Can you tell us the story of how Casual Americans came together? How did you all meet and decide to form a band?
Well, it started as what I guess you’d describe as a “solo project.” I recorded a lot of the album by myself a few months before and during the pandemic and then had my friends Paul Rogers and Jimmy Mansfield help me with a lot of the editing and post-production stuff before I had the album mixed and mastered. Paul and Marlon Patton (another friend of mine and a great session drummer) played drums on the album, and Paul had (session keyboardist) Billy Justineau play piano and organ on “Hold On.” Other than that, everything you’re hearing is me.
After the album was finished and I started releasing songs, the band came together. We’ve all been friends for years and play together in other contexts, so musical and personal chemistry has been really easy. Chris (Matthis/Drums) approached me and wanted to know what my plans were for playing these songs live – I didn’t have any at that point. From there, I asked Kyle (Deloach/Guitar), Ben (Butler/Guitar), and Daniel (Ard/Bass) if they’d be interested in playing these songs with me, and they all wanted to do it, so here we are.
What’s the story behind your band name, Casual Americans?
There’s a restaurant in Athens, GA (where we’re from) called Brett’s, but the full name is Brett’s Casual American (a descriptor of the cuisine they offer – Casual American cuisine, I guess?) I always thought the phrase Casual American was funny – what, exactly is a Casual American, you know? I had visions of people wearing cargo shorts with dress shirts and cowboy hats or something. I don’t eat there a lot, the food is pretty good, but it’s essentially a locally-owned Chili’s. The people there are nice.
Anyway, I clocked “Casual American” as one of those phrases that would make a great band name or album title or something, and decided this project fit well with that name. I loved the idea of it becoming a band, so Casual Americans it is.
How do you balance different musical influences within the band?
Great question! We’re writing a lot right now, so this is something we’re actively working through. Our general approach as an ensemble is to try everything. So, whatever the idea or concept is, we’ll try it at least once. The goal is to write the best songs possible and do what’s best for the song, so we all kind of come at it with a unified goal of – whatever the idea is – does it work for this song or not? We’ll usually try something a few different ways, record those options, and go with the one that works the best.
What’s the most significant challenge you’ve faced as a band, and how did you overcome it?
So far, the most challenging thing has been getting shows booked. It’s weird. We’re a new band made up of people who have been in other bands and played with other artists for a long time, so it’s not like we’re novices, but we’re not exactly a known quantity either. The shows we’ve played so far have resulted from having a friend who owns a club. Getting people to attend said shows has also been challenging. We’re all in our thirties, and beyond, so our friend groups are largely made up of people with kids, “real jobs”, or other things that would prevent them from coming to a rock show on a random night. So, building a following has been interesting, to say the least. We’re still working through figuring that out, but I feel like we have enough going for us for people to wrap their arms around.
What was the inspiration behind your latest album, “Casual Americans”?
The need to create and make things despite (or even because of) whatever’s happening to you or around you. I wrote most of these songs during the pandemic, so having a healthy outlet to process everything that was happening and how that affected my mental and emotional health was amazing. As a result, the lyrical content of the songs feels insular to me. Some of it is me actively engaging my anxiety and saying some things out loud I never would have otherwise.
What was the songwriting process like for this album? How did you guys collaborate and create the songs?
It started as a series of songwriting exercises. I’d go down to my studio after my kids went to sleep and work for a couple of hours a night until I had a collection of songs I was proud of.
Were there any specific themes or messages you wanted to convey with “Casual Americans”?
Make time for things that give you life. Giving yourself the gift of any amount of regular time and space with those things is good for your soul. That has more to do with how the album was made than the actual content of the songs, but having that rhythm in place was important for me, and I think that everyone could benefit from making time for those things, even if it’s just a few minutes a day.
Can you describe a memorable moment from the recording sessions?
My approach to recording the album was to sit down in the studio and do whatever I felt needed to be done next, whether that was recording vocals or editing tracks. One night, I came down to record the bassline for “Hold On”. As I was noodling on the bass while dialing in the bass tone, I stumbled upon what became the bassline for “Anything You Want.”
I immediately knew this was an idea that needed to be fleshed out, so I switched gears, opened up a new session, and charted out the form of “Anything You Want” completely on the bass, which is something I had never done before. I’m a guitarist, so writing from a bassline was new for me. It was like having a different set of paints to choose from. Starting from the bassline created so much space in the way I thought about the song both sonically and melodically and informed the vibe and instrumentation of the song as a whole.
Which song on the album was the most challenging to produce, and what made it so difficult?
“Please Be Patient”. The vocal stacks on the verses took forever! In the first two verses, it’s two stacks of different three-part harmonies and every part is overdubbed, so you’re hearing 12 tracks of vocals at once. I’m a massive Beatles fan, so I wanted a wall of vocal sound reminiscent of what they achieved on songs like “Because.” Writing the parts and executing them to the point where everything sounded the way I heard it in my head took days, but I’m extremely proud of the result.
Were there any songs on the album that changed a lot from their initial idea to the final version?
“Cowards” changed quite a bit from my original version to the version on the album. The drums Paul Rogers recorded completely changed the groove of the song, it swings a lot harder and just has more character as opposed to the very robotic-feeling drum parts I had programmed initially. There were also some little “ear candy” textural things that I had kind of recorded offhand and forgot about that Darrell Thorp (Mixing Engineer) brought forward in the mix in a really fun and surprising way.
What’s your approach to mixing and mastering your music? Do you have any specific techniques or preferences?
I prefer to send the music to dedicated mixing and mastering engineers for that part of the process. I’m way too close to the creation of the song to be objective about what the songs need at that stage. For me, it’s important to have a fresh set of ears involved, and I was fortunate to have some of the freshest, most excellent ears involved in the mixing and mastering of the album. Darrell Thorp (mixing engineer) and David Ives (mastering engineer) did an incredible job of bringing the songs to life in ways I never would have imagined.
Mixing is where more of the record’s vibe is established, and Darrell and I had some great chats about what I was going for, but he just had an amazing grasp of what the songs needed. Mastering to me is that final stage of the process where that last bit of polish goes on, and David knocked it out of the park. Both Darrell and David were great to work with and wanted to make sure I was happy with the end product. I mean, these are two total pros who certainly have more important things to work on, but they gave this album an amount of love and effort that blew me away. I’ll always be grateful to them for that.
What do you hope people take away when they listen to “Casual Americans”?
I mean, best case scenario – I hope people see themselves in the songs and feel seen. There’s a lot of wrestling with anxiety and fear and cynicism and narcissism and body image issues and all sorts of non-flattering but very human things in the songs, and I know I’m not the only person who deals with that sort of thing. There are some wild (to me) genre swings and attempts at grand musical gestures, but I hope people enjoy the ride.
What’s next for Casual Americans after this album? Do you have any plans or projects in the works?
We’re well into writing the next album. Writing as a band for the last several months has been an incredibly rewarding process and the hope is to make an album representative of the band dynamic. As a live unit, Casual Americans plays like a rock band, so the new songs hit a little harder and louder, but I’m excited to see what sonic possibilities present themselves once we’re in the studio. We’d love to play live more often, so we’ll see what shakes loose in terms of shows. The future is bold and bright and unknown and we’re just happy to be here, you know?
