Rightly or wrongly, Source Tags and Codes tends to be elevated above the band’s other albums. Reece doesn’t seem fussed, though: He’s understandably proud of the album, and has fond memories of its creation.
“It was the first time we had a recording budget, so we could do a lot of the stuff that we’d always wanted to experiment with, like using strings and recording in a nicer studio [Prairie Sun Studios, Northern California, a favourite of Tom Waits’]. Partying wasn’t really an option, either. “We lived on a chicken ranch for two months,” Reece explains. “The nearest town was a biker town, and the bars were full of burned-out hippies and Hells Angels. By the end of it we were turning into Jack Nicholson in The Shining. It was a bonding experience.”
While the recording process was all about monastic isolation, the mixing stage was rather more social. “We mixed the record in Ocean Way Studios, Nashville,” Reece explains. “We were sharing a studio with a rapper, Juvenile from Cash Money. We’d meet up in this lounge area, with TVs and a pool table, and we’d all get really stoned, drink and talk about music.” “This was when nu-metal was happening, though, so they’d listen to our shit, we’d listen to theirs, and they’d be all, ‘Let’s do a track together!’ I’d be saying, ‘Mmmm, hey, maybe not!’ – in the nicest possible way.”
While justifiably proud of the record, does he think it deserves its reputation as standing above the rest of the band’s catalogue? “Well, So Divided was a difficult album to make. We were trying to make it a musical quilt, with a different vibe for each song, guest singers. It’s not really a Trail Of Dead record.
“One of our favourite bands, The Replacements, each of their first four albums sounded completely different from the last. One was super punk rock sounding, then the next album’s got a honky-tonk song, then a piano song, then something with a drum machine. We weren’t trying to be like The Ramones, or AC/DC.”
The conversation turns to Trail Of Dead’s famously intense live shows. “It’s in our nature,” Reece says, “We don’t know any other way. We’ve never just stood there and concentrated on playing the right notes. It didn’t seem right to us to be this musicianly band. We were more into the cathartic release that you get from playing live.”
Such commitment, however, is not without compromises, Reece says. “We’ve been on tour for six weeks now, and I can definitely tell you, I feel its toll (laughs). Keeping it up is very intense, physically damaging – my body is covered in bruises and cuts.”
They keep at it, though, because the alternative is even worse. “When you’ve played a mediocre show, it’s the worst feeling,” Reece says. “I’d rather play something all-out, totally raging, smashing your head against the wall, and wake up sore the next day.”
It’s a gruelling way of life, and it’s been largely responsible for the steady turnover in personnel through the years. By way of explanation, Reece offers this: “Have you ever seen that Russell Crowe movie Master And Commander? That’s what being in our band’s like. Seriously though, we’ve had our ups and downs, things that most people who live average lives would be completely destroyed and torn to bits by.”
“Conrad and I have always been tough enough to pull through,” Reece says, “Not that other band-mates haven’t been tough enough, but they’ve had other pursuits in their life. Eventually they’ve just said, ‘you guys are crazy, I’m out of here!’ At the same time, though, the people who have been in the band, we’re all still friends, we stay in touch.”
Reece sees a silver lining in that this constant renewal: the creative process never has a chance to get stale. “Autry Fulbright and Jamie Miller worked on Lost Songs with us, and it was a lot of fun, very collaborative. We’re also about to do an EP, just one 20-minute piece – we’ve been listening to a lot of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Cambodian psych music. Conrad lives in Cambodia at the moment, and some of the bands are pretty wild.”
It’s an exciting time for the band, and they’re looking forward to renewing their acquaintance with Australia, Reece has fond, albeit hazy memories of their first visit in 2002 on the Livid Festival tour. “We were trashing hotel rooms, taking loads of drugs, acting like arseholes – it was great! We went on a boat cruise with Oasis, Dropkick Murphys kept picking fights with us. Morrissey liked us, though, he called us ‘…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead Rock Stars’. That was pretty awesome.”
BY EDWARD SHARP-PAUL
