Weatherbox - Sound In The Signals Magazine Interview Preview

We interviewed Weatherbox for the May issue of Sound In The Signals Magazine. I've decided to post the first two questions (and answers) from that interview as a preview to the full interview. The full interview will appear in the May issue of the magazine. Click READ MORE to check it out.

Your Daytrotter Sessions were just released. I've always been a fan of the Daytrotter stuff and enjoyed not only the music but artwork they release for all the sessions. What was it like recording your session? Do you get any input on what artwork they use for the session?
The Daytrotter Sessions just posted were actually recorded in 2009. The Weatherbox timeline is a little shaky, but essentially, the band during those recordings was four incarnations back. This was right when I started to tour with a full band again, after about a year hiatus of just doing acoustic solo stuff. We recorded in Rock Island on the way to Chicago and it was pretty early in the morning. We did everything really quickly and had to get on the road but everyone was really nice there. Daytrotter is good people.
I can’t really vouch for it as a good sampling of what Weatherbox sounds like now. I was listening to a lot of shellac and jesus lizard at the time and I was into the loudness and the feedback and the punk sex. It was fun, but the Weatherbox of now has got the weathersonics down to a science, so I hope we can go back soon and get some newer stuff daytrotted.
We didn’t get any input on the artwork. The picture they used isn’t actually the band that played on the recording but ya know whatever.

You guys have been playing a few new songs live lately. Cosmic Drama came out a while ago. When can fans expect to hear a new album by Weatherbox? What do you think will differ on the next album?
We took a little detour from this new writing process for the full length to write and record an EP that we’re self-releasing called “Follow the Rattle of the Afghan Guitar.” I just finished all the vocals this week with Ben Moore (Hot Snakes, Soft Pack). We also have “Call Me Home: the Home Recordings of Brian Warren’s Weatherbox” coming out but that’s hinging on a couple factors as far as when it will be publicly available.
The newer songs are pretty hard to explain in the context of Weatherbox. The music is written as a four piece band with all the members present and contributing. The songs are only half ready when I bring them to a practice, so it allows for much more discussion and experimentation. This translates into the songs having more complex and open structures and me spending less time wrestling with minute details later on.