Once we found a high spot with a view away from the power lines we rested a while to get our minds right. When we set out I had intended to perform an interview of some kind but had let go of the formality two summits ago. Usually if we weren't pre-occupied we'd talk about music or movies and sometimes girls, or we would swap stories from fated nights and wayward trips. I had a pen and pad though, so I had to ask them something.
Q: When do y'all usually go on a hike like this?
Shelby: "Usually after we've been writing or laying down a demo for a while. This hike was pretty long but we could still go a lot further."
Jeff: "We like to get out here especially because its quiet, you know? It's cool to hang out without having to work on stuff the whole time, so if we're not working we're always doing something like this."
Q: Why is that down time so important?
Jeff: "To me, its like, since we first started playing together we've spent a lot of time as a group. It's to the point that if we aren't being active or getting food we're just doing music."
Paul: "Haha yeah, we'll do this before we play or after, but usually after. We try to maintain a balance with music and everything else, but we want to play. My favorite part of music has always been the process, we all love it."
Q: How would you describe yourselves as individuals within the group?
Shelby: "Do you mean ourselves, or eachother?"
I laughed. "Well, eachother?"
Paul smiled and looked both ways to his band mates. Jeff grinned and lowered his chin two inches with an "Oh, man," then turned right toward his brother. Shelby didn't flinch.
Shelby: "That's pretty tough to characterize internally." The other two agreed.
Paul: (Huge smile) "Well, Jeff is the klutz. He's usually the last one to drive. Shelby and Michael are the responsible ones."
Q: What's the order of preferred drivers? From the best down to Jeff.
Paul: "Michael's a good driver, but usually Shelby takes over after a long night. He's the rational one."
Shelby: "Ha, yeah. It usually goes me, Michael, Paul, Kelly, then Jeff, and Kelly practically never drives so that tells you how often we let Jeff."
Jeff: "It's much better that way. Trust me."
Q: What about during the writing process? What are your roles?
Jeff: "You know, its sort of tough to look at it like that because we're really committed to playing as a team, and we understand that writing is a PROCESS. We focus on that a lot and we're really good about working together until we feel like its perfect. I feel like each one of us is always looking for new ways to be perfect, because for us the best process equals the best results."
Paul: "For sure, we always try to get the idea to a song as quickly as possible."
Jeff: "Yeah, man, most writer's blocks come from just over thinking it."
Shelby: "I think that's always been our thing. The songs just come from moments and we all contribute when we feel it. It's tough when Kelly's away, obviously, because he's really good with making the melody and with lyrics, but we all write lyrics together, even on the phone, and of course that can affect the way things come out. But when we're here playing in the studio instrumentally we just listen to each other and build from those spontaneous ideas that, you know, could have started in the car or something."
The guys found this funny, especially Shelby who engineers the rough cuts from home. He once walked me through the process and let me hear a voicemail from an airport that later evolved in to "Mirage".
Paul: "There's definitely a fine line between thinking about it too much and just pursuing the vision when its right there. We keep the process moving, we're really at our individual bests when we're playing as a team. Michael, man, Michael's got a lot of energy in the studio, too, it gets us going. We definitely all know how we work and we let everyone do their thing. We let everyone speak or else it can't happen."
Shelby: "That's the biggest thing. We all respect each other. We don't pull pranks or mess with each other too badly. It's like what we were talking about before, being a family. We're together all the time; on the road, in a two room apartment, whatever. Because of that making music just happens naturally. We do it because we're already there and we want to."
Up next: CAPRA hits the studio.
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