ACL Interview: The Rosebuds

We’re just a few short days from the kick-off of ACL Festival, and we’ve been trying our hardest to support the acts we love.  We caught up with The Rosebuds, who released Sand + Silence earlier this year via Western Vinyl, for a quick little interview.  Here’s what they Ivan to say.

ATH: If I’m not mistaken, your three ACL Shows (ACL Nights @Stubb’s, Weekend 1 and Weekend 2) are the tail end of your tour thus far for Sand + Silence. How are the songs from the new album coming across with audiences?

Ivan: I think they’re coming across really well. It’s exciting to see people react so positively to songs they may have never heard before. The room just feels exciting when the first G minor chords on the guitar of In My Teeth starts, and when we see them singing and dancing to Blue Eyes it’s never not amazing.

ATH: The last time you were in Austin, you played a show at the Parish, which is quite a different, much more intimate, venue than a festival setting, do you approach this kind of live show in a different way?

Ivan: For the most part, it will be the same, but the festival set will probably even a little more upbeat than usual. It may be hard for the little delicate parts of the softer songs to come through in the middle of all the bands and people moving about, or to have the kind of crowd participation we usually have when they may not know us as well as they would if we came to town and played the Parish. But we’re really looking forward to playing the fest and seeing how the folks that come see us play react and what they respond to musically.

ATH: Between the two weekends of ACL, what will you be up to?

Ivan: Some of the band will be flying back to NC for the week and Kelly will be going back to Columbia for her graduate school classes in fiction writing, and I’ll be driving to and from Nashville where I’m putting in work on a project with Logan Matheny (Rosebuds & Roman Candle) at his studio Big Light.

ATH:With such a large catalog of songs to draw from, how do you decide which ones to play in an hour-long set?

Ivan: Well, it’s never easy, and some songs always get left out, but we try to play a set list that we’d want to hear if we went and saw a Rosebuds show ourselves. But songs from all over our catalogue are in there. A few old ones we haven’t played in years, and a bunch of the new ones from our record Sand + Silence that just came out as well. And at this point we have the set pretty much dialed in and figured out already from the touring we’ve been doing prior to the festival.

ATH: Do you have a favorite song to play live? If so, which one and why?

Ivan: Well, it’s hard to pic a favorite and it changes every night, depending on how the crowd is reacting and what they are into. But I’ve really enjoyed playing You Better Get Ready, Get Up Get Out, and all the songs from the new record, especially In My Teeth. Nice fox is always amazing when the crowd sings “and it don’t mean nothing at all” back to us every night. I never take that for granted. But I really like playing them all!

ATH: What was different, if anything, about recording this album?

Ivan: We made this album pretty much the way we’ve made all our other records. With our friends. But It was just a little quicker this time around and took place all in April Base Studio in Eau Claire which is new for us. In the past we’ve peiced it together in different little home studios or spaces here and there, but the one costant is we’ve always been fortunate to be surrounded by really talented friends who believe in our songs are kind enough to contribute and help us make those little song ideas come to life.

ATH: At your dream festival, who is the headliner?

Ivan: Whew, this is a tough one. Sade, and right before her, Ennio Morricone, then probably Tom Petty playing Into the Great Wide Open front to back, Pet Shop Boys are in there as well, and of course The Ventures if they were still alive, all opening up for the healiner The Rosebuds.

The group will play both weekends on the Miller Lite Stage at 1:30 PM.

[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/03_The_Rosebuds_-_Loud_Planes_Fly_Low_-_Second_Bird_of_Paradise.mp3]

Download: The Rosebuds – Second Bird of Paradise [MP3]