We like to start by cutting everything live… Obviously that’s not always ideal sonically, but it really captures the essence of The Feed. - David Grelle
The Feed have been rousing audiences with their penchant for sonic experimentation and high-energy live shows for a few years shy of a decade. If you haven’t caught the band live yet, you’ve likely seen members of the band perform in any of their various projects around town, or heard them on any of their appearances on a whole heap of St. Louis releases. When we heard that they were recording at Sawhorse Studios for their next record, we wanted to see firsthand how the band approaches their live energy in the studio.
As your quick reminder, The Feed will play at Off Broadway this Thursday, April 10th with Chicago’s Bailiff and Divino Niño. If you were at Sleepy Kitty’s record release show back in January then you probably definitely remember Bailiff. Divino Niño just released their latest album Pool Jealousy, so you know it’ll be a good night.
We were able to catch a session with The Feed and engineer Jason McEntire at Sawhorse Studio this past winter. Here’s a few Q’s and A’s with David Grelle (lead vocals / keys) on the making of the upcoming album Outisder, which will be released July 26th at the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill.
Arch City Radio: Why’d you guys go with Sawhorse for the new album?
David Grelle: We’ve all recorded on various projects at Sawhorse in the past and feel very comfortable in the space and with engineer Jason McEntire. We’ve recorded in studios all around the country and I think the finished product that comes out of Sawhorse is world class.
The other thing we loved about the opportunity to record at Sawhorse was the access to both studio A and B. The two rooms have such different natural acoustics and that really appealed to us.
ACR: How much of the new record was written in the studio?
DG: We had a good idea going into recording sessions of what we wanted to do and were happy with the tunes as a whole. That being said, we love using the studio for experimentation with mic placement, different instrument choices, different application choices, vocal approaches, and tempo changes.
ACR: Talk us through what a typical session at Sawhorse might be like.
DG: We like to start off by cutting everything live. We’re even using live vocal takes on a track or two. Obviously that’s not always ideal sonically, but it really captures the essence of The Feed. We usually have it in a take or two and then move on. Sometimes the energy in that first take can’t be duplicated so we always shoot for one and go from there.
After that we’ll cut vocals, any overdubs and any aux parts but we keep it pretty simple. We tried cutting almost all the vocals in one day, which I was initially a little worried about, but grinding through all those tunes in a single session brought out some grittiness in the vox that I’ve never really heard.
ACR: What can you tell us about this next collection of songs?
DG: We’ve added guitarist Jordan Heimburger to the mix so that’s a pretty big change. It’s a pretty eclectic collection of tunes and in that regard is, in my opinion, a more exciting listening experience than the last record. The influences are all over the place, from big dumb rock songs to high energy soul infused punk with plenty of edge.
You can catch The Feed perform new material at Off Broadway this Thursay, April 10th with Bailiff and Divino Niño. Get tickets here. The record release show for Outsider is on Saturday, July 26th at the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill. This will be a double album release show as The Sun and The Sea will also be releasing American Empire. Tommy Halloran’s Guerrilla Swing is supporting.
Photos by Abby Gillardi