Shortstack has been a fixture on the local music scene for the past few years. Their new CD, The Covers EP was recorded this past July at Silver Sonya in Arlington and will be released February 5th on Gypsy Eyes Records, and of course, the party to celebrate it is this Friday (Tonight!) at The Cat’s mainstage.

It follows two albums of original material – their self-titled debut album, and last year’s The History of Cut Nails in America. Singer/guitarist Adrian Carroll sat down with us, ever so kindly, keyboard to keyboard, to talk about the new release, and why the band chose to record an album of other artists’ songs.

BYT: So, we’ve had the pleasure of listening to your covers EP for a little while now. Quite the variety of songs, (in fact each one an almost completely different genre in the original) and most not something Shortstack normally plays. How did you make the choices you made? –A lot of the idea for doing the EP was to play songs we enjoy and that represent our broad array of musical interests. I think we’ve been perceived as more of an Americana or Alt-Countryesque band, and I can understand why, based on our instrumentation and some of the overall sound of our music, but that’s not really how we’ve come to hear ourselves as time goes on and as we’ve become interested in making different music. But the choices were also determined by which songs we felt able to breathe our own spirit into, and record a version that is distinct from the original.

BYT: Is there a song you were dying to cover but didn’t get a chance to, and why?
–Oh, there were a good number we would have liked to get to. Our drummer Scott and I were into doing a JJ Cale song called “Lets Go to Tahiti.” There’s a Jefferson Airplane song called “Go to Her” that I thought would make a great cover. We would have loved to expand the idea into an album’s-worth of material, but were short on time. It was kind of a crazy year for us.

BYT: It has been for most. But you had to make some choices…Most of the songs are (relatively) old. Who are some of your peers you really enjoy?
–I don’t listen to tons much contemporary music. For whatever reason our tastes are oriented to the past. That said, we all really love Ted Leo, with whom we had the pleasure of playing some shows together out west this past fall. Some other favorites are Spoon, Dan Higgs, Oakley Hall, White Magic, and Yo La Tengo. We’re also really big fans of both bands we’ll be playing with on February 1st–Suns of Guns and Celebration (since we talked to Adrian, Celebration cancelled and is replaced by local favorites Junior League-ed). Oh yeah, can’t forget Benjy Ferree–he’s really an amazing songwriter, and I can’t wait to hear what he does next.

BYT: Any local band songs you are particularly partial to?
–I really wanted to cover “You Don’t Know Me” by Quixotic, but it got left on the editing floor. Maybe we’ll do another Covers EP down the road!

BYT: Covers albums seem to be pretty popular these days (see Cat Power focusing on it for last 2 editions). Some say it is the easy way out but I think its probably more daunting than an original record. Is there pressure involved when rejiggering songs that are already known and loved? –I always really liked Nick Cave’s “Kicking Against the Pricks,” perhaps a lesser-known album of covers, as well as Cat Power’s “Covers” record. Both are great examples of the power of arrangement, as the versions on those records bear little resemblance to the originals. In some regards doing a covers record is both easier and more difficult at the same time. Like you said, the whole point of doing covers is to “rejigger” the originals, and it can be tricky to find a way to leave your thumb print on the original. It’s just like shopping for pants–some are more flattering to your own features than others! On the other hand, it’s easier, being that the basic idea is already set–lyrics and chord structure are laid out, and there to be manipulated–so the craft is immediately more about manipulation than invention. You can take as much creative liberty as you desire, and that’s where a lot of the fun and creative pleasure comes from in doing a project like this.

BYT: On the 1st is the show going to involve Shortstack original stuff, or is it a straight up EP celebration?
–We’ll play the 5 songs from the EP, and our own songs, most of which are new.

BYT: Are you working on new material? How is it going? When can we expect it?
–We’re in the process of writing new material for another album, which we’re really excited about, and are about 60% of the way there. We’d like to get back into the studio and record these songs some time before fall. Yet another point to doing the Covers project was to stimulate the writing process. Studying music by others always serves as a good catalyst for new ideas.

BYT: So, tell us about the record…
Any musician will tell you that new songs don’t just emerge out of a vacuum. It’s fascinating to listen to Abbey Road, or Exile on Main Street and think about where these utterly unique records came from. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and just about every 60’s band started life playing their takes on old blues songs. Over time, these bands merged their early influences with other new and exciting sounds, and developed their own identities in the process. We got a similar kind of start learning songs by Leadbelly, Charlie Feathers, Blind Boy Fuller, Hank Williams, and other old blues and country musicians. Over the past few years, our sound and songwriting have expanded to include a broader range of influences. With this new record, we wanted to highlight the other kinds of music we like - stuff that points to what we’re aspiring to in our current songwriting…

Kinks –Nothin’ in This World Can Stop Me Worryin’ Bout that Girl: I rediscovered the Kinks about 5 years ago and became re-enamored with their songwriting. Yeah, sure, the Beatles and the Stones are the pillars of classic British popular music, but the Kinks are often overlooked for both their prolific work and astounding musicianship. I’m really proud of our arrangement of this song—I think it keeps a lot of elements of the original, while adding other Kinks-y elements, namely the “rave-up” section at the end. It was our producer, TJ Lipple, who pushed for the a-capella beginning — an idea inspired by the Zombies’ song “The Way I feel Inside.”

Captain Beefheart - Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles: Many may be familiar with this song though the Coen Brother’s film The Big Lebowski. “Her Eyes are a Blue Million Miles” appears on the 1972 Captain Beefheart album Clear Spot. I’ve always preferred the more “coherent” Beefheart material. He has a beautiful blue-eyed soul side in addition to his avant-garde bent. Even though it is one of the more conventional songs he’s done, we never noticed how crazy it is until we sat down to learn it. I love the simple lyric, and how it reuses words in a circular fashion.

Traditional - Pretty Saro: I’ve always loved the British folk music of the 60s —John Renbourn, The Pentangle, Fairport Convention, etc. “Pretty Saro” is an old Scotch-Irish folk song that dates back to the 1700s, and many variations of the song can be found in Appalachian music. I originally heard “Pretty Saro” as an a capella piece on the Shirley Collins album Sweet England. Shirley also performs a stunning rendition of it on her album Folk Roots, New Routes, which features the amazing guitar playing of Davey Graham, and served more as the departure point for our interpretation. Oddly enough, our version of the song reminds me more of a Lungfish song than our cover of the Dan Higgs tune.

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