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By: Foofer
The American leg of Earth‘s world tour in support of their latest album Primitive and Deadly ended on October 3rd, in Boise, Idaho. A town much smaller than their home town of Seattle, but it was the perfect way to end it, considering that Brett Netson was there to support them. Brett Netson, a Boise native, is a member of both Built to Spill and Caustic Resin, and helped with the backing guitars on Primitive and Deadly. He wasn’t able to make room in his schedule for supporting them for the rest of their tour, meaning this was a very special night for Earth fans.
To listen to Earth with Brett Netson back them was absolutely phenomenal. It was a bit off-putting to hear the Primitive and Deadly tracks without the vocals, but the older songs were practically remixed with Netson noodling his guitar around Dylan’s, with his mastery of blurring the lines between improv and noise. Even though Netson’s guitar was all over the place, it didn’t stop him from maintaining a certain rigidity for the song’s structure, and it most certainly did not stop Dylan from playing his guitar like a wizard would play his wand. Dylan Carson plays his guitar with an undeniable flair that it makes you stare in awe, but it’s not so flashy that it becomes grotesquely grandiose. A balancing act, if I’ve ever seen one.
Before I had my heart vibrated out of my ribcage (Seriously, this band is LOUD. I lifted my foot up at one point, and my shoe was vibrating around my foot. It was a life-changing experience), I was able to ask Dylan Carson and Adrienne Davies (drummer since ’05) a few questions.
(((o))): So, where did the title come from? Is Primitive and Deadly how people describe your sound?
Dylan: No, I actually pulled that title from Mark Lanegan’s lyrics, and really it just sounded like the title of a Scorpions album. [Laughs]
(((o))): What inspired you to introduce lyrics after such a long period of instrumentals?
Dylan: Basically the one song ‘Rooks Across The Gate’ I wrote lyrics originally for my solo project, so it was done as a folk song/murder ballad thing, and Adrienne liked the song and didn’t want me to waste it on my solo project, so…
Adrienne: Not ‘waste it’, it’s just I could only hear it as an Earth song.
Dylan: But anyways, since we already had one with lyrics, Lanegan and I, we wanted to work together for a long, we’d been talking about working together for a long time, and it never happened for various reasons. Then he said he’d be happy to sing it, and he heard the other song and said he wanted to sing that one, too. And since we already had a male vocalist, we decided we should get a female vocalist as well. And that song was funny, because we weren’t even sure if we were gonna use that song for the record.
Adrienne: I was one of the few who wanted to use it as an instrumental, I really liked it.
Dylan: Yeah, it was Randall that just worked with Jodie and Rose Windows…
Adrienne: He’d worked with them a bunch of times, we really needed someone who could sing real slow, with a certain register, it’s not easy to do.
(((o))): Was it different with working with so many different guests on this album?
Dylan: It’s weird because they were mainly written as instrumentals first, and then the vocalists came in and worked on their parts. It was more of them coming in and doing vocals, and us sort of tailoring the arrangements to fit the vocals.
Adrienne: Some of them, in the songwriting process, were very aware we were trying to keep them structured for them. They know it’s a whole different ballgame with vocalists, you have to have extremely structured music. Something like groundwork for them to lay on.
Dylan: It’s hard.
Adrienne: Especially with Lanegan’s vocals, all the stuff he wrote.
(((o))): Was there any music you would listen to while writing Primitive and Deadly?
Dylan: I guess this was my midlife crisis record, because I was basically listening to all of the stuff I grew up on, like UFO, Scorpion, Saxon… basically the hard rock shit I grew up on, made me want to play guitar in the first place.
(((o))): Is there a list of best 2014 releases thus far?
Dylan: I guess my favorites right now are Triumph & Power by Grand Magus, the new Blues Pills full length… and a third… The new Oranssi Pazuzu record.
Adrienne: All of my favorites are too old. [laughs] I don’t know if the latest Nick Cave one counts. It’s definitely a slow burner. A lot of albums have been like that this year.
(((o))): I know it’s been a while since you’ve switched from Sub Pop to Southern Lord, but looking back, how has that switch been for you?
Dylan: It’s different. I mean, Sub Pop was good to me, I can’t complain. I was much more difficult to work with back in those days, they put up with a lot of shit on my part. Obviously, Southern Lord’s been really good for us, we’ve done really well with them. Good friends of ours, as well as partners.
