What happens when you combine the rhythmic backbone of Fugazi veterans Joe Lally (bass) and Brendan Canty (drums, Tape Op #12) with the soaring heights of James Brandon Lewis’ sax, and douse it all with the guitar pyrotechnics of Anthony Pirog? What if you put those guys inside Tonal Park, the expansive studios in Tacoma Park, MD, designed by Sam Berkow of SIA Acoustics? What if up and coming engineer Don Godwin captured such great sounds and performances in two days that the album hardly needed any mixing? Lucky for us, this all transpired to bring forth the scorching and funky The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis, out now on Impulse! Records. I spoke with the band over Zoom about the creation of the record and making music the old fashion way: By playing it.
James, you initially sat in with the band at the Winter Jazz Fest here in New York, and that led to you featuring them on “Fear Not” from your ANTI- records debut Eye of I.
JBL: We recorded that with Shahzad Ismaily [Tape Op #151] at his Figure 8 Studio in Brooklyn. I’ve known Anthony for a decade now, and we’ve collaborated with William Hooker and various ensembles. That was my entry to meeting Brendan and Joe, which led to us playing together at Winter Jazz 2019. So, I’ve some skin in the game. [laughs] ANTI- had asked me if I was interested in doing a song with anyone, and I thought about these cats. I love the energy that Joe and Brendan play with, and Anthony and I have developed such a rapport. Our sounds just fit with each other. I’m old school; if the bassist and drummer get along, it’s about to be a good band!
The new album features so many cool unison “heads” between the sax and guitar. Were those worked out ahead of time with you and Anthony in New York?
JBL: We all got together and had ideas for the record. I’m from Buffalo but I went to Howard University, and a lot of my family relocated to the DC area. It was all worked out collectively, in a really beautiful way. I haven’t been in too many situations where it came together so naturally.
Where in DC were you working on the new material?
BC: We get together twice a week in our practice space in Petworth to write, but we only record it to the phone. It’s so primitive and weirdly liberating to do it that way, and we just pile on ideas. It ends up being way more old school, how we used to do our writing before entering the studio. Nobody had any money, so we just pushed the record; and a day and half later we had a record. That’s exactly how this went down. Don Godwin did a great job of getting everything set up and being fluid, to the point where I did not even have to think about it. There was plenty of room with the guitarist in one iso booth and James having an entire room to play in. He had an [Electro-Voice] RE20 on the sax but also room mics, and the tone sounds like you’re in the room with him. Don was getting great sounds and we just wanted it to remain natural. Everyone was having a great time and playing their asses off because we could hear each other so well. It was a great couple of days of recording, and then… that’s the record, straight up! We protected that vibe, even through the mastering, the lathe cutting, and everything.
Can you go into detail on your drum recording setup? Do you still have the farm bell?
BC: Well yes, of course; I am nothing without that bell! [laughter] I took a total backseat for the drum setup. I trusted Don, since we had recorded so many projects together during Covid. I played on six or seven things for...
