Hot Water Music.Photo: Jesse Korman
After almost 30 years of songwriting that’s never shied away from getting too personal, political or just using the music as an emotional outlet,Feel the Voidis no exception. “Habitual,” the latest single to drop before the full album, is a tribute to people battling cancer, something very close to lead singer Ragan.
PEOPLE caught up with Ragan to talk about their long-distance writing process forFeel the Void, adding Chris Cresswell to the record and playing this new album.
How was the process of recording this remotely and through a lockdown? Any highlights, lowlights or wild challenges?
Man, it was pretty challenging because everybody couldn’t have been more spread out. We had three of the guys in Florida, Brian up in D.C. area or Maryland, and me in California, Cresswell in Toronto. So there was a lot of Zoom communicating going on, Zoom meetings. It started a long time ago, just sending really simple demos back and forth. And we would have these meetings, talk through them, work some stuff out…
It would begin with working out a structure with just really grassroots little demos until we were all comfortable with it. Then George (drums) would lay down just a foundation. From there, all of us have our own means of recording stuff at home. So we would just stack on it and write on it and work it out. It’s not ideal at all, but it was our only option.
And then aside from that, man, it’s been a really tough couple years. There’s been multiple deaths in the family … from losing family members to our dog, there was just a lot going on. And it was tough to really carve out time to sit down and really focus. For me, I had to do it in spurts. So that was probably the toughest thing. The guys really held it together throughout all that.
If 1999 Chuck Ragan heard that you guys were writing an album this way, what would he think? “We’re going to write this album over a computer?!”
It wouldn’t make any sense. Yeah. I couldn’t even fathom it. My response would be like, “Doesn’t that count as phoning it in?” (laughs) And there’s a lot to be said about just being in the same room with your buds. And it’s tough for me to write spread out like that. When you get people in the same room, when somebody’s weak, someone else is strong and you end up feeding off of each other and recharging those batteries. Anytime someone hits that wall or hits a block, it doesn’t matter because there’s someone else there that’s going to help push you over it and then vice versa.
Feel the Void Cover Art.
Now that Cresswell is a full-time member and was more involved in this recording, how cool is that to have a fresh voice on the album?
I love it. And I’ve wanted his voice on it for the past two releases. A lot of people don’t realize like Cresswell now has officially been playing with us since October of 2017. That was the first time he stepped on stage with us. And he’s such a sweet, humble guy and he’s always had a ton of respect for the band, and for Wollard.
We wouldn’t have done it in the first place if we didn’t have the blessing from Wollard. We weren’t sure if we were going to go on or not. And when he came into the picture, he brought so much to the table — just not only for one, an incredibly talented guitar player and vocalist and writer. Aside from that, he’s just a really special human to be around 24/7. He’s just all PMA [positive mental attitute] and it really breathed a new life into the band. And I noticed when we started doing the shows, it felt good all around, not just on the stage, but in the van, hanging around the airport, it felt right. And I was trying to get him to do more, a couple releases back like, “Hey man, come, bring something to the table. You’re in the band, you’re here all the time.” And he was always just kind of shook it off like, “No, no, no, no, I could never. I could never do that. I’m just a hired gun.” And it’s like, “No, you’re a lot more than a hired gun.”
So this release to me was so important that he actually wrote and was cut into the mix like a hundred percent. And I tell you, man, to me, he was the MVP no doubt. No doubt about it. And he contributed so much — lyrics, melody, lyrics, ideas. Anytime someone would get hung up, he was the guy that would, “Oh, what about this?” And it would just send us in another direction. And it was just amazing. It was super inspiring.
Chuck Ragan.Ben Trivett
You guys have put out a few singles already — what are you most excited to play live that people haven’t heard yet?
I hope we play all these songs live eventually. “Another Breath” is a pretty wild one that I’m looking forward to playing live. “Habitual,” that one we’ve worked up. Some of these songs — people reading this or hearing this who’ve been in bands before understand — you write about your songs, you record them, sometimes some of those songs just never even get played. They just kind of get lost and it’s not that you don’t like them or that they’re bad songs or whatever … sometimes it’s just you pick and choose your battles and you get on a train and you start playing certain songs and next thing you know, you’re working on the next record and another batch of songs.
Feel the Voidis out Friday.
source: people.com
