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| My Morning Jacket at Tivoli in Utrecht, NL 2012 |
On February 3rd 2012 The AU review published an interview with Patrick Hallahan, done by Larry Heath. The original interview can be found here.
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We caught up with the drummer of My Morning Jacket to talk to them about touring, recording, the muppets and much more!
How are you going, Patrick?
Yeah, I’m doing alright!
Are you home at the moment?
Yeah, I am. I’m in Kentucky.
How is the weather there at the moment?
It’s suppose to be bitterly cold but it’s actually warm and raining at the moment. Nobody really knows what to do.
Well, we’re of course we’re here to talk about your return to Australia. Last time I saw you it was 2008, was that the last time you were here?
I guess so, that was the Big Day Out festival.
What was the experience like?
Oh man, we love coming down there. We always have these amazing adventures down there. The experiences have always been varied, but we always try to have a really good time. The crowds are always amazing, so it the food, so it’s kind of a win win festival for bands.
You’re playing Blues festival, have you had a chance to look at the lineup that you’ll be playing with?
No, I just heard the words Australia and Blues Festival and I instantly said yes.
Now when it comes to the show you’re doing at the moment, you’ve got such an extensive back catalogue of songs to choose from. How do you put a setlist together every night?
This next set of shows, we don’t have any parameters so to speak. I am feeling a cross section of everything. To have that many to choose from, we get into some disputes from time to time.
When it comes to your new record Circuital , I understand that it was recorded at home, but in a church gymnasium, is that true?
Yes, that’s absolutely correct.
Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Yeah, it was older church, only 25 people go to church there. So they have started renting out the place to painters, sculptors, and playwrights – it’s become this little cultural area for all of us. One of our friends Kevin had been recording bands there and he brought it to our attention. At first we were only going to record a few demos in there, but ended up doing the whole album we loved it that much.
It’s interesting too just reading about the record, about how the muppets influenced a couple of songs on the record. How did that all come about?
Well, we were going to be hired as the new electric mayhem band, so we started writing songs before we even knew we were going to make an album. But the guy who was going to hire us was fired and the person that was put in his place canned the whole project. So it all kind of started up writing for the muppets, but we wanted to sound like ourselves in the end.
Hopefully it happens one day, because I would certainly see that.
Yeah!
We’ll get a facebook revolution happening.
Let’s do it.
Looking back at the last couple of months, you guys played Madison Square Garden at the end of the year. Not a bad way to end 2011. What was that show like?
It was such an all encompassing journey, it felt like a dream. It was a very good way to kind of conclude the US tour.
Looking forward to 2012, what can we expect from you guys?
We’ll probably just continue touring, and working on a little side project half way through the year. We were also thinking about when we’re going to kick back and head to the studio again.
Well, we can’t wait to see you when you head to Australia, and my last question for you is, what is your favourite percussion instrument?
That’s a good question. I’m going to have to say that the tambourine would have to be my favourite. I use so often, when I don’t have a drum kit around I’m constantly using it. When you use a tambourine in a song, it takes it to a whole new level. Definitely brings a lot of excitement to song.
We can’t wait to see you in April, and good luck on the tour!
Yeah, we can’t wait either.
