ND Festival Spotlight: Interview with Cave Singers’ Derek Fudesco

Cave Singers have been one of Seattle’s finest exports to the national music scene the past few years. Drawing strongly from folk and rural imagery, the band’s indie rock cred has developed a sound that could be called entry-level Americana for the hipster set.

Guitarist Derek Fudesco preceded his time with Cave Singers by playing in Murder City Devils and Pretty Girls Make Graves. Both of those bands played tunes that were hardly what you’d call roots music, so I was curious how Fudesco feels when he finds himself at a festival like Pickathon (where Cave Singers played a number of remarkable sets this year). We started our recent interview there, and you can read a full transcript below.

First, though, I should note Cave Singers will be taking the No Depression stage at the ND Fest this Saturday at 5:50 p.m., warming it up for Lucinda Williams. You can find a full schedule and lineup here. In the meantime, here’s my interview with Cave Singers’ Derek Fudesco:

KR: Are you a fan of roots music? I know you came out of a more rock and roll background.
DF: I am, actually. I’m new to it, in a way, but I like it a lot.

KR: Has that come as you’ve played more festivals like the Pickathon?
DF: Yeah it’s definitely a different environment than I’m used to playing. Cave Singers have been playing for a while now and have been fortunate enough to be invited to play all these roots music festivals. That was our second time at the Pickathon. We played the Green Man festival in the UK – an amazing festival in the Black Hills, sort of the same thing.

KR: I’ve seen you guys described as folk-rock, hill-pop, alternative, low-fi indie…does any of that mean anything at all to you?
DF: [laughs] Not one thing at all.

KR: There’s a tendency as an artist….you don’t think about that when you’re writing, you just kind of write.
DF: Yeah we don’t have any intention at all. I guess we’re a hard band to categorize.

KR: I saw you’re heading to China next month…
DF: Yeah we leave on September 13.

KR: That’s pretty incredible. How did that come about?
DF: We got contacted by a guy in Beijing and he’s a photographer. He and his partner bring bands over – his partner saw us at SXSW. They asked us if we were interested in touring out there, so of course we said yes. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but all of a sudden we had plane tickets and an itinterary. We’re very excited. It’s not a place I thought I’d ever visit, much less tour.

KR: I wonder if there’s a big audience for American whatever-folk-rock-low-fi-indie music in China.
DF: [laughs] Yeah, I have nothing to compare it to. I’m not sure what it’s going to be like. We’ll be taking trains between cities, which I’m really excited about because that way we’ll really actually be able to see the country and experience it more than if we were flying from city to city, or in a bus.

KR: In your live shows, how much do you like to open up the songs? Or do you try to stick to the original arrangement?
DF: The arrangements are always the original, but we definitely play them…they’re a lot more alive. I feel like most of the songs are more raucous live than in the recordings. The recordings tend to be mellower. On the last record, we recorded the first few songs totally acoustic. But when we play live, we play plugged in and it’s a lot harder.

KR: I ask just because recorded music generally comes off differently than live music because it can be a personal experience when you’re by yourself with headphones on. Your live show is a way different vibe from the record. Do you go into the studio intending, “This record is going to have a mellow, acoustic vibe and then we’ll just not be mellow in the live show”?
DF: No, I think for us a lot of the songs, like “Summer Life” the first song on our last record…that’s a song we wrote and then immmediately went into the studio and recorded it. We didn’t really test it out and play it live much. Then, after we recorded it…touring on it, it’s way better, more amped up. We’re making a record right now and wanted to approach it that way. In the past, our records have been mellower and we want to capture more of the way we play live. We’ve been trying to play the new songs out. We took a few of them on the last tour, and played most of them all three days at Pickathon. We’re just trying to play them live before we record them.

KR: Do you think it’s also partially that the energy of a crowd is just not there in a studio? Everything just winds up more mellow…
DF: Yeah maybe that too. Or it could be the marijuana [laughs].

KR: You’re going to be playing new stuff at the ND Festival?
DF: Yeah, probably mostly new stuff. We’re excited to play. We’re really looking forward to it.

Check out the Cave Singers’ music – and check out their China tour dates – on their MySpace page.