The multi-instrumentalist discusses being DIY and bringing in help from his friends.
On last month's Everything Feels Better Now, Vannucchi began building out his basement studio to go even more DIY than ever before. In order to better understand the technological aspects of recoding, the multi-instrumentalist began watching YouTube tutorials on how to properly record and use all of the hardware and software. He wanted From Indian Lakes' fourth full-length release to be entirely him from start to finish, but then Vannucchi got a phone call from veteran engineer Kevin Augunas (Delta Spirit, Cold War Kids) to see if they could work together.
"When Kevin [Augunas] and I talked on the phone, I thought it didn't make any sense why he'd be interested, but he liked the demo so much and wanted to let me be as weird as possible," Vannucchi says before he drinks a little ginger kombucha from a paper cup. "My friends who have always been so DIY-forward, they told me I had to do it because it was a once in a lifetime kind of thing. I was really nervous, but it changed my whole way of thinking about how to record music."
But while Vannucchi's thought process on recording might be forever changed, his songwriting process maintains the same. In order to keep things weird, fresh and interesting, Vannucchi doesn't allow himself to fall into a pattern when making songs. There's no one way he likes to go about things, other than never wanting to be comfortable while he's doing it.
"I believe in sticking really really firmly to having no process and being uncomfortable," Vannucchi says. "I'll sit down at the drum kit and play a strange beat in some weird time signature and see what comes of it, or I'll play a strange riff on a weird guitar or buy a vintage keyboard and plug it into a bunch of pedals and see what kind of weird never-heard-before sound comes out. I just totally believe in putting yourself in a weird spot and letting the songs balloon naturally. I'm happy for people with a process, but I think it's something that can lead to stale music. I just really want to make strange records and the most accessible experimental music you can make. People think they're listening to pop, but I'm tricking them into listening to something that's really strange."
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