Fans of The Avett Brothers might not have expected to find the band in such high spirits based on the title of their ninth album, “True Sadness.” While the record itself isn’t short on somber moments, it represented a broader step in the North Carolina folk-rock band’s sound, one that Seth Avett says has him excited for what comes next.
Siblings and lead vocalists Seth and Scott Avett formed The Avett Brothers in the early 2000s, later bringing in bassist Bob Crawford and cellist Joe Kwon as core members. In more recent years, they added regular touring members, including drummer Mike Marsh, violin player Tania Elizabeth, and pianist and bassist Paul Defiglia, who left in August of this year.
With its release on June 24, 2016, “True Sadness” scored two 2017 Grammy Award nominations and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 despite being the band’s most experimental record to date. The Jackson Free Press recently caught up with Seth over the phone to look past the numbers and discuss what “True Sadness” really meant for The Avett Brothers.
After a year since the release of “True Sadness,” how do you feel that record has affected the band?
Well, let’s see. I think, overall, the journey kind of continues. That record, just like each one before it, sort of stair-stepping down, it felt like a development, a step forward, which feels good, you know? You’re right. Over a year, that feels like a reasonable time to take inventory on what it actually means, and some of the experimentation on it has definitely opened some doors since then on the considerations.
I don’t know that it’s opened the door for us to make a record that sounds like Nine Inch Nails, though that would be awesome, or some other super-hard left turn, but it definitely has sort of broadened the horizon aesthetically as far as what might be possible and what might be the thing to find the greatest path for a song. That’s definitely a part of how I look at (“True Sadness”). It’s really cool. I think that, a year out, it still feels newer to me than the other records have to me after being out for a year.
… The feeling of a sound being like a fresh kind of sound, I think that tends to linger a bit with the artistic high. I don’t know. There might be something kind of self-congratulatory, as well, unfortunately, but the good feeling of it—”Man, I was able to break out of myself a little bit or discover something”—that tends to linger a bit.