In the midst their tour with Iron and Wine, I got a chance to speak with Robert Earl Thomas, lead guitar player of Widowspeak.
The release of their newest EP, The Swamps, a headlining European tour, a stint with Iron and Wine, the writing of their new full-length, and a U.S. headlining tour this fall has kept Thomas and lead vocalist Molly Hamilton very busy in this year. The ambition of this Brooklyn duo is clear and their talent is right there alongside it.
Tell me about recording your last album — you recorded Almanac in a century-old barn in the Hudson River Valley? What was that like? How did you find out about the barn? Is recording in a setting like that something you’d like to do again with future albums?
“We recorded Almanac in a barn just outside of New Paltz, two hours up the Hudson River from New York. The studio is called Marcata Recording and it’s run by Kevin McMahon. We knew we wanted to make Almanac in a secluded setting and had originally considered a spot outside of Seattle. That plan fell through and Mike Sniper suggested Kevin to us. He had worked on a lot of stuff we really liked and the location seemed perfect, so we went with it.
“The barn itself plays a huge role in Almanac. We included field recordings, but more than that the whole vibe of living in that bucolic setting permeates the songs. I don’t think we’ll do our next record in quite the same setting, but we definitely like unique recording experiences. So when it comes time to make the next record, which we’re writing right now, we will be sure to choose the appropriate location for theme and vibe.”
You’re in the midst of a tour with Iron and Wine. What were you most looking forward to with that? How did you kick off the tour?
“Playing with Iron and Wine is super exciting for us. We’re obviously big fans and it’s an amazing opportunity to play in beautiful rooms to big crowds, and they’ve been really sweet and receptive to us. We love playing the Midwest because we have a lot of friends and family there.”
Were there any specific themes or inspirations for The Swamps? Any new goals or direction?
“The Swamps is thematically-inspired by actual swamps, that sort of dark, stagnant, mysterious feeling that they evoke. On a musical level, we recorded basic percussion loops in hotel rooms or sublets this summer and kind of built the songs around them. We are also working on another full-length, but the songs on The Swamps felt like we were writing them from a different place — a different set of inspirations — and we wanted to put them out into the world as their own separate release.”
What’s your songwriting process? How does a song or album come together? Does one person do most of the writing?
“Our process is continually evolving as we get better at writing together; lately Molly will start with a set of images, books, films, places, decades, sounds, and start writing lyrics and then we’ll take all the melodies and motifs we’ve been playing with and piece it together by whatever sounds most like the lyrics. And then we’ll keep rewriting those songs, and writing new ones in the process.”
What’s your favorite or least favorite parts of touring? Any memorable of favorite moments you’d like to recount?
“The best part of touring is being able to see incredible scenery, the East Coast melting into the Plains melting into mountains into the Pacific. Also, meeting great people at shows. Least favorite part is probably the lack of sleep sometimes or being stuck in a car for too long every day. Recently we did a tour just as a duo, in Europe, and we actually took trains everywhere. It made more sense than flying or driving, because of routing, so we just had guitars on our backs. They had this deal where you get a pass for unlimited travel, except we had to get from a small town in Portugal to a small town in Northern France — which was 26 hours straight — to Belgium, and then all over the UK. it was pretty cool, though; it feels like a nice, nostalgic sort of tradition to take trains but it is also incredibly cheap and efficient over there. We wish we could do a train tour in America, but driving is pretty great too.”