By the time The Avett Brothers rolled into Forecastle 2013, they’d already achieved the kind of slow-burn success that lets you play the main stage without needing an LED wall or a confetti cannon. Their record The Carpenter was still echoing through fans’ hearts, and they were already talking up its quick successor like it was the unexpected child of late-night edits and a Rick Rubin thumbs-up.
But don’t confuse their output speed with strategy.
“We’ve never gone into making a record and thought, ‘Let’s make this kind of record,’” Scott said, brushing aside any notion that The Carpenter’s mellow tendencies were premeditated. “We don’t walk in thinking, ‘Now we’re gonna make the rock record.’” Instead, they just follow the songs that feel most complete, chase the ones that resonate. Genres be damned.
And if The Carpenter was a little softer, a little older, the next one—already in the can and set for an October release—was, in their words, “possibly more intriguing than anything we’ve ever done before.” Seth put it simply: “If Harvest is a rock record, this is a rock record.”
They also talked about playing those songs live before they’ve settled, treating the stage like a sketch pad in front of thousands of people. “Every show’s gonna have some warts to it,” Scott said. “That’s the beauty. We take risks. We figure out where we can take a risk tonight.” Professionalism and looseness are apparently not mutually exclusive—especially when you’ve been watching Springsteen and the Foo Fighters work a festival crowd like spiritual tent revivals.
Still, despite being on a major label, the Avetts insist nothing’s changed about their approach. “We’re lucky,” said Seth. “Our freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior attempts were all out of the major label realm. So by the time we partnered up, it wasn’t about ‘let’s sell a bunch of records.’ It was: ‘Let’s keep doing what we do, just louder.’” They’ve dodged the horror stories—no label exec demanding a dance remix of “Murder in the City.” Just a bigger engine to get the songs where they want them to go.
And then there’s the matter of emotional transparency—those Avett songs that feel like torn pages from a private notebook.
“We kind of feel our strata is the obligation to be courageous,” Scott said. “You get to keep your name. Here’s mine. Here’s what’s going on.” That doesn’t mean it’s always comfortable. “There are times where you’re like, ‘What have I got myself into?’” he admitted. “But that’s our job as artists.”
That honesty extends to the fans, too. The Avetts have always maintained an open line of communication—through lyrics, through the occasional post, and yes, through the music itself, even if it means having to perform some painful memory night after night. “You’re reading a page out of your diary ten years after you wrote it,” Scott said. “But we’re the ones that have to sing it. And we go to all the shows.”
Watch the full interview above and then check out the video below.
