The term 'supergroup' is all too freely bandied about, but in a band where its members have been involved in such towering releases as 'Automatic For The People', 'Songs For The Deaf', and the self-titled albums by Screaming Trees and Mad Season, Drink the Sea are truly worthy of the moniker. Coming together with a focus on song writing, they've released not one, but two albums ahead of their debut tour. "It was just this very natural, organic process of recording songs with some of my favourite people that also happened to be incredible musicians", says mastermind Barrett Martin casually, as we sit down for a chat. We caught up with Barret, and bandmates Peter Buck, Alain Johannes, and Duke Garwood to talk about the project, their pasts, and what lies ahead. Meteors; Eamon O'Neill.
Photo; Tad Fettig
Hi guys, how's things?
Alain; Fabulous. We're enjoying having our rehearsals. We're in Bilbao, which is a little rainy but otherwise it's a beautiful town to walk around, have some nice meals, and have some nice hangs at the rehearsal spot today. We start tour off, officially, tomorrow.
Even guys with a pedigree such as the four of you must get the first night nerves.
Barrett; Well, it's not exactly the nerves; it's more like an anticipation to get it under the belt and just do it. The rehearsals sound great, everybody's having a great time, and we just want to start playing shows. We're doing this kind of a secret warm up show that's been widely advertised, and it's just so we can just play in front of a small audience, because we have films that are part of the show, and it's a pretty elaborate production. So this is just to work out any of the kinks before we start playing. And then, even when you're on tour, there's stuff that comes up.
Why is Europe your jumping off spot for this tour?
Barrett; Because Peter told me a long time ago, he said; "if you're an American band and you want to really be a successful band, get out of the country as soon as possible and play in Europe and South America", and we're going to all those.
Peter, I read an interview where you said you had no idea what the chemistry of the four of you would be like, because you hadn't played in the same room making the album; what's it like now that you've that you've done that?
Peter; Its fucking horrible [everyone laughs]. I've actually, of course, known Barrett for thirty years, and the other two guys I've met in the last couple of years and then played with them individually, so it was just a matter of, really; how does it work in the room? But yeah, we've been doing this for so long that none of us are going to make the rookie mistakes or the ego mistakes that people make. It's been really smooth, and the music is pretty great, so I'm really optimistic this is something we can keep doing.
What about the rest of you guys, what's your feeling on how it's been working?
Alain; Yeah, for me, the same thing. I mean, obviously, Duke and I have known each other for a while, while Barrett and I, and Peter, more recently, but being a fan of all their life's work and music, and having that natural resonance already appearing, and then us coming together, it's just been a dream for me. We have a lot of collective and shared history, and also we were there for a lot of things at the same time, maybe doing our own separate paths, so to come together with all that experience, and a kind of 'older guy' philosophy; which is just live for today and be excited about your tomorrow, which is great. I never thought it'd like to be in a new band, quote, unquote, at my age and but here we are, and it's super exciting.
Barrett; I mean, I knew all these guys. Peter and I have been playing together since 1993. and these two Drink the Sea albums are the the 39th and 40th albums that he and I have have played on together where we're in a in a band or a backing band of some kind. So I know the kind of people that we are going to want to play with, and Duke and I had done a tour of the U.K. last year just as a duo, and Alain and I had played together and did a studio session about four years ago, and there's just this intuitive thing that you get, especially when you're older, and you know all the things to watch out for and the things to to look for, and I know that each of these guys had those qualities, so it was a very intuitive process.
What was your vision for Drink the Sea?
Barrett; I always say this; I didn't really have a big inside plan for this. It really came out of the fact that, for example, Duke and I did the tour in in May of 2024, and he and I did a recording session in Iceland that was really beautiful and special. I knew that I wanted to work with Duke, and I had already recorded some really great ideas with Alain, but we just hadn't finished them yet. And then Peter and I were in Brazil for almost seven months playing all over Brazil with a Brazilian singer, and Duke came and joined us there, and we recorded more songs in Sao Paulo. Then we all went to Joshua Tree and did a session there, and recorded a lot of basic tracks, and then did more overdubs at Alain's studio in Chile, and then came to Spain to mix it. We knew we had an album, but we didn't know we had a double album until we mixed it, and we could hear that every single song was really worth releasing. So I didn't go into this thinking like; "we're going to have a band"; it was just this very natural, organic process of recording songs with some of my favourite people that also just happened to be incredible musicians. The name of the band came from one of Duke's lyrics, so Duke technically named the band.
I've written that the album is seductive, experimental, esoteric; how would you describe it?
Duke; I would say it's very sexy. It's the culmination of our minds. It's expansive. I don't think it's inhibited; it's quite free and open. And I think, I don't know, words like eclectic or whatever, but it's expansive,
Alain; Yeah, and they're musical textures combined, like upright bass and vibraphone, cigar box guitar, clarinet, soprano, twelve string, Portuguese guitar, synth, bass, electric guitar; all that stuff is a really cool palate, and listening to the record, I definitely see that there's that kind of atmosphere around everything, and yet it still leaves it open for us, because we're all very inquisitive in regards of tonalities and tones and sounds. Barrett's got an incredible collection of instruments at his house, and I have a bunch too, and everyone does, so it's really interesting to also see about the future, what other textures we can bring into it. But like Duke said, it's very expansive, meaning; it wasn't like boxing it in, it was reaching outward the entire time. And after it's done, then you can put some corners and soft walls around it, but from the inside out, it was very much like an outward explosion, like a big bang of sorts.
I love the bass groove on 'Saturn calling', which has also got a killer guitar solo.
Alain; I played it once, and Barred went; "no, no no, you've got to shred this one!" I was all musical, and suddenly he says; "no, no, one more time!"
Barrett; I did. I was like; "no dude; SHRED!"
There's some great guitar sounds on the album, Peter, did you play mandolin?
Peter; No I did not, but I used twelve-string acoustic a lot.
Alain; I played cigar box, and that sounds like a mandolin. A cigar box and Portuguese guitar have got the double octave strings. I play that, but so does Peter.
Alain; Fabulous. We're enjoying having our rehearsals. We're in Bilbao, which is a little rainy but otherwise it's a beautiful town to walk around, have some nice meals, and have some nice hangs at the rehearsal spot today. We start tour off, officially, tomorrow.
Even guys with a pedigree such as the four of you must get the first night nerves.
Barrett; Well, it's not exactly the nerves; it's more like an anticipation to get it under the belt and just do it. The rehearsals sound great, everybody's having a great time, and we just want to start playing shows. We're doing this kind of a secret warm up show that's been widely advertised, and it's just so we can just play in front of a small audience, because we have films that are part of the show, and it's a pretty elaborate production. So this is just to work out any of the kinks before we start playing. And then, even when you're on tour, there's stuff that comes up.
Why is Europe your jumping off spot for this tour?
Barrett; Because Peter told me a long time ago, he said; "if you're an American band and you want to really be a successful band, get out of the country as soon as possible and play in Europe and South America", and we're going to all those.
Peter, I read an interview where you said you had no idea what the chemistry of the four of you would be like, because you hadn't played in the same room making the album; what's it like now that you've that you've done that?
Peter; Its fucking horrible [everyone laughs]. I've actually, of course, known Barrett for thirty years, and the other two guys I've met in the last couple of years and then played with them individually, so it was just a matter of, really; how does it work in the room? But yeah, we've been doing this for so long that none of us are going to make the rookie mistakes or the ego mistakes that people make. It's been really smooth, and the music is pretty great, so I'm really optimistic this is something we can keep doing.
What about the rest of you guys, what's your feeling on how it's been working?
Alain; Yeah, for me, the same thing. I mean, obviously, Duke and I have known each other for a while, while Barrett and I, and Peter, more recently, but being a fan of all their life's work and music, and having that natural resonance already appearing, and then us coming together, it's just been a dream for me. We have a lot of collective and shared history, and also we were there for a lot of things at the same time, maybe doing our own separate paths, so to come together with all that experience, and a kind of 'older guy' philosophy; which is just live for today and be excited about your tomorrow, which is great. I never thought it'd like to be in a new band, quote, unquote, at my age and but here we are, and it's super exciting.
Barrett; I mean, I knew all these guys. Peter and I have been playing together since 1993. and these two Drink the Sea albums are the the 39th and 40th albums that he and I have have played on together where we're in a in a band or a backing band of some kind. So I know the kind of people that we are going to want to play with, and Duke and I had done a tour of the U.K. last year just as a duo, and Alain and I had played together and did a studio session about four years ago, and there's just this intuitive thing that you get, especially when you're older, and you know all the things to watch out for and the things to to look for, and I know that each of these guys had those qualities, so it was a very intuitive process.
What was your vision for Drink the Sea?
Barrett; I always say this; I didn't really have a big inside plan for this. It really came out of the fact that, for example, Duke and I did the tour in in May of 2024, and he and I did a recording session in Iceland that was really beautiful and special. I knew that I wanted to work with Duke, and I had already recorded some really great ideas with Alain, but we just hadn't finished them yet. And then Peter and I were in Brazil for almost seven months playing all over Brazil with a Brazilian singer, and Duke came and joined us there, and we recorded more songs in Sao Paulo. Then we all went to Joshua Tree and did a session there, and recorded a lot of basic tracks, and then did more overdubs at Alain's studio in Chile, and then came to Spain to mix it. We knew we had an album, but we didn't know we had a double album until we mixed it, and we could hear that every single song was really worth releasing. So I didn't go into this thinking like; "we're going to have a band"; it was just this very natural, organic process of recording songs with some of my favourite people that also just happened to be incredible musicians. The name of the band came from one of Duke's lyrics, so Duke technically named the band.
I've written that the album is seductive, experimental, esoteric; how would you describe it?
Duke; I would say it's very sexy. It's the culmination of our minds. It's expansive. I don't think it's inhibited; it's quite free and open. And I think, I don't know, words like eclectic or whatever, but it's expansive,
Alain; Yeah, and they're musical textures combined, like upright bass and vibraphone, cigar box guitar, clarinet, soprano, twelve string, Portuguese guitar, synth, bass, electric guitar; all that stuff is a really cool palate, and listening to the record, I definitely see that there's that kind of atmosphere around everything, and yet it still leaves it open for us, because we're all very inquisitive in regards of tonalities and tones and sounds. Barrett's got an incredible collection of instruments at his house, and I have a bunch too, and everyone does, so it's really interesting to also see about the future, what other textures we can bring into it. But like Duke said, it's very expansive, meaning; it wasn't like boxing it in, it was reaching outward the entire time. And after it's done, then you can put some corners and soft walls around it, but from the inside out, it was very much like an outward explosion, like a big bang of sorts.
I love the bass groove on 'Saturn calling', which has also got a killer guitar solo.
Alain; I played it once, and Barred went; "no, no no, you've got to shred this one!" I was all musical, and suddenly he says; "no, no, one more time!"
Barrett; I did. I was like; "no dude; SHRED!"
There's some great guitar sounds on the album, Peter, did you play mandolin?
Peter; No I did not, but I used twelve-string acoustic a lot.
Alain; I played cigar box, and that sounds like a mandolin. A cigar box and Portuguese guitar have got the double octave strings. I play that, but so does Peter.
To have recorded two albums, you must have been incredibly inspired, and you're releasing them almost simultaneously, like Guns n' Roses!
Barrett; Yeah, well, we've all played with Duff McKagan at some point.
Alain; I think what happened is that we were so excited and we had so many sessions and everything was so fruitful and productive, and we ended up with twenty-two songs, and when we were mixing them in Spain, we realised that we were not going to be able to choose an album from this. We noticed that there was kind of like, twins, like twin songs, in a sense, not sounding the same, but they were kind of related to each other. So then the architecture of the sequencing, Barrett sequenced it, and he started to see that there was two albums that have an overall flow to the entire work as one record, and then there's an individual flow for each volume, with these songs inhabiting opposite albums that are kind of somehow spiritually related. So we had no choice but to make it a double record, because it was just all too good.
Duke; Yeah, we don't want to leave anything behind.
Alain; Yeah, nothing behind, because this encapsulates, and is this moment in time that we spent the last two, three years with, creating this thing, and it was best to just do it like this. It also gives a very solid foundation for live with the amount of songs we can play, and also now we were excited about what comes next. So I know it was pretty ballsy, like; "really? You put out two records right next to each other?!" when people are releasing a single every three months.
Duke; We're setting new trends, you see. We're trend-setting boys.
Barrett, you mentioned the visuals, and on YouTube, there's a whole load of videos for the songs; was it important to you to bring a visual element as well as musical to the live performance?
Barrett; It was, again, a convergence of synchronicities, because there's actually twenty-two videos, one for each song, and they're really short films made by this really brilliant film maker named Tad Fettig who was a film maker for PBS television, which is like the American BBC. He did a lot of projects for National Geographic and Greenpeace, so he had all this film footage from landscapes and icebergs and African safari animals, and people and cities all over the world, and so he made these films to go with each song. It was his idea, because he and I have worked together for about 25 years making documentaries, and he said; "hey, man, I just want to make videos for these songs; do you want them?" I said; "well, yeah!", and they are so beautiful. We built the show around him projecting those films as we play those songs.
Alain, you said that you're all fans of each other's music; what for you all stands out about each others' work?
Alain; For me, the first time I heard R.E.M was, like, 1980 ,and I think it was 'Radio Free Europe', and... was it the first record?
Peter; That was the second record.
Alain; Oh, my god, I was just like; "that is just a whole other vibe for me", and I was so excited about that. Then, obviously, following that career, and all through the years the videos were so powerful; 'Losing My Religion' and all that stuff. They were the most artistic videos that were out when it was all about the videos. Then, obviously, Screaming Trees, I mean, there's Mark [Lanegan]'s voice, and Barrett. And then when Mark played with Duke [in the project Duke Garwood & Mark Lanegan] for the first time, and we ended up mixing some of Duke's stuff together. Then they did a couple of albums and toured together, so I was already so excited about it. These are some of my favourite people, so for me, it was; "yeah, of course."
Barrett; I don't know if Peter likes any of our records, but somehow we got him to play with us [laughing].
Peter; I play it at home and stuff. I keep up. I saw Alain at the Crocodile Café [in Seattle] in 2003, 2002 or whenever.
Alain; Yeah, that was a long time about,
Peter; I didn't talk to you, but that was a great show.
Alain; Thank you. That was right after our tour with Queens of the Stone Age, right before we did 'Songs for the Deaf' [2002]. We met during the 'Rated R' tour, and I ended up starting to record them and stuff for the B-sides of that record.
You've said you'll be playing Queens' songs, as well as others from each others' catalogue during the tour; what will you be doing?
Alain; Actually, it's more of the Desert Sessions stuff, so we're doing a couple tunes from Seven ['Volume 7: Gypsy Marches' - 2001] and eight ['Volume 8: Can You See Under My Thumb? There You Are - 2001], which is 'Hanging Tree' and 'Making a Cross'. 'Hanging Tree' would be the original version with the minor, major kind of twist against the vocal, which Josh [Homme] totally forgot when he tracked it originally, and just kind of straightened it and made it bluesy - which is great, because now we have two different versions.
Barrett; Duke and I, when we toured the U.K. last year we did, we did a Screaming Trees song called 'Winter Song', and we did a Mad Season song called 'Long Gone Day', and probably those will pop up from time to time as surprise songs. We haven't exactly worked out what songs. I mean, we have a set, but we're going to mix it up a little bit. And we're doing an REM song,
Duke; We're going to develop as we roll, because we talk about things.
Alain; We've plenty of tunes to delve into the past into.
One of my favourite R.E.M songs is 'The Great Beyond'; any chance of adding that one to the set?
Peter; You know what's funny about that? There was a period where Mark Lanegan and I, I was going to work on a solo record of his, and we had about fifteen songs, he'd come to my house, we'd play them, and at one point, as we were going through all the stuff, and he listened to one of the songs and he went; "yeah, you know what? I can't sing that. That's 'Stairway to Heaven'", and I went; "it's not Stairway to Heaven", and he goes; "it's 'Stairway to Heaven'". I went; "okay. Well, we won't do it", and that was 'The Great Beyond'.
Alain; Oh my god!
Peter; So I had the song, and we had to do the soundtrack [for 'Man on the Moon', 1999], and I gave it to Michael [Stipe], and I played it for Lanegan, like, a year later, and he goes; "well, I'm glad Michael found something there, because I sure didn't; it's fuckin' 'Stairway to Heaven"! IT'S NOT 'STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN'! [everyone laughing]!
To be fair, that's not the worst comparison he could have made.
You know, it has that C walk down to A minor, which every song in folk rock history has used. I haven't even thought about that song in however many years it's been since I've played it.
Barrett; Yeah, well, we've all played with Duff McKagan at some point.
Alain; I think what happened is that we were so excited and we had so many sessions and everything was so fruitful and productive, and we ended up with twenty-two songs, and when we were mixing them in Spain, we realised that we were not going to be able to choose an album from this. We noticed that there was kind of like, twins, like twin songs, in a sense, not sounding the same, but they were kind of related to each other. So then the architecture of the sequencing, Barrett sequenced it, and he started to see that there was two albums that have an overall flow to the entire work as one record, and then there's an individual flow for each volume, with these songs inhabiting opposite albums that are kind of somehow spiritually related. So we had no choice but to make it a double record, because it was just all too good.
Duke; Yeah, we don't want to leave anything behind.
Alain; Yeah, nothing behind, because this encapsulates, and is this moment in time that we spent the last two, three years with, creating this thing, and it was best to just do it like this. It also gives a very solid foundation for live with the amount of songs we can play, and also now we were excited about what comes next. So I know it was pretty ballsy, like; "really? You put out two records right next to each other?!" when people are releasing a single every three months.
Duke; We're setting new trends, you see. We're trend-setting boys.
Barrett, you mentioned the visuals, and on YouTube, there's a whole load of videos for the songs; was it important to you to bring a visual element as well as musical to the live performance?
Barrett; It was, again, a convergence of synchronicities, because there's actually twenty-two videos, one for each song, and they're really short films made by this really brilliant film maker named Tad Fettig who was a film maker for PBS television, which is like the American BBC. He did a lot of projects for National Geographic and Greenpeace, so he had all this film footage from landscapes and icebergs and African safari animals, and people and cities all over the world, and so he made these films to go with each song. It was his idea, because he and I have worked together for about 25 years making documentaries, and he said; "hey, man, I just want to make videos for these songs; do you want them?" I said; "well, yeah!", and they are so beautiful. We built the show around him projecting those films as we play those songs.
Alain, you said that you're all fans of each other's music; what for you all stands out about each others' work?
Alain; For me, the first time I heard R.E.M was, like, 1980 ,and I think it was 'Radio Free Europe', and... was it the first record?
Peter; That was the second record.
Alain; Oh, my god, I was just like; "that is just a whole other vibe for me", and I was so excited about that. Then, obviously, following that career, and all through the years the videos were so powerful; 'Losing My Religion' and all that stuff. They were the most artistic videos that were out when it was all about the videos. Then, obviously, Screaming Trees, I mean, there's Mark [Lanegan]'s voice, and Barrett. And then when Mark played with Duke [in the project Duke Garwood & Mark Lanegan] for the first time, and we ended up mixing some of Duke's stuff together. Then they did a couple of albums and toured together, so I was already so excited about it. These are some of my favourite people, so for me, it was; "yeah, of course."
Barrett; I don't know if Peter likes any of our records, but somehow we got him to play with us [laughing].
Peter; I play it at home and stuff. I keep up. I saw Alain at the Crocodile Café [in Seattle] in 2003, 2002 or whenever.
Alain; Yeah, that was a long time about,
Peter; I didn't talk to you, but that was a great show.
Alain; Thank you. That was right after our tour with Queens of the Stone Age, right before we did 'Songs for the Deaf' [2002]. We met during the 'Rated R' tour, and I ended up starting to record them and stuff for the B-sides of that record.
You've said you'll be playing Queens' songs, as well as others from each others' catalogue during the tour; what will you be doing?
Alain; Actually, it's more of the Desert Sessions stuff, so we're doing a couple tunes from Seven ['Volume 7: Gypsy Marches' - 2001] and eight ['Volume 8: Can You See Under My Thumb? There You Are - 2001], which is 'Hanging Tree' and 'Making a Cross'. 'Hanging Tree' would be the original version with the minor, major kind of twist against the vocal, which Josh [Homme] totally forgot when he tracked it originally, and just kind of straightened it and made it bluesy - which is great, because now we have two different versions.
Barrett; Duke and I, when we toured the U.K. last year we did, we did a Screaming Trees song called 'Winter Song', and we did a Mad Season song called 'Long Gone Day', and probably those will pop up from time to time as surprise songs. We haven't exactly worked out what songs. I mean, we have a set, but we're going to mix it up a little bit. And we're doing an REM song,
Duke; We're going to develop as we roll, because we talk about things.
Alain; We've plenty of tunes to delve into the past into.
One of my favourite R.E.M songs is 'The Great Beyond'; any chance of adding that one to the set?
Peter; You know what's funny about that? There was a period where Mark Lanegan and I, I was going to work on a solo record of his, and we had about fifteen songs, he'd come to my house, we'd play them, and at one point, as we were going through all the stuff, and he listened to one of the songs and he went; "yeah, you know what? I can't sing that. That's 'Stairway to Heaven'", and I went; "it's not Stairway to Heaven", and he goes; "it's 'Stairway to Heaven'". I went; "okay. Well, we won't do it", and that was 'The Great Beyond'.
Alain; Oh my god!
Peter; So I had the song, and we had to do the soundtrack [for 'Man on the Moon', 1999], and I gave it to Michael [Stipe], and I played it for Lanegan, like, a year later, and he goes; "well, I'm glad Michael found something there, because I sure didn't; it's fuckin' 'Stairway to Heaven"! IT'S NOT 'STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN'! [everyone laughing]!
To be fair, that's not the worst comparison he could have made.
You know, it has that C walk down to A minor, which every song in folk rock history has used. I haven't even thought about that song in however many years it's been since I've played it.
Drink the Sea are coming to Dublin as part of the tour, and R.E.M. famously did a live rehearsal at the Olympia in 2007; is Dublin a special city for you, Peter?
Peter; Yeah, it was one of the first places over here [in Europe] where we had a real kind of rabid fan base. We always had really great shows, and I have a lot of Irish friends. I was with a girlfriend, and I remember we were walking down Grafton Street [in Dublin], and she goes; "Jesus, you're really famous here". I mean, everyone - I'm not really famous. I wasn't then, and I'm not now - but it was everyone recognising you, which was just like; "I don't know what's going on!" It was weird. But yeah, we did the rehearsals there, which I loved, and we were recorded some of 'Accelerate' [2008] there. That rehearsal thing was one of the coolest things; just getting to play brand new songs in front of people, and then we'd like, stop them and go; "yeah, no, that that goes there". Yeah, it was great.
The Olympia is such a beautiful venue isn't it?
Peter; It was great. We did like, five days there. I had my favourite Italian restaurant in Dublin and favourite pubs, and yeah, we had a great time.
Alain; I can't wait to go again. The first time was when I went recently. Beautiful.
Barrett; Actually, the last time I played Dublin was with Duff McKagan. When we were in Walking Papers we had a really great show in Dublin, and we played Belfast too on that tour. Duff and I, we both have two sets of grandparents from Ireland, and I think Duff's mom was from Ireland also. Anyway, we both have family from Ireland, so it's kind of a special thing to go back and play for me.
I don't know if you know this, but Duff actually has an Irish passport.
Barrett; I know. I asked him about that, because I think he got that because of his mom and his grandmother, and I probably could, but I've got to do the research on it.
Are you looking into bringing any guests up on stage with you during the tour? I know Peter that you and Bono used to be close, for example.
Peter; I don't think there's any real plans. I haven't even thought about who to mention to inviting people, let alone playing with people. But you never know.
Barrett; You know if it had been 20 years ago, because when Peter and I went to Havana, Cuba in 1999, and we spent several nights out drinking with Paddy Maloney [late founder of The Chieftains], and so if Paddy was still around, I think we'd probably be asking him to come sit in on the uilleann pipes.
We've not talked about album two yet, and there are some unusual instrument choices on there.
Alain; Duke is playing soprano and clarinet.
One of my favourite tracks is 'Sweet as a Nut' with that tremolo guitar sound; is that you Alain, or is that Peter?
Alain; I didn't play any electric on this except for the solo on 'Saturn Calling', but otherwise it's these guys.
Duke; I brought the groove and the lyrics, and Peter brought the thing you're talking about, the shimmery sexy sound.
Barrett; I have no idea!
Alain; Yeah, that's the one thing about the rehearsals.
Barrett; We're like; "alright, yeah, how does it go?!"
Alain; There's one tune that is my Achilles' heal at the moment which Barrett and I recorded a few years ago, where the guitar rhythm's got that crazy timing, and then we did the vocals just all relaxed and floating on top. Then when I actually tried to sing that over the guitar with this floating vocal, my brain just said; "no, it's not going to happen". I'm almost there though, and everyone's having fun watching me struggle with it. At some point I'll nail it, and then it'll be a thing of the past and I'll feel the bigger man for it.
Peter; Yeah, it was one of the first places over here [in Europe] where we had a real kind of rabid fan base. We always had really great shows, and I have a lot of Irish friends. I was with a girlfriend, and I remember we were walking down Grafton Street [in Dublin], and she goes; "Jesus, you're really famous here". I mean, everyone - I'm not really famous. I wasn't then, and I'm not now - but it was everyone recognising you, which was just like; "I don't know what's going on!" It was weird. But yeah, we did the rehearsals there, which I loved, and we were recorded some of 'Accelerate' [2008] there. That rehearsal thing was one of the coolest things; just getting to play brand new songs in front of people, and then we'd like, stop them and go; "yeah, no, that that goes there". Yeah, it was great.
The Olympia is such a beautiful venue isn't it?
Peter; It was great. We did like, five days there. I had my favourite Italian restaurant in Dublin and favourite pubs, and yeah, we had a great time.
Alain; I can't wait to go again. The first time was when I went recently. Beautiful.
Barrett; Actually, the last time I played Dublin was with Duff McKagan. When we were in Walking Papers we had a really great show in Dublin, and we played Belfast too on that tour. Duff and I, we both have two sets of grandparents from Ireland, and I think Duff's mom was from Ireland also. Anyway, we both have family from Ireland, so it's kind of a special thing to go back and play for me.
I don't know if you know this, but Duff actually has an Irish passport.
Barrett; I know. I asked him about that, because I think he got that because of his mom and his grandmother, and I probably could, but I've got to do the research on it.
Are you looking into bringing any guests up on stage with you during the tour? I know Peter that you and Bono used to be close, for example.
Peter; I don't think there's any real plans. I haven't even thought about who to mention to inviting people, let alone playing with people. But you never know.
Barrett; You know if it had been 20 years ago, because when Peter and I went to Havana, Cuba in 1999, and we spent several nights out drinking with Paddy Maloney [late founder of The Chieftains], and so if Paddy was still around, I think we'd probably be asking him to come sit in on the uilleann pipes.
We've not talked about album two yet, and there are some unusual instrument choices on there.
Alain; Duke is playing soprano and clarinet.
One of my favourite tracks is 'Sweet as a Nut' with that tremolo guitar sound; is that you Alain, or is that Peter?
Alain; I didn't play any electric on this except for the solo on 'Saturn Calling', but otherwise it's these guys.
Duke; I brought the groove and the lyrics, and Peter brought the thing you're talking about, the shimmery sexy sound.
Barrett; I have no idea!
Alain; Yeah, that's the one thing about the rehearsals.
Barrett; We're like; "alright, yeah, how does it go?!"
Alain; There's one tune that is my Achilles' heal at the moment which Barrett and I recorded a few years ago, where the guitar rhythm's got that crazy timing, and then we did the vocals just all relaxed and floating on top. Then when I actually tried to sing that over the guitar with this floating vocal, my brain just said; "no, it's not going to happen". I'm almost there though, and everyone's having fun watching me struggle with it. At some point I'll nail it, and then it'll be a thing of the past and I'll feel the bigger man for it.
It sounds like you're having a lot of fun and you're only just getting started; what are you most looking forward to about the tour?
Barret; What's kind of great about this is that there's no opening bands on any of the shows on the entire tour, in any of the tours, because we've got North America and South America after this. We basically have a two-hour night of music, playing all of these new songs, plus the special songs from our old bands. Just being able to settle into a night of music where you don't have to hustle on and off the stage and just take your time with it, that's what I'm looking forward to,
Is it difficult to escape the shadow of REM, Queens of Stone Age, and Screaming Trees?
Alain; I mean, it's part of us and part of our DNA and part of our experiences. I don't think any of us were ever focused on the after aftermath, which is the popularity or the success it was, whether it was musically successful or personally successful as an artistic path. I don't really even think about that as like we have something to prove because of the past. This is a brand new thing, and it's extremely exciting and new and full of merit, in all the ways that the original stuff was full of merit as well, before it became popular or not. That's something we can't control, as you know, but there's all kinds of incredible music that people haven't heard yet, so I'm just happy that we're out here doing it, and the future looks bright.
What about for you, Peter? At R.E.M's peak, you were one of the biggest bands in the world; is that hard to get away from?
No, it was an amazing way to spend my twenties and thirties and forties. I mean, it was an amazing experience. That said, I would have been really suited to playing clubs my whole life. You know, I feel real comfortable doing this. I like to be able to look people in the eye - or not - but you know, be right next to people when I'm playing. I don't like worrying about people that are half a mile away, and I don't like worrying about security. I mean, all that stuff is just kind of irrelevant. I like playing, and I'm lucky, really lucky, to be at my age, playing the three to five hundred people. I mean, if you told me that when I was 15, I'd be like; "okay, you've won the lottery". You're playing Tuesday night in front of three hundred people? Yeah, it's great.
Alain, you've been saying that you're excited for what's next, so it seems to me that you're already thinking of the future of the band.
Alain; Oh, definitely. We've been recording here and there, and we're going to keep recording. We have a few sessions booked in various places in our touring travels, and I expect that at the end of that cycle, by time we get done with the South America portion, we should be really close to having another album ready to go, because that's just part of being a band. It's like the way it used to be; touring, recording while you're on the road, because you see those Zeppelin albums? I mean, there was touring and recording and writing going on at the same time, and it's always like that because, the speed of having to wait for the label to catch up, and then the release, and they're going to say this, and then pre-production and writing, and then thinking about it, that doesn't interest me. Like, I've done a solo record in twelve days, written and recorded. I'm not saying it's good, but it flows [laughing]. So we've got all this stuff coming up, and we're excited about it.
Barrett; We do have the advantage of both Alan and I are producers that have recording studios, and we can go into almost any studio in the world and within a few hours, be set up and ready to record. We can just do this on our own, with the skills, so we don't really have to have a label behind us to do that sort of thing. I mean, right now, I'm the record label, because I have a deal with with Sony to put out records, but we could do that regardless of whether I had that deal or not; we could make records.
Stream the music, order the vinyl and double CD, and explore all things Drink The Sea here, and experience the visuals behind Drink The Sea’s music on YouTube.
Drink the Sea - European and UK tour dates in full.
December
Tue 2nd Cadiz, Spain @ Edificio Constitucion 1812
Wed 3st Sevilla, Spain @ Sala X
Thu 4th Valencia, Spain @ 16 Toneladas
Fri 5th San Sebastian, Spain @ Dabadaba
Sat 6th Madrid, Spain @ Sala Villanos
Tue 9th Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie
Thu 11th Portsmouth, England @ The Wedgewood Rooms
Fri 12th Liverpool, England @ Arts Club
Sun 14th Dublin, Ireland @ The Button Factory
Mon 15th Belfast, Northern Ireland @ Empire Music Hall
Wed 17th London, England @ The Jazz Café
Thu 18th Leeds, England @ Brudenell Social Club
Fri 19th Glasgow, Scotland @ Room 2
Sat 20th Birmingham, England @ O2 Institute
Sun 21st Bristol, England @ Thekla
Barret; What's kind of great about this is that there's no opening bands on any of the shows on the entire tour, in any of the tours, because we've got North America and South America after this. We basically have a two-hour night of music, playing all of these new songs, plus the special songs from our old bands. Just being able to settle into a night of music where you don't have to hustle on and off the stage and just take your time with it, that's what I'm looking forward to,
Is it difficult to escape the shadow of REM, Queens of Stone Age, and Screaming Trees?
Alain; I mean, it's part of us and part of our DNA and part of our experiences. I don't think any of us were ever focused on the after aftermath, which is the popularity or the success it was, whether it was musically successful or personally successful as an artistic path. I don't really even think about that as like we have something to prove because of the past. This is a brand new thing, and it's extremely exciting and new and full of merit, in all the ways that the original stuff was full of merit as well, before it became popular or not. That's something we can't control, as you know, but there's all kinds of incredible music that people haven't heard yet, so I'm just happy that we're out here doing it, and the future looks bright.
What about for you, Peter? At R.E.M's peak, you were one of the biggest bands in the world; is that hard to get away from?
No, it was an amazing way to spend my twenties and thirties and forties. I mean, it was an amazing experience. That said, I would have been really suited to playing clubs my whole life. You know, I feel real comfortable doing this. I like to be able to look people in the eye - or not - but you know, be right next to people when I'm playing. I don't like worrying about people that are half a mile away, and I don't like worrying about security. I mean, all that stuff is just kind of irrelevant. I like playing, and I'm lucky, really lucky, to be at my age, playing the three to five hundred people. I mean, if you told me that when I was 15, I'd be like; "okay, you've won the lottery". You're playing Tuesday night in front of three hundred people? Yeah, it's great.
Alain, you've been saying that you're excited for what's next, so it seems to me that you're already thinking of the future of the band.
Alain; Oh, definitely. We've been recording here and there, and we're going to keep recording. We have a few sessions booked in various places in our touring travels, and I expect that at the end of that cycle, by time we get done with the South America portion, we should be really close to having another album ready to go, because that's just part of being a band. It's like the way it used to be; touring, recording while you're on the road, because you see those Zeppelin albums? I mean, there was touring and recording and writing going on at the same time, and it's always like that because, the speed of having to wait for the label to catch up, and then the release, and they're going to say this, and then pre-production and writing, and then thinking about it, that doesn't interest me. Like, I've done a solo record in twelve days, written and recorded. I'm not saying it's good, but it flows [laughing]. So we've got all this stuff coming up, and we're excited about it.
Barrett; We do have the advantage of both Alan and I are producers that have recording studios, and we can go into almost any studio in the world and within a few hours, be set up and ready to record. We can just do this on our own, with the skills, so we don't really have to have a label behind us to do that sort of thing. I mean, right now, I'm the record label, because I have a deal with with Sony to put out records, but we could do that regardless of whether I had that deal or not; we could make records.
Stream the music, order the vinyl and double CD, and explore all things Drink The Sea here, and experience the visuals behind Drink The Sea’s music on YouTube.
Drink the Sea - European and UK tour dates in full.
December
Tue 2nd Cadiz, Spain @ Edificio Constitucion 1812
Wed 3st Sevilla, Spain @ Sala X
Thu 4th Valencia, Spain @ 16 Toneladas
Fri 5th San Sebastian, Spain @ Dabadaba
Sat 6th Madrid, Spain @ Sala Villanos
Tue 9th Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie
Thu 11th Portsmouth, England @ The Wedgewood Rooms
Fri 12th Liverpool, England @ Arts Club
Sun 14th Dublin, Ireland @ The Button Factory
Mon 15th Belfast, Northern Ireland @ Empire Music Hall
Wed 17th London, England @ The Jazz Café
Thu 18th Leeds, England @ Brudenell Social Club
Fri 19th Glasgow, Scotland @ Room 2
Sat 20th Birmingham, England @ O2 Institute
Sun 21st Bristol, England @ Thekla
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