Twenty years after the release of 'Source Tags & Codes,' TrailOfDead and producer look back ... while always looking forward.
I am unable to think anything else.
"We didn't care about fucking seeing like, Nine Inch Nails," Reece said."It was all about which of our friends was playing Emo's." A notorious sonic perfectionist, the elder McCarthy was the closest thing Trail had to a manager. At first, the band had rebuked his offer to"develop them," choosing instead to rush-record their self-titled 1998 debut. When that album released to little fanfare, sounding like shit, Trail sheepishly returned to the producer seeking his analog wizardry and industry smarts.
Instead, all pressure fell on McCarthy. Recording the album in Austin, as the band desired, would mean according to a looming deadline. The only ideal recording plant, Brooklyn Bridge, was poised for imminent shutdown – having existed purely to generate revenue for its owner to open his dream studio in New York. Though some sessions were completed in time, McCarthy was searching for a new location from the get-go.
The producer declared an ultimatum at a band meeting on Thursday night: Everybody would wake up, eat breakfast at the same time, and hit the studios with purpose. What happened Friday morning has become"Everything's ready, we're set up to record. Mike's like, 'Where's Conrad?'" Allen remembered."'Oh, I think he's still at his cabin,' we say."
"Sometimes it just felt like torture," said Reece."If you're not having fun on tour, being away for even a weekend was missing out." "Recording had been very stressful and emotionally draining," said Keely."The burnout ended up informing the last song I wrote for the album, which ultimately became the big single, 'Relative Ways.'"