Western Civ is a 4-piece from Alabama who do not fit the typical assumption of what a band from Alabama may sound like. You dig? Rich Henderson is lead vox and guitar, Jason Briggs on bass, Bryan Cabler behind the kit, and Jason Hall round out the group with guitar, keyboards, percussion, whatever. They all did email interviews with us in June/06, thanks to their kick ass manager Misty.
After adding Jason Hall to the mix a couple of years ago, what do you think it is about this lineup that makes it work?
Rich Henderson: Prior to Jason's involvement everything we did was limited to guitars,bass and drums. Having Jason in the band allows the presence of different instruments in the mix, even if it's just an additional guitar or a simple percussion part. To me, adding something as small as a tambourine can add so much more depth to a song.
Jason Briggs: Jason Hall is an elder voodoo priest. Before each show we sacrifice a chicken to the spirits of his native land so that they will bless our instruments. Up until he joined us, all we did was practice. This new arrangement is much better. (Please do not call the ASPCA. No chickens were harmed in the making of this album. We use stunt chickens.)
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Bryan Cabler: The addition of Jason Hall, apart from
his sparkling personality and willingness to play anything he's asked
to play, has resulted primarily in rounding out our sound, especially
live, where it was previously difficult to reproduce little bits of the
'ear candy' which we normally sprinkle liberally throughout our recordings.
Jason's always glad to wield a pair of claves or shake a sleighbell, but
that isn't to detract from the guitar heroics he so often provides-- Rich
often used to lay multiple guitar tracks on recordings, and now we have
Jason Hall to supply those extra licks that would get lost when we played
as a three-piece...
Jason Hall : When I first started playing music with these guys it felt kind of like trying to have a conversation with an old married couple that can finish one another's sentences. However, it took only a short time for me to find my place in the mix because I feel that we are all kindred spirits and our personalities work very well together.
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Do you feel that you have any specific challenges or advantages being from/based in a smallish city in Alabama?
Rich Henderson: It's just the whole big fish, little pond vs. little fish, big pond argument. I don't know. I feel pretty isolated down here sometimes. The closest interstate is almost 50 miles away! I think Florence is probably one of the biggest areas not to have an interstate anywhere nearby. You can only get to Florence by driving through small town speed traps, and countless traffic lights.
Jason Briggs: Advantages? Not really. I'd say the only challenge would be getting people to take you seriously as a band that plays something other than southern rock. People from more metropolitan areas seem shocked when they hear the E.P. and there's absolutely no reminiscence of Free Bird or Sweet Home Alabama.
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Bryan Cabler: The addition of Jason Hall, apart from
his sparkling personality and willingness to play anything he's asked
to play, has resulted primarily in rounding out our sound, especially
live, where it was previously difficult to reproduce little bits of the
'ear candy' which we normally sprinkle liberally throughout our recordings.
Jason's always glad to wield a pair of claves or shake a sleighbell, but
that isn't to detract from the guitar heroics he so often provides-- Rich
often used to lay multiple guitar tracks on recordings, and now we have
Jason Hall to supply those extra licks that would get lost when we played
as a three-piece...
Jason Hall: There aren't many places to play shows in this area so that is a little bit of a setback. Being in a small town has allowed for less distraction during the developmental stage in our sound.
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Rich on songwriting
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'The best songs are almost effortless to write, like the song was already there waiting to be discovered.'
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How does songwriting come together for you guys?
Rich Henderson: I usually write the songs when I'm alone in my apartment at night. I just try coming up with cool riffs or chord progressions. If the idea is good enough then a vocal melody is usually implied. The best songs are almost effortless to write, like the song was already there waiting to be discovered.
Jason Briggs: Rich is the core of our songwriting. He comes up with the superstructure of a song, brings it out at practice and says, "OK, you guys have 2 days to write your parts and learn this because I want to play it at our next show." Then we all, after a brief moment of panic, fill in our own parts around what rich has written and it somehow always comes together. It may not be pretty, but it works.
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Jason vs Jason
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Bryan Cabler: Rich almost always comes into a writing session with a more-or-less developed and arranged chord progression and at least a general idea of what kind of drums or bass it should feature, as well as how Jason Hall could best be employed. Having said that, Rich has been really gracious about embracing ideas from the rest of us as we develop our parts, often finding that he likes our deviations from his original intention better than the original intention itself. This is great, because it makes the fact that we share songwriting credit more than just a business arrangement. Rich solicits our input on arrangements and a lot of the finer points, and if it's not too wacky he will go with it.
Jason Hall: Most songs that we play have been a work in progress for several years for the other guys in the band. When I stepped in I was basically bombarded with material that I absolutely loved and I
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wanted to be very careful not to detract from the
qualities that attracted me to the project. It was tough finding my
place in the puzzle but Rich had written all the songs with my parts
already crafted in his head. He definitely has a unique vision and I
truly enjoying watching him conjure new ideas.
Tell me about the recording process for Regent Kingfish Slumberpad. Where / with who was it done?
Rich Henderson: It was mainly recorded at Misty's house with Misty as recording engineer. RKS was recorded with the shittiest equipment possible. Many of the raw tracks sound pretty bad. It's amazing that the finished product sounds as good as it does. It's simply a testament to Misty's EQing and mixing prowess.
Jason Briggs: Misty Dawn, of Dying Breed Studios, recorded, mixed, and mastered the whole E.P. It was recorded with basically no budget in our practice room using crap mics, crap gear, and a LARGE quantity of patience and skill on Misty's part. Despite the lack of quality work and professionalism on our behalf, I think it came out sounding really good. We all get along really well, so the whole process went pretty smoothly. When we record it's more like friends hanging out than it is work. It was extremely unconventional, but then again, everything about us is pretty unconventional.
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Bryan Cabler: The RKS session were painstakingly arduous, as we were kind of learning as we went what it was we were looking for. Drum miking, effects, you name it: it was a lot of trial and error and largely only succeeded because of a patience on the part of Rich and Misty in particular that rivals that of the biblical character of Job. We laid the drum tracks in our practice space and did pretty much the rest at Misty Dawn's Dying Breed Studio, putting in a few sessions a week until we got something we found we could live with. As painstaking as it was, when we got ready to do our new full-length (now in the mixing stages), it still made sense to follow that formula, because when you're paying some guy the going hourly rate, he's gonna be less interested in "shaving just a millimeter of that fuzz off the bass" until you're totally satisfied. To her credit, Misty Dawn is fine with that so long as there's a pot of coffee on.
Jason Hall: The entire entity that is Western Civ has a personality behind every aspect of it. Misty engineers all of our shows and recordings. She works very closely with us in creating our sound. She also books, manages, and promotes all of our shows.
What's the story behind the cover art for this disc?
Rich Henderson: Wendy (Bryan's wife) does most of
the art. Visual art is one medium I wish I could do. I have to live
this dream vicariously through Wendy. We're generally on the same
page, so I can give her a very rough idea of what I want and she can
deliver the goods! (Says Wendy about the cover: Art should belong
to everyone. It should be free and open to interpretation. That's
what makes it meaningful for the individual.)
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Bryan
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Jason Briggs on being from a small town in Alabama
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'I'd say the only challenge would be getting people to take you seriously as a band that plays something other than southern rock. People from more metropolitan areas seem shocked when they hear the E.P. and there's absolutely no reminiscence of Free Bird or Sweet Home Alabama.'
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Jason Briggs: Wendy Cabler does all of the artwork for the band. We try to keep every aspect of production within the confines of the band, so why not let the drummer's wife be the art director? Rich will give her a direction that he would like her to go in, and it's all up to her after that. I think she does a great job. She is a talented artist.
Bryan Cabler: Rich and I both studied history and political science in college (I majored in history and minored in polisci, vice versa for Rich) and we've always had a keen interest in world history, particularly the checkered saga of Western Civilization. We went through lots of trial band names, and Western Civ kind of felt right; thus, the cover art by my wife, Wendy Cabler, features images from various key moments from the last few thousand years, but in a disjointed way that avoids telling a story or making too much out of any one element. My favorite bit is that the CD face itself is a stylized clock face with Roman numerals, and when you take out the CD, TA-DA! Clockworks!
Jason Hall: Wendy Cabler has created all of our artwork for fliers, CD, and any other promotional art that needs to be done. She usually comes to us with several designs for our artwork and the hardest part is picking which one to use since everything that she comes up with works so well. With Misty and Wendy working with us, all we have to do is strap on our guitars and play.
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Rich
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Promo plans for this release?
Rich Henderson: I prefer to stay out of the promotional
side of things. This is a better question for Misty. She has complete
control over this area. I trust her judgment completely.
Jason Briggs: Tour.... Tour.... Tour.... We have no money for marketing so the only way to get the music out there, aside from the countless hours our poorly paid manager spends hawking us to the world, is to play in front of folks. Despite the fact that we have been playing together for a relatively long time, we are a fledgling band and have just barely started getting our name out there. Misty does wonders where that is concerned. She's gotten us airplay on F.M. stations in cities that the band has never stepped foot in. That, to me, is impressive. She handles all of our promotion for us so we can focus on the music and give her something worth putting out there.
So I'm aware of Rich's vinyl collection, is that a passion everyone shares?
Rich Henderson: I prefer vinyl because a majority of what I listen to is from the '60s. To me, the only authentic way to hear this music is on vinyl. Sure, you can buy a CD reissue, but it's probably going to be "remastered" or made from 2nd generation tapes. The original master tapes from the '60s lose something after sitting around on the shelves for 40 years. The only way to hear the quality of the original master tapes is to listen to the original records.
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Bryan on recording Regent Kingfish Slumberpad
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'The RKS session were painstakingly arduous, as we were kind of learning as we went what it was we were looking for. Drum miking, effects, you name it: it was a lot of trial and error and largely only succeeded because of a patience on the part of Rich and Misty in particular that rivals that of the biblical character of Job.'
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Lps are are also cool because they retain their value better than CDs. I could sell my record collection and get back all the money I've put into it plus more! I can't say that about my CDs. LPs also look better, smell better, and are funner to look for. Just for the record (no pun intended), I have nothing against CDs. As a matter of fact, I record many of my LPs onto CD for convenient listening.
Jason Briggs: I'm sure that there is some philosophy of aesthetics behind Rich's love of Vinyl. He's really into the Lo-Fi scene and vinyl is about as Lo-Fi as you can get. Personally, I don't get it. I just love music, regardless of the medium on which it is delivered. However, the raw honesty that vinyl demands is not altogether unappealing to me either.
Bryan Cabler: Rich is the only vinyl freak in the group-- I'm with him in theory, but the ease with which I can pull up any song from my 9,000-plus collection (on my home computer and safely backed up in several locations) just kind of forbids my seeking the additional auditory fidelity that Rich enjoys with his turntable and headphones. Plus, he has to travel a lot to record shows to find all that stuff, and spends an inordinate amount of time monitoring Ebay auctions and waiting for the UPS guy to show up with his latest treasure.
Jason Hall: My collection is small compared to what Rich has but I have a library that I am working on. As a mater of fact, this reminds me that Rich has a few of my records that I'm starting to miss.
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Are you planning on / would you like to issue Western Civ releases on vinyl?
Rich Henderson: Yes, I'm going to insist on a vinyl release, even if I have to pay for it myself!!!
Jason Briggs: Yeah, that is in the works for our next release. We are scheduled to be issuing our first L.P. sometime in August of this year, and Rich wants to do at least a small run on vinyl. I agree. There are quite a few audiophiles out there who won't listen to anything but vinyl, and you can't afford to disenfranchise any potential patrons in our already narrow niche.
Bryan Cabler: I think a vinyl release is a great idea; many of our favorite bands do vinyl releases-- Guided By Voices springs to mind immediately-- and there are legions of indie fans out there who share Rich's aforementioned sensibilities about vinyl superiority. No reason to shut those guys out; they're the ones why buy your record on vinyl and then come to your show.
Jason Hall: I don't know if I would be able to contain myself if we did.
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Cover art for Regent Kingfish Slumberpad
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Jason Hall on what he hopes for Western Civ
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'I don't think that any of us are shooting for the stars. We just enjoy trying to create a piece of art that we can take step back from and look at for our own enjoyment and for anyone else that wants to join us.'
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What do you hope to achieve with Western Civ?
Rich Henderson: The opportunity to do more interviews like this one. This has been fun!!
Jason Briggs: Fame and Fortune.... Or at least an excuse to continue playing loud and raucous Rock and Roll music, since the old standard of youthful indiscretion is starting to wear thin.
Bryan Cabler: I can't speak for everyone, but I'm just a huge lifelong fan of rock music, and since the day I discovered my Dad's stash of Beatles records when I was nine or so, I've thought that there could be no cooler job than playing music for a living. That said, I probably would have abandoned that dream when Top Forty radio went to shit--I didn't know there was anything else until REM surfaced in the mid-to-late 80's and proved that you could market yourself well and play lots of gigs and just maybe make enough money to at least keep the project going without necessarily making the cover of the Rolling Stone or whatever. There are a lot of awe-inspiring bands who exist under the radar of the collective mainstream consciousness who work hard, tour a lot, and make great recordings. So I guess my childhood Beatles fantasies have been now supplanted by Sonic Youth or Archers of Loaf fantasies-- I'd just like to be big enough that the folks who would really like our music get a chance to hear it.
Jason Hall: I don't think that any of us are shooting for the stars. We just enjoy trying to create a piece of art that we can take step back from and look at for our own enjoyment and for anyone else that wants to join us.
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The Playlists!
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Rich's Playlist
1. The Peppermint Rainbow - Will You be Staying After Sunday
2. The Dovers - What Am I Going to Do
3. Skeeter Davis - End of the World
4. The Delfonics - When You Get Right Down to it
5. Sonic Youth - Teenage Riot
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The Playlists!
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Jason Briggs' Playlist
1. The Shins - Blast Valve
2. The Pixies - Velouria
3. Stephen Malkmus - Do Not Feed the Oysters
4. Archers of Loaf - Underdogs of Nipomo
5. Man in Gray - Thiry-six
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The Playlists!
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Bryan's Playlist
1. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Church on White
2. Frank Black and the Catholics - Solid Gold
3. Olivia Tremor Contro - Define A Transparent Dream
4. Son Vol t- Driving The View
5. The Connells - Fun and Games
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The Playlists!
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Jason Hall's Playlist
1. Neutral Milk Hotel - Two headed boy
2. Little Wings (K records) - Boom
3. Silver Jews - Smith and Jones
4. David Byrne - Burnt by the sun
5. Dinosaur Jr. - Where you been
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