Rubikon Interview with Dave Raymond guitarist for the rock group. New album Delta coming out August 21st.
– What’s new in the world of Rubikon?
Rubikon – We are already writing for whatever’s next. We’re write-a-holics (among other things), and since we’re scattered across the country it makes the writing process rather time consuming for us. So here we are, all hiding under rocks in whichever town, city or hovel we call home, just riffing away. When we next get together, we’ll trade ideas, have some laughs, and start putting new songs together. That’s how we roll.
– How was it recording your album Delta?
Recording the album was a wonderfully painless process. We decided to record live and laid down all the guitars, bass and drums at the same time. We did a few takes of each tune and then simply chose the performance that felt best. No beat detective, no auto-tune, nothing – hell, we didn’t even pipe in a metronome. We wanted the songs to breathe and groove, so we did as live as we could. Many of the vocals are live as well, though we went back in to do harmonies and gang vocals after the fact. That all happened over one weekend in Nashville, at Quad Studios where we recorded with Marti Frederiksen, Brett Lind and Bryce Roberts. All cool cats, by the way.
So we did that in late May of 2014, then a few of us went back in September to add some flavor. Banjo, acoustic guitars, percussion – that sort of thing. We were also fortunate to have help from some friends that weekend – Reese Wynans, who is well known for his stellar keyboard work with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, came in and laid down some Hammond B3 and Fender Rhodes for us. He’s amazing, obviously, and a great guy to boot. He just got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, too, which is wild. The folks from Steven Tyler’s country band were rehearsing down the hall from us as well, and we were lucky to have Suzie McNeil lay down vocals and harmonica on a few tracks, and Elisha Hoffman play mandolin on another. Elisha just jammed with us onstage in Nashville a few months ago, too, which was badass.
So two weekends worth of work, bam, done. Then we shipped the album off to Alain Johannes, who did an amazing job of mixing the album, and then from there to Howie Weinberg for his stellar mastering work. And here we are, with the album’s release date on the horizon. Like I said – painless.
– How did you go about making the artwork?
Our friend and compatriot Kelli Fannon made the artwork happen – the concepts, layout, everything. We owe her a big hug for all of her help pulling that together. A hug and perhaps a brewski, too.
– When writing a song, is there such a thing as investing too much time? What’s the shortest time you ever took to write one? What was your strangest inspiration?
We go down the proverbial rabbit hole all the time when writing music. We can jam on riffs for hours, literally, trying to feel things out. Sometimes you find what you’re looking for, and sometimes it takes one of us to put down their instrument and, in a Dire Straits accent, say, “That ain’t workin’.” Great band, by the way.
The way “Three Days” came together was pretty amazing. Diggs (the drummer) and I had the riffs and drums for that. We jammed with Hughie and he quickly nailed down the bass line. We were all in love with it, but Jae and Josh had never even played on it when we laid it down in Nashville. It was the last track we cut, and we played it about two times I think, almost as a throwaway. When we went back to Nashville to wrap up the album, Jae sat at a piano, Diggs sat on a carousel horse (or a couch, I forget which), I played the tune on acoustic, and we wrote the vocal melody and lyrics in about 15 minutes. For the record – we NEVER have that happen. It was a real gift.
Strangest inspiration – we invented a story about the fictitious founder of one of our favorite places to eat in Boston then wrote a song about it. And that’s Captain Deep for you.
– Vinyl is making a comeback. Do you have a personal preference? Is your band producing on vinyl?
We released our last album, 2011’s American Dream Machine, on vinyl. Still up in the air on whether we’ll do it with Delta, but vinyl sure does sound nice. Personally I go with whatever gets the music playing the fastest, and that is generally mp3’s or streaming media.
– Do you have any tours coming up in the near future?
We did a three-day microtour in May of this year – Boston, NYC, Nashville – and we’ll probably do something similar in September. Given our geographic distribution it’s tough to do the whole 55-shows-in-60-days kind of thing like we used to, so we do what we can. Maybe some west coast fun this fall, we’ll see.
– Could you describe some of your earliest influences in life and in music?
I had the great pleasure of seeing Christopher Cross play live with an acoustic band in Boston a few years ago. After his set, I went up to him and told him that his amazing tune “Sailing” was one of my first musical memories and thanked him for writing it. Not a bad way to get hooked on music, I think.
– Without social media could bands today manage to survive?
Nope. Certainly not newer bands, that are just getting out there and sharing their music with the world. You can poke fun at Myspace now, but in 2004 or so it was THE place to be if you were in a band. In 2005, we booked a 50-date tour using JUST Myspace – never picked up the telephone to pull that together. People probably do that all the time now with Facebook and what-have-you, but I think that was pretty amazing at the time.
– In your opinion, which album would be essential to have if someone were stranded on a deserted island?
I suppose that depends on what ELSE is on that island. If there are big cats, dinosaurs, and other dangerous beasts, I would think Pantera’s “Vulgar Display of Power” would keep them away (or at least teach them what a power groove is). If there are no scary animals, then I’d recommend “Soup” by Blind Melon. Both are perfect albums.
– Where do you see music in general going in 100 years from now?
Rubikon – Mars. That’s where I’ll be living in 100 years, and I’m taking music – ALL MUSIC – with me.
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