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.
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