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I was sitting around late one night recently, drinking beer alone on my couch and playing 'Piss and Moan,' and I realized – I felt it inside - that EVERYBODY has something they can't let go of, that thing that keeps them up at night. There isn't one person in any crowd that doesn't have something, and if we can get together and forget about all this shit for just that moment, just the length of a song, then we're doing something worthwhile. -Ed Anderson |
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Photo by: Brad Hodge
Music with an openly expressed "can-do" attitude can often be so cloying and disingenuous that you think, "If I had a hammer I'd smash this damn record!" Tire Fire dexterously sidesteps such perils on Good To Be, even when they're dissecting the niceties (or lack thereof) of the rock life – touring, selling records, etc. There's a smiling honesty about the realities of being a struggling band in today's environment. Anyone trying to shake a dollar out of the music industry is likely to empathize with the truths inside BTF's latest.
 Backyard Tire Fire by Dan Videtich |
"I'm so fucking one-dimensional! I eat, sleep and breathe rock 'n' roll. What I want to focus on is the music but there's all the business stuff that sucks up one's days, too," observes Anderson. "As a band that's not even close to where they'd like to be, every day is just movement towards that place. It's every fucking day, so it's on my mind. And maybe not ['I Love Rock N' Roll'] and that type of shit, but I've loved songs about rock going back to Lou Reed singing about it. I love those early fuckin' Wilco records - A.M., Being There, Summerteeth. There's a moment on Being There where Jeff Tweedy says, 'I was maimed by rock and roll/ I was tamed by rock and roll/ I got my name from rock and roll' ['Sunken Treasure']. That just works! He pulls it off and not everybody can sing about it. I think you have to be all-in to pull that off."
"All-in" is a concise description of Backyard Tire Fire. Not one element feels false or forced with this trio, and even after a decade of grinding it out, their chief goal remains creating rock of real quality and resonance. It's this fundamental rightness and attitude that's won over folks like Steve Berlin, a lifer who's known both massive success and lean years with Los Lobos.
"The conceptual rhythm of [Good To Be] is all Berlin. I sent him about three-dozen demos and he whittled them down to about a dozen," explains Anderson. "I didn't go into this record with any preconceptions. In fact, a lot of the stuff I wrote happened in the weeks leading up to these sessions. Steve said, 'I love this stuff but don't get complacent, keep writing.' I wrote 'Good To Be,' 'Roadsong #39' and 'Brady' after that, after we'd hooked him in and were excited to be working with him. The whole situation with Steve has just been good. He chose the songs and the [track] order, got the tones and performances he wanted. He was very involved with shaping the material."
 Backyard Tire Fire by Will Byington |
Berlin's presence is also felt in tasty horn and keyboard touches throughout the album, with the veteran chipping in alongside the band as well as manning the recording console. These accents beef up the Tire Fire sound in significant yet subtle ways, extending the band's longstanding love affair with the studio even further.
"That keyboard part at the end of 'Piss and Moan,' that counter melody that comes in with the response vocals, is all him. He came up with that on the fly; just went in and played it and left all of our jaws hanging on the floor," recalls Anderson, who values Los Lobos' example as a band dedicated to the long game of a sustainable, creatively rich career over fair weather stardom. "It's surreal to have Steve believe so much in our band. He did this interview [see clip below or click here] talking about working with us that made me feel so proud and privileged to work with him. Watching it, I can't believe this cat is saying this stuff about us!"
"I'm proud of the whole thing with Good To Be. The band played their best, and Steve got the best performances out of us. Everything he suggested we at least gave it a shot. Whether all of it made it onto the record or not, we did everything he asked of us. It's a proud moment, where we're sounding as good as we ever have and we're stepping our game up. It was a really positive experience from the beginning to the end. It's one of those experiences that turns your whole world upside-down. I'm used to going in and calling all the shots, and all of the sudden we've got this guy making us stand on our heads and we did it at the drop of a hat [laughs]."
 Backyard Tire Fire by Brad Hodge |
"He's got a great sensibility for putting things where you don't normally hear them. I love that about him and his musicality, but it's totally different from mine," continues Anderson. "From the first day, hung over and recording 'A Thousand Gigs Ago,' I just knew it was gonna be a challenging, good experience. For the next 10 days we'd take what we'd recorded and go back and drink a case of Rainer at this place we stayed at, the White Eagle Tavern. It's the oldest tavern in Portland and all three of us stayed in this shoebox room for two weeks. Late night they'd let us listen to what we recorded each day on their PA. That's pretty much how it went every day, except Steve had a Los Lobos gig one day so we took that off and ended up helping a friend move [laughs]."
Hard work lies at the center of all things Backyard Tire Fire. These guys simply don't quit, and their latest salvo is filled with their most refined, direct tunes yet. While their path may be pocked with broken vans, lousy guarantees and other potentially Tire popping impediments, where they find themselves today is genuinely positive, a well-earned place of pride, craftsmanship and endurance. It is indeed a long way to the top but Backyard Tire Fire is built to last. With a little luck and some borrowed faith on dark days, one hopes they'll get there eventually. Regardless, it'll never be dull riding shotgun wherever this classic-in-our-midst roams.
"I sometimes feel like I should have been 20-years-old in 1972 instead of being born in 1972. That's when Exile On Main St. was on the fucking radio! That's when I feel I should have been in my prime. Right now I don't know what the fuck is going on," laughs Anderson. "If you really start thinking about this stuff it'll drag you down. You just have to do what you do. It's easy to lose sight of how good it is to just be alive. It's hard to embrace the philosophy of enjoying the moment, but the reality is everything is temporary. It's not necessarily about where you get but the process in getting there. Enjoying the moment and enjoying what you do is the important thing. However, that's a lot easier said than done."
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