Why did you choose the song that you covered? What does it mean to you?
Well, we could have chosen any of the songs from either of the records and we would have been happy. My first inclination was to do Bury My Lovely, one of the great songs of the 1990s but another artist wisely grabbed that up. Where You Are was my second choice but we dove into it with no less enthusiasm.
How did you arrange the song to make it your own, fresh song?
This was probably the biggest challenge we have ever had as a band. The problem was that Shannon Kennedy and I lived in NYC at the time and the rest of the band lived in Hartford, CT, where our studio was. This means that we were going to do the music tracks in Hartford and record the vocals in NYC because of time constraints. Emil and Julie needed the track quickly. I was looking for something completely different than the original recording which, if you know the two other songs we covered over four records, (Heartbreak Beat by the Psychedelic Furs and Under the Milky Way by The Church) was always our objective. There were other opinions about this particular song in the band but that was largely our approach. The other issue was that Shannon did the vocals at night after a full day of work. She sounded completely different than she had on virtually ever other recording we did.
What are you doing now?
After getting a Masters degree from the George Washington University in American history, I am now a fourth year PhD student here at the University of Colorado—Boulder in history and my field is the American Revolution. In January of 2014, I will be moving to Amsterdam to do a major study on Dutch American relations during the American Revolution. As for Feathermerchants, we will be releasing a live record, A Pull From a Flask, sometime over the next few months. Still playing and writing music on my couch and will one day return to playing live. I do miss it so.
Who or what are your current inspirations?
Without a doubt, Explosions in the Sky is the most interesting band I’ve heard in the last decade. I like My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses but I’m the first to admit there is little original about them.
Who would play you in the ideal movie version of your life, and what would the title of that movie be?
Forward staring Jeff Daniels.
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October Process 