The Brook and the Bluff members Joseph Settine and Alec Bolton came over to talk about Werewolf, their new record - and a conscious departure from the studio experimentation of their last few releases. After years of working with producer Micah Tawlks - chasing sounds, layering tracks, driving a mobile studio into the mountains of north Georgia - they went back to the room. Five guys plugged in, reacting to each other live. Joseph calls it getting back to that 15-year-old teaching himself guitar in his bedroom. Alec calls it the thing that made it worth playing in the first place.

The conversation also covers how drummer John Canada saved the band by showing up with his Type A brain and a question nobody else had thought to ask, why Birmingham is a sneaky music town, the tension between experimentation and identity, and Alec’s observation that the live show might be the last place where a group of people are fully present with each other. Then the full band played ”Can’t Figure It Out” and baby Zuzu got so amped she did the Arsenio arm from across the room.

🎥 Watch the full conversation on YouTube

🎸 Watch the Brook and the Bluff perform “Can’t Figure It Out

AFTER THE CONVERSATION

After the Conversation is my paid essay series where I keep thinking after the microphones are off. This week it's a short story loosely based on real life, that ends with a thought I think most musicians have had at least once: someday I will be glad I did this. I'll take a shower tomorrow.

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