For band that is gently understated and melodic, The Milk Carton Kids came onto the scene with a bang. The duo, made up of Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, won praise for their guitar-driven sound, and critics hailed them for reviving traditional folk harmonies with sophistication and grace. Their second studio release, “The Ash & Clay,” even got the pair a Grammy Nomination for “best folk album.”
For their third album, The Milk Carton Kids wanted to try something a little different. They hoped to recreate their live energy and sound in the studio, so they decided to record in empty venues all over the country. The final product is the rich, full-sounding “Monterey,” which the band will bring to Lisner Auditorium tonight. George Washington Today caught up with Joey Ryan—one half of the duo—ahead of the band’s tour this winter.
Q: There was a Rolling Stone article about your new album “Monterey,” and you discuss how your goal was to give the album the same sound from your live shows. Can you talk more about the vibe and energy you were chasing after?
A: It’s funny—it was more about the sound and energy that we were fleeing from rather than what we were chasing after. The studio experience of making an album had been inhibiting to us, we felt, and we never really captured the liberated, whimsical energy that infuses our lives show. So we made the record in theaters and venues that we were performing in each night during the daytime while we were on our last tour. We would get into each place early during the day to record onstage.
Q: Did you have any specific places you wanted to record in, or was were the venues dictated by your tour schedule?
A: No, we pretty much just recorded in the venues we were already playing. There were some venues that were not conducive to recording, so we didn’t record every night. At one point, the venue we had wasn’t great for recording, so we got permission to use the Lyric Fine Arts Theater, which is a beautiful old vaudeville concert house in Birmingham. It’s under renovation, so there’s scaffolding everywhere, and they let us in for about five hours during the day. We had a great session on that stage.
Q: After each recording session, did you feel like you were achieving your goal of creating a live sound?
A: It’s a good question because no, it definitely did not feel like it was working. I thought it was terrible, and I thought we were failing miserably. Every day we recorded, I said, “Oh well, that was no good,” and I never felt like we had anything. We’d committed ourselves to not listen back to the recordings, so we didn’t prove it to ourselves that it was good or bad. It was important not to be under the microscope of always listening back, so we were always just playing in the moment. Then, a couple months later, Kenneth went through all the hours and hours of recordings we’d made, and he said, “Hey there’s actually some stuff here.”
Q: Did you have the same reaction when you finally heard it?
A: Yeah. Well, it’s funny because first, he sent me the file with all the recordings on it, and I listened just very cursorily, and I was like, “This sucks.” But about two weeks after that, Kenneth called me back and said, “You have to listen to
‘Asheville Skies’ in Edmonton on this date.” And I was like, “Ohhh.” Somehow, we found half a record in there. We went back to do the other half of the record in Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville. But half of the record came in those previously unexamined recordings from across the tour.
Q: What do you think felt off about the recordings when you first did them?
A: It always feels off to me. The first time we ever played together, Kenneth was like, “That sounded so good, that was so awesome.” And I felt like we were in a different room from each other—we were pushing and pulling and off-pitch. But then we listened back to the recording and I found he was right. It sounded great. Sometimes I just have a problem with being able to assess the value of a performance when I’m participating in it.
Q: What’s the writing process like? Do you write most of your music while you’re on tour? A lot of “Monterey” is scenic, and the lyrics seem to reflect different places you encountered.
A: A lot of it happens when we’re traveling together, especially for this album. We travel a lot like most bands, and we don’t live in the same city anymore, so when we’re together, were usually traveling. But I think the prevalence of specific locations on this album has more to do with our literary sensibilities. You want to put everything in a time and a place, especially if you’re trying to capture emotions. So I really value places and times and specific details as a way to give context to things that are otherwise more ephemeral.
Q: You are most frequently compared to Simon & Garfunkel. What do you make of that? Does the comparison ever get tiring?
A: I don’t get tired of it—I‘m surprised everyone else isn’t tired of making it. It’s a very quick and appropriate shorthand. I use it myself, like if I’m getting on a plane and a flight attendant sees my guitar. If she asks, “What does your music sound like?” I’ll just say, “Simon and Garfunkel.” People especially of a certain age know exactly what that means and it gets them in the right universe.
Beyond that, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel are two of the greatest harmony singers of the century, so it’s not a bad comparison to be involved in. But I think it only applies on the surface—I don’t always see much in the intentionality that’s similar, just in the surface aesthetic.
Q: How are you guys feeling about your upcoming D.C. show?
A: We’ve been to D.C. before, but never to Lisner. Obama has been there, right? We played at Birchmere and, in the old days, we used to play at Jammin’ Java in Vienna. We also played at Wolf Trap, and then we did a collaborative show at the Lincoln Theater, which was awesome.
I’m looking forward to hopefully meeting the president—it’s always a big goal every time I’m in D.C., so if you know anybody, you can tell him we can play some songs for him and he can sing the third-part harmony [laughs]. Other than that… is it silly to be somewhat invigorated by being in Washington D.C., in the place where the world’s political power is concentrated? It’s still exciting to see the Capitol building and the White House for me, even though I’ve been there a few times now.