Blues Traveler recently released their latest album "North Hollywood Shootout" and it's the band's follow up to 2005's "Bastardos!" Although the band did release an acoustic album "Cover Yourself" in 2007 which was basically a "best-of" album of previously released songs that were re-recorded acoustically. The band reportedly put the recording for "North Hollywood Shootout" on hold so they could release "Cover Yourself" for the bands 20th Anniversary.
Having been together for over 20 years now, the band continues to write catchy songs built around the harmonica prowess of
John Popper, who is certainly one of the top harmonica players the world has ever known. For "
North Hollywood Shootout" the band initially stated writing and recording in their second home of Austin, Texas but later relocated to a studio in North Hollywood, California which just happened to be a few blocks away from the notorious North Hollywood bank robbery and shootout that spilled into the city streets and captivated a nation that watched the events unfold live on T.V.
We caught with guitarist Chan Kinchla and keyboardist Ben Wilson of Blues Traveler to get their thoughts on starting the sessions in Austin, but basically starting over from scratch in California.
"It's funny because we actually started the process here in Austin and then ended up in California with Dave Bianca to do it and ended up not using any of the songs we had written. Maybe just a couple. A couple of the ideas we shredded a few ideas out but it's great when you work for five weeks on song writing. Something that's just a waste of time and not use any of it. There was a reason we didn't use it. Once you hit the little baby seal in the head with a bat, it's hard to bring it back to life. We did actually take a couple of scraps and pieces out and turn it into magic in North Hollywood. That's the word we like to use. Other people don't use it as much. Yeah, maybe not so much."
Since original bassist Bobby Sheehan's untimely death in 1999, Chan Kinchla's younger brother Tad has been performing and recording with the band and Chan also shared his thoughts on having his younger brother in the band.
"It came out of nowhere. Obviously Bobby passing away was quite unexpected but I always give Bobby credit for that. It's one of the silver linings in his passing for me to get the opportunity to play with my brother. And the great thing was him and Bobby where friends. He kind of grew up with the band. It was very easy for me. Didn't Bobby teach him a lot of stuff too? He taught him some stuff, gave him basses and was always very supportive of him. As a matter of fact, Tad's main bass when he joined the band was the bass Bobby had given him. It was as good a transition as you could get with something like that. It had a lot of good aspects too."
Blues Traveler have one more show scheduled for 2008, which will be December 30th in Chicago, Illinois. The band will head down under for a run of tour dates in Australia in April of 2009. Look for Blues Traveler to announce more U.S. tour dates for 2009 in the near future, since they have always been known as a road band who thrives on performing live.
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Blues Traveler On Songwriting For North Hollywood Shootout
