BLACKBERRY SMOKE
INTERVIEW
The new album from Blackberry Smoke is a subtle refinement of their rootsy Southern rock sound. Guitarplaying frontman and compulsive gearhead Charlie Starr explains how it all began with downsizing their amps
It was all set up to be a great year for Blackberry Smoke, with the release of a ne new album, Be Right Here. But just a few days after guitarist and vocalist harlie Starr spoke to T about the making of the album, it was announced that the band’s drummer and co-founder Brit Turner had died on arch at the age of 57.
In this interview, harlie explained how they had set out to make an intimate-sounding record. roducer ave obb came into the project having just worked on the Slash featuring yles Kennedy and the onspirators album 4 –live-recorded with loud arshall stacks. But with Blackberry Smoke, obb encouraged the band to use tiny amps so they could get in tight amongst one another in the room. ow, there is poignancy in how harlie described the sessions uring recording was sitting right across from Brit’s drums
Be Right Hereis an album which delicately blends the drawl of Southern rock with soulful blues and classic rock. It now stands as a fitting epitaph for Brit Turner.
How would you describe Be Right Here in a few short sentences?
It feels really warm and natural to me. It feels like Iam literally in the room when I hear it. I’m sitting in that spot across the across from the drums where I was during recording. Organic is a word that’s used so much, but it really is a very organic sounding record. It doesn’t sound rushed at all –we were very relaxed making it and it makes me very happy to listen to it.
Has your approach changed at all when it comes to writing anew Blackberry Smoke album?
I never want to repeat myself or write anything derivative and I think that Dave [Cobb] was thinking the same thing –we’re not going to go in and do exactly the same thing as last time. An important thing he said before recording was, ‘Don’t bring any big amps –let’s use Fender Champs and Princetons’. I bought a little Gibson GA-5T with tremolo and I don’t think we used anything bigger than an 8” speaker so that we would all be in the room with the gear. He’d just done the last Slash record with walls of Marshall stacks, which he said got ungodly loud, so this was a little di erent. We used Gobos [acoustic isolation panels] and didn’t worry too much about bleed.
Did this make the recording process alot more comfortable, being able to vibe off one another?
It actually achieved the exact opposite of what I thought would happen. I thought that everybody was going to be apprehensive and think, ‘Well, I better not f*ck up, because if I do, I’m ruining the take.’ But instead it all just
