“It’s been awesome,” the bassist says. “We haven’t had a chance to play an American tour in a while, so it’s great to plays shows in these cities and real fun to play our own shows because people are there solely to see you, so you get that familiarity. You’re not trying to win people over. It’s not a bunch of fans who don’t know who you are so you can relax and stretch your legs a little bit.”
Reynolds says that Band Of Horses have especially enjoyed taking their latest album, Mirage Rock, to the stage.
“It’s always different playing a new record,” he says. “Right when it comes out and people don’t know the songs you can’t tell if it’s going okay. This album’s been out for a little while now and it’s been awesome to get to play these songs. We designed this record so that we’d be able to go out and just play it and it wouldn’t take a lot of extra stuff to pull off the songs.
“So it’s been real fun. It’s a rockin’ record. We wanted it to be a rock’n’roll record. We’ve changed shit around and extended stuff and changed keys of songs just to support how we do it live.”
Part of the more upbeat, looser essence of Mirage Rock that has made it so suited to live performance lies in the production of Glyn Johns, who has worked with everyone from Bob Dylan and The Beatles, to Led Zeppelin, The Who and Midnight Oil. The band clearly catered to his approach.
“We wanted to make a record that he liked and wanted to have an influence on,” Reynolds says. “So we weren’t fighting tooth and nail to make it like some other record, we were basically like, ‘What would he like?’ and [went] that way. He likes to record fully live, vocals and all. That’s totally different to how we’ve done it in the past and even most people who do that re-do the vocals over.
“That’s a challenge, but then you know after you perform it and record it that you can just show up and play it. It was a lot of fun, getting to do that. It was a different approach.” Is it one Band Of Horses would try again?
“I think the way it goes with that is that you take each as it comes,” Reynolds contemplates. “Now that we know we can do that, if there comes a track in the future where it needs it, we know it’s definitely possible. As far as the next record goes, it’s hard to know what style we’ll lay into, but I can’t imagine doing the same record.”
Reynolds is happy to acknowledge there are several songs from Mirage Rock that really encompass where the band is right now, especially when performed live.
“It’s fun to play Feud,” he says. “It’s fun to play Knock Knock. People really like Undone and Slow Cruel. We’re just having a hoot playing them. One of the ones we don’t get to play a lot is Shut-In Tourist, we get kind of giddy, because it’s a little different sounding. It’s always fun to play.”
The all ’round good feeling surrounding the new songs has had an effect on the their older material, as the band play gently with their familiarity.
“It’s always good to play the older songs, because people know them really well,” Reynolds explains, “but we do change them up quite a bit. Like we did The Funeral [from 2006’s Everything All The Time] the other night with piano and we do No One’s Gonna Love You [from 2007’s Cease To Begin] sometimes completely acoustic. We try to keep people entertained with different styles.
“And we’re always playing new territories that we’ve never played before. It’s tough, sometimes you go to different countries and you’re not sure which records they have. We went to Brazil this year and they’ve only just released our records, so we were playing stuff from like, 10 years ago. It was like going back in time. It was pretty awesome.”
The last two Band Of Horses albums have seen their lineup settled and consolidated. Needless to say, the band dynamic is better than ever.
“It’s good because you get that well-oiled machine thing about it all,” Reynolds says. “Things get sorted out and you know your place, or something. It’s like a lot of stuff is left unsaid, you’re able to play and communicate musically because we know each other so well. For a musician that’s a real high moment.”
Band Of Horse will be touring well into 2013 on the back of Mirage Rock. First up, however, looms the Big Day Out and a good dose of summer.
“If I could get married in Australia just so I could get citizenship I would do it,” Reynolds laughs. “I love Australia so much. It’s just such an awesome country, plus on the Big Day Out we’re gonna get to see Animal Collective and Alabama Shakes and a lot of killer bands.”
BY BOB GORDON
