by Adam McGrath
The Black Cadillacs, all photos by Adam McGrath
Even if a band has early success, sometimes it takes a few trips around the block for them to really hone in on “their sound”. Tennessee guitar rockers The Black Cadillacs quickly built a following with their 2010 debut All Them Witches and sophomore effort Run, and had a gangbusters 2014 with performances at SXSW and other major festivals. But after a less-than-comfortable studio experience that produced singles “Radio Silence” and “Truth”, the five men in the band realized they needed to rediscover what kind of music they really wanted to be making.
Enter producer Ken Coomer, who music fans will know from his time behind the drum kit for Wilco and Uncle Tupelo. Before their show Wednesday night at MilkBoy, which opened with the usual vigor from local favorites John the Conqueror, The Black Cadillacs talked to me about their newfound direction.
Phillips and Anderson
“As soon as we met with Ken, in a green room in Nashville, we hit it off immediately,” says John Phillips, rhythm guitarist for the band. “He totally heard influences that most people don’t pick up on, and we knew we were going to be speaking the same language. It was the best recording experience we’ve had.”
The five songs that came out of that session will be released February 24th on a self-titled EP. Lead single “Methodrone” was the first song that really came together, says lead singer Will Horton. The drone-y, stretched-out sound that defines the song evolved from a lot of time spent listening to The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and that influence eventually worked itself into the track’s name.
“We took a writing retreat up at this lake house, and it was an idea I’d had for a while, this guitar lick,” explains guitarist Matthew Hyrka. “We hashed it all out, and kept referring to it as “that droney-sounding one”. We were listening to a lot of BJM at the time, and were like, hell, let’s just call it ‘Methodrone’.”
“We’ll see how it works out with the copyright,” laughs drummer Adam Bonomo.
Will Horton
It was easy to tell that the band was excited to showcase the new material. On stage, as they played through “About You”, “Fracture”, and “Go for the Gold”, the energy was palpable. The Black Cadillacs know how to bring a stage to life, stomping and thrashing in unison. Particularly impressive was the footwork from bassist Phillip Anderson, as his boots splayed in all directions while he bent his strings almost to the breaking point. The best single sound of the evening for me was when Anderson flipped his custom overdrive pedal to produce a beautifully fuzzed-out bottom end.
The band’s songwriting process, especially with this new batch of tunes, is largely collaborative, with chord progressions, lyrics, or guitar licks coming from all directions. Bonomo spoke more about the band’s evolving sound and the challenges of being shoved into a category based on geography.
“Frankly, we got kind of bored with your typical southern rock sound,” Bonomo admits, “and we got tired of being pigeonholed as a southern rock band. I don’t think we ever saw ourselves as that, really. Even so, it wasn’t a conscious thing, it was more of a manifestation of listening to a lot of different music over the last seven years or so, and it’s shown itself in the sound we’re creating now.”
Hyrka and Horton
Horton adds, “We’ve been playing together for a long time, and I think the last two years of really consistent touring has honed our sound a lot more.”
Phillips chimes back in: “If we’ve learned anything in five, six years of writing songs together, it’s that things are a lot less on purpose than we’d like to admit, probably.”
One decision that was purposeful, though, was that the band knew the sound captured on “Truth” was not, in fact, being true to themselves.
“It was a step along a progression,” Anderson says of that session. “Obviously ‘Truth’ and ‘Radio Silence’ were different from our early stuff, and our new songs are completely different from those. We went for a different sound, and now we’re doing something that we think is better.”
“In fairness,” Phillips responds, “the early stuff that we did wasn’t as good as we thought it was at the time.”
It’s refreshing to see this type of self-reflection from seasoned bands like The Black Cadillacs. They continue to try to improve and discover what gets them excited. This progressive attitude, along with some business savvy, has put them in a good position. The guys talked a little bit about how they have navigated the modern music industry, including a partnership with Red Bull Sound Select and licensing deals for film and television.
“Red Bull Sound Select have been pretty creative in how they’ve supported us,” Philips says. “Our manager has worked closely with them, and the relationship has grown. They helped us get to SXSW and into the studio with Ken.”
On licensing their music, they acknowledge that it makes sense both artistically and financially.
“That’s what everyone’s after these days,” Anderson claims, “is the licensing and publishing deals. We met a company a few years back, Downtown, and they worked really hard for us getting those deals in place.”
“We’re not writing music specifically for licensing,” explains Phillips, “but it’s nice that other artists want to use our music to help tell their stories.”
With support on the business side and inspiration on the artistic side, The Black Cadillacs are poised to have their biggest year yet. Keep an ear out for their energizing mix of blues-based indie rock when the EP drops February 24th, and check out their extensive tour schedule on black-cadillacs.com.
