Jason Reece Is a People Pleaser: Returning to a Previously Blazed Trail of Dead

And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead is punk in ethos and, at times, stylistically. Yet in many respects AYWKUBTTOD are very much a prog band; always exploring and growing, changing from record to record, and building on the foundation of what was left behind. The awkwardly acronym’ed Austin band has never been one to settle into a groove and do things a specific way, which is why their recent announcement to revisit their 2002 classic Source Tags & Codes came as a bit of a surprise. With that in mind, we asked Jason Reece, founding member of the band, about the upcoming dates, balancing needs as a creative versus the need to please, and how mushrooms are good for writing records.

Noisey: TOD has always struck me as sort of an evolving band, almost a survivor band in some sense… forging ahead with changing lineups, label changes, directional shifts, etc. So it struck me as interesting that you would actually consider revisiting Source Tags And Codes at all. What was thought process behind that? It seems almost out of character for you guys.
Jason Reece: We tend to do a lot of stuff that just pleases us as a band, changing things from record to record and as a result people don't get the same thing from LP to LP. A good number of fans jumped on board with the band during the Source Tags And Codes and Worlds Apart era, and regard the former as sort of a high point for the band. I know its sort of the thing to do right now but as a fan I have seen some of these tours and loved it. Like Public Enemy played all of It Takes A Nation of Millions and it was awesome… I loved it.

The point is we wanted to give the fans what they want. We did a short run of this tour, like three dates, in Australia and it went well and people were really happy. Can't wait to do this stateside, it'll be one of two sets every night.

In my opinion, a musician should be catering to their own personal needs… following their muse, exploring territory that they are interested in, growing and expanding. But there is definitely a fine line between doing that and making sure to appease your fans.
Absolutely. I think it's things like hearing fans say, "I heard this album when I was going through this tough time, and it really helped me a lot" really helps put things in perspective. Sure my music is important to myself and Conrad, but it's also interesting to hear from the fans about memories they have associated with the record and what it means to them. It's definitely nice to hear that it has affected people in any way. This album represented that to a bunch of people so…

I've seen you several times over the years and the lineup has evolved from two-piece to as many as six or seven on stage, encompassing two drummers, three guitars, keys and more. While the lineup has evolved much over the years, it seems to have settled in the past three years or so as a four piece. Can we expect different iterations on the road for this tour?
Hmmm, I don't know we'll see what transpires. There may be some old members jumping up for a song or two… you never know. It happens. The good thing is all of the people that have come and gone from this band.. we're still in contact. We're friends, and there's not really a lot of bad blood… it just was people went off to do other things. Conrad and I, this has always been our outlet and we haven't really strayed from the course. I know this may be crazy for us to be doing this into our 50s, but it may happen. I don't see us stopping any time soon.

Are there bands that you admire have done that? Hunkered down and stayed the course over the years.
Flaming Lips. Neil Young. Wire. Swans. There's a whole bunch of talented people that have pressed on. Maybe they aren't the hottest thing at the moment, or maybe every single record hasn't been the greatest, but there is something amazing there. I feel like we're following in that tradition.

Sonic Youth possibly?
Yeah. They've had a huge career with many, many albums that were vast and expansive. Maybe everyone wasn't the greatest, but they always kept it fresh.

So getting back to the lineup, one thing I've always found interesting is watching both you and Conrad move around the stage from instrument to instrument based on the song's arrangement. That said, what do you identify as your primary instrument?
I feel like the drummer a lot. Something about the drums… they were a part of my upbringing. That said, I've never been more comfortable with guitar than I am right now. It's funny how people still sort of care about that stuff… it seems like not that rare of an occurrence to jump around on instruments.

I think from the perspective of a musician, someone who spends years and years studying their craft to get to the point of actually being able to have a career out of it, it is fascinating to think of someone who can ably jump around and do all of these different parts and well.
Fair point. I do think that there are several great examples of people who can maneuver from instrument to instrument… Dave Grohl, Josh from Queens of the Stone Age or Prince.

So being a multi-instrumentalist… do you think that having a deeper understanding of the drums makes you better able to write guitar parts and vice versa?
Definitely. I think about the big picture of the song and how it all would sound together. I guess I think about what sort of drumming would sound good with whatever riff I'm working on, so its almost like I am writing two parts at once. Then we build from there, entering the details later. It definitely is a factor.

So Conrad is in Cambodia and you're in Austin. How is the creative dynamic between the two of you? How has that worked exactly?
We'll spend hours, like two weeks at a time, in Austin writing stuff that we like. No matter how long we're apart, we've known each other so long that there is this certain type of thing that we can pick up right where we left. We did a writing session recently in this cabin in the middle of the woods where we brought our gear and blasted it, took a bunch of mushrooms and just tried to freak out and have fun while recording everything.

So the retreat was you and Conrad? Or all four of you?
All four of us. I feel like we've all been very comfortable musically with each other, and all have a goal to create something like a Trail of Dead record, a definition that changes constantly. Everyone has a common goal to create a record that is exciting to listen to, for us.

As a working band who is putting out records and has been active for around 20 years, how do you keep it interesting and pure versus what an active band can be which is a job, monotonous, etc. Is part of that distance and everyone bringing a fresh perspective?
I think space helps after the grind that is recording/touring and spending a bunch of time together. I think it's also important to break things up a bit to keep things interesting, legs of tours that are manageable and hit places that are important to you as a band personally and professionally.

As far as your upcoming LP… care to shed any light on that?
We came up with this concept for the record, but when we met we sort of scrapped that idea and opted to just jam together. In light of that, we discussed that we were all listening to a lot of Krautrock and bands like The War on Drugs, Godspeed and Mike Oldfield quite a bit and decided that we would try to shy away from the more punk direction of the last LP. So the material is vast and expansive sort of like Swans or something, but with less atmospherics and more, you know, songs.