(Photo Credit - Claire Schaper)
We got a chance to chat with Austin, TX's own Duncan Fellows about their new album 'The Sadlands' which dropped everywhere October 16. It's already on the shortlist for us for Album of the Year, so if you missed it check it out. But first, check out our interview with Duncan Fellows!
1. I just want to say first that The Sadlands is already on my shortlist of albums of the year. Could give a little insight into the writing, recording, and promotion process of the album?
"For this album it was basically songs that had stuck around for two to three years. They were songs we just kind of continually workshopped and fine tuned and picking the songs that we felt fit together well."
"Recording-wise we did this with the same person who did our first album, we really like working with him. There was a big focus to have a relaxed environment in the process. Recorded stuff in studio and in our producer's house. We had just come off a longer tour and felt pretty good. We got to take that energy into the studio. The world was normal back then."
"We did a lot of the self-promotion in combination with Katie Nelson from Grandstand Media."
2. You all are another great band that is emerging from Austin, TX, AKA "The live music capital of the world". What has it been like finding footing in the Austin scene and to be emerging on an even larger scale, especially with what we can anticipate with response to The Sadlands?
"Since we started out or maybe a year or two after we started, we've really enjoyed being in the Austin scene. There's always opportunities to play with bands you want to play with or to see live music. With our first album, we were intentional about putting down something we could play live. If this album reaches people outside of Austin that would be cool. Maybe we'll play a livestream."
3. One of my favorite tracks on the album "Like I Used To" seems to carry a theme about change, pain, and emerging from pain in a better place. Can you speak a little about this message and how you arrived where you did for the track?
"What started that track was this feeling of being somewhere you had been before. That nostalgic feeling, but at the same time you have changed so significantly. Maybe you're still doing things you were doing when you were younger, but it feels different. You do have to engage with things that you lost and move forward. In a broader sense, active songwriting itself is having something good come out of pain. You may be dealing with some shit and you make a good song out of it."
4. Tell us about the video game The Sadlands (to play visit here!) that was released in conjunction with the album. How did this get started?
"Colin has been a huge gamer and has always wanted to try his hand at something. He's a software engineer, they thought it would be cool to have it paired with the album. We just wanted to make something that other people could get onto with others and listen to the songs. It was may more difficult than I thought it would be. We had maybe 50 players the first day we launched."
5. What's next for Duncan Fellows?
"I think in the short term, we're working on a couple videos for the album. We just did a live video which was fun. But we're going to do a couple of proper venues. We've also tossed around the idea of teaming up with a live venue and playing the album and releasing that. Normally, this would be touring time, but since that's not the case we're probably going to jump into LP three."