Hard rock. Jazz. Bogan?
takes notes from a wide variety of genres for their albums. Their newest, “Corsicana Lemonade,” features an uncharacteristic pop standard in “A Place To Start”—but there’s one genre that they’ve only picked up on a few weeks ago.
“There’s a whole genre of music called Bogan rock,” says bassist Steve Terebecki. It’s like Southern rock. It’s pretty bad ass.” Bogan is Australian slang for redneck—a bit of nomenclature Terebecki picked up while on tour with Tame Impala last year.
Though the band only returned from Australia a few weeks ago, they’re gearing up for their first major headlining US tour, which kicks off at Denver’s.
Read as White Denim bassist Steve Terebecki talks Tame Impala, recording at‘s studio and what he knows about the town their new album is named for.
You’re only going out for two months now, but White Denim is set to tour more or less all year for “Corsicana Lemonade.” How do you prepare for something like that?
Oh man. I come to terms with the fact that I’m about to go crazy. I don’t think you really can prepare. Just be as healthy as you can. But inevitably you’re delirious. I’m just glad is in the U.S., cause we just did Australia, and that was basically like 21 hours to get there and 17 hours time difference. We got back last Wednesday and I’m still totally fucked up.
It’s easier to go west than east. I don’t know why. So when we go to Europe, it’s harder when you get there but easy when you come home. For Australia, it’s easy when we got there and now it’s harder.
How was the Tame Impala tour?
They’ve really got their live show down. They’re all really great dudes.
You pick up any Australian slang?
No, other than saying “c*nt” a lot. (Laughs) I didn’t really adopt that word.
Apparently, Australian rednecks are called bogans. I really like that word. Completely absent in the U.S.
There’s a whole genre of music over there called bogan rock. It’s like Southern rock — it’s pretty bad ass. Our tour manager over there is sending us a memory stick of bogan rock. I can’t wait. It’s just these bands you’ve never heard of that have these really big hits in Australia in the 80s. Some of them, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t have been a hit over here. It’s like a lost world of 80’s hits.
There’s no bogan on the new album, but you guys cover a variety of genres. There are Zeppelin-y songs like some jazzy bits like “Distant Relative Salute” and then which is like a pop-standard slow ballad. What gives?
“A Place to Start” and “Distant Relative Salute” were recorded before everything else up in Chicago with Jeff Tweedy. The other eight we recorded in Austin within a three-week period. Four of those are Austin’s tunes that he made arrangements for, the other six are ‘s. That might be part of the variety you hear.
What’s the story behind the mellotron? It’s featured on two tracks.
It’s funny, at The Loft, it’s like an instrument museum. He had a real mellotron and this really bad-ass digital one. I think we put it on a song that didn’t end up on a record, but then we just bought one.
“Fits” was recorded in a trailer, your last album, “D,” in a proper studio and “Corsicana” was mainly recorded in a studio you guys built over Lake Travis in Texas. How much of an influence does a studio have on an album?
A lot, really. Just a couple of pieces of gear can make a record sound like old school garage rock or hi-fi late-90s, if you’re not careful (laughs). The gear and the space…our last three records, we’ve had different gear in each place. That plays along into how you’re performing the songs.
Were there any moments that came directly from the Lake Travis studio?
Yeah, absolutely. We worked with a local and he brought in a lot of cool pedals and a lot of super old gear. You could plug the guitar in direct and drive it and hear a crazy buzz sound. Using different instruments inspired different components than it would if we were just using instead of using, I don’t wanna say BOSS pedals, but regular stage pedals.
Me personally, I had been playing a Rickenbacker but I had access to a few different really nice basses. I ended up using a P Bass for most of the songs on the record.
The album takes part of its name from a town in Texas. First, is it Cor-si-CAHN-uh or Cor-si-CAN-uh? I want to say CAHN-uh, but it is Texas after all.
Everyone here says Cor-sih-CAN-uh, but everyone abroad says Cor-sih-CAHN-uh.
Have you been to Corsicana before?
I think everybody has but me. I’ve drove through it. grew up around the Dallas area. James drove to Corsicana all the time to get booze.
Is it known for anything?
Corsicana? (Laughs) Oh man. It probably is, but not that I know of. I hadn’t actually done a lot of research on it. I probably should. We’re like the new ambassadors for Corsicana and just totally not about it at all.
You’ll probably end up getting the keys to the city.
(Laughs) Yeah, we should read up on it so I have something nice to say about it. We should set up a show there at least.
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Dylan Owens is Reverb’s all-purpose news blogger and album reviewer. You can read more from him in Relix magazine and the comment sections of WORLDSTARHIPHOP.
