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 Grace Potter and the Nocturnals |
Their early press was riddled with comparisons to Norah Jones and Vanessa Carlton, what Potter refers to as "corny pop music," which disturbed the whole band. "We thought, 'This is not gonna do. We can't be dinner music for 75-year-old people.' So, we grew harder and louder," says Potter. "Being silent and subtle is something we've learned over the last five years. You don't always have to smash people over the head with stuff. We've made plenty of organic records in barns and old sign shops, and this time we knew we had an opportunity to step it up and do something different. I love when musicians challenge themselves, and their fans, to take it a little outside the comfort zone. That's exactly what we did on this record."
This Is Somewhere's cover is a shot of a group of people grappling a rope, and even before you know the story behind it there's a vague similarity to the classic picture of American soldiers planting a flag on Iwo Jima.
"The five people in the photo are just desperately struggling to get to something bigger," says Potter. "The backstory on that photo is my dad took it in 1976 during the Bicentennial. There was this guy, Lenny Silverfein, who was all about showing the size of your cock by doing something big [laughs]. He wanted to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by hoisting the largest American flag in the world. They were going to hoist it up on the Triboro Bridge for the 4th of July Bicentennial celebration. Two days before that they did a practice run and stopped traffic miles and miles away. They got it up and then the wind picked up. A couple of bridge engineers were on-site who said, 'If this wind gets any faster this bridge is going to fall over. You have to take the flag down.' At that point, the wind was suctioning it to the bridge, so they had to take people up on pulleys to cut it. The flag was literally torn into about 30 parts so they could let each piece billow away. They had to completely ruin this flag. It was just so poignant. That image [on the cover] is those guys hustling to keep a guy who's up there with a knife from falling off."
Welcome To The Machine
 Grace Potter :: 09.12 By Krolick |
"I'm not gonna lie and say it's been easy [adjusting to being on a major label]," says Tournet. "Compared to other label stories I've heard we do have a pretty good deal and people for the most part at Hollywood are pretty damn cool. At the same time, it has been a pain in the ass to listen to other people's opinions. I'm probably the biggest problem child when it comes to that stuff. I was not having a good time for the first three weeks in the studio, which this time included click tracks and a very slow approach to putting things together. Ultimately, when I look back now I think it was probably the right move on producer Mike Daly's part. All the nuances were really paid attention to. There's a lot of little hidden gems and sweet things. We recorded the bass and drums analog and used the best microphones and coolest, tastiest old soundboards and mixing boards, things that were used by our favorite bands. We mixed everything down to tape, and all our gear was super vintage and carefully selected."
Despite this vinyl-era vibe, it's not hard to imagine "Apologies" or "Falling Or Flying" being used in a montage in a Winona Ryder movie. It's something Tournet in particular is especially concerned about.
"In rock & roll you still need to say 'Fuck You' sometimes. If you don't say it then by the time your music comes out the other side it sounds like everything else. We all battled a lot to avoid that," Tournet says. "The thing about becoming a successful, popular band these days is so many people want to do it there's all these schemes – marketing schemes, MySpace, label publicity. We're sniffing around that world now, and we're trying to maintain our integrity. What you get for it is industry people saying you're difficult to work with. It's very similar to being a politician. If you get to the place of being the Dave Matthews Band, or whoever you want to be, you're expected to do these shitty things like songs on crappy commercials. It's really hard to keep your integrity and get big."
 Grace Potter and the Nocturnals :: 09.12 By Krolick |
There is the legitimate concern a major label will push Potter hard and the Nocturnals will become the blurry guys on the t-shirt like in Almost Famous. She's easy on the eyes and her stunning vocals have been compared to greats like Janis Joplin, Mother Earth's Traci Nelson and Koko Taylor.
"We've been fighting with that one for years. It's a tricky thing, and it's still sometimes a touchy issue, but Grace is so damn cool about it," Tournet offers. "She really wants us to be a band, and announces us like 20 times – sometimes too much – on stage. So, I feel bad when I get frustrated with something because it hurts her a lot. Even without Hollywood [Records], local people do this stuff to us. We were on Vermont Public Television recently to help [during a pledge drive]. I was born and raised in Vermont but we were just 'the guys' behind Grace. When we're in the van together it's so much fun, and there's not that kind of energy. We all have our voices. It's pretty democratic, but when we get outside of our little world it's funny what people try to put on you."
"It's not really a label thing. We've been fighting this battle since the beginning," adds Potter. "[Hollywood] has been really supportive of the band angle. There's times when the label would fly me out separately without the band. That stuff freaks me out. But, I think they've learned their lesson because the meltdown occurs from the inside out. Our band is such a core, and there's such a molten center to it that they've figured out they can't play that card with us. It's not a Gwen Stefani scenario."
"If this was an all-girl band, even if I was the lead singer, every girl would be in every photo. I hate girl bands, fucking hate 'em! It's always some novelty thing that's not gonna last. So, I'm really glad that's not the case and I just happen to be a chick who's the lead singer but I could just as easily be the bass player," Potter says.
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