The Avett Brothers on their latest album, in preparation since 2019

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Brothers Scott and Seth Avett have been making music together as The Avett Brothers for nearly 25 years. Early in their career, they say they worked at a relentless pace, constantly writing or recording and touring, then moving on. Scott Avett remembers a time when a producer warned the group.

SCOTT AVETT: They said, you boys don’t know when to hold back. You don’t know when to hold back.

SUMMERS: Scott says their latest album, titled simply “The Avett Brothers,” is evidence not of restraint, but of time spent with them. Indeed, the album, in preparation since 2019, was put on forced hiatus due to COVID.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WE ARE LOVED”)

THE AVETT BROTHERS: (Singing) Whether we speak up or remain silent.

SUMMERS: The brothers had even booked studio time when the pandemic hit, but the break, a break they say they probably needed anyway, gave them the space to record very, very slowly.

SETH AVETT: We listened to this record a lot more than we recorded it – a lot more.

SUMMERS: Is there an example of a song on this album that you would point us to where that time spent really paid off?

SETH AVETT: The first one that comes to mind would be “Forever Now.”

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FOREVER NOW”)

THE AVETT BROTHERS: (Singing) How long has it been now? How did the past go?

SETH AVETT: So Scott had the initial idea for the song. I don’t know when it happened. I don’t know how developed it was. All I know is that at some point he either sent me a voice memo or I found it on a tape of his ideas, somehow. And then, you know, more time passed. And then we had to take another step. And then more time passed. And then the other day we played it live for the first time on stage. And I don’t know how many years, you know, it took to, you know, reach that level of realization.

SCOTT AVETT: Maybe 10?

SETH AVETT: Yeah, maybe 10. Maybe 10 years. But, at this point, it seems to me that losing track is a good sign.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FOREVER NOW”)

THE AVETT BROTHERS: (singing) How far am I from you?

SUMMERS: What can you tell us about the history of the ideas behind this song?

SETH AVETT: You know, it’s an aspiration to experience what the people who came before us who tell us about God, to share that and to say it in a practical way, to say I want what he has or I want a little of what she just said. I guess what the song is also about is, you know, this idea that maybe every moment is eternity and maybe every distance is infinite. You hear about it and you experience it, you get a glimpse of it, and then you – you know, there’s a nostalgia for it.

SUMMERS: The first single from your new album is called “Love Of A Girl,” and it’s a really fast, fun, rock’n’roll kind of jam song.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOVE OF A GIRL”)

THE AVETT BROTHERS: (Singing) I have regrets, a soul debt, I must get a shot, sunny, unfit…

SETH AVETT: The way I imagine Scott writing songs – and, you know, Scott and I being so close – it’s often less of a musical idea and more of an energy idea. And that’s not really the case with me very often, but with “Love Of A Girl” it was.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOVE OF A GIRL”)

THE AVETT BROTHERS: (singing) Don’t ever find me waiting sweetly for someone to come and remind me.

SETH AVETT: But as I was writing it, I was hearing that it was going to be great because Scott and I are going to go back and forth like the Beastie Boys. You know, it’ll be like in the middle of a sentence, you know, you’ll jump ship, and it’ll be a different voice.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOVE OF A GIRL”)

THE AVETT BROTHERS: (singing) I have to wake up, open up completely. Lawyer on the phone saying, hey, I just called to say, two more…

SUMMERS: Speaking of the Beastie Boys, their original producer, Rick Rubin, also produced this record. Scott says the band has a long-standing relationship with Rubin.

SCOTT AVETT: Rick has supported us in many ways, not only creatively, but also commercially. And it’s been… it’s been a real gift and a real blessing to have his friendship.

SUMMERS: Is there a song where you really feel like your creative partnership with him is most evident?

SCOTT AVETT: The one that comes to mind is “Cheap Coffee.”

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CHEAP COFFEE”)

THE AVETT BROTHERS: (Singing) Little hands building things, climbing mountains, tracing stars, chasing dreams.

SCOTT AVETT: We really went on a journey together with this one. It’s kind of a different sound from the other songs on the album and all the songs we’ve recorded. And it’s the product of a sort of magical day, a magical moment in the studio with Rick. I sing it in real time, I play all the instruments in real time. Eventually Rick turned off all the lights, you know. Like the version you hear on the record, we recorded in the dark, you know, like we couldn’t even see the instruments.

SUMMERS: Why in the dark?

SCOTT AVETT: I don’t know. But it certainly had an effect.

SETH AVETT: Yeah, I mean, I don’t necessarily know why in the dark, but it was – it’s like a sound meditation is what it was…

SCOTT AVETT: That’s right.

SETH AVETT: We spent – we committed to time. It was a long process.

SCOTT AVETT: And it’s a perfect example of a path and a creative path that would never have happened without this partnership.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE AVETT BROTHERS SONG, “JAMAIS APART (W/ VOCAL PRELUDE)”)

THE AVETT BROTHERS: (Vocalizing).

To agree. You’ve all been creating music together for so long. What do you think is the secret to this longevity? What drives you to come back and work together?

SETH AVETT: It’s confidence. It is a confidence that is built within oneself. It’s like… I was presented with reality before I could talk or before I could walk, you know. My trust that Scott has my best interests in mind is something that – it would never occur to me to question that and that’s because we grew up together. I always think it’s a pretty funny thing like – like, sometimes, you know, my wife asks me, like, you know, what a certain line is about or something, and I realize, well, oh – and in my mind, I’m like, oh, Scott wrote that line. And I’m just going to tell him, I have no idea what that line is about, you know, we’ve never even talked about it. That way, the trust level is so high that we’re going to do things together and we don’t even have to discuss it sometimes, you know.

SUMMERS: And you, Scott?

SCOTT AVETT: I think my confidence is geared toward the reality that this is happening to us. We don’t turn the dials. It happens to us and our confidence allows us to get there. We have been blessed and fortunate to transform with each other, to change with each other, and to see it happen to us.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “JAMAIS APART (W/VOCAL PRELUDE)”)

THE AVETT BROTHERS: (Singing) Life cannot be written. Only this can be experienced. An endless sea of ​​vision. Because everyone is born within.

SUMMERS: We spoke with Scott and Seth Avett of the Avett Brothers. The Avett Brothers’ new self-titled album is out now. Thanks a lot you two.

SCOTT AVETT: Thank you, Juana.

SETH AVETT: Thank you, I appreciate it.

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