Since 2012’s Boys & Girls, Alabama Shakes have proven to be one of those bands that make a stake for themselves very quickly, winning critics and fans with enviable ease.
Their debut tracks were strong, certainly, and their live performances established them as festival favourites, but it is Brittany Howard’s seismic voice that disrupts your day and gets your toes tapping. Three years after the debut, new album Sound & Color is on the way – a further step up for a group intent on piloting music in its own way.
“There wasn’t any pressure there, which is why I think it turned out the way it did,” Howard explains in her breezy Southern drawl. “If we had pressure put on us, it would have been to do something just like Boys & Girls again. But we had a one-off deal with our label. One record and we’re out, we’re free! So we did Boys & Girls and found ourselves able to do whatever we wanted to do. Without a label there – and they can be useful, sure – but now we could make the kind of record that we wanted to do. And so we took our time to work out what was exciting to us, what challenged us, what did we hate and love, and where was the compromise. Where could we meet in the middle. The result is that Sound & Color is here and now, while Boys & Girls was there and then. We made that record when we were 20 years old, and now here I am at 26, knowing a lot more stuff about the world.” She pauses, then laughs. “Well, I hope so.”
You quickly get the impression that not all was smooth sailing with ATO Records on Boys & Girls, which is something of a classic conundrum. Labels can be instrumental in shepherding your music to heights undreamed of for a fresh act, but hidden beneath the music can lurk the compromise of forces outside the band having a hand in production. Most of the time it’s to both parties’ benefit. But you can’t help but note the enthusiasm with which Howard speaks of the band members captaining themselves.
“Sound & Color was a different experience, and because we didn’t have that pressure to produce an album, it was really just a band playing songs that they like. [As a band] we don’t tend to hang out a bunch, though not because we don’t like each other. We live in the same town so we get together easily to rehearse. We have this basement with a whole rehearsal set-up down there; everybody brings their amps and we just try to musically figure out what we think is cool, what we’re into, show each other records. That’s how we reconnect. ‘What are you listening to?’ ‘Have you heard this?’ ‘Hell yeah, I’m into that too!’ We see each other less now, but it isn’t because we’re getting tired of playing. It’s just that after all of this time we’re much more focused, whereas when we used to get together it was like, ‘Whatever, if we play, we play, if we don’t, we don’t.’ But we’re one of those bands who just like so much stuff, you know?” She laughs again. “So for this [album] we decided to try and put it all in there.”
While their first album brought almost universal acclaim, a common observation was that despite their early strengths, Alabama Shakes were a band who had yet to truly find the sound that would define them. Ostensibly a blues-soul-rock outfit, there was clearly space to stretch their wings, and as Howard explains, working out the kind of musicians they wanted to be was paramount.
“We’re the kind of band that doesn’t have a real format at all in how we do things. Really I can’t tell where a song is going to come from. I spent a lot of time in my basement demoing songs, and then when we had rehearsal I’d show the others. And not all of them were cool, but the songs they did grab onto were also the ones that I was most excited about. A lot of songs happen that way, but then there are some that happen organically in the studio. We recorded 21 songs in total, and when it came time to cut the fat, it was kind of easy. You could just tell that something wasn’t quite done. We have a lot of quality control between the four of us, and if someone likes or dislikes a certain song, it’s for a good reason. We all rely on each other’s opinions because we all respect each other’s tastes. That’s important. Be open to what’s new or different. I don’t want to be a retro soul band. I want to be Alabama Shakes.”
This sophomore album will likely go a long way to confirming that individuality; it is a record of great variety (of sound and colour, you might say). Not that this is likely to be the band’s final form. Evolution is gradual, but insistent.
“The core is the four of us being musicians and helping each other through writing songs. I’m not going to sit here and say just because we had some success I’m a terrific songwriter. We’re all learning. Always learning.”
Alabama Shakes will be playing at Bluesfest 2015 alongside David Gray, The Black Keys, Zac Brown Band, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Train and many more from Thursday April 2 – Monday April 6. You can also catch them at the Enmore Theatre on Thursday April 2.
