 Courtesy of the Artist
Maine's The Mallett Brothers Band is gearing up to release their sixth studio album, Vive L'Acadie! on June 15th. The ten-song set, inspired by their Maine homeland and grounded in roots rock with touches of the blues, southern rock, and folk, traverses vast emotional territory. From gritty rockers ("Good As It Gets"), to rollicking tunes that pack a punch (“Timberline (High Times)"), to the downright celebratory (“Vive L’Acadie”) the all original outing showcase the group's distinctive, ear-grabbing style. In advance of the album's release, Will Mallett kindly took the time to chat about the album, his family's history, Maine, and more.
Vive L’Acadie! is really a fantastic record front to back. Did you approach the process of making this album any differently from your previous releases? All of our records have been a little different, but this one is exciting because it is with our new line-up. This is the first album of original material Andrew Martelle (fiddle and mandolin) and Chuck Gagne (drums) have played on, and it felt really good to go into the studio and put stuff down together. 2017’s The Falling of the Pine was a concept album reinterpreting a collection of songs found in the 1927 book, “Minstrelsy of Maine.” How did the songs come together for Vive L’Acadie!? Luke and I put most of the songs together in some embryonic form and then we flesh the arrangements out as a band and watch them grow organically. For example, there’s a song on here that Luke brought to the table called “Onowa” which is about a train crash in the 1920's and named after a little, unsettled town in Maine. Originally, it was an old-fashioned folk song ballad, but when the band got its hands on it, we turned it into an upbeat, exciting song with a lot going on. It was fun to watch the song develop from something acoustic and slow to a song with a pretty big sound that captures the scenery of the story as a train chugs across the wilderness. It’s really interesting to me how songs can be brought to the table one way and then take a complete turn into something different. Were the ten tracks all written since The Falling of the Pine or were some songs ones that you guys had in your pocket? They’re all pretty recent except for “Headed Home,” which we recorded years ago and has been a staple in our live show. When we started out, we were more acoustic, but as our live show changed and developed into more of an electric rock and roll show, “Headed Home,” became this heavy blues number that we closed out sets with. It has this pretty extensive jam outro which goes into double- time before we bring it back down, so we thought we’d like to have the record capture the energy of the live show a little bit and close with that one. When you listen, it definitely leaves you feeling like you're at the end of a live show. A couple current favorites are “Losin’ Horses,” “Few More Dozen Roses” or “Getting Back.” Would you choose one and tell the story behind it? Basically, when we’re touring, we drive, stop at a truck stop, drive, stop at a diner, maybe smoke, and repeat. When I began writing this "Few More Dozen Roses," I was thinking about other characters whom we met along the way and trying to picture their various adventures and misfortunes. Vive L'Acadie! is not only the album's title, but also the album opener. What made that one so special to give it those honors? “Vive L’Acadie!” is a phrase we picked up in a Fort Kent, Maine bar talking to an old Frenchman. It means “long live Acadia” which was a French province that encompassed the Maritime provinces of Canada and much of Maine. Even today, there are still Acadians in Maine who are express pride in their heritage. “Vive L’Acadie!” was a mythical saying, but is also a sign of respect for Maine’s multicultural heritage and multiculturalism in general. Our other albums were influenced by the road, which is where we spend a lot of time and do a lot of writing, but we wanted this album to tie into Maine in some way. We felt “Vive L’Acadie” was a nice tip of the hat to our turf there while having this upbeat, celebratory vibe which was a good way to kick-off the record. You guys currently reside in Maine, did you grow up there as well? Luke and I lived in Nashville for 8 or 9 years when we were kids because our dad [David Mallett] was a songwriter. But, he wanted us to grow up in Maine, so he moved us back to the family homestead. My Dad’s mom’s family goes back seven generations and our ancestor Eli Town was supposedly the first permanent European settler of the county, which is a piece of fun family history. Our Dad’s dad moved to Milo [Maine] with his family from Nova Scotia which is where the Acadian part comes in. Now, our Mom grew up in Maine, but she’s English with some Portuguese which is a little mysterious….but we’ll figure that out for the next record (laughing). 
It’s refreshing that you are able to make that your home base in Maine as many artists find the need to move to Nashville, Austin, or LA.
I had those early influences in Nashville where all my friend’s dads were musicians and it was normal for someone to be able to make a living as a musician, so I took it for granted and when we moved to Maine, that didn’t exist much. There was always a sense growing up in Maine that if you wanted to be a professional musician, you’d have to move somewhere else. It’s not easy in rural Maine to make a living by music, but our crazy, far out thought was ‘What if we could change that and try to do it anyway?’ And right now, we’re doing it and it’s working. Fortune smiled on us in a good way and we hope to inspire and encourage other bands to make a go of it. Don’t listen to anyone who says you can’t, because you can. We’re proof. Albums really are a labor of love and so it’s even more special when just as much thought goes into the album’s artwork, which for Vive L’Acadie! is incredibly eye-catching and beautifully done. Nyla Smith-Lachman did the cover. She’s a friend who has done some really cool murals and installations around the Portland area. We had her do some posters for a run and with just a little direction of what we wanted, she crushed the designs. For the album cover, the only guidance we gave her was a brief overview of Acadian history as well as some fun facts. For example, there’s still an Acadia National Park, but it used to be a French colony and according to sources the French named it Acadia which was supposedly a place in ancient Greece that was mythologized during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The artwork associated with it cast it as another Eden or lost pastoral paradise showing shepherds, sheep, and women. So, those images of a lost paradise were ones I had floating around in my mind when I wrote the songs, and when I had a brief conversation with Nyla she brought in the motifs with the archers, bows, and ships to make this big, semi-mythical, dreamlike rendering of a lost world of some sort. We think she did an amazing job. She absolutely did. You guys are currently in the midst of a tour, are there any new places you want to hit this year? We were just talking about that. There are so many places we want to play and so many places we played and want to go back to, but the fact of the matter is there are only so many days in a year, so what can we do. We’d love to get back to Asbury Park and we just played Charleston, which is a place we have always wanted to get to, for the first time. We always look forward to Texas, Tennessee, and Arkansas and this fall we’re heading to Milwaukee. It’s been a couple years since we’ve been there, and we’re excited to eat a lot of cheese curds and drink a lot of beer (laughing) - it’ll be great. Hitting the road as hard as you do, when you do get downtime, what do you like to do? We’ve been talking about that, too. Maine is nine months of brutal weather, but the rest is great; we all really love it. After this run we have ten days off and I have a list of things I want to do that’s so long, I don’t know where I’m going to start. I’m going to camp by the lake and I look forward to the ice finally being out and trying to catch some salmon, and then, maybe I’ll try to get some seeds planted. I’m psyched about being back and enjoying the weather. It’ll be nice just to get into nature and relax. NYC-area folks, The Mallett Brothers Band plays Garcia's at the Capitol Theatre May 10th Doors 630pm/Show 8pm Tickets $10 Website/Facebook/Twitter/Purchase In addition to Will Mallett, Martelle, and Gagne, the sextet also includes Will’s brother Luke (guitar, vocals), Nick Leen (bass), and Wally Wenzel (dobro/electric guitar/vocals).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |