Billy to record a version of the song “Lost Highway” for a TV show. Me being the only one in the studio working on the stuff, he asked me to play guitar on it. He was nice and patient and gave me plenty of time to learn how to play it. We liked how it sounded, and Billy started giving me other songs to listen to. He’d say listen to this song. It’s a hillbilly song, but imagine it being played by creepy British guys. So yeah, we did some very ex- perimental stuff in the very beginning of the Boxmasters. As the years have gone by, we have gotten more towards our true sound. We are a rock and roll band, and whatever Billy gets in his mind to write a song about, we go with it.
MB: You guys started out doing a mix of both mod songs and classic country. Over the years was it a conscious deci- sion to lean more toward the rock style? Bud: Yes. We did actually make a conscious effort to do that. I think a lot of people were confused by the first two albums because they were very stylized. Then we thought it might be fun to take a country or hillbilly song and play it with our British invasion influences. Our real influences were the Beatles, the Byrds and the Band. It was also influenced a lot by Zappa’s early humor. A lot of people got it. You did. We did two albums like that. Each was a 2-CD set. One of original songs and one of covers. We’d take a Mott the Hoople song and make it sound hillbilly or a Roger Miller song and make it sound a little British rock. But the sense of humor behind it really came from Frank Zappa. People thought for a long time that that was how we actually sounded, but by the third record, we began to slowly transition into what we really sound like. Just a rock and roll band with influences from Southern California and the South. So, the third record was more like an Americana record and the next one was a little more rock
and roll. So now we are recording songs ex- actly the way that we sound. The last three records are more representative of what we really sound like.
MB: You guys are truly prolific song- writers and recording artists. I am aware of several albums you recorded that have never been released. One is called Dinosaur. Any plans to release any of that material? Bud: Hopefully. Dinosaur is a concept album about guys our age trying to make it society. We have that one pretty much ready to go. We just signed with a new label called Thirty Tigers. Maybe we’ll talk them into it. But a 74-minure concept album is not the first thing a record label wants. We may put it lout ourselves like we did Providence. And we’ve got a couple of other concept albums in our heads along the lines of some of Roger Wa- ters’ work. We love to record covers of songs that have never been done. We recorded an Emerson, Lake and Palmer song that has never been put out. If we don’t have a record to record at the moment, we’ll record any- thing.
MB: One point I’d like to make during this interview for our readers, if you haven’t yet seen the Boxmasters in con- cert, do yourself a favor and go. As good as the albums are, the band truly sounds great in a live setting. Do you guys have any plans for a live album or DVD? Bud: Yeah. On the last record we put out, which was called In Stereo, we had one live track on there, the song “Emily” that my brother wrote. We have been opening shows with that song forever. But yes, we have talked a lot about having a live record and a DVD. JD: The show that we recorded that at, we did get some live video. That was at the Shoals
33
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55
