INTERVIEW: This holiday season, check out Honey Island Swamp Band’s new album
Photo: Honey Island Swamp Band’s new album is called Custom Deluxe. Photo courtesy of Jake Rosenberg / Provided by Press Here Publicity with permission.
Honey Island Swamp Band, one of the most successful exporters of New Orleans sounds, recently released their new album, called Custom Deluxe. For fans of blues, roots and rock, the group is a must-listen, and Custom Deluxe is a solid place to begin on a journey into their back catalog. This new recording is the first album for the band in seven years.
On the new album, fans can check out songs like “Gone,” “High River Rag,” “Sugar for Sugar” and “Wildfire.” The sounds, according to press notes, were recorded across the United States. Of course, Honey Island spent time in their native NOLA to throw down some tracks, but the bandmates also headed to places far and wide to find the right musical recipe. One song was even recorded on the top of a mountain in Colorado (more on that story below).
Honey Island Swamp Band is two years shy of its 20th anniversary as a musical group. Their history is inextricably tied to the monumental Hurricane Katrina and how that storm devastated New Orleans and the Gulf region. Like so many residents, the bandmates needed to leave Louisiana after the storm, and they set up shop in San Francisco. That’s where the band was formed, and today, they are back in NOLA, living the musical life and gigging around the country.
Frontman Aaron Wilkinson recently exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox and opened up about the process of making Custom Deluxe. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What did day one look like for this album project? What inspired you to head into the studio?
So, we were in Winter Park, Colorado, playing a festival, and we had some days off after. Someone with the fest hipped us to this studio in town called Eagle Wind Sound, which is run by PJ Olsson, the singer from the Alan Parsons Project. So they introduced us to PJ, and we set up a session on our day off. We had this new song, “Gone,” that we had been playing live but had never recorded, and it was just the perfect place to do it. That sort of established a pattern for how we would end up recording the whole album, doing a song or two in different studios all over the country while we were touring around.
Do you feel that this sixth album changes the sound of the band in any way? Or are you refining the sounds from the past?
I think it’s a little of both. Chris Spies (keys) and Lee Yankie (guitar) joined the band just a few years prior to this record, so their style and influence is definitely new. But it’s still a Honey Island record through and through, and I think we’ve just continued to mature as songwriters and performers.
What inspired the single “Gone”? How did that one get created?
I started writing “Gone” while driving our bus home to New Orleans overnight from somewhere we were playing up north. The bus is the “ghost of glass and steel” in the first line. The sun was coming up as we crossed from Tennessee into Georgia; I changed that into sunset for the song. It’s probably one of our more autobiographical songs — just about all the years spent on the road. It’s about being gone not just physically, but also mentally and physically, and implicitly about the toll that takes on relationships and the rest of your life.
How long has the band been back in New Orleans after a few years in San Francisco? Does being in the city help with your inspiration?
We were in San Francisco for a couple years after Hurricane Katrina. But once the FEMA grant money ran out, that was the end of that! Lol. We’ve been based back in NOLA ever since, and it’s definitely where we draw a lot of our inspiration. Just being around great music and musicians every day, it’s always top of mind and ever present in everything we do. So it pushes you and inspires you to keep at it.
Would you say a fan of your music hasn’t truly experienced your capability without seeing you live? Do you consider yourselves a live band?
Yeah, I think you have to see the band live to really get it. We like to stretch out on a lot of the songs and improvise in ways that you just can’t do within the confines of a record. And we really enjoy engaging with a live audience; it’s a big part of who we are.
To describe your sound, there are many words available: blues, roots, rock. Which do you prefer?
All of them! We have always drawn from a lot of different influences, and our music can be hard to categorize. But we embrace that. Who wants to be defined as any one thing anyway?
Looks like you have a truck on the album cover. Into cars and trucks? What’s the story behind that vehicle?
Yeah, I love old trucks. I used to have one like the one on the cover. It’s a Chevy Custom Deluxe, and I just always thought that would make a great name for a record. Turns out it makes a great cover, too. Lol.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Honey Island Swamp Band’s new album is called Custom Deluxe. Click here for more information.
