and very in-tune with us, and we just kind of ended up there. I mean, it worked out for the best, we’re really fortunate. We have people in our corner at the label, which is really rare these days. It’s always been rare, but even more so now. We have high hopes for us here, you know? They’re supportive all the way down to picking the right producer and spending the right amount of time on an album. It’s great being able to take the time to be meticulous with the sound so that when you cut the vinyl, it sounds right, you know? You only get out of this what you put in, so it was nice this time around to make sure everything was perfect. I have a test pressing of the vinyl at home and it’s just such a beautiful wide sound. It’s pretty exciting.

MR: Did you ever wish, while listening to the test pressing, that vinyl was still the primary medium of music?

DT: I do think that, actually. (laughs) People listen to vinyl differently–it’s interactive. You’ve got to get your ass out of your seat and turn it over after 22 minutes, and it makes you listen to the album as a whole. (laughs) I think when you’re downloading things digitally, it’s really easy to get a little bit ADD and blow past songs without giving them the time that they need to mature, you know? I know I listen a lot more intently when I’m listening to vinyl. So, in some ways, I wish it was back to that–we’d have more of a captive audience. But it’s 2011, so you have to be willing to do both.

MR: Now, this is such a solid album that it’s kind of hard to pick a song to get into the minutia of, but let’s start with one of my favorites, “Midnight In Harlem.”

ST: Well, that’s a beautiful song, and it was mostly written by Mike Mattison. Mike is an outstanding songwriter and he’s really one of my favorite current songwriters. He wrote “Midnight In Harlem” and “Bound For Glory,” those are songs where Derek and I wrote the arrangements and worked closely with him on them. But for those two, I would have to give credit to Mike. “Learn How To Love” was an idea that Eric Krasno had. He had been writing it with some friends of his, Adam Deitch and a couple of other guys, and they came to us with a riff and we wrote the lyrics and the form. So, these songs happened all different ways.

MR: This album is sequenced in such a way that by the time you get to “Until You Remember,” you’ve almost built this beautiful story arc.

ST: (laughs) Yeah, that’s true, and there’s definitely an art to putting the order of an album together, and I give Derek and all of the guys credit for that because we’ve definitely switched it around a billion times until it felt right, until you really want to play it again and again. There’s definitely an art to that.

MR: Derek, which songs are your favorites on this album?

DT: You know, I’ve got to say that I listened to this album more than anything else I’ve ever worked on, and different songs float to the surface at different times for me. I can’t say that there’s one time that I listened to the album that I’ve wanted to skip past one of the tunes, which is really rare. But there are certain moments that definitely stick out. “Midnight In Harlem” is an amazing tune and there’s some beautiful interplay between the guitar and voice in “These Walls.” The song with David Ryan Harris was also amazing and I really love the Oliver Wood tune “Ball And Chain.” But, you know, different days, different songs, different attitudes. (laughs)

MR: And I imagine that’s how it was when you were recording as well.

DT: Completely. When we got together with each songwriter, it would just be the three of us–myself, Susan, and the songwriter with a couple of acoustic guitars and Susan singing. We would just kind of run through things. But we made a point not to force it in any one direction and just based it on how everyone was feeling that day. With the guys that we were working with, it was so creative that there was really never a dull moment. I look forward to going back to those tight songwriting sessions where there are three or four ideas a day and seeing if we can delve right into those. As soon as you finish a record, you’re thinking about the next one because it takes a year to put one together and get it out there, so by the time you take a break, you’re already behind the curve. (laughs)

MR: But you have 30 or 40 songs so you have about three albums here!

DT: Yeah, we’ve got a good head start on the next one, for sure. (laughs)

MR: Of course, I have to ask, did you use your Gibson SG re-issue for this album?

DT: Yeah, for most of it. I have an old vintage Firebird that I used on some of it as well, which is just a great sounding guitar.

MR: Derek, you’ve also worked with The Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, Joe Walsh, Stephen Stills, Eric Clapton, and you toured with The Rolling Stones. Do you bring any of those other artists’ styles to your playing and recordings?

DT: Yeah, especially in the case of The Allman Brothers and Eric Clapton where I was on the road with them for an extended period of time. Their styles definitely become a part of who you are, you know? And that music was really the first kind of music that I dug into as a child, so the influence is always there.

MR: Duane Allman was one of your earliest musical inspirations, right?

DT: Yeah, he was a huge influence on me, and getting to play that music with those bands and those artists gives you a different perspective and a greater respect too.

MR: Susan, you were also one of the Founding Mothers of Lilith Fair, weren’t you?

ST: Yeah, I sure was.

MR: Now, you both were child prodigies as performers–Susan, you were understudying on Broadway at age six, and Derek you were turning heads in the music industry at age nine. What was that like?

DT: You know, that’s a pretty common thing with music. I think people gravitate towards music very early. I also think your brain, at that age, is just open to absorbing anything. Kofi Burbridge, who plays keyboard and flute in our band, was a total prodigy early on as well. I think it can be a pretty common thing. My daughter just started playing violin, and it’s amazing to see how quick they can pick up on those kinds of things if they’re wired for it.

MR: Will you guys be touring for this album?

DT: Well, we just got back from Australia and New Zealand, and we started a West Coast tour in the States. So, we’re touring with a lot of music for this record. We’re even doing some of the songs that didn’t make it. It’s helps us keep the set list fresh.

MR: That’s great. Oh yeah, how does it feel to be named one of Rolling Stone‘s Greatest Guitarists of All Time?

DT: It’s funny because it’s never something that you would expect and I try not to put too much stock in things like that. There are some great people on the list and then there are some omissions like Albert King that make me think it can’t be that accurate. (laughs) You don’t take that stuff to heart too much. I mean, it’s nice to be a part of the conversation, but you have to be your own worst critic. (laughs)

MR: Derek, what’s the story behind you being discovered as a musician?

DT: Well, I bought a guitar at a garage sale when I was nine years old and just took to it quickly. My dad played a little and he had a few friends that gigged around town, so he asked them to give me a few lessons, and then I started sitting in at the local blues bar on Mondays and Thursdays. It was sort of an open mic. So, I would play two nights a week and that led to touring with local blues bands at nine years old. Then, one thing just led to another. It really was just getting out there and doing it. You know, at that age, you don’t really think about it, you don’t think about what’s possible or how fast you’re supposed to progress. If you enjoy it, you do it, and if you hear something and you can emulate it, or if you hear sounds in your head and you can find them on the guitar, then it’s kind of a game at nine years old. It’s just something I took to, you know? And now I see what my kids do. They have the kinds of minds where they’ll hear something and they want to go find it on the keyboard or on the guitar. It’s a lot of fun. At that point, it was just something that I enjoyed doing, but it wasn’t something that I started taking seriously until years later.

MR: When you’re songwriting, do you hear the guitar part in your head as you’re writing?

DT: Yeah. A lot of times, there’ll be little melodies that immediately pop into your head that you know are going to be incorporated. Other times, you know it’s a framework that’s wide open for improvisation over the top of the base of the song, it’s kind of riding that fine line. Sometimes, you imagine it and other times, you just have a blank canvas that you know will work well for whatever you can create. It depends on the tune, really.

MR: Where do you think that inspiration stems from?

DT: I think it comes from that collective well of all of the music that you’ve listened to over the years. Sometimes, it’s an emotion getting across; sometimes, its some nameless thing; and sometimes, it’s music that you grew up with. The beauty of improvisation is that you play things and they’ll be familiar and you’re not sure why, and maybe a few days later, it hits you where that inspiration came from. It may be some obscure solo you listened to 10 years ago. (laughs) That’s why you have to be careful what you listen to because it all stays in there somewhere. You have to make sure that you put the right raw materials in there (laughs)

MR: Out of all of the people you’ve toured with, which experiences were your favorites?

DT: I would say my solo group and this group. When you’re really close with the group, it makes it a lot more fun. It’s like a band field trip when you get 10 or 12 people moving in the same direction. It’s a fun way to travel. I also really enjoyed being on the road with Eric Clapton. That was a great run. and me and Dolye Bramhall, the other guitar player, became running buddies. So, that tour was a lot of fun, getting to do 23 countries in a year was amazing. You get a lot of sightseeing in. (laughs)

MR: And speaking of Eric Clapton, he sought you out to play with his band.

DT: Yeah, that was actually through Doyle. Clapton was looking for another guitar player to incorporate into the band, and Doyle had given Eric a few of our records. That was the original connection. I had been on the road for quite a while by then, though. It was still really unexpected to get the Eric Clapton cell phone call saying that he wanted me to come out and play on his record, which then, of course, turned into a year on tour. It’s not something you expect, for sure. That’s definitely on the short list of the most exciting things that’s ever happened to me.

MR: How do you guys think you’ve changed from being child prodigies to the artists you are now?

ST: For me, I would say having a family. A lot of the girls that I started Lilith Fair with went on to do bigger things in the music industry, but then fell behind in putting a family together. Some of them did, but not all. I just feel like I’ve grown so much as a person, not just as a musician. Honestly, I just keep enjoying playing music and making records and meeting a lot of wonderful people. I continue to do what I love to do and I feel so lucky to be involved in all of it. I feel really blessed in that way, and one of the great things about being a parent is the fact that it gives you so many more things to draw from for your music, because in the old days, you wrote about relationships, you know, or whatever you’d experienced until that point. (laughs) Life is nothing but a bunch of experiences, and all music is just writing about those experiences.

MR: How about you, Derek?

DT: Well, I think my sound and the attack is similar and the idealistic outlook is still the same, but you do a lot of living between 12 and 31 and having a family, like Susan said. (laughs) There’s a maturity now. I think my favorite artists are the ones who mature properly. You go through so many phases and then really try to distil all of that down into a potent sound and approach to the instrument. That’s what I’m going for, and that’s where you hope to end up.

MR: So, where do you see yourself in another three or four years?

DT: Just charging down the road, you know? I mean, that’s really what we do. I’m not going to be like some of the greats doing 300 dates every year for 40 years, but we’re musicians and we tour and we play. We just keep making records and doing our things.

ST: Well, I hope to see us playing bigger venues and having the kids out with us full time. Home-schooling them on the road. Just doing what we’re doing now, but with more money. (laughs)

MR: What advice do you guys have for new artists?

ST: I would say don’t get frustrated. Just keep working at it, you know? It’s a really tough time right now, so don’t expect to sell millions of records or have the price of gas go down anytime soon. (laughs) Try to book a lot of stuff nearby. (laughs) Honestly, just write your heart out every day and get out there and do it and love it, and if you don’t love it, I don’t really know how to speak to that. Just do it ’cause you love it, and don’t get frustrated. It’ll get better.

DT: Yeah. I think that once you get the bug for this, you have to realize that it’s a life-long study. Hopefully, it doesn’t come too quick and easy…in my opinion, you’re better prepared when it’s a slower build to this level. Just be willing to hit the road and do it. The real way to make your career work hasn’t changed in years and that’s to get out there and work and cut records and take your lumps and roll down the road. The old paying your dues adage is true. You just have to be willing to strap in and know that it’s not the best way to make a living, you know? Tom Dowd, a legendary producer, used to always joke that in the music business, you can’t make a living, but you can get rich. (laughs) So, you have to be willing to not make a living and keep doing it. (laughs) All of the people in this band made that choice very young. They were going to do it regardless of successes. Once you get in that mindset, everything else is icing. If it does happen to work out, you’re really pumped.

MR: Susan and Derek, thank you so much for sharing your stories and your music, it was really great.

DT: Thank you very much, Mike.

ST: It was our pleasure.

Transcribed by Evan Tyrone Martin