Summary

Back in 2011, we chatted with the guys from Dawes. Sloane Spencer kicks things off with an easygoing chat with Dawes, and it’s anything but your average interview. They dig into the band’s musical origin story, tracing it back to a family that didn’t just play music, they lived it. Picture jam sessions in the living room, with dad laying down the soulful grooves that sparked a lifelong love for sound.

As they swap stories of sun-soaked California days and the wild mix of influences that shaped the band’s vibe, one thing becomes crystal clear: collaboration isn’t just part of Dawes’ process: it is the process. They dive into how songs evolve on stage, sometimes turning into something completely unexpected (and even better) than what was captured in the studio.

Sprinkled throughout are laughs about life on the road, local food gems, and the never-ending hunt for a decent cup of coffee. It’s a conversation that proves music isn’t just about the notes; it’s about the ride, the stories, and the people you meet along the way.

Links

• REMINDER: IGNORE ANY LINKS OR DATES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE
• Dawes
• You may enjoy this conversation from 2015 with Lilly Hiatt
• Toss a few in our Tip Jar!

Show Notes

In this episode, it’s less of an interview and more like a jam session with friends. Here’s what goes down:

• The hosts sit down with a musician whose roots run deep in R&B, funk, and soul, thanks to a dad who could play piano like nobody’s business.
• Growing up in a household where family dinners came with a side of singing, music wasn’t just around, it was a way of life.
• They talk about how California’s rich and eclectic music scene helped shape his sound from the very beginning.
• The conversation flows from early influences to the evolution of his band, Dawes.
• Songwriting? It’s a team effort. He brings in the bones—chords and lyrics—and the rest of the band helps build it out into something that truly connects.
• Live shows are a different beast altogether. He shares how songs take on a whole new energy on stage, sometimes changing entirely from the studio version.
• They swap stories about memorable gigs, unpredictable venues, and the unique energy each audience brings.
• And of course, there’s plenty of humor, warmth, and behind-the-scenes moments that show the human side of being a working musician.

At its core, the episode is about more than just music. It’s about collaboration, creativity, and what happens when you grow up with rhythm in your bones.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Country Fried Rock

00:19 The Influence of Family on Musical Journey

05:20 Exploring the Road: Food and Music

11:32 Transitioning to New Beginnings

15:26 The Resurgence of Vinyl and Gear Maintenance

Takeaways

• The guest grew up in a home where R&B and funk were just part of the daily soundtrack. That early exposure shaped who they are as an artist today.
• Dawes isn’t a one-person show. Songwriting is a full-band effort, with everyone bringing something to the table to shape the final sound.
• Playing live is where things really come alive. Songs often shift and evolve on stage, making every performance feel fresh and unpredictable.
• Life on tour isn’t just about the music. They’re also big on checking out local food spots. They aim to eat healthy...but they’re not skipping the good stuff either.
• The band is all about keeping things real in the studio. They stick with analog gear and an old-school recording vibe, largely thanks to their producer’s influence.
• Moving from openers to headliners didn’t happen overnight. The band reflects on the ups and downs of that journey, and how they’re planning smart for what comes next.

Mentioned in this Episode

• Dawes
• Vetiver
• Bright Eyes
• Alison Krauss
• Brett Dennen
• Otis Redding
• James Brown
• Joni Mitchell
• Jackson Browne
• Grateful Dead
• Warren Zevon
• Whole Foods
• First Avenue
• Delta Spirit
• Langhorne Slim
• Romney Rye
• Steve Soto
• The Full Tones

Recommended If You Like

country music podcast, musician interviews, songwriting inspiration, creativity in music, Dawes band interview, California music scene, funk and soul influences, acoustic guitar arrangements, live music performances, touring experiences, band dynamics, music production process, vinyl records resurgence, healthful food on tour, coffee culture in music, local dining spots, music collaboration, festival performances, artist influences, music gear and equipment

Transcript

Speaker A

00:00:00.800 - 00:00:12.800

Welcome to Country Fried Rock, where we talk with musicians to find out what inspires their creativity. Country Fried Rock Music Uncovered Hey, Taylor. This is Sloan Spencer from Country Fried Rock.

Speaker B

00:00:12.880 - 00:00:13.360

Hi.

Speaker A

00:00:13.360 - 00:00:14.400

How are you doing?

Speaker B

00:00:14.400 - 00:00:14.720

Great.

Speaker A

00:00:14.800 - 00:00:18.080

Fantastic. So thank you much. I appreciate you being with us on Country Fried Rock.

Speaker B

00:00:18.080 - 00:00:19.520

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Speaker A

00:00:19.840 - 00:00:21.680

How did you get into music as a kid?

Speaker B

00:00:21.840 - 00:00:48.320

My brother and I grew up in a musical family, and whenever there was time to. For, like, you know, at the end of, like, family dinners or holidays or anything, we don't. Everyone would just always been singing.

Our dad was a great piano player and songwriter, so he doesn't go much anymore. But, yeah, he brought us up very much in love with music, and we never really felt like.

We never really made a choice of, like, oh, this is what we're going to do. It was always just already agreed upon saying that music was what our lives were going to be all about.

Speaker A

00:00:48.640 - 00:00:51.280

Cool. So what kind of stuff did your dad play?

Speaker B

00:00:51.750 - 00:00:58.470

It was more R and B, funk and soul kind of stuff, like Otis Redding and James Brown, and so that's what he brought us up on.

Speaker A

00:00:58.790 - 00:01:00.150

Where'd the band name come from?

Speaker B

00:01:00.230 - 00:01:02.270

That's me and the drummer's grandfather's name.

Speaker A

00:01:02.270 - 00:01:03.270

Where'd y' all grow up?

Speaker B

00:01:03.510 - 00:01:10.150

Los Angeles, California. Different parts. Started out in, like, Glendale and went to high school out in Malibu and different areas of la.

Speaker A

00:01:10.550 - 00:01:21.420

The whole Southern California area has a lot of different musical influences. And your dad was into the funk in the R and B. What other kind of stuff played on your interests? As y' all were developing Thoughts was.

Speaker B

00:01:21.420 - 00:01:58.490

Coming together, I started listening to a lot of stuff that I wasn't really thinking about it. I was just really getting into Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne and the Grateful Dead and Warren Z. Von.

As time went on, I started to realize that all these artists, they were all California artists.

And I didn't even realize that at first, but I guess there's just something that permeated with their songwriting personalities that resonated with me that might have been that the fact that we were both coming from that same world. So that was a big.

That was like, in terms of what California music comes from, that was a big deal for me, even though I wasn't even quite aware of it. And I think that even made it that much bigger of a deal.

Speaker A

00:01:59.130 - 00:02:09.690

Even though y' all are on the same page creatively and with what's influencing you since you've come together with Dawes, how does that work for you all? As you all work together to develop a song as A group?

Speaker B

00:02:10.810 - 00:02:53.860

Well, we. We. I write the song by myself, and then we all kind of come together to arrange them.

When it comes to, like, how we're going to represent, how we're going to present the song, and we sort of lean on each other for what they're good at. You know, I'll have a song on acoustic guitar, and then I'll bring it to the guys and be like, how do you think we should do this?

And then we'll kind of go through the different ideas till we arrive upon something that everyone feels like this is a good way to show people, this song. So we definitely lean on each other. I don't really, like, decide upon anything until we're all together.

The only thing I do is the chords and the words and the melodies and then. And then everything else. What the drummer plays. The drummer decides what the bass player plays that he decides.

Speaker A

00:02:54.420 - 00:03:03.740

Y' all really have refined what it is people expect when they come to your shows. Are there any songs in particular that have evolved a lot for you all? With all of this time on the.

Speaker B

00:03:03.740 - 00:03:40.410

Road, I think, like, with certain things, we end up. It ends up growing on stage and, like, you know, like a song like Love Is All I Am or a song on the new record called A Little Bit of Everything.

Like, the dynamics don't get that big. It tends to be a smaller. Less like a smaller something that suits the song and just something that's mellow all throughout, and that's that.

But then live, they end up having, like, an arc to it where they start at that level and then with the lyric and with the feeling of the song tends to grow a little bigger than it does in the record and then kind of come back down. So it. It doesn't kind of stay on this one level being this ballad, it turns into more of, like, a parked experience.

Speaker A

00:03:41.050 - 00:03:44.970

Y' all are on the road quite a bit, obviously. What can you agree on to listen to?

Speaker B

00:03:45.130 - 00:04:25.350

Well, whoever's driving tends to put on the music.

You know, some guys are doing different stuff, so someone might be reading a book in the back and have the music faded up so they don't have to hear that or whatever. Or we're all listening to stuff. I mean, we all have different tastes, and they're sometimes sort of dictated by instrumental. Life is kind of cool.

Like, our bass player listens to a lot of the R and B and, like, soul music and a lot of stuff that's, like, really bass driven, and it's perfect for him to be listening to that.

And then I might listen to a lot of song based stuff, stuff that the band might not want to even sound like, but stuff that I respond to as a songwriter and you know, like along those lines, like we all kind of have our own tastes, but the same taste kind of.

Speaker A

00:04:25.750 - 00:04:29.670

Do you get the opportunity to listen to any of the bands they're opening for you all?

Speaker B

00:04:30.240 - 00:04:53.040

Totally. I tried. The band's gonna open for us. We want to make sure it's something that we want to be represented by as well.

So like last fall when we went out and Vetiver was main support, that was a big deal for us because they're there. Those guys are heroes of ours, really. We've admired that band for a long time. Stuff like that.

We always make sure that we feel represented by the band that's opening for us. So we always make sure to like give it a good listen before and during the tour.

Speaker A

00:04:53.200 - 00:04:56.800

Have you had anyone in the last year or so that you really were just turned on to because of that?

Speaker B

00:04:57.370 - 00:05:17.050

You know, we actually like, like everyone that we've gone out with hastened to be.

Bands that we were already familiar with, like the Romney Rye were friends of ours beforehand and, you know, it was really fun to get to play with them every night. And then Vetiver were, you know, some heroes of ours. So, you know, examples like that.

But there hasn't really been that many groups where we didn't know who they were before the show.

Speaker A

00:05:17.610 - 00:05:20.330

So as y' all are on the road, where do you like to stop and eat?

Speaker B

00:05:20.730 - 00:05:33.480

We always like to try to find local cool spots. I wouldn't call us health nuts, but we're definitely. We don't ever eat in any fast food places or anything.

Not because we're against it, but just because I feel like once we open ourselves up to that being okay, I feel like we can get carried away.

Speaker A

00:05:33.480 - 00:05:36.680

And it'll just be who's in charge of deciding where you go.

Speaker B

00:05:36.680 - 00:06:15.100

I mean, I guess we all are, but. But we always have to really cater to Wiley, our bass player. He's, he's, he's. He's the one that doesn't eat any meat ever.

So if there's a spot that's like a really great barbecue spot, like the only way we're gonna. We feel okay going there as if we make sure that he's taken care of when we're going somewhere else that can eat at.

But we're all pretty healthy guys every time. Every city that we find a Whole Foods in, we're pretty excited about that. But like Today we're in Asheville.

We just ate at an incredible breakfast spot, and we all had really weird local selections that were delicious, but it's not like. Yeah, but it wasn't like, oh, I'm gonna go get some fried biscuits and gravy or something like that. Early girl.

Speaker A

00:06:15.180 - 00:06:16.460

Early girl. Is that where y' all went?

Speaker B

00:06:16.860 - 00:06:17.140

Yeah.

Speaker A

00:06:17.140 - 00:06:18.300

Oh, that place is great.

Speaker B

00:06:18.540 - 00:06:19.260

You've heard of it?

Speaker A

00:06:19.260 - 00:06:19.900

I love it.

Speaker B

00:06:20.060 - 00:06:23.020

Yeah, it was incredible. That's what we just say is insanely good.

Speaker A

00:06:23.100 - 00:06:29.260

I'm in the south, so I can say this, and I'm from the South. It can get difficult to find healthful food options on the road around here.

Speaker B

00:06:29.820 - 00:06:30.860

Yeah, totally.

Speaker A

00:06:31.100 - 00:06:33.980

I mean, I really respect the challenge that. That is for Wiley.

Speaker B

00:06:34.300 - 00:06:53.850

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's. It's. It can be hard, but we figured out, I mean, the bigger cities always have a Whole Foods, right? As long as there's a Whole Foods, we're.

We're pretty. We're all fine. Yeah, I mean, like, we. There's always like, a Thai place or something nearby that's. That makes it all right. So we don't.

We don't get stuck with no options ever. That. That's good.

Speaker A

00:06:53.930 - 00:06:55.210

So are y' all coffee people?

Speaker B

00:06:56.170 - 00:06:58.010

Yeah, I'm a big coffee guy.

Speaker A

00:06:58.010 - 00:06:58.890

What do you have to have?

Speaker B

00:06:58.970 - 00:07:27.300

I don't know. I just like to find a strong cup of coffee wherever I go. I mean, if I. If I. There's nothing else than Starbucks.

Even though it's not, like, my favorite, I at least know it's got some strength to it. But.

But, I mean, like, there's some really awesome spots around the country, like, yeah, Intelligentsia and Blue Bottle and Stump Town and really cool beans that local spots sometimes brew. And that's always really fun to come across those spots.

Speaker A

00:07:27.380 - 00:07:30.100

I mean, gosh, it's only been, what, five years? Is that right?

Speaker B

00:07:30.820 - 00:07:35.460

Yeah, yeah, I guess so. I mean, our album came out officially about a year and a half ago.

Speaker A

00:07:35.460 - 00:07:40.820

Or two years ago, as you all are moving then into this next one. Have you been road testing these songs?

Speaker B

00:07:41.520 - 00:08:16.220

Yeah, we've been playing the new material on stages for a long time.

I feel like most people that are familiar with Dawes know just about every song a new album, which, you know, for some people might be a bummer, but I think for most people, they'll be excited that these songs, they've sort of grown, like, they've watched the songs grow in front of them, and I.

And, you know, the song that they might want to always hear live when they come to the show now they're going to get to have their recorded version finally. So I think it's a cool thing. But yeah, we've played our new material on stages more than I think other bands even tend to want to.

Speaker A

00:08:16.300 - 00:08:22.540

Has anything changed in particular over time from when you first started playing it live to as you went into the studio with it?

Speaker B

00:08:22.940 - 00:08:48.439

Not really. Like, some songs there'll be subtle changes that we'll learn that work better than others.

Like, okay, we shouldn't do that, or we should trim that part down or make that part longer just for the sake of like, what worked on stage and what didn't. But.

But overall there haven't been like these wild changes to songs for the sake of like, like, like, you know, between the first time we put it on stage and then by the time we.

Speaker A

00:08:48.439 - 00:08:54.559

Recorded it, you've really, you've been on the road a ton. What kind of venues have really been a pleasant surprise for you in the recent past?

Speaker B

00:08:55.199 - 00:09:10.340

We'll get to some cities and we, we won't really have any idea as to how many people will come out and they'll just be, you know, like, we put. When we played First Avenue in Minneapolis, I didn't really think that we would, we would, we should be playing that venue.

But then it ended up...