A Handmade Sound

Dave Simonett talks Trampled by Turtles, Dead Man Winter in preparation for album release, national tour

Trampled by Turtles' sixth album, 'Stars & Satellites,' comes out on April 10. The band has a sold-out show at First Avenue on April 11.

Image credit: Trampled by Turtles

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Duluth-based Trampled by Turtles is preparing to embark on a 32-stop tour -- including stops at SXSW, the Sasquatch Music Festival and Bonnaroo -- promoting their sixth album, Stars & Satellites, which comes out on Tuesday. But before the brothers of bluegrass hit the road, the group is stopping at First Avenue on Wednesday, and performing a special release show at the 7th Street Entry on Tuesday (the show is open only to those who snag a ticket at Electric Fetus on Tuesday). 

Frontman Dave Simonett recently put down his hat and spoke with METRO about recording Stars & Satellites, why bluegrass still draws a crowd and what it means to be in a rock band again.

METRO: What’s the biggest difference between Stars and Satellites and the earlier music we've heard from Trampled by Turtles?

Simonett: The most obvious difference after listening to the whole record is that it’s generally a little bit slower. With Palomino and Duluth we were trying to capture how we play live in the studio. With this record we figured we’ve already done that so we wanted to do something different. It ended up being this kind of mellow recording experience. We all sat in a circle and recorded, and it all kind of just felt kind of easy, not rushed or super focused.

And instead of recording in several different locations you put down roots outside of Duluth, in a cabin, and recorded together as a group in a very concentrated way. What was it like to put yourself together as a group together in a single space to sit down and work?

Yeah, Palomino we recorded in four or five different places, which fit the record. We had 15 songs when we did that, and we tried to find a space that fit each song. For this record, we tried to do the opposite. We wanted to make a record that was more cohesive sounding, like it was one piece of work instead of 12 songs stitched together. From our perspective, it feels like one work from beginning to end. And that was accomplished by living at this studio, eating together, sleeping together.

Because you record a lot of your music live, how long did it take to finish this album?

A lot of these songs the band had never played before going into the studio. Most of the material on previous albums we had been practicing and pretty much had down before we hit record. But we still got this thing done in about five days. Our first record was two days, so I was pretty pleased.

The group’s earlier albums were heavily influenced by traditional folk, fiddle and bluegrass songs. Now that you’re onto your sixth album, do you think you’ve created a unique style you can call exclusively your own?

I think that every band thinks they’re original and they don’t sound like anyone else. In our mind we have our own niche in the music world. To other people maybe we sound like other people. Influence-wise there hasn’t been a huge change from the last record to this record. But definitely from the first album to this one, the focus is on more of our own music. When we started playing, we wanted to be a bluegrass band and we followed the form of these older songs. Now we’re a lot more open. These are songs we could play with a rock band but that we play with a different set of instruments.

Bluegrass isn’t exactly a mainstream genre. Have you been surprised by the reception you've gotten?

I’m surprised that we have, but I’m not surprised that bluegrass in general has. There’s a place for everything. As pop music becomes more – well, it’s always been kind of a cookie-cutter thing because it appeals to the largest segment of the population – but when you say it’s OK to lip-synch, to use computer-track backing and music goes more towards the flash, the reaction is to go back to basic acoustic sound. I love electronic, hip-hop, and I hard time with people who say music is good or bad, but people crave handmade music, and there’s always going to be this kind of basic energy and charm that will keep people doing it.

And yet you’ve still got something for a more amplified sound. What was it like to go out on your own and record an album as Dead Man Winter, and do you plan to keep working on that project?

I never wanted an acoustic band to be my full-time thing. With Dead Man Winter, there’s no expectation and that’s part of the charm for me. Trampled by Turtles is a band that I love to play in and I hope that it lives forever. The byproduct is that it’s become my career. Whereas with Dead Man Winter it’s just a straight-up for fun rock band and that’s such an awesome thing for me to have right now. If we don’t sell a single album, it’ll still be fun for me.

+ See Trampled by Turtles full schedule and learn more about Stars and Satellites at trampledbyturtles.com.