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By: Dennis Cook
 Grace Potter and the Nocturnals |
The title of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals' new album, This Is Somewhere, achieves a lot in just three words. These days folks are always running somewhere, focused on what's down the line, their heads in tomorrow while the here-and-now goes neglected. The Nocturnals' new platter very succinctly says the present moment matters.
"This is it, this is it," exclaims Grace Potter, lead singer and undeniable leader of a band she once described to me as "sort of a rock 'n' roll record collection from the late '60s, early '70s." Their second full-length drops August 7 on Disney subsidiary Hollywood Records, and the Nocturnals national touring profile continues to grow by leaps and bounds. There's a powerful sense that this little rock & roll combo from Vermont with a badass vocalist is about to break big. But, inside this crazy potential-celebrity bubble lays a quartet of levelheaded, talented musicians far more interested in a lifelong career akin to their idols Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt and Led Zeppelin than anything a moment on the charts can provide.
"Everybody, especially when you're in a band and tour for a living, is always trying to find that place they're getting to, but we figured out a long time ago, on the road traveling around, that's not the point," Potter says. "Getting to the destination usually sucks. It's not just the journey that matters, LIFE matters. It's not just about goals."
Road Warriors
The touring life isn't for everyone. A lot is left behind at home, if one can even maintain one with the nomadic existence of a working band. However, for some like the Nocturnals - Potter (vocals, keys, guitar), Scott Tournet (guitar), Bryan Dondero (bass) and Matt Burr (drums) - stages are clearly their lifeblood. In the past four years, Potter and co. have logged thousands of miles, playing every club, festival and county fair that'll have them, slowly building a rep as one of the most reliable, enjoyable rock acts currently working the boards.
 Grace Potter :: 09.12 by Krolick |
"This is what we do," says Potter. "We're balancing it out a little better now, slowing down, working our way up in the world, being healthy about touring. As long as we can do that we can do this forever. People aren't stupid. They can tell if you're emulating 'performance' rather than joy. I see bands all the time where the guy in front is a ringmaster trying to keep everybody excited but the look on his face is one of terror. He might be smiling but I don't believe it. I just think, 'Dude, you could be working at Kinko's right now.' The other thing is that fame hungry bullshit trip. Some people get off on themselves so much they need that buzz from thousands of people."
"It ain't easy but what're you gonna do? I can't hold down a straight job," chuckles Scott Tournet. "It's been the dream and the goal for so long, especially for me, so whenever I catch myself whining about elements of the road I tell myself, 'Shut up and think about your friends sitting around in Burlington, Vermont dreaming of doing what you're doing.' There's so many good musicians that don't get the chance [I have] so I try to keep it in perspective as much as possible."
One thing's clear about Potter and her boys is they love other musicians. You'll always find them side-stage grinning at their peers or gawking at the headliners like the rest of us. Refreshingly, they've maintained the spirit of fans despite shaking a living out of music the past few years.
"If you really want to get into the craftsmanship and art of music you gotta geek out on it! We're total geeks," offers Tournet. "There's certain artists that can get away with [not being fans], like at this point Neil Young probably doesn't listen to other people's music barely at all. It makes sense for certain singer-songwriter types but for the most part you gotta listen, read and be into it."
This Is Somewhere
After the band's increasingly heavy shows in 2006 many expected the new album would be boot-in-your-ass '70s style hard rock. There's some of that, like "Here's To The Meantime," where Potter howls like young Linda Ronstadt with bigger balls over a mean blues-rock clamor, but there's an overall delicacy and subtlety that takes a few spins to really sink in.
"That's totally what we were going for! I hated the new Wilco record [Sky Blue Sky] when I first heard it but now it's thrown me for a total loop," explains Potter. "The whole thing about putting out a record is you shouldn't like it all on the first listen, and if you do then you'll probably start not liking it as much pretty fast. The biggest challenge in putting out a record like [This Is Somewhere] is being prepared for everybody to take a while to digest it. It's not a blow-you-away first listen record. It's a slow burn, and that's kind of what our music has become. It's taken five years to get a sound, and that sound is still changing."
 Potter and the Boys |
"[Shows like Bonnaroo 2006] were a reaction against being pigeonholed and against having to play softer, more nostalgic music," says Tournet. "It was about proving we're a band, a cohesive unit, which has been a big thing. Beyond that, it's about making a splash and it's easier to make a splash when you're loud and in people's faces. Earlier we were very into subtlety. That's something we tapped into with The Band, Little Feat, J.J. Cale and early Taj Mahal. We all dug on that."
"Then having to open for Trey Anastasio and having a 30-minute slot or even 15 minutes to prove yourself, what do you do to really make an impact? You go nuts. That's what we started to do. We just freaked out – banging on the cymbals and Grace is screaming and I'm getting feedback. Looking back on our live tapes a couple months after we got off the road, before we went into the studio, and we thought, 'Some of this doesn't sound good.' It was a blast performing it, and we love it so much. I got to do 10-minute guitar solos! Of course I'm happy about that, but this is an album and we thought about albums with 12-minute songs that we like and there weren't many, really just live Neil Young or live Richard Thompson. Being honest, there's a little piece of me that's sorry we didn't get into more of the filth and fury. We did just cut a fuckin' cool, really ballsy song Grace came up with. It's a kind of 'When The Levee Breaks' meets the White Stripes with Grace squawking on top of it."
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