Truckers Re-enter Studio
By Team JamBase Jan 9, 2009 • 2:44 pm PST
Editor’s Note: JamBase contributor Martin Halo recently sat down with the Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood for an interview that was featured on his own www.thewaster.com. Marty was kind enough to share the news with us:
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“It’s a good time for the band, and we are going back into the studio a week from today” shares Hood from his home in Athens, GA. “Everybody is getting along. We played 168 shows this year without anybody hating each other. That is no small accomplishment being cooped up with that many rednecks for that long in such small quarters,” jokes Hood with some laughter.
“The chemistry is real good and because of John Neff, who is a new creative force in this band, I have been writing some really weird and out there songs. I am really looking forward to getting together next week to see what happens,” says Hood. “We are going to record for nine days and then start a group of shows. We are doing three nights here at home including a big benefit we do every year for a local charity. Then we are going to go to Washington to see Obama get inaugurated. It is a pretty cool time.”
Hood sounds like a new man in comparison to the period leading up to the release of Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, which hit store shelves back in January of 2008. It was a time filled not only with turmoil, but uncertainties.
“Instead of breaking-up we took time off, bands sometimes break-up when they don’t have to,” said Hood back in the spring of ’08. When Patterson Hood returned to the Truckers, after the departure of Jason Isbell, the financial struggles of a lackluster summer tour with The Black Crowes, combined with the divorce of a long-time band member, yielded a writing session that flooded his notebook with about 50 songs. But the question most important is where Hood stands today on the eve of a new creative chapter?
“I have about 20 songs right now,” he says. “The good news is that we are not really in any kind of hurry. The record won’t come out until the very beginning of 2010. We are starting it early but not with any intention of finishing it yet. We just want to go in and record what we got. Then the plan is to go back in during May and see where we are. The process would then be to start figuring out what is going to be on the record and what isn’t. This is more of a foundation session. I am sure when I hear Cooley’s next batch of songs I will have another inspired writing fit. We have always written that way, we have always kind of written off of each other.”
Drive-By Truckers tour dates available here.
