Photo courtesy of All Them Witches
“Cosmic desert rock” is how guitarist for All Them Witches, Ben McLeod, describes the indie jam band’s sound. Creating an atmosphere as mystic as their name (from the Roman Pulanski movie Rosemay’s Baby), band members feed off each other’s energy, ‘vibe-ing’ out to what Boston Globe’s Sean Maloney describes as a “primal ebb and flow” that “channels the churn of the universe.”
It’s heavy stuff for sure, but not so easily grouped into the heavy metal genre. The band actually started off as an instrumental jazz recording project for McLeod and drummer Robbie Staebler. The two musicians knew that if they could find a bass player and a singer, they could take their project to the next level. Staebler had been working in a clothing store with Michael Parks, who he encouraged to come play bass with the duo.
“It turns out he wasn’t actually a bass player (but he was a kickass guitarist),” McLeod says, laughing. “He just wanted to be in a band, so he came over with one of his dad’s old beat-up basses, and when all three of us started playing, we immediately felt some magic.”
At first, the three-piece played mostly blues songs that McLeod and Staebler had written before Parks joined the group. Keyboardist Allan Van Cleave, one of Staebler’s friends, was the final addition. The group’s debut album Our Mother Electricity, released in 2012, showcases the band’s approach to “psychedelta rock,” mixing Americana and Southern blues influences with rock and heavy psych elements. As “out there” as it might seem, McLeod cites Fleetwood Mac and the Grateful Dead as big inspirations—when it comes down to it, they’re jamming out to their own brand of rock.
To further define this sound for their latest album, they chose to ditch the studio and take a more organic approach to recording—literally in a cabin in the woods, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
“Being in Pigeon Forge was awesome,” McLeod says. “There’s really nothing more impersonal than a studio; we recorded our first two albums in a friend Andy’s home studio, and that was cool, but this time, we wanted to get out of town. We brought everything we needed with us, so we wouldn’t have to leave. We didn’t want to be able to go to a bar, and we didn’t want any distractions from people coming over.”
The temporary break from reality got the creative juices flowing. For 6 days, the mountain environs became just as large a part of their music as who they are.
“We were sleeping around guitar amp tabs and drum sets, and constantly stepping on cables,” McLeod says. “The product came directly from our living situation and the fact that we were sleeping in the same place where we were recording. We were really the only people up in this mountain, and because of the fog, we couldn’t see farther than 20 yards in front of the cabin.”
The space constraints are nothing new for the band, however. In 2014, All Them Witches recorded album Lightning at the Door live, in one room—an unusual choice when you consider the common editing process for inserting vocals, a guitar riff or a drum beat into most popular songs. The result: a sound with a unique fullness from the bleed, as the microphone recording the bass also picked up on guitar and drum sounds.
Recording in one room makes that process as similar as possible to the band’s usual jam sessions, allowing them to feed off one another.
“We listen closely to each other,” McLeod says. “I don’t think a lot of band members listen to each other play enough, so when they’re jamming, they’re really just playing the song. We’re actually trying to play with each other—it makes us a little bit different.”
The band’s LouFest set will include hard-hitting jams, along with a few songs off the new album, the first one the band has recorded in a studio. McLeod says, “We’re working on getting the record ready to tour. It’s easy to get something to sound good in the studio, but we want to really own these songs, instead of just playing them.”
All Them Witches performs Sunday, September 13 at 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit loufest.com.
