Page 28 - the NOISE January 2016

the devil makes three’s heavenly bluegrass!
interview by
mike williams
From their humble beginnings in Maine in 2002, The Devil Makes Three has gone on to become one of the most recognized contemporary acts on the Americana music scene today. Blending bluegrass, blues, country, folk, jazz and rockabilly, the trio’s live shows bring both humor and intensity usually reserved for harder music. The Noise caught up with lyricist Pete Bernhard to discuss their metal roots and the state of traditional music. They’ll be performing at The Orpheum Theater on January 31 and this show is not to be missed!
Pete, just starting out, before dedicating yourself to the band fulltime, your Wikipedia page said you studied herbology in Northern California. Is this true and is this still a recreational pursuit?
It’s true, but I pretty much just play music now as my full time thing. I did really enjoy it, but just never really did anything with it. As soon as I started playing music, I pretty much just pursued that.
What about it appealed to you?
Well, I’ve always been interested in plants, but just not as interested in it as I was in music. Ha!
Your song “Old Number 7” hit like few Americana tracks have in the last decade. Were you surprised by the success?
Not really. It was actually a slow process for us. People have always liked that song and progressively liked it more and more. It was less of a radio hit and more a process of more people hearing about us. There wasn’t necessarily a day where they put it on the radio and then we were big, you know? It started slow and gradually. When we first started out, people liked that song and then as we grew, more and more people got into it. People still buy our first record as much as any other record we’ve ever made.
This isn’t your first time playing Flag, has the town been kind to you during previous shows?
Oh yeah! Flagstaff always has been a great spot. Never had a bad show there, it’s always been awesome. We have some friends that live there locally, so it’s always good to drop by and see them. We’ve always done well there, even since our first show.
You’ve recently begun releasing videos for the Salt Stage Sessions. What brought that idea about and can you talk a little deeper in depth on it?
That’s through an old friend that I met in California when we first moved out there who now lives in Northern Maine. We reconnected at the Freshgrass Music Festival, which happens here in Massachusetts. He’s sort of the house photographer there and said he’s doing this project with videos, so I went online, watched some of them, and really liked them. I just like the look of them. He said we should do one before we played in Portland, Maine, at the state fair there and he lived close by. So he filmed us and it just kind of kicked off. He really has an eye, just the way he shoots videos. We’re going to keep doing that and the next thing we’re hoping to do is a video where we bring him on the road to film some B rolls of the shows.
You’ve stated you’d like to play with doom metal icons Sleep. Have you contacted Matt Pike?
They’re great! All of us are fans of that style of metal; everyone has at least one Sleep record in their collection. I’ve got some High On Fire as well ... We love that slow, sort of drone-y metal. I don’t think our bands would ever actually be able to play together, but they’re definitely a band we’d all go see, even though it has nothing to do with what we’re doing. But, if they would agree to it, we’d do it. Ha!
On that level, you’re a band of metal fans who play wildly eclectic Americana music. How has your background in heavier music factored into your songwriting?
We all love metal, drone and punk rock. But it’s hard to say ... The two things don’t really go together, but we’re inspired by the punk and metal scene — the DIY nature of it all. With punk music, there’s always been this aspect of the songwriting being hard luck and obviously politics and class, too, and if you look for it, it’s all there in old bluegrass and folk music. There’s always that lyrical connection, and we always wanted our live show to be as fun as a punk show. We’ve always
ththee
280 • january 2016 •• NOIISEaarrtsts&nneewss •• tthenoiise..us
photo by interview by
piper Ferguson mike williams
kept that in the foreground because that was the scene we grew up in and loved. It’s always been about having that much fun, even though the musical genres are completely different.
Over the years, you’ve been famously pelted with some strange things. Lucia has been nailed with both a beer can and beer bottle, and Cooper was hit with a Philadelphia Flyers cap. Obviously, this isn’t condoned, but have you had anything memorable flung at you and what’s the weirdest thing that’s wound up on stage at a gig?
Really good question! So many things have ended up on stage ... God ... Empty booze bottles, articles of clothing, underwear, notes, money ... That’s a really weird thing, people throwing money. Jewelry! As far as things being thrown at me, I think I’ve only had things thrown at me that were available, like bras, hats, cans and bottles. Anything that has been available to throw at me has been thrown at me. Everything that wasn’t nailed down pretty much.
You’re originally Vermont natives and returned in 2010. What brought you back home?
We lived in California for a long time, I really love California like my second home, but, honestly, it’s just too expensive. After a while, I think all of us just headed back to where we were from because it was easier to live there. Plus, we spend so much time on the road, California prices just became too hard for us to afford. We still spend a lot of time there, still have a lot of friends and family there, so it’s still home.
Has it been difficult continuing songwriting with Cooper in Austin?
It really hasn’t. We spend so much time on the road it doesn’t matter. We’re on the road for half the year, every year, so we usually wind up spending more time together than we do apart.
You also toured with Old Crow Medicine Show. Were you fans before that?
Yeah! We’d always wanted to go on tour with them and it just never worked out. The tour was great, though! We’re actually recording a bunch of traditional and cover songs down in Nashville and we had one of the dudes from Old Crow come play on one of the songs. They’re really nice people and their fans are great. We wanted to do it long before, but it was just a matter of finding the right time to do it, and it just finally worked out.
Can you give any sneak peeks on what’s going on the cover album?
There’s some Doc Watson, some blues stuff like Muddy Waters, and then traditional songs — like public domain kind of stuff nobody will have ever heard of. It’s kind of a tribute to the artists that are the reasons why Devil Makes Three exists. Just blues, gospel, bluegrass — all
that stuff.
There’s been a wave of folk and Americana acts like Goddamn Gallows, Those Poor Bastards, The Crow Quill Night Owls and yourselves that have emerged in the last couple decades that have absolutely exploded. Being at the forefront, how have you seen it grow?
A lot of the people you mentioned have been in this scene for ten or 15 years within different bands. I’ve known a lot of them pretty much since the beginning. We, ourselves, have been a band for 12 years and we’ve all just kind of stuck it out, playing what we liked, and it’s just become more popular. Then there are other bands who have just joined in on this scene and you can’t blame them. That’s cool. We’ve all benefitted from the growing interest in the musical style, for sure, and I’m really glad a lot of those bands have kept at it and kept at it. When we first started out, it was a lot harder for us to get a gig as a roots or traditional band. It was just hard to find our place. It’s been nothing but good for us that this style of music has become more popular, but, at the same time, I hope it doesn’t do that thing that musical styles do where it becomes really popular then no one likes it anymore. The thing I love about the music we’re playing is it’s timeless, but our thing is trying to take that style and bring it forward into the future so more people play it. And it seems like that’s happening.
As well it should! Thanks so much, Pete, can’t wait for this one!
| Mike Williams is a little bit country and a lot of rock n’ roll. music@thenoise.us karen clarkson
INTERVIEW