Dan Vickrey & David "Immy" Immergluck Speak About The New Album & Discourage The Rumor...Kind of.
Having seen them many times in the past 11 years, and having a new found appreciation for their songwriting and song structure, having memorized most of their songs due to marrying one of their biggest fans, I’m anxious to talk with them about their 5th studio album Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings coming out toward the end of March (25th to be exact…make sure to mark it on your calendars). A conceptual album about the hard partying and rock-n-roll lifestyle we all try to subject ourselves to on Saturday night and waking up Sunday morning wondering, “what the hell was I thinking the night before when I did that?” and not necessarily righting the wrongs but struggling with the consequences. I’m quickly woken up from my rambling thoughts as their publicist comes back on the line to tell me she has David “Immy” Immergluck on the phone for me now while she still tries to track down Dan Vickrey.
David Immergluck: I’m in Los Angeles; Dan’s somewhere in San Francisco…um…unreachable at the moment (laughs). Not usual for my compatriot. We’re in limbo right now so he may have forgotten what day it is.
RM: Do you have any shows lined up soon?
Immy: No. The record doesn’t come out until March 25th and the calendar keeps changing; we were going to go overseas and I found out about 10 minutes ago that it’s not happening, and not happening before the record comes out. The devil has work for idle hands. The frustrating thing is the record is done but now we’re just waiting for it to come out, and there’s not a whole lot you can do until then. Except maybe slowly destroy yourself.
RM: How was playing in Arizona before the Superbowl?
Immy: It was a flurry of activity and a lot of fun. We went to New York and filmed some T.V. stuff, which will come out later, and we played a secret show as well. We certainly felt like “all systems go!” and then we’re back at home waiting for stuff to happen again.
RM: Are you all located in L.A. now?
Immy: No, the only people in L.A. anymore are our management company, the headquarters, myself and Charlie, our keyboard player. Lot of other guys fled back to the Bay Area, Adam lives in Manhattan…thankfully because we get to go there a lot. And our bass player lives in Nashville. We’re kind of all over the place.
RM: Have you played a lot of the new material live?
Immy: We’ve played almost all of it live; in fact, the last show we played about an hour’s worth of old stuff, took a break, then we came back and I think there were only 2 songs that we didn’t play from the new record.
RM: How’s the feedback been?
Immy: It’s great! I’m never tired of Counting Crows material but it’s fantastic to have a new collection of songs to draw from, and we all love playing, so it’s like drawing new blood in the system. It’s like the Keith Richards blood transfusion. We didn’t quite need it but it’s nice to have it.
RM: I’ve looked at the time line between albums and usually it’s been about 3 years; why was there such a long break for this one to come out?
Immy: Yeah, well, I guess 6 years is the new 3-years.
A voice briefly interupts the conversation to let us know that Dan is on the line...
Dan: It’s a party
RM: Hey Dan...Andrew here...
Dan: Hey Andrew.
Immy: It’s Immy here…
Dan: Hey Immy…
Immy: …stage left…
Dan: Stage left, how’s it going?
RM: I guess I’m kind of in the middle…
Dan: Where are you at?
RM: Marin County…
Immy: Actually Dan would be in the middle…
Dan: Yeah…Andrew, don’t go assuming things like that. It that’s how it’s gonna roll then I’m outta here! (Laughs)
RM: I was just telling Immy that the album is phenomenal…
Dan: I blame myself.
Immy: I told him I hadn’t’ heard it yet.
Dan: Oh…I haven’t either actually. (All laugh)
RM: Tell me about some of the tracks on the album starting with “1492”…
Immy: This was a track that we recorded from our last album that just didn’t quite make the cut. We’d done that with Steve Lillywhite and the only thing that exists from that tracking were Adam’s vocals, Dan’s background vocals, and my basic guitar track. Everything else was replaced when we were recording with Gil Norton. It has a bizarre recording history actually but it’s amazing what you can do with computers now…kind of time travel.
RM: How about “Los Angeles”?
Immy: That’s a track that…sorry Dan, I’m just going; the coffee is finally kicking in. That song was actually a demo for Hard Candy and the bass was replaced last year by Millard and we added some background vocals so we did some surgery to it. Those are probably two of the oldest songs on the record…no, no Sundays is old too. I think it may date back even further.
RM: And “Washington Square”?
Immy: Dan, go…
Dan: “Washington Square” Adam wrote I think on the last tour. We kind of worked it up as a band version and it seemed pretty bombastic. We did it a few times at Jones Beach…
Immy: That was on the Hard Candy tour…it had kind of a triplet hip-hop feel to it.
Dan: We kind of let it stew and then got back to it, re-worked it and it came out well.
Immy: Yeah, that’s one of my favorites on the record.
Dan: The different version really brings out the lyrics in a great way.
RM: “Can’t Count On Me”?
Dan: “Can’t Count On Me” was actually an old demo…I actually found it on my computer as an old piano demo. I was just going through stuff and I found it and liked it…I have no idea what era that’s from. I have no idea when he did it. But we had at it…oh, didn’t we?
Immy: Laughs
RM: You’re all incredible musicians; with so many instruments in the mix, how do you make space for one another?
Dan: Flip of a coin? No.
Immy: Knife fights…
Dan: Yeah, knife fights.
Immy: Gambling losses, all sorts of ways.
Dan: I think at this point, when Adam brings in a song it all just kind of falls into place, you know? On any given track of the band, beforehand, there’s always overdubs, and I think in this case I think people just fall into what they would naturally play and then go from there. Tweak it if it has to be so…
Immy: At this point, our egos go aside and the song deliberates what it wants, you know what I mean?
RM: Which comes first; music or lyrics?
Immy: They usually come together. Adam will say he usually writes music first but if we’re all involved, we give him a piece of music. I can’t think of time, maybe one, where the lyrics came first.
RM: How were the sessions for Sunday Mornings different than what you’ve done before?
Dan: It was warmer (laughs). Berkeley, you know. “Different” than we’ve done as a band?
RM: Was there any sort of different approach musically?
Dan: I think we always approach it more acoustic-y, trying to use different sounds and instruments on it. Can you think of anything?
Immy: Well, I will say that for Counting Crows historically, this was the first time both records were recorded in a proper studio as opposed to rented homes that were converted into studios. There weren’t a lot of lounges to hang out in, or T.V. , or kitchens with guys cooking up crazy foods. It was very much more of a “work” atmosphere but it was cool.
RM: How was working with Gil Norton again?
Dan: I loved it. He holds a very special place in my heart with that second record. He moves the process along in a good way, he likes the rock-n-roll…doesn’t like the country…I think he’s really good with getting Adam’s vision on tape. I think that’s what he excels at.
Immy: He’s a funny bastard as well.
Dan: Oh yeah. He’s got a great accent too.
Immy: Good drinking partner.
RM: In the press release I received with the album, Adam stated in it that this might be the last album…
Dan: We’ll see. You know, it takes us so long to make records and tour them. I’m sure there are questions coming “What have you been doing since 2003?”
RM: Actually I asked Immy that type of question earlier…
Dan: Yeah. It takes a while for us to make records, it takes a while for us to tour…usually a year or two, so who knows where the record industry will be in whatever year that puts us in.
Immy: I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be last time Counting Crows record music but…you know at some point, someone is going to say MP3s sound terrible and listening to I-Pods isn’t the greatest way to listen to music.
Dan: Immy and I were just talking about how our favorite record stores are closing because it’s such a rough business right now.
RM: What do you think of MySpace?
Dan: Uh, I think it’s the beginning of something. You’ve got to embrace it I think; it’s where the future is at and you can’t deny it…I think the record companies have done a good job at denying it but that will be the downfall….
Immy: At the same time, like Pete Townsend said “Meet the new boss/same as the old boss”. There’s still an ocean of crap to sift through on MySpace. People buy the front page of MySpace like they would buy an ad in Rolling Stone Magazine. “MySpace musical pick”, you know, it’s just like anything else, now matter how many people say it’s a revolution it’s just a shift in power to somewhere else.
RM: I know that there are record executives hired specifically to look through MySpace for the next big thing; do you think it’s kind of a cheating way of getting new bands signed? I mean, frankly, I think a lot of the new bands on there are crap.
Dan: I can neither confirm nor deny that statement (laughs) Yeah, well I think record companies are always looking for “the next great thing” or whatever. I don’t think it’s really changed much; they’ve never really listened to good quality music. They look at what’s “hot” and then try to emulate “hot”. You know, that even started with Nirvana; Nirvana came out, and they were the real deal, then there were years of signing bands that sounded like Nirvana.
Immy: It really killed rock.
RM: What do you contribute to your longevity in the music business?
Dan: I think a good touring regiment (laughs). Really just bringing the music out to people which was something we started doing as a conscious decision. You hear a song, particularly on the first record, like Mr. Jones and think that’s the band; we wanted to give people a chance to see us live and I think touring has helped to stay connected to the fans, and just good songwriting I think.
Immy: A lot of bands can make records but can’t really play live; I can confidently say Counting Crows are an excellent live band. It’s a dying breed, it seems like.
RM: Anything you would like to add?
(Long Pause)
Immy: How’s the weather up there, Dan?
Dan: Beautiful today…it sucked yesterday. Did you get any rain?
Immy: Yeah
Dan: Oh, you did get rain? (Pause) Is that good? Did you get that? (Laughs)
RM: Thanks again guys; the album is awesome and we really look forward to seeing you back in the Bay Area again soon.