Ahead of their return to DC at the end of the month playing at The Hamilton, DC Music Reviews' favorite inquisitive interviewer, Karin McLaughlin, got to chat with guitar player Max Davies to see what the band has been up to this winter, learn about their start at a very unique venue, and see what's on the horizon as temperatures rise and we head into the fun of festival season. As always, DCMR pulled some pretty good tidbits during the conversation - read the edited version below and be sure to grab tickets for the show! See 'Performance Details' below or just skip to the good part.
DCMR: Okay. So, you know, doing research and people that read about Kitchen Dwellers that maybe aren't familiar and kind of looking up stuff about you guys – it labels you as being from Bozeman, but we know that you're mixed from Alaska, Colorado and beyond. I also read something that made me laugh, because I actually bartend two days a week at an American Legion and saw that you guys got your start in American Legion actually, to be specific Post 14. So I definitely want to hear a little bit about that, mainly because I wish to hell my post was cool enough to have a band like you guys come and play there and maybe I can figure out how to make that happen.
MAX: Well, we were definitely a kind of an odd group of characters that would play there. It was funny because there was this local guy who had to be like 90 years old, and he would come in and you never knew when he was going to show up and he would just walk in with his guitar and his guitar strap like not even a case I don't think and he would just be like, “Hey guys, I'm playing with you tonight,” and we were just like, “Great, sweet!” It was a really fun place to be able to cut our teeth and there was a lot of different groups of characters that you could find in there. I remember that I think anytime that we played there, the bar always just crushed sales. So yeah, that's always a good thing and there, it's right downtown, so that’s another plus.
DCMR: So out of curiosity, what was the 90 year old mystery musicians go-to song to play?
MAX: I honestly don’t know - every one that he chose was good. It was probably some sort of Merle Haggard song that I was just like, “Alright, I'm gonna learn how to play these chords with you,” and we did.
DCMR: Well you mentioned snow earlier but right now in DC, the Cherry Blossoms are in half bloom, and they don't know what to do, really, because I think Mother Nature might be drunk. We've got one day where it's 60 degrees and the next day, it's 30, but we're finally getting into the Spring and Summer tour season and you guys have one hell of a schedule coming up!
You've got some real cool stuff: Delfest, which we've all seen you at and you get to do a late night with Stringdusters. You also have Sweetwater 420, and 4848 in July. The weekend at the Cave, a new Festival at the Caverns, all kinds of stuff. So what are you doing to prepare? What are you most looking forward to? How do you stay sane when you're doing all of these things?
MAX: Well, we're definitely looking forward to the whole entire tour and everything coming up this summer, we've kind of had just a week or two at home, which is great because we just wrapped up some winter time festivals and you know it’s just the circus kind of never ends - it just keeps going and you try to really take your downtime when you can. Also, when you're on the road doing it, you gotta make sure it’s in a way that keeps you sane. Everyone in our band has just kind of invested in these hand espresso bean grinders and it's the little things like that - you got your neck pillow, you got your espresso grinder, and that should help get you through some long drives and long day.
We are really excited for the Caves Fest - I've seen some photos of that place and it just looks really cool. And 4848 - we've been wanting to play 4848 For a long time.
DCMR: You guys are basically jumping right from Winter right into Summer - I saw you guys played at Winter Wondergrass Steamboat, which is another good one - I love Steamboat - how was that?
MAX: Oh, it was it was so great. I mean, it just gets better every single year! They do such a good job at that festival and I think they do a really good job of booking too - there's always the mainstay acts like Greensky or the Dusters and Leftover Salmon. You have the same people every year which is great because it’s a sweet community vibe. I feel like they do a really good job of booking some kind of music outside of that box as well and that always makes it really fun.
It just couldn’t have been a better weekend. It was either sunny and beautiful out or it was snowing and for our set, it was like crystals falling out of the sky, it wasn't snowing very heavily and there was no there was no wind. It was like the snow was almost falling slower than normal it was so beautiful and with the lights, it looks super cool. The lights really make a difference if you play at daytime or nighttime when it's snowing out there because it's like a crystal globe - it's awesome! Plus, everyone is all bundled up which makes it more fun and then there’s the skiing on top of it, so it's just such a fun weekend.
DCMR: Speaking of WWG, I remember the year that I went, seeing Lindsay Lou, who is always a staple pretty much at that festival and you guys just got to do what looked like a real fun tour with her. I watched a video of I might have like melted if I was at the show where you guys had her on stage and covered Fruition’s
Santa Fe which is probably one of my all time favorite songs.
Being an all-male band, what's it like to introduce a female presence and energy and be able to play stuff like that, as opposed to what you guys would normally play?
MAX: It was so much fun! Yeah, we did the Fruition song and every single night we would do kind of different numbers with Lindsay Lou. Actually, before the tour, we came up with a whole list of possible covers and tried to keep it to relevant to where we were playing, so naturally in Portland, that was when we were wanting to do the Fruition song and it came together so quickly. Immediately we started playing we're like, “Oh yeah, this is this is gonna work! Lindsay’s just so amazing. She has this skill where she can work on lyrics during the day and then she'll have it by the night. It’s really impressive to see. That was one of the best things that I think we took away from that tour. On the last night, we did basically a whole entire set of all the collaborations that we had done throughout the tour with her and you know, a lot of them were slower numbers, not as raging as we have a tendency to do – you know, just kind of go out and hammer it really hard. So for the second set of that show, there were all these kind of slower numbers, which is not exactly what we are used to doing, maybe also not exactly what the audience is used to seeing either, so we weren't really sure how it was gonna go. But a few songs into it, you could tell that people were really like taking it in and being super appreciative. After the show, we just realized and learned, if you play with heart and feeling then the fans really always will still enjoy it.
DCMR: So do I see some romantic ballads in your future? Maybe?
MAX: You never know. Joe just had a baby, so he's probably writing songs about that stuff. He’s got some James Taylor up his sleeve.
DCMR: Okay, so let’s go off the map a little bit, we’ll take a slight left. So, I always just like to Google some things about bands before I do an interview and some that have come up about you guys when I google ‘Kitchen Dwellers’ and ‘members’, it describes you guys - and I know this is funny because you guys really don't fit in a bluegrass box necessarily, but you're often paired with bluegrass - the description when it comes up says “A twist on bluegrass, folk and rock through a kaleidoscope of homegrown stories, rich mythology, American West wanderlust and psychedelic cues.” How accurate do you think that is? I mean, I would be interested in seeing that band even if I knew nothing about you guys.
MAX: (laughs) It’s actually pretty accurate, because the nature of the members of the band and our backgrounds and how we met - it all kind of melds into that thing. Like I come from a very rock and roll psychedelic background, so that's the music that I grew up with. Torrin, grew up with some Punk being involved, but he also grew up knowing all the cowboy songs. I've learned cowboy music is different than country music from him too.
DCMR: So, if you guys were gonna do crossover albums, let's go genre by genre. Artists you would want to work with if you guys were doing a hip hop crossover album.
MAX: Oh, wow. Definitely the Wu Tang Clan.
DCMR: Oh my god. You said it best. Yes!
Okay an old school country album like we were just talking about
MAX: Okay, hmm I gotta think about it. I don't think he's alive anymore. Torrin like knew this guy growing up - Chris LeDoux.
DCMR: Okay, rock and roll.
MAX: Torrin would say King Gizzard.
DCMR: What about Reggae?
MAX: I mean, The Wailers is probably too on the nose, but I used to always listen to this band – Mihali.
DCMR: All right, now let's do a little bit of rapid fire. Tell me the member of the band that would be most likely to get left behind on tour or woke up late, forgot to get on the bus type.
MAX: Probably me (laughs)
DCMR: Most likely to be found taking shots with fans after the show.
MAX: Torrin
DCMR: Most likely to lose their boarding pass when you guys are getting on a flight.
MAX: Joe
DCMR: Strangest eating habits
MAX: Joe for sure.
DCMR: Favorite city to visit that no one is actually from - so no hometown shows.
MAX: Asheville, North Carolina.
DCMR: Okay, last one - cereal then milk or milk then cereal?
MAX: Oh, wow. Cereal then milk for sure.
