North Carolina’s The Avett Brothers are making music industry waves with the release of their latest album I And Love And You. To coincide with its local release the band is currently enjoying some time Down Under. Yesterday I caught up with Scott Avett, the band’s multi-talented singer, percussionist, harmonica, and banjo player, to chat about his time in Oz, working with legendary producer Rick Rubin, and why he can’t wait to return home.
I believe this is your first Australian tour. How does it feel to be here?
It’s been very nice. Everyone in Australia’s been very inviting and friendly to us.
Many people in Australia may not be familiar with your music yet. How would you describe your sound to the uninitiated?
Every different song you’re going to possibly take subtleties from every different genre, but we just try to play as honest as we can according to the song. For instance, if you’re writing a song in regret, you try to put your place in that regretful sort of state and deliver it as honest as possible. So I think I would describe it as honest.
You’ve just played shows as part of the Bluesfest festival and a sideshow last night in Sydney. How did that festival experience compare with the solo show?
The outdoor festivals always involve variables: weather variables, space variables, crowd variables. The festival show was many many more people, and it was a little more fly-by-night, sort of quick, quick on stage and quick off stage. That adds an urgency that I think comes across on stage. The Sydney show last night, the club show, was much more … it could be subdued at times even though it wasn’t really a subdued show. It was darker and probably a little more calm, calmly delivered if you will.
Do you prefer those smaller, more intimate venues for your music?
We like ‘em both, and we’ve been – since we started in 2001 or 2002 – we’ve been playing all types of different venues. We’ve found that the variety is really healthy for us, and we enjoy playing all types of venues. It forces us to change nightly, which is great.
The bill for Bluesfest was pretty incredible. Did you catch any of the other artists on the lineup?
We saw Zee Avi.
Oh I saw her on TV last week and was blown away!
Yeah she’s got a great voice, really beautiful voice. She’s been to some of our shows; I think we crossed paths in Philadelphia last year. We’re a fan of hers and she’s a fan of ours, so that was good to touch base with her.
Your schedule looked pretty hectic. Have you gotten a chance to do any sightseeing while you’re here?
Let’s see. In Sydney we got to stroll around quite a bit and go to the bazaar, the market there that they had. That’s really terrific. We were in Ballina. We were there for a day without a show so we really got to take in the coast a little bit there.
Oh it’s lovely there. Very chilled out.
Almost to the point where we had to get out of there, because we were feeling so laid back! We were chilling out, yeah.
Oh well, time in Sydney will fix you right up. Now a busy schedule is nothing new for you. Your tour here is sandwiched between dates in Europe and the United States. What do you love most about performing live?
I’ll tell you one thing: touring and performing live, outside of performing touring has to do with so many other things other than the show, and some of those can be extremely trying and exhausting. And the shows are the pay dirt, that is the moment where you realise what you went through all of that for. And that is very apparent, and has been very apparent on the European and Australian tour because you’re forced to sit in planes forever, and buses and vans, and you’re really pushed to your limit on that. And then when you get in the show, it turns to this relief that is crucial to our wellbeing. If it wasn’t music it would be some other kind of creative outlet for us, but it has to be music this time.
Has the reception you’ve received overseas surprised you at all?
It has a bit, yeah. I mean Australia, never ever stepping foot here, it’s been amazing. There’s people that are really really enthusiastic about it, and that’s been mind blowing. And Europe was the same; we had a lot of sold out shows.
I think with technology now, as opposed to even 10 or 15 years ago, has come so far, and you can just reach out to places that you would have never thought you had. And you get there and realise people have relationships with songs and your music that are very deep, and they’re very passionate about it. That’s great, but we have been surprised.
You worked with legendary producer Rick Rubin on your latest album I and Love and You. What did he bring to your sound?
I think mostly he helped us take a healthy progressive step; he helped regulate that. I think sometimes as an artist, sometimes without a third party or a partner looking in, you can make drastic moves or changes that might not be with good perspective. And Rick I think helped us maintain who we are. We’re changing all the time, but he helped that change be very healthy and appropriate, and not always this drastic leap but the right steps. Sometimes the steps were far removed from where we’re at, but they were healthy.
He also, a big thing was to help us remember that you can’t say no to an idea until you try it. We tried everything, everything that came up; if it was discussed we tried it. Nobody said no to anything until we tried it, and it was a terrific exchange.
He clearly knows what he’s talking about after so many years in the business.
He really does. And he’s changed quite a bit over the years, as we have. There’s a lot of mutual respect between us and him. It was very nice.
You toured with Dave Matthews Band in 2009, which seems to have been the big break for you guys. What did you learn while on the road with them?
We’d touched base on some shows that size on our own, in festival settings and opening here and there for maybe other people or by ourselves at some large hometown shows. But it was an eye-opener in that sort of large production show where we went on a nine or ten-day run. We got to see how a lot of that works. We’re a different type of band; although we’re similar to Dave Matthews, we’re at such an early stage that we’ve done so much on our own and we handle so much of the internal organization of it that to see these huge operations is very educational for us.
And also Dave is extremely accessible and friendly on tour, and we believe in that. We think that’s a good attitude. That was a good partnership as well.
You’re heading back to America after your Australian tour. What are you most looking forward to when you get back home?
Well I just want to see my daughter and my wife. My daughter’s 17 months old. My wife and I have a very good understanding, and I can stay gone as long as I need to work, you know? But being away from her is taxing. This is what I do, and they understand that, and I’m proud to do it, I’m happy to do it. As sad as it can be to miss, you can also be very proud and more than happy to go out and do what you do to support your family. There’s nothing wrong with that.