![]() To get more specific about Dave Fridmann, he has a style, particularly with the first two Mercury Rev records. Just the maximalism of that record and how it is hi-fi, and we wanted to do something more hi-fi than past records. Another record me and Keegan talked about a lot before we were even writing, we wanted to make a record that sounded like XTC ‘s Skylarking but I don’t really think it came out sounding like it, but that was an early thing that Keegan and I were inspired by. That was a big reference, I remember telling Scoops about the album Embryonic by the Flaming Lips, the drums are strong, they’re kinda loud and saturated on that record. He recorded a lot of bands in the 2000s like MGMT. He’s a producer that worked with Flaming Lips, he was a part of Mercury Rev. Nick: Yeah, there’s a lot! A lot of production references, specifically I referenced Dave Fridmann a lot with Scoops Dardaris. Heather: When you were writing the songs or even when you were in the studio recording them, do you feel there were any albums or artists that were a positive influence on you during that time? Nick: It was more immersive than any other process and really it was an immersion that lasted three years! Even after we recorded, the mixing process was rigorous, too. I also think that’s what separates this recording process from others, it was just more intensive in that way, a lot of layering, but it was a cool way to experience the record because we were very much just soaking in it for a long time. You know what I mean? Because you play through a seven and a half minute song and then you do that again. ![]() Personally I remember there was this one day where I was literally tracking guitar for twelve hours on one song. This time the recording process was a lot more rigorous just because the songs are much longer than any album we’ve worked on. The first weekend of recording was Halloween weekend, which is pretty cool to be in the studio on Halloween. ![]() Keegan: We started recording in October 2020. Heather: How long ago did you go into the studio to record the songs? So that was the big difference for this record, the process was very different from the previous records. In a way that was a cause of concern for us because we weren’t sure how exactly it would translate. I think it led to the songs being a lot more fleshed out before we even played them as a band. We did a lot more demoing and fleshing out the songs on Ableton and GarageBand. It was mostly the pandemic and just not being able to get together with the band and jam on the songs led us to write that way. The songs I’m singing on, I wrote most of those songs. It’s a lot more compartmentalized, so the songs Keegan sings on were mostly written by him. I was going to say, on this record, something that was sort of a new, because of the pandemic, the songs that we wrote were written mostly by whoever was singing. The second record, the first full length, Keegan and I basically wrote that between the two of us in a room together and that was more of a 50/50, half songs more him, half songs more me, but the songs are more collaborative. Nick: Well the first EP that we did, we wrote that with four people in a room, and for that record I think I was the firmest creative voice. Keegan: I think it’s been different from each record. Heather: Do you write songs together, or is it like someone brings in a skeleton of a song, or pieces of music and you build from there… or how does that work in your band? So yeah, the passage of time with this record has been very strange. Keegan: It kind of feels really strange because it felt like putting up the first single was going to take forever and then it was like, it was almost here. Nick: It’s been a long time coming, we’ve been working on this record since before the pandemic. Track listing Īll songs written by Alvin Lee, unless otherwise noted.Heather: We’ve got three days til Holy Red Wagon comes out, how are you feeling? Reception Professional ratings Review scoresĪllmusic gave Watt a moderately negative review, saying it "had many of the same ingredients as its predecessor, Cricklewood Green, but wasn't nearly as well thought out." They praised the band for performing as energetically as ever, but contended that Alvin Lee's compositions for the album are uniformly uninspired. It was recorded in September 1970 except for the last track, a cover of Chuck Berry's " Sweet Little Sixteen", which is a recording from the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. Watt is the fifth studio album by the English blues rock band Ten Years After, released in 1970.
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