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Session Date: July 16, 2011
Posting Date: November 28, 2011
Artist Hometown: Dallas, TX
Links: True Widow Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Kemado Records
Recorded by: Michael Briggs
3 QUESTIONS
ONE: True Widow has toured a lot over the past couple of years and you have recently announced some European dates. How did those come about and what places are you most looking forward to playing?
Dan Phillips: We have a few tours planned to close out this year. This next tour is to the east coast. Half of it is with Kurt Vile and the rest is sort of all over the place. We are playing with a lot of bands that we like and with our friends.
Slim: We’re looking forward to getting back to the northwest, we don’t get up there that much. I don’t know, man, but the Europe thing is still freaking me out. We just put all those dates up and made everything official recently so it’s starting to settle in.
MB: Have you been before?
Slim: No, the band has never been before.
Nicole Estill: This will be my first time.
Slim: Dan’s been over there before to play music, and I went over there by myself a long time ago. The Netherlands will be cool and I’m looking forward to Manchester, I don’t know why, but now that we’re going there I’m excited about that.
Nicole: It’s pretty amazing that we are playing in Vienna. It just seem so foreign and ridiculous.
Slim: Yeah the shows over there in Vienna will be a pretty magical ending to the trip.
Slim: We’re looking forward to getting back to the northwest, we don’t get up there that much. I don’t know, man, but the Europe thing is still freaking me out. We just put all those dates up and made everything official recently so it’s starting to settle in.
MB: Have you been before?
Slim: No, the band has never been before.
Nicole Estill: This will be my first time.
Slim: Dan’s been over there before to play music, and I went over there by myself a long time ago. The Netherlands will be cool and I’m looking forward to Manchester, I don’t know why, but now that we’re going there I’m excited about that.
Nicole: It’s pretty amazing that we are playing in Vienna. It just seem so foreign and ridiculous.
Slim: Yeah the shows over there in Vienna will be a pretty magical ending to the trip.
TWO: Dan, you have a pretty distinctive guitar tone. Can you talk a little about your gear/setup?
Dan: Yeah, the amps are a Fender Super Reverb and a Blues DeVille. I have an Echoplex for each amp and for overdrive I use the Blues Driver. That’s pretty much it. I split it after the Blues Driver and it runs to each amp. The Echo on each amp is different, and as for tone the Super Reverb carries more of the low-end.
MB: Do you change the settings for each song?
Dan: Not really, unless I think the tone would benefit from it. I don’t like to get down and change a bunch of stuff all the time. If it’s sounding good I’ll just let it roll.
MB: Do you change the settings for each song?
Dan: Not really, unless I think the tone would benefit from it. I don’t like to get down and change a bunch of stuff all the time. If it’s sounding good I’ll just let it roll.
THREE: Regarding songwriting and lyrics, do you both [Dan and Nicole] write the lyrics, does that determine who will be singing?
Slim: I think it’s the other way around.
Dan: It’s predetermined before there are ever words. Sometimes if I have a song that I know Nicole will sound really good on, it will just be that. There are certain songs that are definitely Nicole songs, or some songs, the in between songs, that we don’t know, so we both try it for a while.
MB: So, if the music is written first, and then you decide who will sing it, does that person write the lyrics?
All: Yes.
Dan: It’s predetermined before there are ever words. Sometimes if I have a song that I know Nicole will sound really good on, it will just be that. There are certain songs that are definitely Nicole songs, or some songs, the in between songs, that we don’t know, so we both try it for a while.
MB: So, if the music is written first, and then you decide who will sing it, does that person write the lyrics?
All: Yes.