Initially a solo venture of Jake Ewald, Modern Baseball's co-lead, Slaughter Beach, Dog, an indie rock band from Philadelphia, formed after the popular group went on an indefinite hiatus in 2017. Since then, the band has been making Lo-fi folk with a dash of dark-toned indie rock and a hint of twang. Slaughter Beach, Dog is playing at Meadowlark Festival in Stone Ridge, New York tonight. I spoke with lead singer Ewald ahead of the show.
Many artists do it, but why did you take on a solo project while co-leading Modern Baseball?
Difficult question. I don't know if I could really say the reason, I did anything between the ages of 18 and 29 and that was definitely when that was but I guess it was probably because... Oh, I think it was because I was having a hard time writing songs.
So before Modern Baseball and slaughter beach dog, where did you get your foot into the music scene, and how did you learn so many instruments? One of my friends specifically wanted me to ask about the harmonica.
There were shows when I was in high school. I went to high school in a town called Brunswick, Maryland. That was mostly corn growing, and there was a school, and there was a town 40 minutes down the road called Mount Airy Maryland. And that was where some guy would host, like metal core shows for touring acts. That was where I kind of found out that bands do go on tour and play shows before becoming like Green Day or something. And then also closer to the actual town, Brunswick, where we all went to high school, there was a little community center and one or two times a year, all of us kids that were into music would just kind of bring together whatever bands we had at the time and put on a show with all those bands, and all the same people would come. And so that was the first experience of how a music scene might work. And then learning instruments, I don't know. I think I was just impatient, and I thought, well, I guess this is the truth. It has turned out to be the truth. I think I thought that the more instruments I learned, the more music would become a part of my life. And I wanted that to happen because I knew that I liked music, and for some reason, I decided that I was going to bring music in my life by just playing as many instruments as I could. Specifically instruments that I saw in the kind of bands that I liked. So, at first that was like a bass guitar and a drum set and an acoustic guitar. And then later on I was on a solo tour just playing acoustic a bunch of years ago and my manager at the time was with me. And in hindsight, what seems like a an exceptionally managerial move. He was like ‘every think about playing the harmonica?’ and I did after that, I was like, ‘yeah, why not?’ So, I think it was around the same time that I was getting into Neil Young and Bob Dylan and that kind of thing, and they played harmonicas. And, yeah, I think I was also starting to feel a little self-conscious about when I played by myself. I wasn't all that good at guitar, so I didn't feel I had very much room to, I don't know, accompany myself in a meaningful way. And I thought, here's a cheap instrument that I can blow air into and also suck air out of, and it will make sound.
Throughout your albums, EP, singles, all of it, there's stories and characters in your lyrics. One I picked up on was Annie. Who is she in? What's the inspiration for her, and what are other themes that you have running through your lyrics and music?
I don't know who Annie is. She's around, though. Yeah, I don't know. I guess Annie is that person who's always there when everybody gets together, and you don't quite know who she is, but she's there, and she probably brought something, I think she brought a bag of food. In terms of other characters and themes. I don’t know. I like to write from other people's perspectives as kind of an exercise, maybe like a subconscious exercise in empathy, because I don't feel that good at it a lot of the time, and I feel like I need to exercise it, and I also just find those kinds of people interesting. So, yeah, I guess like feeling misunderstood is kind of a theme. Feeling like confused. Confusion is probably the greatest theme, because I feel confused all the time, and feel very seen when I meet other people who are also confused. So, a lot of times I just write about other people who are confused.
I saw some reaction to your most recent album, “Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling,” which came out last year. A lot of people on Reddit. Of course, you can only take that with a grain of salt. So, they were surprised about how much they liked it, but they said it was the best execution in songwriting. Did this reaction come as a surprise to you?
I think it's so funny when they say what they're thinking, online. You know, I was surprised. I was surprised they liked it, and it was really cool that they liked it, because I went through a lot of personal change as we were making the record. And for the first time, I wasn't really concerned with what anybody thought about it, because I liked it a lot, and it was a really nice, quiet, simple feeling to put it out and to know that I liked it, and I was not really concerned with what anyone would think about it, and then to see in a place like Reddit that people did actually like it, and I do feel like it made the whole situation even cuter, that there was this kind of air of like, ‘Oh, I didn't expect to like this, but it turns out, I like this.’ It's also nice when people say things like that, because I don't know, of course, it stings a little bit for a second or when somebody says, you know, ‘hey, I used to hate your band, but then something happened, and now I really like it.’ I don't know. It's fun to be it's nice to be reminded that like these are all human beings listening to music made by other human beings whose like emotion changes, and your mood changes, and your feelings change. And you change over time as you get older, and I change over time as I get older. And it's not this, like black and white, selling records, not selling records, moving concert tickets, not moving concert tickets. You have this many Spotify listeners. You have this many Instagram followers. It's not like math, it's just people who are coming in and out of seasons and experiencing art in different ways as we all march toward death.
And you mentioned that you write from other people's perspectives. And you also just mentioned that it comes as times change, and people's lives are completely different than they were a year ago. But do you look to any other artists for inspiration?
I think I look to other artists for permission. I find it difficult to, if I haven't , and I don't know if I'll need to do this anymore, because I'm working on it, and it seems like it's going well, but a lot of times, if I have a thought about something I'd like to do musically or lyrically or anything, I will shut it down before I can even register it as a thought, because I tell myself, like ‘you can't do that,’ or ‘that's corny,’ or ‘that's stupid,’ or ‘that will make you look a certain way.’ And over the last few years, one way that I've combated that, and as a result, stumbled into inspiration more often, is by picking up the work of other artists that I really like sitting with what it is. I don't know, like if I listen to a Nina Simone song, I try not to think about the fact that it's Nina Simone singing it, and I try to think more about what it is that she is actually singing about who she's singing, to why she's singing, and I will kind of file those notes away in my mind, and sometimes I'll even make an actual note in real life that says, ‘hey, the next time you feel moved to write, you should try to write x.’ You know, you should think of a time whenever your heart was broken by somebody, and you should write about that feeling, or you should think of it a time when you felt so in love that it seemed like it was going to last for the rest of your life until that love was cut short by death. And you should sit down and write a song from that place. Like, that's the thing where I don't know. A couple weeks ago, I was listening to ‘God Only Knows’ by the Beach Boys, and I was like, ‘oh, my God, this was written by adults. It was recorded by adults,’ whatever. But the spirit of that song is like, I met you. We are young. We love each other so much. I don't need anything in the world except you, and if I can have you, I'm good until I die. And as an adult, I know that life is a lot more complicated than that. But at the same time, that song is amazing because it speaks to an amazing feeling. So, in that situation, I write a note to myself that says, ‘hey, you should try writing a song like that about a thing that is like, maybe not universally true, but speaks to the truth of a certain feeling in a certain moment,’ which is beautiful on its own.
And there's five people in the band. How do you ensure that all of your creative needs are met as you're going through the songwriting and recording process and tour?
I consider myself exceptionally lucky to work with Zach and Ian Farmer and Adam and Logan, because all of them care as much about songs as I do. And when we walk into the live room at the studio or get on stage, in the right headspace, it's almost as if the song becomes a separate entity. And the five of us are good at five different things, and we are each doing our thing as best we can to serve the song. And the song is something that is outside of all of us. It feels a lot less like I am making everybody do what I want so that I can be happy, and everybody else gets enough money to be okay with that. And it's more like, I don't know. Logan is an exceptional keyboard player because he plays keyboards in service of a song, a particular song that comes at a particular place in an album, or that appears at a particular time in a set. Zach is an exceptional drummer and singer, because he plays drums and sings in service of a particular song that might exist on a particular record and come up at a particular set. And honestly, everyone in the band taught me to do that myself. So, I think when we're all succeeding in what we're trying to do, it is actually more like a state where the five of us are in service of a song. Obviously, that doesn't happen all the time, but when that does happen and we all get on that page, it's magic.
And lastly, you're on tour now. How's that going?
I think it's good. We had a few shows to kick it off where we were kind of dusting ourselves off and getting all our gear straight, like making all the tech stuff work, figuring out transitions and sets and getting familiar with each other again, getting close to each other again, listening to music together again, and just being like a working organization again. We when we go play a show, there's like 10 people involved, and it takes a minute for that to kind of, for that machine to find its footing. And it is nice now to have to have some performances under our belt. And I do feel like we are kind of we're getting in the flow, and we're excited to we're happy to keep we're happy to keep it moving, keep doing it.
I've been speaking with Jake Ewald, the lead of indie rock band Slaughter Beach, Dog. They play at Meadowlark Festival in Stone Ridge, New York tonight.