Trace Mountains is the New York-based indie rock project led by Dave Benton. Their latest record, Into The Burning Blue, is out now on Lame-O Records.
(Photo Credit: Sam Soard)
Dave Benton fronts the New York-based indie rock project Trace Mountains, and formerly fronted the band LVL UP; Jake Ewald fronts the Philly-based indie rock band Slaughter Beach, Dog, and previously was in the emo band Modern Baseball. Trace Mountains’ Into The Burning Blue was just released last month on Lame-O Records, so to celebrate, the two friends got on the phone to catch up about it, and more.
— Annie Fell, Editor-in-chief, Talkhouse Music
Dave Benton: How’s the cosmic country band?
Jake Ewald: [Laughs.]
Dave: I was just listening to your album, and I was like, “This is cosmic country, baby. Slaughter Beach, Dog went cosmic country.”
Jake: You know, these things don’t happen overnight…
Dave: The ascent into into cosmic country vibes doesn’t happen overnight?
Jake: Yeah. And it’s nice of you to call it an “ascent.” Sometimes when I feel particularly lost, it feels like more of a descent. But a couple of years ago, every now and then I would get ahead of myself and be like, “Yo, guys, let’s play ‘You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’ for this encore,” and we would really turn the country up to 10. That would happen once every four months or something. It’s so funny because that kind of thing just kept happening. And I guess these days, on this tour in particular, if we start making music and we just let music come out without putting a box around it right away—
Dave: Having fun at soundcheck or whatever.
Jake: Exactly. When we’ve been doing it lately, it’s been leaning a little R&B. But there’s still a lot of country in there. It’s just been so cool to feel different kinds of music passing through us over periods of months, years. I’m sure you know exactly what that feels like, to find yourself listening to a particular kind of thing, and before you know it, it starts showing up in ways that you totally didn’t expect in your own shit. I feel like for myself, as soon as I start to clock that kind of thing, I think there’s a little guy in the back of my head that goes, “I’m getting a little bored. What else is out there?” It just keeps going, man, and it’s really fun.
Dave: For real. I relate to that so hard. Because that’s what gets us interested in this stuff in the first place, the novelty of exploring something new. When you’re like, “Oh, my songs could sound this way? I never thought about that before.” I gotta admit, I am a little jealous of your situation of exploring that with your band, because that sounds like a lot of fun to all be like, “We’re listening to these records on the road, and this music starts coming out of us as a group.” I definitely miss that experience. But I have a similar one, just more on my own at home. I don’t tend to play with the same band all the time, so it’s always like learning the songs, not as much play time.
Jake: Yeah, I feel that for sure. Even with us playing with the same people, we are currently trying to break the habit of only playing when we tour. Because even though it feels so good with the five of us, we are still kind of caught in this almost dissociative cycle, where going into this band, the flag I was waving was, “I don’t want to be on tour all the time. I only want to tour a moderate amount.” And I know Ian [Farmer] felt the same thing. Zack [Robbins] — I don’t know if he was feeling the same thing at the time, but he’s been in that boat of being out way too much. I think I fell into a little bit of a trap where it almost became addictive to be like, “I can compartmentalize this fully, and I can say we’re only going to tour 12 weeks out of the year, and all the other weeks out of the year, we’re not even in the same room together.” Which to somebody who’s been on the road too long before, that is tantalizing. But for the guy I feel like now, who gets so much out of playing music with these four other people, I’m starting to go, “Damn, man, I’m tired of putting this thing in a box.” Stuff gets cool when I take it out of the box. Like when I say the R&B thing is happening, and you were describing everybody listening to music together — that’s the type of stuff ends up happening in ways that I totally didn’t expect.
I always have this old image of a band in the jam space sitting around a turntable and joints and drinking beers and listening to music and talking about it. And that happens every now and then. But the funny thing that’s been happening for us recently is, I finally got tired of not listening to music during set-up and breakdown at the show. So I started busting out a Bluetooth speaker and playing music that I’m into, and kind of just DJing for everybody. But it ends up being really cool and organic because it is my very quiet way of letting everybody know what I’m listening to. And then everybody goes off on their own thing and we talk about the songs that come on — but also we’re just working, setting up our amps, setting up our drums, doing the whole bag. It’s way less intentional. It’s like the music kind of just creeps into everything — it creeps into everybody’s head, it creeps into everybody’s fingers, and then, lo and behold, a few hours later, we find ourselves on stage with the lights turned down, and it’s like, “Well, I guess here’s the music that’s coming out of our fingers tonight, because this is what we were talking about today.”
But, man, I remember sitting outside of — it wasn’t Revolution Hall, it was somewhere in Portland — and you were talking to me about Great Wide Open by Tom Petty.
Dave: Yeah, I remember that too.
Jake: After you turned me on to that — which tracked with a lot of other stuff that you had been digging, and I was getting a little taste of some of that just from us being on the road together — I feel like that record made me actually understand Tom Petty in a much deeper way. Because that one didn’t have those Billboard hits, you know?
Dave: Yeah, it’s more unassuming.
Jake: Yes, it’s unassuming, but underneath its face, the spirit of it — like that kind of Tom Petty spirit that you know the moment you hear it — it is on fire in that record. It’s just enormous, and it’s so simple and it’s right in front of your eyes and your ears. Playing the kind of shows we’re playing, talking about a record like that, that’s so big and freeing and simple and in your face — it’s like so the opposite of what we have done for a really long time, at least from where I’m standing. I remember it being kind of intimidating to consider music like that, to be like, “I could never make songs like that. Songs that are that big, that feel that much.”
Dave: Since having that phase with him, I’ve definitely become more interested in trying to make songs that feel that much. That’s a good way of putting it. But it’s a little scary, because it’s really heart-on-your-sleeve. But those moments are really important, just connecting with someone over an album or a song. I used to do that in college all the time. Our weekends were just sitting around the computer with the speakers and everybody playing a song and drinking beers, and that was my party night. When you’re doing what you’re describing, of touring 12 weeks out of the year and not engaging as much in the in-between times, you don’t get to do that as much.
Jake: Yeah. That’s where that shit lives, man.
Dave: I could see being in your situation being like, “Ooh, man, we gotta make time to get together and just chill and listen to music after rehearsal.”
Jake: It’s funny to hear you talk about the possibility of putting things like that on the calendar. But that’s the thing — without that, what are we doing? There’s that John quote where he says, “The Beatles stopped being a band when we stopped listening to records together.” And I’m like, Man, that sucks, because it’s probably true. And I get it, you know? I fucking get it.
Dave: It’s definitely true. As adults with so many responsibilities, you gotta schedule your play time. Whether it’s with your partner or with your band or friends, it’s gotta go on the calendar at a certain point.
Jake: It is really striking how, the older I get, the more I hear people say, “You have to put intimacy on the calendar, you have to put play on the calendar. You have to protect yourself on the calendar, because nobody’s going to do it for you.” Nobody’s going to sit me down and say, “You have to listen to records now.” Nobody’s going to sit me down and say, “You have to have a meaningful conversation with your wife today because you feel distant.” I know for me, that’s the kind of stuff that I always take for granted, and then I do it and I’m like, I can’t live without that. And I have to take care of it myself.
Dave: Nobody’s going to help you do it. I mean, in a relationship, ideally your partner is going to help you do that. For other things that are just yours, that’s your responsibility.
Jake: The beautiful thing, though, is it does end up being a little bit contagious. In a relationship, but also even with band stuff, I find if I set an intention and begin purposefully doing a thing that I feel like I need to do, I start to notice other people beginning to do the same thing for themselves. And the more it happens, everything just gets lighter and lighter and lighter. And, you know, then a fucking hurricane hits or somebody gets hit by a car or some fucking terrible thing happens, and you gotta grieve and reset, and get back to where you need to be. But I guess that’s the game we’re in.
Dave: For real. Maintaining those relationships with the people that you play music with, it’s so, so similar to the romantic stuff.
Jake: Dude, it’s crazy.
Dave: I was talking with my partner last night about friendships and relationships, and I was thinking about my mid-20s in New York City. I feel like back then, my friendships were built around bands and playing music. That was how I got my social kicks, you know? I look back on those times, and I was struggling with a lot of anxiety and social stuff; I didn’t show up, sometimes, for just friend stuff. That’s something that I’m working on now, being like, “I’m also your friend!” I mean, I know that they know this, but I’m trying to make room for just pure play time, friend time, connecting time. I don’t know if you’ve ever gone through a period like that with your music, because you’re very focused, you’re very dedicated. I think we’re pretty similar in those ways.
Jake: It takes a lot of time with your head down.
Dave: Yeah, exactly. Or just being alone or just working. If it wasn’t me having anxiety and not going, it was me being like, “I gotta work,” and not going. Sometimes I look back on that and I’m like, Yeah, I could have put in more effort [socially]. [Laughs.] I’m getting really serious here. But I want my music relationships to be… I think I’m much more focused on them not just being music relationships, having some sort of connection outside of that. Because I think it’s just richer. Ian is your oldest collaborator, right?
Jake: Yeah, absolutely. To trace it over time is really… it’s wild to be this old. [Laughs.] I don’t feel that old. But it is insane to flip through the pages in my mind and go, There’s more pages in here than I thought. All those shows, all those gas stations, all those terrible things that happened that I don’t even remember because there were worse things that happened soon after… There’s just so much shit there, man.
Dave: It’s good to have someone like that still with you. That’s super, super valuable.
Jake: Yeah, it’s really loaded. Sometimes I tell Ian he’s my conscience. Maybe it just feels that way because it’s been so long. Like, it feels like I can hear his voice in my head. Also when he talks to me, I know when he’s telling the truth; I know when he’s telling me something that I don’t want to hear but I need to hear; I know when he’s telling me something that I need to know, and he needs me to know, but he doesn’t have all the information yet so it’s not completely sensical, but I can translate it and get what it really is.
Dave: You have your language.
Jake: Dude, the language, yes. It’s wild.
Dave: I was wondering if there’s anything outside of music that’s been getting you going creatively, or anything you’ve been putting your energy into that gives you the space that you need to just keep doing what you’re doing?
Jake: You mentioned something about being alone when you were talking about working on music. Sometimes you just have to be alone, to really chase an idea, to really dig into it and not make yourself feel self-conscious about it and scare it away. I feel like I didn’t have that for a really long time — probably since before I had a smartphone — and I have found a portal back to that through poetry.
Dave: Oh, cool.
Jake: I never really read poetry for a very long time. I thought I was too dumb for it. I thought I didn’t get it. But I am just finding incredible comfort and solitude and peace and stillness and understanding, giving myself room to understand things — to go in a quiet place by myself and to read a poem out loud to myself, slowly, one word at a time.
Dave: It sounds like meditation, kind of.
Jake: Exactly man. It kind of clears away the stuff. It primes my mind to focus on something.
Dave: Have you ever read Maggie Nelson? My partner got me way into her.
Jake: Yeah, I read Bluets. The format of that book really inspired me.
Dave: Yeah, it’s such a cool format. And such a beautiful little book. I’m not much of a poetry person, but that one was so beautiful, and is something that you can sit with. But it’s more of one piece, I guess…
Jake: It’s one piece, but at the same time, I remember when I had that book around, I gave myself permission to just open to a page, read the page, and then put it down and walk away. And when I’m on the page, I take my time. I take a deep breath before I even try to start internalizing new information, and then I go word-by-word, and then I fucking close the book and take a breath and just think. I find when I do that — when I sit down and read even a four line poem — if I prepare myself for it, and I do it slowly and intentionally, and then I put it away, it puts my mind in a particular mode where I’m able to focus on things and I’m able to put pieces together, and I’m able to recall things that I really ought to be recalling, but I couldn’t before, because I was too distracted. Now when I wake up in the morning, I have a cup of coffee, maybe I read one poem, and I go walk out in the street while the sun is coming up. And all the problems I was thinking of before I went to bed, I start getting answers. They just start coming, because I put my mind in a position where I can actually do what it’s made to do, and it’s not bombarded with so much dust and clutter and stupid bullshit.
Dave: Well, yeah, it’s a real problem when you’re waking up and just looking at your phone or your email. That’s the biggest killer.
Jake: It feels like waking up and shotgunning a beer. It fucks the whole day.
Dave: And that’s album cycles, baby!
Jake: Dude, yeah!
Dave: That’s where I’m at.
Jake: Give me the emotional roadmap of record release day. It’s never good. [Laughs.]
Dave: It doesn’t matter how sick the response is, you’re just like, I’m a fucking failure. You can do everything to prep yourself and be like, It’s just a day. But by the time it rolls around, you’re definitely just like, Oh, my god. But it always passes, and the next day happens and you’re like, I feel good about this. Ideally that’s where you’re at.
Jake: Well, how do you feel today?
Dave: I feel great today. I’m stoked to get out on tour. I feel like I’ve done well with it this time where I just have other stuff in my life that I’m stoked about. It feels like there’s a lot more in my life that I am focusing on that helps give myself some space from the musician identity.
Jake: Yeah. “I’m also just a person.” That really resonates.
Dave: I think it’s just the industry stuff, though, that gets you stressed. Because you want people to find it, and beyond that, you want to be able to make a living. I would love to be able to do that with my music. But there’s a lot tied to it.
Jake: It’s a really funny paradox of: to be happy, it has to be a multifaceted experience of having a personal life and having a musical life. But at the same time, when we are in music mode — in performer mode and artist mode — you are just world building, and when you’re world building, it’s so easy to forget that that’s not the whole world. I get lost in it all the fucking time, man. It’s like voodoo. Because you have to find all your people — you gotta find your record label, you gotta find your booking agent, you gotta find your fans, you gotta find your venue. It’s like fucking Civ III, you know?
Dave: [Laughs.]
Jake: But I always forget that I can turn the game off and go in the woods.
Dave: Right.
Jake: It’s like a drug or something.
Dave: Well, because it feels so good. It’s like that moment that you’re talking about with the band, of pure connection. When you really do let yourself fully dive into it, you do get those really addictive moments of pure connection with your collaborators. Also, seeing to fruition what’s in your mind is the best feeling.
Jake: That’s so empowering, dude.
Dave: That shit’s very addictive.
Jake: And it’s confusing, because that part of it’s not bad for us. I think that part of it’s good for us.
(Photo Credit: left, Sam Soard; right, Amanda Fotes)
