Page 34 - the NOISE MAY 2016 Edition

FlAGSTAFF BANd le TReBUcHeT UNleASeS THE OVERTHROW
StORy By
clAiR ANNA ROSe
After three years of playing together as a band, Le Trebuchet has recorded their first album The Overthrow — ten original songs to be released May 7.
Band members Jay Meyer and Jeff Nickell first met and started playing together in a
bluegrass/acoustic band called Devil Dog Road. when the band dissolved, the remaining members formed Kingsnake, later to be renamed Trebuchet, and these days goes by the name Le Trebuchet.
The name Le Trebuchet was an idea of the group’s former drummer. The word in French means “The Overthrow,” and represents a mechanism almost like a catapult, but instead works by counterweight. The translation of the band’s name inspired their album title.
while they enjoyed their time with Devil Dog Road, the band began to feel limited in their sound. Mr. nickell had purchased a new guitar, an epiphone version of the Gibson e335, and he and Mr. Meyer wanted to plug in and play rock n’ roll again.
“I feel like adhering to one genre as an artist can be really limiting,” Mr. Meyer explains. “especially if you have others calling to you. It’s interesting how people almost want to hold you accountable to the genre, you can see that with different artists — Bob Dylan would be a classic example. I mean, what do you expect from creative people? I think it’s been a very organic process from Bluegrass and acoustic music towards a kind of folkier rock, to just more
uninhibited rock n’ roll. It’s been fun and I feel like we’re really finding our niche.”
On his father’s side of the family, Mr. nickell’s uncle played violin, banjo and guitar. His mother had a large extended family and at holiday gatherings the family would play traditional songs — and Mr. nickell learned to play so he could join in. In high school, he explored his music further, taking advantage of the advent of the internet, and finding tabs to the songs he wanted to learn.
Mr. Meyer began playing music at the age of six, when he took up the piano. “I did that for a long time, then I ended up playing percussion in middle school, started a punk band with some buddies — but I’ve always loved rock n roll,” Mr. Meyer says.
Drummer Alec Mayes and bassist Alec Tippett make up what the band calls “The Alecs.” Mr. Tippett grew up in Flagstaff and took lessons from Rafe Sweet and has played in a number of bands. Mr. Mayes hails from Philadelphia and loves music because it expresses what words can’t. “Alec Tippett has brought a lot to the table as far as sound is concerned and the band’s identity,” Mr. Meyer tells me. “Jeff and I swung back and forth a lot of ways as far as our songwriting and influences — our intention is much clearer these days. They’re both killer musicians. They’ve moved in and out of so many genres and so many projects — they have a nice objective standpoint.”
The band works together in the songwriting process. “we’d write a song at home on the acoustic, cut and dry, bring it into the rehearsal space, teach it to the guys and play it. That used to be more how we would do it, but it gets less and less like that all the time,” Mr. Meyer says.
“not to say it doesn’t still happen,” Mr. Tippet interjects, “but even with a song that’s pretty well written out, once you get around the other three guys in the band, the song is going to take on its own life.”
“I feel like I’m always looking for ways to convey our music more universally — just have it come across unfiltered, without being pretentious or too dense,” Mr. Meyer said. “Rock isn’t complicated, it’s not supposed to be. To me it’s just about really defining sound and engaging the audience — that’s something we could do better all the time.”
when asked what the band hopes listeners experience when they hear them play live or listen to their album, Mr. Meyer answered, “I just want them to be having a good time — if it makes you move, then let it move you, and if it makes you think — there are some meant to make you think. ‘Bush,’ for example — that’s a whole monologue by Charlie Chaplin from The Great Dictator. That’s the most political we’ll get, but some of them are just about having fun.
‘Lazy sunday’ is about waking up hung over and just cruising around town. we don’t want to
PhOtO By
BRiAN BRAdleY
take ourselves too seriously, but sometimes we want to say something. we don’t want to sit back if we got something to say.”
“wreck,” a song written by Mr. nickell, has a story behind it spanning a few years about a young woman he knew in san Diego. “It’s not necessarily a good story,” he tells me. “she’d put on this false front going out, but then after she got a few drinks in her she’d do something crazy — really crazy and off the wall. One night she got into a really bad car accident and was on life support for a while, and has since bounced back and gotten herself together. I wrote that song over two years — the first verse when I was in san Diego, the second verse when I was here, from her perspective. It’s like trying to get in her mind. There are feelings we’ve all felt at one time or another. This girl was the most obvious example for me to be able to put myself in another person’s shoes and try and write from their perspective.”
For Mr. Meyer, two of the songs of his composition tie into one another. “There’s a real specific story I have wrapped up in two songs,” he shares. “when I wrote them they felt like different movements of the same body of work. ‘Little white Room’ and ‘My skin,’ are written in the same key, with a similar feel. we set them apart on the record on purpose. we originally thought of putting them back-to-back to accentuate the feel, but chose to spread them out on the record for other reasons. Those are breakup songs. ‘Little white Room’ especially is about trying to feel attractive when you’re being left, when somebody’s leaving you. you still want to feel attractive, because when you let it get the best of you, you’re beat, you’re done and then it takes so much longer to get back on your feet, you know? you can’t lose all your confidence. you can’t let it go. so those songs are written in that context, when I wasn’t really feeling on top of my game, but I wanted to do something that felt sexy. There’s a breakdown in ‘My skin’ where I kind of reference it, so the lyrical content folds throughout those two songs.”
One thing the band wants listeners to keep in mind is how to listen to the album, and I agree. “Play it loud, on some good speakers or headphones,” Mr. Meyer says. “Blast it in your car — play it loud where you don’t have anybody to turn it down for. There’s a whole lot of stuff in there you might not catch at first glance, you know it’s not necessarily buried but it’s not going to be what pops out at you first, so listen to the whole thing. we consume music in singles or sometimes in 30-second sound bites. This is meant to be an album, with a side A and a side B. we’re planning to release it in vinyl — we have it sequenced as such. The first half of side B
starts with an instrumental called ‘Anthony James,’ so that’s the idea.”
Le Trebuchet will be holding their album release show with opening guests Sol Drop at
the Monte Vista on saturday, May 7 at 9PM. For this special party the band will be playing with the Le Trebuchet ensemble — with lap steel, percussion, back-up vocals, and fiddle — to create the full sound of the album. “That will be really fun because we’ll get to fully realize the sound on the album,” Mr. Meyer tells me. “we added fiddle and organ. we went in and tracked it live as a four-piece, and then dubbed different layers on top of it. we didn’t want it to get too sterile by breaking it up and tracking everything individually. we did our best to maintain the live feel in the album, but we did add elements we want to have there for the release show. It should be a pretty long sound check, but well worth the wait.”
The Overthrow, was recorded by Jeff Lusby-Breault, mastered by Bob Hoag at Flying Blanket Recording, and produced by Le Trebuchet. It features guest artists Ceta Singley on lap steel and organ, Johnny Escalante on bass, Travis Vergoth on drums and Hannah Prizznick on fiddle. The album can be purchased online on the band’s website, Itunes and spotify, or a CD can be picked up at their live shows or by contacting the band directly. Le Trebuchet is one of the many musical talents on the docket for the 2016 Flagstaff Hullabaloo saturday June 6 at 1PM.
letrebuchet.com, letrebuchetmusic@gmail.com
| Clair anna Rose gets a little rock n’ roll on occasion. clair@thenoise.us
10/31/14
34 • MAY 2016 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us