The mid-1990s was a transitional time in American music. The weight of grunge music reached its apex and was on the decline, and moving in its place came a flood of rootsy, melodic music which wasn\u2019t as angry or frayed as its flannel-wearing predecessors. Hootie and the Blowfish, Matchbox Twenty and Alanis Morissette highlighted a new wave of sorts, and their record-breaking successes opened doors to others with like-minded musical prowess.<\/p>\n
Enter Sister Hazel.<\/p>\n
Formed in Gainesville, Fla. in 1993, the five-man band gathered national acclaim in 1997 with the album \u2026Somewhere More Familiar and its top 20 hit All For You. But while the Hooties and Matchbox Twentys grew a huge following only to fade away, Sister Hazel kept churning along. Through constant touring (supported by hardcore fans called Hazelnuts) and a steady stream of albums, Sister Hazel still finds itself as a strong, viable band with no end in sight. His band on tour this spring in support of Heartland Highway (the band\u2019s eighth studio album), Sister Hazel guitarist Ryan Newell sat down to discuss songwriting, Keith Richards and an unusual music influence:<\/p>\n
One of the things that makes Sister Hazel unique is that everyone in the band is a songwriter. How does that dynamic work once you sit down and start working together?<\/strong> Tell me about your songwriting process, does it start with a hook or a lyric?<\/strong> Has your process changed over the years?<\/strong> I heard the story was he passed out, woke up, recorded something, and then continued to pass out.<\/strong> Do you think about how songs you record in the studio will translate to the live setting?<\/strong> I think Sister Hazel fans are so loyal is because the music and the lyrics the band creates is so personal. Is it tough to release songs that are so personal to a large audience?<\/strong> There was a quick turnaround between Release and Heartland Highway. Is there another album right around the corner?<\/strong> Would you return to the process that you used with Heartland Highway?<\/strong> When I talk to bands that are older than the Internet, and Sister Hazel is one of those bands, I wonder what their take is on how social media has changed the business for them. Sister Hazel appears to be a band that embraces this brave new world.<\/strong> Does that so much out there help new band or older bands?<\/strong> What is a musical influence of yours that when you tell people they\u2019re surprised by it?<\/strong> I love to ask the question, you never know what you\u2019re going to hear.<\/strong> Your band has been chugging along for almost 20 years now. What can you attribute to the band\u2019s longevity?<\/strong> You guys are a working band in every sense of the term.<\/strong> The mid-1990s was a transitional time in American music. The weight of grunge music reached its apex and was on the decline, and moving in its place came a flood of rootsy, melodic music which wasn\u2019t as angry or frayed as its flannel-wearing predecessors. Hootie and the Blowfish, Matchbox Twenty and Alanis Morissette highlighted a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[275,274],"class_list":["post-1194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-ryan-newell","tag-sister-hazel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1196,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions\/1196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
We started a process with the albums with whoever brings in the song will produce the song from beginning to finish and there was a day where we wouldn\u2019t be able to do that and we needed the directions of those other producers to keep us from arguing and fighting. But we\u2019ve been in a band for so long now that we know everyone\u2019s strengths and weaknesses and who to defer to when we get into a certain area and if there\u2019s ever a fork in the road where we need to make a decision that has to go down, usually the songwriter is the one to make that call. We\u2019ve learned through the years how to work with each other efficiently so it works out well.<\/p>\n
Every song starts in a different way. I have a tendency to write music and melodies first and then go back and try to decipher some of the things that are streaming the melodies and then go back and really grind down the lyrics.<\/p>\n
It changes every time I co-write with somebody. You write a song differently with one person than you would another, so I\u2019ve learned a lot from co-writing. But the only thing that\u2019s changed would be I get a song in my head and years ago and I would just assume I would remember it. I wouldn\u2019t write it down or record it, and then when it came time to get that song out of my head, I completely forgot it. As simple as an idea as it is, you won\u2019t remember it unless you get it down immediately. I write it down now.
Wasn\u2019t there the story of Keith Richards with Satisfaction that he had something in his head when he came home and he recorded it real quick before he passed out.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what it is, the story always changes in rock n roll lore. Yeah, you know how lore is. He said he was listening back through some scratched tapes and had no recollection of recording it.<\/p>\n
Absolutely. Years ago we were just trying to make the best album we could and we\u2019ve made some great albums and great songs where they didn\u2019t translate live for one reason or another. People loved the song on the album but when we get out in the big festivals, some songs just work better than others. We definitely take that into account now where we\u2019ll look at our set and go \u201cour set kind of needs a song like this\u201d and someone will take it upon themselves to create that moment in a set and it makes it on to our albums. We\u2019ve always been a live touring band and we try to capture as much of that on our albums as we can.<\/p>\n
I think people are pretty universal as far as what creates emotion inside them and you\u2019re right, the songs we write are personal experiences, sometimes we\u2019ll write about other people\u2019s personal experiences, but usually we feel if an idea has moved you in such a way that you sit down and write a song about it then other people will connect with it as well.<\/p>\n
No there\u2019s not. We were at a writing peak as far as everyone in the band clicking on all cylinders we just had a ton of songs and some of the songs on Heartland Highway were written while we were recording Release and we didn\u2019t have enough room to put the songs on the album. We had the material and we were ready to go. As far as the next record goes we definitely have some songs but it\u2019s not time yet.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s been working for us really well I think we would do part of the record like that. I think all of us would be excited to work with a producer again, we\u2019ve done three records producing it ourselves and sometimes it\u2019s good to get a third person opinion in there. Making an album can a lot of times be like giving yourself a haircut, you don\u2019t really know what it looks like.<\/p>\n
I absolutely love it, I think it has created more opportunities for people to get their music out there and for people to be heard. You don\u2019t have to go through the gatekeepers i.e. the magazines and record labels, you can completely take control of your career through the social media. I will say the one thing that bothers me that probably bothers everyone else is that there\u2019s too much out there and it\u2019s hard to filter what\u2019s good and what\u2019s not good and I guess that\u2019s why the labels are still in business, they\u2019re like the giant filters to tell you what music is worth them investing in so it has to be a decent level, but other than that I think it\u2019s great. We have close to 800,000 Twitter followers, we\u2019ve had our website since the 90s so we\u2019ve been very aware and try to be on top of the technology to help reach our fans.<\/p>\n
I would say newer bands. You open up your mailbox on Facebook everyday and there\u2019s a new band trying to get heard, and people have grown numb to it. I think it\u2019s a little easier for established bands the name is out there and it\u2019s been heard and recognizable, but if you\u2019re a new band, yes you have a huge landscape to get discovered, but you need to so something to set yourself apart from what everyone else is doing.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a great question.<\/p>\n
Hmm, let me think. I could name some obscure jazz people, but the reaction I would get is \u201cwho?\u201d As far as what would be uncharacteristic, well I listen to all kinds of music so it could be some of the extreme heavy bands or the extreme pop. I think a lot of people are really surprised that I\u2019m a huge Beck fan, usually because most of the time people think I\u2019m listening to guitar players. But his use of technology and with his creativity he is in some ways like Frank Zappa the way he puts music together.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve learned to pick our battles as far as the personal relationships. We used to fight over everything tooth and nail and as we matured and as the band grew older we didn\u2019t care about 90 percent of the things we argued about, like we had to argue to be heard. But now we have a philosophy with the band where you ask yourself if you\u2019re going to care about this in six months and if the answer is no you just kind of drop it and realize everyone has their moments. We\u2019ve gotten a lot closer as a band personally and as far as the music goes we\u2019re still a band because we enjoy playing and enjoy writing songs and our audience continues to connect to the new music. I think if were just out there just playing our old songs we would have died off long ago. Keeping quality new fresh music in the loop and having fans looking forward to your next album instead of holding on to the past matters. Every time you put a new album out there is adds new life blood. Part of our longevity is how accessible we are to our fans. We put on different events like the rock boat where we charter a Carnival Cruise ship and take it around the Caribbean for four days and four nights. And we do excisions with our fans like Hazelnut Hang in Isle of Palms which is a big barbecue on the beach where we play and I think those type of events keep us more connected to our fans and they continue to want to be a part of the lifestyle.<\/p>\n
Ultimately as selfish as it sounds we do that for ourselves. We would be utterly bored if we weren\u2019t up to something at all times and we just try to impress ourselves first and if we can do that it\u2019s of quality and that other people will feel the same about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"