Hello again, readers. As the year comes to end, Alex and I have started to reflect on the music that made an impression on us through the year. That includes debut albums of newer artists.
One of those newer bands we had the pleasure of listening to and covering is Texas based Americana folk-rock band Briscoe, who released a fantastic debut album in September on ATO Records called West of It All (you can read Alex’s review here). It was produced by GRAMMY nominee Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats) at his North Carolina-based studio.
West of It All was released just a few months after founding members Truett Heintzelman and Philip Lupton graduated college. The songs draw inspiration from their experiences growing up and bonding over music. They became quick friends as kids at summer camp and later started performing together while in high school and college. West of It All is a compelling coming-of-age soundtrack that resonates no matter your age.
The songs for the album were written in Texas, often in the pure wilderness of the Texas “Hill Country.” That region is in the geographical center of Texas, involving all or part of twenty-five counties. It features rugged and rolling hills, natural springs and rivers, and lush vegetation.
Their treks to that region allowed them to get away from their hectic city life and find freedom and inspiration in nature. The band’s songs reflect on lessons learned while in Texas “Hill Country” as well as the joys and heartbreaks from growing up. Their rugged, authentic approach has led to many notable achievements, including signing to ATO while they were still college students and opening for Dave Matthews at The Gorge in Washington.
Scummy Water Tower caught up with the duo to discuss their journey forming the band, creating a chronicle of their coming of age and the excitement of growing the band even further.
You met each other awhile back during summer camp and connected quickly over things such as music. Why do you think you connected so quickly?
Truett: The reason we connected right off the bat was we quite simply looked so dang similar to one another. And even then, we were much younger and had a lot less facial hair and a lot shorter hair but we might as well have been twin brothers then. So right off the bat, that was kind of a thing that bonded us. And then as we began to get closer over the few weeks at camp, we were into a lot of the same things.
And one of the biggest things there was music, and we had a lot of shared artists that we both really loved. And I think a lot of those artists were artists from back in the day, if you will, from the seventies and late sixties even. And I think a lot of our friends at that time weren’t really super into older music, so I think that was another reason we kind of hit it off and started playing some of our favorite covers together, which was really fun.
What are some artists that the two of you have bonded over?
Lupton: We both have always loved the Avett Brothers. They are a huge inspiration for the harmonies that we lean on for Briscoe. James Taylor, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Crosby Stills & Nash, John Prine. It was like some of those older folks and then some contemporary bands like the Avett Brothers as well.
You reconnected later on after a bit and decided to form the band. How did that come about?
Lupton: We grew up in different cities that were a few hours apart. I was in a town called San Angelo, Texas in high school. In my senior year of high school, I broke my leg playing football and decided to record some of these songs I’d written. So that’s how Briscoe got formed and that’s where it first began. And then the next year I went to the University of Texas and then Truett joined me there. And whenever we both were at UT Truett officially joined Briscoe and we became a duo. And that’s when we started gigging quite a bit and recording more and just getting our feet off the ground a little bit back then.
Was it an easy decision to become a band?
Truett: Yeah, I think so. We stayed good friends all throughout high school and whatnot, and over that time we’d hang out and play covers and play songs and share with each other the stuff that we were writing and all that good stuff. So, when Philip started Briscoe when he was in high school and started playing shows, he asked me to come play some of those shows with him. And so even before we were both set at the University of Texas and officially made things a band, we played a few shows together and were good friends. I think it just kind of naturally fell into place. It just kind of naturally happened that way.
Philip, the band’s name is the middle name of your grandfather on your father’s side and a name that you almost were given. Can you talk about the importance of the name and your grandfather and arriving at that name?
Lupton: Briscoe was my grandfather’s middle name who’s passed away. I decided to name it Briscoe as a way to honor him, to honor my family. It’s a family name that goes a long way back. And like you’re saying, it was almost my first name, which is kind of funny, but my grandmother on the other side didn’t like it, so she didn’t let that happen. But anyways, yeah, I just have always loved that name. Always wished it was my name, honestly. So, when they started the band, I thought it’d be a good place to put it and I think it worked out well. It means a lot to me and it’s also just short and sweet and catchy and not too common, but people know it when they see it. We’re happy that worked out like that. I love the name Briscoe.
It kind of fits in with the band’s music and desire to pay reverence to the past.
Lupton: Yeah, absolutely. I think it does go well with our sound.
You wrote most of the songs on your debut during college. What does it mean to document that time and create a bit of a coming-of-age type soundtrack?
Lupton: All 10 of the songs up in the new record were written over our college years. I think lyrically it reflects that a lot. I think there’s a lot of growth throughout those years that we did that’s reflected in the lyrics. I think there’s oftentimes a longing for home or for an escape from the busyness of college life that is represented through songs like “When the Desert” or “Coyotes” or something like that. So, our songs there were both inspired by our college years and mainly by the friends and loved ones that we spent that time with and the experiences that we had in the great outdoors during those years.
Speaking of the outdoors, the Texas Hill Country is very important to both of you. What do you like most about that area? How has it most impacted your music?
Truett: The Texas Hill Country is just wonderful. I think that it’s funny when we have now gotten to travel all over the country and play shows and talk to people from all over who obviously don’t know or think or care much about the Texas Hill Country, but we both grew up right around it and have spent lots of time out there, so we just love it.
The Hill Country is this stretch of land that is basically just due south of San Antonio or Austin and just heads out west. And it’s this really interesting part of the state because there are a lot of rivers that flow through it and a lot of hills obviously. So just imagine these rivers that cut through these hills and because there’s a good bit of water out there, there’s just beautiful trees and flowers and grass and all that good stuff. So, it’s just this really, really pretty slice of land. And the summer camp we met at was out there. It’s right on the Frio River, which is just a little slice of heaven.
And then we’ve since been out there a number of times, whether for hunting trips or camping trips or just spending time at friends’ ranches or various things like that. But it’s just so wonderful and there’s just something really special and sweet about being out there. We love living in Austin. It’s an incredible city, but it’s a fast paced city and there’s a lot that goes on. So, there’s something that is just very good for the soul to get out in the Hill Country where you can see some stars where everything slows down quite a bit. And to do that with your dear friends and loved ones is really just a treat. So, I think those experiences and just the natural beauty of it just inspire a lot of music and we just love it.
How did recording in North Carolina impact the songs?
Truett: I would say that it was less about the geographical location of North Carolina and more about the fact that Brad Cook, who we recorded the record with, he produced the record, lives in Durham, North Carolina. We really just went out to record and get to know him. And I mean, he’s incredible. He’s so good. It was an incredible experience and his brother Phil Cook played on a lot of the songs and Phil is just, I mean, they’re both just crazy talented musicians. Their feel and understanding of music is just out of this world. So that was a treat. But it was such a good experience. We love Brad, and consider him a friend, a dear friend. It was just a great experience, and we love North Carolina. I wouldn’t really say that it influenced… The fact that we were in North Carolina influenced the songs much at all. I think the songs were all written and established per se, and then Brad really helped them bring them to life in an incredible way.
What was the most significant way that he did that?
Truett: I think what Brad does a really great job at is making room for what needs to be heard in the songs. We’d come in with some songs that we had only ever really played on acoustic guitar before. So, we’d be chugging along strumming on this guitar and he’s like, “All right, now we need to simplify this part so that we can have Phil Cook’s dobro or the harmonica part or a banjo part come in.” So I think what Brad did and does so well in all of his production is he put space in the recordings and made sure that there’s room for whatever that song is trying to communicate, there’s room for that to be communicated.
Why did you pick the album’s title? Why do you think it is reflective of its themes?
Lupton: The themes that I kind of touched on earlier of being able to escape the busyness of college, and y’all were talking about the Texas Hill Country to get out in the Hill Country west of Austin, was kind of all summed up by this phrase West Of It All, meaning the ability to escape, the ability to find solace in the still and the quiet and find your way out of whatever that busyness looks like for you. And for us, that was college here in Austin at UT. So West Of It All, just being able to get out, being able to move, being able to find that quiet, that peace out in the hills.
What was your inspiration for the song “The Well”?
Lupton: Well, this is kind of a funny story, but I studied hydrogeology in college. Truett and I both graduated in May. And what I did, what that basically looks like is just subsurface water flow. So, we would study springs and aquifers and all kinds of water wells and stuff like that. So, I was doing a project on the Ogallala Aquifer, which is this massive aquifer from the Dakotas down to Lubbock, Texas. The Ogallala is being rapidly depleted, unfortunately. And it inspired me to kind of relate that back to the themes of life and as songwriting seems to do, kind of relate that back to my life and how that’s applicable in my time here and “The Well” is a song that came from that project. Inspiration from researching and learning about that and then putting that down on the guitar and writing a song about it.
With touring, have you been able to get to some of the different natural sites related to hydrogeology?
Lupton: Yeah, absolutely. We got to go to some really cool places for that program. And then I’m fortunate to have parents that grew up loving to take us to different places. So, I’ve gotten to see a lot of really cool spots, and been to a lot of caves. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is out near El Paso, so we got to go out there, which is wonderful. There’s a place outside of Austin called Jacob’s Well that we’ve done research at that’s a really beautiful spot. So, I love how hydrogeology also feeds this love and passion for the outdoors that I have that is reflected through all of my songwriting.
How do you think the band’s sound and songwriting style is unique and stands out from others?
Truett: I think that what we do a cool and different job of is maintaining lyrics that have weight and meaning to us, at the same time, making an effort to have melodies that are unique and catchy that people enjoy singing along to no matter what the lyrics are.
And then once you can appreciate it for two different reasons, maybe you love the reasons, I mean maybe you love the lyrics and what they mean, or you just love singing along to the melody. I think that’s an aspect that we really try to push. That combined with consistent harmonies, I think that… We kind of border a singer/songwriter, folkier country. And there’s not a ton at all, honestly, of harmony groups that are in the kind of genre area that we are or like to think we are. So, I think that the harmonies, the strong harmonies and the vocal blending is a unique aspect of our songwriting and our album that Brad was really able to highlight through this record.
With being multi-instrumentalists, how has that helped what you can do with this band?
Lupton: Truett and I both were able to play a big mix of instruments on this record. I was able to do banjo and piano and alto sax and guitar. And honestly more than that, it was a huge asset in the studio having studio musicians come in to play anything. It’s not necessary for us to be playing all these different instruments. But what it is really, really helpful for is helping us find a direction for the songs whenever we first write it. For example, the song “Hill Country Baby,” Truett wrote that song and was instantly like, “This could be a sax song.” So as soon as he kind of started working out that one, I got out my sax and we worked out some rifts that we really liked and were able to find a direction for that song through the unique instrumentation.
I think “The Well,” similarly, I had written that on guitar and it wasn’t ever going to be a banjo song in my head, but then one day Truett was playing it on the guitar, and I got out my banjo. And it turns out that we loved it with the banjo contributing to that arrangement. So, I think we’re not elite musicians like Brad Cook, Phil Cook level musicians by any means. But I think a healthy understanding of these instruments and how they can be used to present songs differently is a really cool way that we were able to find where these songs were going to end up. And then Brad really helped to bring those to life and fine tune those arrangements that we had a longing for when we were first writing the songs.
Truett, I see you’re big into literature. Why is literature a big influence and how has it impacted you as a musician?
Truett: I really love literature and I think that there’s just direct influence, obviously reading and writing literature and songwriting and lyrics. And one of the songs on the album, “Sparrows,” I wrote after reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck and was just very… I mean, Steinbeck’s writing is incredible, and it just gets all sorts of ideas flowing creatively, which is really fun.
But yeah, I think that literature as a whole is just… We were sort of talking about this the other day with our keys player, John [Clover-Brown], but I feel like times where I am more invested in literature, if you will, it feels easier to write songs. And an example of that, the first time I really sat down and wrote a handful of songs, I was a senior in high school and my literature teacher at the time…we were doing multiple timed writings a week and reading all and stuff like that. I just felt like I just had all sorts of ideas floating around in my head. So, we try to continue that by reading mostly for pleasure these days, but love reading and it just feels sharper. My writing mind feels sharper, if you will, when I’m reading books and in tune with literature. And it’s just fun. That same high school literature teacher was at our show a couple of weeks ago in San Antonio, Texas, my hometown, which was really fun. But yeah, I think it plays a pretty good role.
What books have been inspiring you of late?
Truett: We both love the author of Louis L’Amour, Western novelist, and he is so much fun. I mean, that’s just like a guilty pleasure read, if you will. It’s just you get to close your eyes and daydream being a cowboy for 200 pages or whatever, which is a blast. So, I think we’ve probably combined read a good 15 or so of Louis L’Amour books in the last few years.
Right now, I’m reading another Steinbeck book, actually it’s called Travels with Charley, where he talks about this three-month American road trip that he took with the mission of meeting real true American people and just kind of going around the country and experiencing that. So that’s been fun to read so far too, especially as we’ve started to hit the road and travel all across the country and get to meet people from all walks of life. So yeah, I’d say that’s what we’ve been reading lately. My girlfriend and her family are really big fans of this book series called Red Rising by Pierce Brown, I want to say. And they’re trying to get me to read that, but I’m a little hesitant about the sci-fi world, so we’ll see.
What was one of the biggest surprises in putting the album together?
Truett: I would say that as you walk in to record an album with a bunch of songs, and most of our songs are written on an acoustic guitar, a few written on piano, and as you walk in to record, you’ve got these raw, simple songs and they just go through a lot of forming and shaping as you record them and throw different parts in there and different instruments. And especially with a guy like Brad who does it also masterfully. So, on the back end when you’ve got 10 or 12 recorded songs, it’s a fun process. You have your favorites, if you will, or the ones that you think are the best going in, but it can certainly change on the backend.
And I think one example of that is when Philip wrote “The Well,” and I think we were both excited about it, no doubt. But I think if you would’ve asked us beforehand, it certainly wouldn’t have been the obvious lead single for the record. It was a great song. And then we go in and we record it and kind of make some changes to the percussion of it to give it that kind of driving backbeat that it has and all of a sudden on the back and we’re like, “Oh my gosh, this is it. This is the song.” So, I think that it wasn’t a huge surprise, per se. It was a great song before; Philip wrote a fantastic song with the catchy melody before we recorded it. But I think that it was fun because once we had recorded it became the very obvious lead single and sort of anthem for West Of It All.
The band recently got to open for Dave Matthews in Washington State at the Gorge. How did that experience come about and what was the experience like?
Truett: Well, the experience came through our management and booking, and I remember I was at the gym when we got a screenshot text from our manager, an offer that said, “to Briscoe, initial offer from Dave Matthews Band to open at Gorge on Labor Day weekend.” I mean, I remember it was just hard to believe. It was crazy. So yeah, the experience was wonderful. It was such a bucket list item opening for Dave. Especially opening for Dave at Gorge, which is such a cool venue. I think it’s right up there with Red Rocks for best venue in the U.S. and that was just such a treat. Dave and his team and his band were all just so kind and welcoming and sweet to us, and Dave introduced us, and it was just a cool full circle moment. My father’s a really big Dave Matthew fan and grew up on DMB, and so it was just a cool moment. It was an absolute treat.
It’s remarkable what you’ve been able to achieve this early on as a band so far.
Truett: Well, thank you very much. Yeah, we’ve had some really wonderful opportunities. So, we’re very fortunate.
For the band’s photo shoots, you’ve been using Philip’s grandpa’s film camera. How did that start and why is it important to use that kind of camera?
Lupton: I got that camera from my granddad’s drawer when he passed away a few years ago and have just been using it, taking it everywhere since then. And it’s funny how that’s worked out because we’ve done professional photo shoots before, and we’ve done photo shoots with this camera that has the timer on it. And there’s just something about this camera. And I think our vision for our photo shoots works out really well together. I think that we like to present a more rugged feel, a more rugged visual. And I think the film, it’s a film camera, helps to present that. And I think that’s very true to us. That’s what we do is we carry around that film camera not just for Briscoe and take photos whenever we’re out hunting or fishing or out with our women or whatever. We love using that. I think it’s true to us and genuine for us to do photo shoots on the camera as well. And I think it’s really fun and I’m really proud of how those photos turn out. So yeah, we love that camera.
It seems like the old film cameras and things like that have been making a comeback in recent years.
Lupton: Yeah, absolutely. They have been. It’s cool to see people getting back to that grainier photo, which I love. It’s cool.
What are you most looking forward to in the year ahead?
Lupton: Our plan right now is to hit a lot of West Coast spots in the spring, not even West Coast necessarily, but just western United States. And I think it’s funny because we’ve played a lot, we’ve done a couple opening gigs through the Northeast and on the East Coast, and then that’s pretty much where our headline tour was, East Coast through the Midwest. But I think our music really geographically speaks to the southwestern United States, kind of a southern United States and then the West coast as well. But we’ve never really hit those markets except for that Dave Matthews opening gig in Washington.
So anyways, I’m really excited to get over there and put that music in front of the folks over there and see how it’s received. That, and just to keep writing songs. I mean, we just love to write and it’s really hard to write when we’re on the road. And right now, we’re about to have a good stretch off, so we’re going to be just writing as much as we can, which is exciting and fun and a different aspect of the music career that I love to get to do.
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
