Up To His Old Tricks

It's hard to imagine an artist more casual about the creative process than Seasick Steve, and his no-fuss approach has remained the same throughout his career.

“I didn't never have no game plan,” he laughs when asked how he had intended approaching making a new record. “People have been telling me that it's different and maybe I hear that now, through other people. I did the record the same, me and this guy Dan [Magnusson], who plays the drums, we just go and sit around and try a song and if it sounds pretty good we put it on the tape recorder, just cut it really quick like that, you know? There's not a lot of fooling around or thinking about it too much. The main thing we got to figure out is how to stop each song, me and him just go crazy and we don't know how to end the song, that's the big challenge for the ones with drums anyway. Then he leaves and I sit around and do these kind of more quieter ones...”

There's a very slight step away from the grimy hobo blues of his past records, a firmer embrace of country music in a balladeering sense. Once again, Steve says he just did what seemed right.

“I don't know which ones make it sound different. I didn't have no record company when I made this record, I got away from the Warner Brothers or Atlantic or whatever it was. So I was just kinda sitting around and I didn't have anyone calling me or anything, it was pretty easygoing.”

Easygoing is actually a laughable term when explaining how Seasick Steve made this record.

“It's about as relaxed as it gets because I make it in my house! When I get tired, I go and take a nap. But we sit around and have a couple bottles of wine and just take it easy.”

As someone who has done his fair share of music production and audio engineering in the past, he was more than confident setting up a home studio with plenty of beautiful vintage gear – including an old Neve console and a 2” Studer tape machine – and taking care of business himself.

“I think it's real important,” he says of the specific equipment he used on the record. “It's not just the sound, but it's just how everything is so mechanical, big knobs and everything. I need to be able to feel what I'm doing.

“I don't know how people do stuff on a computer. I guess I could learn someday but I probably won't. But I know it sounds good and that's how we've always done everything, so I just can't imagine no other way. These things, man, the reason they sound good is because they sound good. Then the computer things they copy them. They tell me you can get a lot of this old equipment but it's on a computer now.”

But there's no begrudging of modern technology here; Seasick Steve absolutely understands why it is so prevalent.

“There's not much [vintage gear] around anymore and people don't want to use tape because it's cumbersome. All these people who learnt how to record in the past 15, 20 years, they learnt how to do all this digital stuff. I know they're very clever at it, but for me it's a little late in the game to start something new.”

When asked if he could see himself going into a more traditional recording studio, Steve says the closest he'll come will be taking a trip to a friend's house.

“I don't see it, not for my own records, because I've got my own equipment and I like being at home. Although I just went and recorded a couple of songs with Jack White out in Nashville. He has a studio at his home too and it felt pretty nice being there. We recorded two songs there, that was good.”

One thing Steve definitely wanted on certain parts of this record was a bit more lower end. Obvious choice of instrument in this instance is a bass guitar. But who do you get to play it?

“I was sitting around thinking, 'Maybe we should get a bass on one of these songs.' That's how it started. But I don't know no bass players. Dan was like 'Man, what about the guy who was in Led Zeppelin? How do we go about doing that?'”

Getting John Paul Jones to play on your record seems a lofty goal, but sure enough it turned out the legendary bassist was a fan and was more than happy to lay down some tracks.

“Sure enough by hook or crook I left a message with someone who called him and asked if he wanted to play and he said, 'Yep,'” Steve says, adding nonchalantly, “He sure is good, boy. Whoo-ee!”

Brisbane

You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks is out now through PIAS/Liberator. Seasick Steve is playing Bluesfest on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 April.

Melbourne

You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks is out now through PIAS/Liberator. Seasick Steve is playing Bluesfest on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 April and The Corner Hotel on Tuesday 10.

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