New York-based Americana outfit The New Students recently released their latest long player, Little Blue Dot, a collection of whimsy, social commentary, contemporary folk music, Americana, and classic bluegrass.
Together for 15 years, the members of The New Students are all top level musicians whose craft with their individual instruments (or multiple instruments in the case of many of the members) is continuously honed.
With folk and Americana music, people often picture banjos missing a string or a bass fashioned out of a washtub, broom and washing line a’la Country Bear Jamboree, but even with rudimentary instruments, country, bluegrass and folk musicians are among the most highly skilled of any genre.
Tattoo.com spoke with The New Students to discuss their sound, the inspiration for Little Blue Dot, and their vocal harmonies.
How would you describe your music?
More and more I think we embrace the term ‘Americana,’ in part because of its broadness. I’d say we play ‘eclectic Americana.’ We cover the gambit from old timey, to mountain music, to folk, bluegrass, country, folk-rock, and more modern sounds. Our new album is a perfect example. It has some songs that sound like they’re out of the ‘90s from when we were kids, and some that could be throwbacks to the 1920s. That’s the way we like it – if we have two songs that sound too similar, we start to get worried that we’re repeating ourselves. But it’s all rooted in that broad Americana tradition – we’re traditional with a kick (drum). We’re New Students of an old school.
Can you share the inspiration behind your latest album, ‘Little Blue Dot,’ and the creative process involved in bringing it to life?
We ended up calling the album ‘Little Blue Dot,’ which is the title of the final track, in part to evoke the famous images of Earth taken from space – The Pale Blue Dot, Earthrise, and the Blue Marble. They’re alluded to in the cover art as well. We wanted to emphasize the sense of perspective that those images convey, that we’re all crowded together on this tiny dot in the middle of the void of space. We wanted the album to speak to the human struggles we all share, from the personal to the collective, as we try to get by day to day or generation to generation.
Of course, we also wanted to make some good music. We’ve been collecting these songs over the years since our last studio album came out in 2017. We had intended to go into the studio again in 2020, but the pandemic changed those plans. That year we ended up releasing what we call an ‘almost live’ album, titled ‘Quarantunes,’ with tracks that were drawn from a series of 100 daily videos we recorded remotely during the first few months of the pandemic.
For ‘Little Blue Dot,’ we’ve pulled together a mix of songs, some we’ve been playing for several years now, some that are much newer. And we really took our time with the process, going into the studio over the course of two years, and also recording some tracks in our studio. The band was in transition as well over this period, with our long-time drummer, Jason Rosoff, moving to Texas, and our new drummer, Paul Pearl, coming on board. They share the tracks on the album. We also added a sixth person to the band, with Beau Moore picking up guitar and mandolin. So this album was definitely a bridge from our past to our future as a band.
How, where, and when did The New Students first get together?
The New Students have been together under that name for 15 years, although our roots go much further back. Matt and I became friends in high school more than 25 years ago and have been playing together ever since, starting with Simon & Garfunkel covers and eventually moving to our own original stuff. Briana joined us in 2009, and we played our first show as The New Students that summer, in Brooklyn. We picked up Sam and Jason pretty soon after that and put out our first album in 2010.
Let’s talk gear for a moment. Give us a general overview of your gear.
As a folky band, we’re pretty light on what you’d consider ‘gear,’ although it takes a surprising amount of sound equipment to make it sound like we’re not using any sound equipment. We play in a lot of agricultural settings – farms and the like – where we need to be self-sufficient. We rely on a Mackie ProFX 22-channel board with DIs for everyone except the upright bass, which uses an Acoustic Image amp, going out through a pair of QSC speakers, and back to us through some monitors that are due for an upgrade. Other than that, two Martin guitars, a Martin Vega banjo, a Dearing banjo, an Eastman mandolin, and a Kolstein bass.
What one piece of gear do you use to obtain your signature sound?
Well, if I had to narrow down the most fundamental piece of our signature sound, it would be three- or four-part harmonies. The track ‘The Refugee’ on the new album is just four voices a capella singing original lyrics. If you took away all the other gear, even the instruments, we would still sound like The New Students.
How did you get started in music? What’s the back story there?
Everyone in the band has a different story, although I think a lot of it comes back to our parents. For Matt and Sam, their dad is a fiddler who played in bluegrass and country bands all through their childhoods and made sure they started their training early. Briana’s mom was a singer and vocal teacher. My parents had a little, black, three-ring notebook with type-written pages of folk song lyrics. I remember going through that book when I first picked up a guitar. And some of my formative memories are riding in my dad’s truck and listening to Willie Nelson or Kenny Rogers or Gordon Lightfoot on his tape player – that stuff is still the real musical comfort food for me.
What can you share about your writing process?
My own process varies depending on the song, but at the risk of using a cliché I think it’s about 20% inspiration and 80% learned discipline. For me, when a moment of inspiration hits, I have to make a decision whether I’m going to dedicate the time and effort to craft that raw material into a song. As a parent of two young kids, it has definitely become harder in recent years to be able to carve that time out, but when I can, I’m always glad I did. Recently that meant basically locking myself in the bathroom with my banjo after the kids are in bed and powering through. I would say the standard for me is either I finish the song in about an hour, or it sits unfinished for months or sometimes years. More often in those cases it never gets finished, which usually means it wasn’t that great to begin with.
Before the kids, Matt and I used to set up songwriting challenges for ourselves, like a song-a-day for a week, or maybe every few days for a month. That’s definitely a great way to get the creative juices flowing and get the critical voice to be quiet. Several of the songs that have ended up on our albums have come out of those exercises.
What is your definition of tone and has your tone changed over time?
I’m not sure I can offer a great definition of tone, but, as they say, I know it when I see it. The tone of my writing voice has definitely changed over time. I was recently listening to a track off our first album, which came out in 2010, and thinking I would not write that song today. I think my tone has become less strident, more nuanced, though the throughlines of melancholy and hope seem to have been a constant over the years.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far? Maybe touring or who you’ve played with, something that’s really stood out.
I think some of the people we’ve gotten to play with, or share a bill with, over the years have really been bright spots looking back over the last 15 years. Early on when we had just a few venues where we could get gigs, there were a handful of other bands just starting out that we would collaborate with. Being in our 20s in New York City and feeling the support and solidarity from other artists, it was a special time. We’ve also had the opportunity, both individually and as a band, to play with some real heroes of ours. Personally, getting to know and travel and share stages with Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary was a real joy, and a constant ‘pinch yourself’ experience when you think of all the iconic moments of folk music and American history that he was part of. He’s also incredibly kind and exudes hope for the future of humanity.
Which do you enjoy the most: writing, recording, practicing, or playing live?
I think whenever we’re accessing creative energy is when it’s the most enjoyable. That can be catching a wave of inspiration when I’m writing on my own, the moment when we find just the right groove on a new song in rehearsal, hearing the track start to take shape in the booth, or feeling the connection with an audience that came to hear just the kind of music we’re playing.
How do you define success?
A long time ago as a band we sat down and had a discussion about what success would mean for us. Basically, if we are able to stay excited about what we’re doing, play shows at venues that are meaningful to us in some way and enjoyable, for people who like what we’re doing, and have it be financially sustainable, then that’s success. Of course, we always hope for more people to hear the music, but the fact that we’ve been together for 15 years and still have a great time doing what we do – that says a lot.
What’s next for The New Students?
The winter always tends to be a slow season for us where gigs are concerned, since we’ve evolved into mostly playing outdoor venues – festivals, farms, street fairs, etc. Those happen in the warmer months. So we’re planning to head into the studio and record a couple singles, and we’ve got a couple others in the can already. So stay tuned!