Houses, Hotel Rooms, And Odd Spaces

Written and Photographed by Nikki Neumann, @nkknmnn

Before their show at Harvard and Stone, Rock n roll band Fever Feel tells Reckless Corespondent Nikki Neumann stories from tour and talk about their set of releases called “Less Precious”.

Los Angeles, California, USA

How’s your current tour going? How was Tijuana and their music scene?

Logan: They were all very welcoming, happy excited about music.

Landon: Tijuana’s music scene is as good as their tacos and their tacos are fucking great.

Logan: Best meal of the tour

Have you guys had anything out of the ordinary happen on the tour so far?

Logan: We got held up at the border going into Mexico. They x-rayed the van. They had us drive onto this platform, we got out and then this big machine that makes a terrifying sound like meorrww meorrrw slowly moved over the van. They were giving us a hard time saying our vehicle registration was just insurance even though it was vehicle registration. They ended up being more concerned about the recording cameras we had. We took them out. They did another inspection and then let us go.

Gets your blood pumping a little bit.

I see you’ve got a couple of new members to your band, how did you find ‘em?

Logan: We met Josh (keys/guitar) when we first started Fever Feel. We played a lot of shows with his band Archaics and became good buds through that.

How’d you guys meet, your drummer, Eli?

Landon: We also met Eli through Archaics. About a year ago we got a tour offer opening for another artist in The States and Europe. We needed a reliable drummer who had toured and knew how that whole thing goes. Eli was the natural choice and we've been working together ever since.

So let’s talk about your latest set of releases, Less Precious. Can you go into more detail about the thought process and recording process behind it?

Landon: Less Precious is a collection of songs, oddities that didn’t really fit with the next record we’re putting out. We were going on a 2 month tour throughout North America. We decided to bring a minimalistic recording set up: a few mics, a small interface, an acoustic guitar, and whatever other gear we had in the van. We recorded while we were in hotel rooms, odd spaces, lent studios, and houses that we were staying in. When we got back home from tour we’d finish up the songs, adding things that we couldn’t do while we were on the road. Releasing two songs at a time, so that we could eventually compile them into a record. Just to keep releases flowing while we’re on the road.

Was the main goal to release it as a completed project or as their own individual sets to get the creative juices out?

Logan: Each part has a distinct vibe to it, all equally different from each other. We’ll eventually release them all together on a record called the Less Precious Collection.

Landon: The name “Less Precious” comes from the act of being less precious in the sense of not overthinking it when we were recording and having it be a snapshot of moments in time.

Did you write the songs on the road or beforehand?

Landon: Most of the songs were ones we didn’t see fitting on the next album. They had been loosely written beforehand and then fully came together while on the road.

So what’s the next record going to sound like?

Landon: The next record is going to be more towards the rock & roll vibe that we did with the first record, but a little bit more rawness and edge to it.

How did being on the road and constantly moving around while recording Less Precious affect the process?

Landon: The time restraints definitely played a part in it. We’d set up in a hotel room, record, and we’d only have 30 minutes or an hour until we had to be at the gig. One time we were in Bakersfield, CA and we had access to Buck Owens piano at the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame. They said we could use it if we wanted to, but we only had an hour to use it before people started coming in for our show that night. Definitely promoted quick decision making, there was no time to overthink it.

Let’s get into story mode, if you had to pick one wild tour story out of your collective time on the road over the years, what would it be?

Landon: One story that comes to mind happened when we were playing in San Francisco. We met this guy that let us stay at his mansion at the EST headquarters, which was a cult in the 70s. He also asked us to come play on his yacht, so we played a set underneath the Golden Gate Bridge on his yacht.

Yeah that’s a good one. Have you guys kept in contact with him?

A little bit, he’s splitting his time now between Thailand and Spain. A man of mystery.

Was there a turning point when you were younger that you realized you wanted to turn this more into a serious project?

Logan: Yeah, Landon and I had different projects when we were going to school. When Landon graduated, it felt like for the first time we saw eye to eye on the kind of music we wanted to make and we decided to join together, created the band, and from that point we were like alright, let’s do this.