SPOONBEND On the Making Of “Path of Destruction”
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind “Path of Destruction” and the story it tells?
”Path of Destruction” is an account of some wild experiences, certainly. But, for this song in particular, the chorus of the song came first. ‘“Path of destruction” is not my fault / she breaks my heart and my heart breaks the law'—I figured some people could identify with the sentiment. I used to get almost uncontrollably upset when I felt slighted, manipulated, or underappreciated, and this was a line that I came up with to explain the feeling of not only being emotionally out of control, but also not taking responsibility for your own emotions and actions.
How did you work with the producer and engineers to bring your vision of the song to life?
Jimbo Mathus is certainly a legend in Southern music. He’s recorded and played with Buddy Guy, Elvis Costello, Jim Dickinson, Shinyribs, The North Mississippi Allstars, not to mention his Squirrel Nut Zippers and all of his own albums. So, with all that said, it was pretty natural, mainly due to his experience and prowess inside a studio. He started mentoring me on songwriting and production a couple of years before we recorded the album, so he already understood how to work with me and how he’d have to coach me around my weaknesses while recording.
We went to Muscle Shoals and just started laying down tracks. With our engineer, Grant Walden, he was a joy to work with, as well. He’s been working in Muscle Shoals for years as a musician and engineer, so he definitely knows his way around a massive, state-of-the-art studio. I told him I wanted to get weird, and he certainly delivered not only great engineering and mixing, but he brought some experimental things into the fold that really enhanced the album’s sound.
How does this song fit into your overall artistic vision and what can listeners expect from you in the future?
The album is covered up with diverse tracks. “Path of Destruction” is a nod to my country music background; the main riff is my bastardized version of a lick my former guitar teacher, Nashville guitar phenom Daniel Donato, taught me. That chicken pickin’ sound is central to a lot of the music I grew up with! But it also has that Stones thing going on. The next song, being released on April 5th, called Why Am I? has a bushier, more punk sound to it. We have a beautiful ballad called Loblolly Pines that Jimbo and I co-wrote, which is scheduled to be released on June 28th with the rest of the album. We have a laid-back jam called Feels Like Home that will please fans of jam bands and classic rock like Little Feat. I wanted my record to sound like rock’n’roll history, and we really accomplished that.
What is your songwriting process like? How do you usually start crafting a new song? I
I’ve always been pretty good at writing hooks and riffs, but writing fragments is completely different than writing full songs. Similarly, writing a full song is a different skill than taking a song and making a studio-ready arrangement from it. Jimbo taught me to write from a title; that is, take an interesting sounding title and write a song around that. I’ll normally just organically come up with a line or title, and I have a very huge page of notes on my phone of those. When I want to write, I generally pull from those lines and craft something up around it.
Sometimes, like in the case of Snow Globe from the album, I’ll take a song I’ve written and turn it totally upside down and combine it with new riffs and new lines from other songs. When you hear Snow Globe, you almost certainly won’t believe it started out as a very “campfire cowboy” kind of song. I’ve come a long way but I sincerely owe Jimbo for a good share of that songwriter education.
How has your music evolved since you started as a singer-songwriter? What have been some key milestones in your artistic journey?
When I got back into playing live music, I was very inspired by Arlo McKinley’s releases of crazy good songs performed mostly acoustically. I was playing a lot of solo acoustic shows when I started out, so I wrote songs that translated well in that type of environment. But, my passion has always been electric guitars through dirty tube amps, so I eventually went back into writing riff rock, while leaning back into that singer-songwriter mindset for telling the stories and crafting the lyrics.
One of my biggest milestones, not only in music, but in life, was accepting who I am and learning to deal with my thoughts and feelings like an adult should. I want damaged people to hear SPOONBEND and know that they are not alone and that they can break the cycle of abuse and low self-esteem. Overall, I could argue that releasing this record is THE key milestone in my journey so far, because I am so jazzed to share this awesome work with the world.