Drive-By Truckers: "We’re Old and We Were Intoxicated" (Interview)

Georgia’s Drive-By Truckers have just released their 10th studio album, English Oceans. The long-running band has been keeping the spirit of Southern rock alive while simultaneously bringing it into the 21st century. At the band’s core are songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley. The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Mike Cooley recently and talked to him about his increased role as songwriter in the band.

Click here to listen to the interview with Mike Cooley:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: I was hoping to talk to you about English Oceans, I got the feeling when the record was released that it was being kinda touted or just felt like, a break through or that the band’s time had come at this point when the record was out and I wondering if it had felt that way to you guys when you were recording the record?

MC: It felt really good but I hope our time is yet to come like you know, a little bit closer to me dying.

MD: (Laughs) I didn’t mean that time!

MC: But yeah I felt really good about it, we all did, we’re really fired up about it. You know it was fun, we did it quick and it felt great all the way through.

MD: Yeah, I read that you had recorded it in something like thirteen days. Is that the way the band normally works?

MC: Yeah, yeah. Well it kinda is, we’ve never spent a lot of time doing anything. Usually what we’re do maybe er, we’ll break it up into two different sessions but this time we just, we had the songs and the band was sounding good so we just booked two weeks and said we’re gonna make a record.

MD: There you go.

MC: That’s what we did.

MD: So I’ve read that you’ve said that you had to relearn how to write before getting to this record and I wondered if you’d explain that a little bit for me.

MC: Yeah everybody wants to know what the hell I meant by that and I think I was just coming up with some way to answer a question, you know.

MD: Right.

MC: I mean I’ve had to do that a number of times and I get to points where I’m not really putting out a lot of new stuff and I have to, it’s not really relearning, its more reminding myself that you have to get in there and you have to actively seek it, it’s not something that’s just gonna come to you, it never was.

Drive By TruckersMD: Right. And do you spend a lot of time…since a lot of the songs that both you and Patterson write seemed to be based on real life events and people and places that you run into all the time…have you consistently got your antenna up, you know just going ‘Ah ha” there we go, there’s one for a song. How does it work for you?

MC: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, it’s exactly that. Most of this …three or four years I was looking for anything and everything and I enjoyed that, I enjoyed looking around me and seeing what might be interesting enough to comment on.

MD: And do you wonder whether because the South is the South and it is what it is, do wonder whether that translates to the rest of the world? You know, you’re releasing records to Europe and down in here in Australia and New Zealand. Is that in the back of your mind at all when you’re writing these songs?

MC: No, I don’t know, I don’t know why it translates to the rest of the world but in my experience I haven’t noticed that many great differences between people from one place to the other. Here you know, from one side of North America to the other or Europe or Australia. I haven’t been anywhere else yet.

MD: Right.

MC: i guess the jury’s still out but I kinda find people are people you know.

MD: Yeah.

MC: That kinda, we’re kinda driven by the same things and respond to the same emotional impulses.

MD: Now a lot of folks seem to be surprised that you have so many songs on the new album and I was wondering when you decided to kind of go with that plan of having kinda having one song then you’re back and forth between yours and Patterson’s. Were you wary of kinda changing the balance of the band? It’s a little different than what you guys have done before.

MC: Yeah well we wanted to do it that way. That became kind of a conscious thing, we had um, the number of songs we had and what we could sequence it that way where it was back and forth. It just became obvious cause we wanted was just carry the live show right into the studio and do it with all the new songs and that’s how our live show is, it’s back and forth all the time.

MD: Right

MC: And so we had the songs that just allowed us to do that and that just became the obvious thing to do and it kinda fell together after that. There wasn’t really any thought in the sequencing.

MD: And you and Patterson have been together making music for a number of years now, a good number of years. How has the relationship between the two of you changed, or if it has at all or is it very similar to when you guys first met and started kind of jamming with each other?

MC: Oh it’s done what relationships are supposed to do if they work. We’ve kept what was good about the very first moment that we met and we’ve discarded everything that might’ve been wrong that we didn’t realise yet and it takes about thirty years to figure that out. The relationships are a matter of deciding which ones you wanna go that long with.

MD: Right, right. And what is it about Patterson that made you decide that he was the guy that you wanted to spend that much time with musically.

MC: I’ve never made that decision, he’s just always just kinda been there.

MD: I see, he won’t go away.

MC: Yeah, yeah. I fed him and now he lives in my garage.

MD: Right, and I also read that you said that the band sounds like a smaller band again. What do you mean?

MC: Yeah it does. Well we put out that live record we did years ago er, Alabama Ass Whuppin when it was a four piece rock band.

MD: Right

Drive By Truckers Alabama Ass WhuppinMC: I’ve totally, I’ve completely forgotten what we sounded like then and what we felt like. Well I can remember if I’d drink an entire sip of whisky and hit myself over the head with the bottle before I pass out I can remember what it felt like.

MD: Yeah.

MC: But we put that out and I was in, when we finally got this line up together, I’d listen to that stuff for the first time in years and I thought wow we’re starting to kinda sound like that again you know that lean, hungry thing. It was a fun period and I think this line up’s got some of that back you know.

MD: And you’ve got a new bass player in the band. Right, Matt Patton?

MC: Yeah.

MD: And what do you look for when you have to go out and find somebody and bring em’ back to into the fold. Is there a particular kind of attitude or something that you look for?

MC: Oh sure but you know, it’s not anything that you could really put your finger on it’s, you know, you have to find that, you know that if they see the same things and take same approach to playing music and delivering it and interpreting it that you do.

MD: Right.

MC: And if you see that it works, if you, you know, if it’s not there it’s just not there.

MD: Right.

MC: And it doesn’t matter how good they are.

MD: I was hoping that I could get you to talk a little bit about one of the songs on the album that you wrote which is called Made Up English Oceans, kind of the title track. I read that it’s about Lee Atwater. Now me being an American, I know who Lee Atwater is but I was hoping maybe you could tell some of the folks down here in New Zealand kinda what the background behind or the inspiration behind that song is.

MC: Yeah well the song was more about the practice he engaged in. He was a political operative and kind of a revolutionary one I mean, he was to negative, dirty, political campaigning what Jimi Hendrix was to playing guitar.

MD: Right.

MC: And he was a bit of a blues boy wannabe himself.

MD: That’s right he did play some guitar.

MC: Yeah he was a white blues boy. We call them ‘Blues Lawyers’ in the business. He was an adviser on the 1980 Reagan campaign and er well for both his campaigns he served two terms as president.

MD: Right.

26atwater.xlarge1MC: And then he ran the Bush, the H.W Bush Senior in 1988, he was the campaign manager and ran that one. Kind of set you know, set the bar for how we perceive politics today but particularly it was during the time when the South and the Mid-western Bible Belt states were gonna be delivered to the Republician Party once and for all. And he was the guy who told them what to say to seal the deal. And so that the song is about what he understands about this culture that he comes from himself that makes him the guy to deliver them to you and make them you know, loyal voters forever.

MD: Right. Have you seen the TV program or series ‘Houses of Cards?

MC: Yeah, yeah I’m in the process of watching season 2 right now, I’m most of the way through, yeah I love that show.

MD: Kevin Spacey is definitely kind of in the same ball park as Lee Atwater I guess.

MC: Well yeah, he’s described… Lee Atwater was a self-described Machiavellian

MD: Right.

MC: Um and that’s the, you know, the end justifies the means kind of mentality and yeah they’re very similar. And they’re both from South Carolina.

MD: okay

MC: And that character could have been placed in South Carolina because of that, I don’t know.

MD: Right, right.

MC: I would have loved for that’d had been the case because you know, I could ride some coattails of some really good pop culture cool shit right now.

MD: Now the other big surprise on the album is that you sing one of Patterson’s songs Til He’s Dead Or Rises.

MC: Yeah.

MD: And of course I need to know how that happened and you know, why that happened.

MC: Well we’re old and we were intoxicated.

MD: Yeah there you go, that’s the answer to everything,

MC: You got to live long enough to have the first part. It just kinda wound up happening. He was singing it and I was already thinking that for some reason, usually his songs are things that I couldn’t sing you know, they don’t really fall into my range or my style of phrasing and that one just did. And he was singing it, he wasn’t really liking what he was getting or, and at some point he said that “why don’t you try this” I said “I think I can do it” so I just did it.

MD: And I’m guessing that that’s the kind of thing that can happen you know, when you’re making music with someone for such a long time that you’re comfortable enough that you can pass a song back and forth between each other like that.

MC: Well we’ve never done it before and we may never do it again.

MD: Right.

MC: That one worked out just fine you know, we’re doing it live, we’re doing it that way live, I’m enjoying it. It’s a fun song…it’s a fun song to play and sing.

MD: And you guys are have done some pretty heavy touring now to back up the album, I see you’re all over the place and you’re doing festivals, Bonnaroo and things like that. You’ve got…

MC: We just kind of, yeah got into the swing of promoting this record. We just did two weeks in like North-Western and upper Mid-Western, US and we’re about to go to the West Coast and then to Europe. I hope we’re gonna come to Australia or New Zealand or not I’d love to.

MD: Yeah, I was gonna ask you that. Your old band mate Jason Isbell is here on Saturday so it seems like you kinda should be.

MC: Oh really.

MD: Yeah, I’m really looking forward to seeing him.

MC: That could be why we’re talking, they may be planning on putting me on a plane for a day.

MD: Hey now there you go.

MC: And yeah I just don’t know about it yet.

MD: Does that happen a lot?

MC: Sure yeah.

MD: Man oh man, so as far as you know, touring live wise, how does the band compare to say when you guys started out. Is it a similar kind of experience or have you, you know, being on the road so much does that effect what happens on stage?

MC: I hope it’s getting better and I know we’ve gotten better at certain elements and if that’s what you hope to get. If you can have, you can have your cake and eat it too, you get better on those technical levels and you hold onto that hunger that was in you to begin with and you never let that go. That’s what I’m always tryna do

MD: And I’m guessing with a band like you, the audience is an integral part of what happens and you kind of feed off of each other. Would that be correct?

MC: Yeah, yeah we do and we’ve got this er, we kinda have a core audience out there that sends a certain type of energy every night.

MD: Right

MC: And we do feed off that, we do decide what song we’re gonna do next based on that a lot of the time.

MD: So when you go out to uncharted territories like down here um, when you don’t have that core audience around you, does it affect, do you feel like it’s a different experience for you guys?

MC: Not really um, you just know that it’s not, that it may or may not be there and you go out and do the same thing that you did in that club with thirty people and except there’s a lot more and that’s fine.

Click here to read The 13th Floor review of English Oceans.