Seattle's the Quiet Ones have three brothers from Tennessee in the band. The Tottens: John, David, and Chris. Being brothers, they argue and curse at each other. But they also write and play some of the finest songs an ear can hear. Solos and melody rip and make love to an indie rock sound. They have a new album coming out called Better Walk Than Ride Like That. They recorded it themselves, mixed and mastered it themselves, and are releasing it on their own label In Advance Records.

Album release: June 18th at the Crocodile with Marty Marquis (Blitzen Trapper) and Kinski.

The Quiet Ones: "Girls and Uniforms"

Brother John Totten (vocals, bass, guitar) talked about recording the album:

How did Better Walk come together?
John: All sorts of ways. We started recording a long time ago back when we still lived in Tennessee and the recording continued across the country as we gradually made our way to Seattle. It’s co-produced by myself and Mason Neely. We started out with portable hard disk recorders. I had a Korg 16 track and Mason would dump the tracks into Digital Performer. Then I switched to 4 track cassette for a while. Then I got this thing called a computer and it was like that song from Aladdin, "A Whole New World". I started on Logic. Then I met Better Walk engineer and future Quiet One bass helper John Herman (who also mastered the album) and we started recording with this big board and Sony Vegas in his bedroom upstairs in my house. The next step was Pro Tools. We went over to Phil Peterson's (Kay Kay & His Weathered Underground) house and recorded some more. And seeing as how technology is cyclical, my brother David and I went back to 4 track cassette for the most recent song on the record "Valerie". Our mantra when recording is, "There is no shitty recording gear, only shitty performers.” We used all kinds of crappy mics and preamps. Sometimes, we would put one Radio Shack mic on the drums and we would keep that take.

One Radio Shack mic for the drums? Get off. Which song is that? What was the mic placement?
A new song actually, called "E.K.G.” Yeah, one Radio Shack mic. To me, it creates this Bonham-esque sound. The placement was just on the other side of the room.

The Quiet Ones: "E.K.G."

Where did you mix the album?
In my bedroom. Our friend Troy Brandt who also worked on all the BOAT records came over and was gracious enough to sit in my underground bedroom with me for months and mix. The rumor goes that the first U.S.E. record was recorded in that exact bedroom in West Queen Anne.

What was the hardest thing about doing the album yourself?
The biggest challenge was how much time it took. I retook vocals so many times. And bass. And guitar. Convincing people who are playing the instruments I don't to come sit with me in my bedroom for hours and let me engineer their drums or whatever. Also, when you record yourself, you know that it's free to keep working on a song. So sometimes, it can lead to working on a song for years. I think "Biggest Loves" went through about forty-three different versions. It's still not perfect though. And it shouldn't be.

Why did you decide to do it yourselves?
Money. I don't think we'll ever pay for studio time. We recorded one time at Bear Creek in Woodinville, not for the Quiet Ones but for a different project. That was the closest I've ever been to selling all my records to pay for a studio, but in the end I realized I can record an album for basically free. I'd rather do an album on a mini-cassette recorder than pay for a studio. If anything was ever good enough for Robert Pollard, it's more than good enough for us.

When you all set out to record the album, what type of album were you going for? Did you have anything specific in mind?
We never have a concept for our albums. We record on a song-by-song basis. After a couple years of doing that, ideally we realize we have a coherent album on our hands. It usually hits me in the shower. I'll be lathering up or something and a bell will go off and I'll say to myself, "Oh shit, those songs go together real good." And then there's the album. I guess I wanted this album to be really eclectic and it ended up being so.

What kind of 4 track do you use? And I love the word lather. Thank you.
I think it's a Yamaha. It belongs to Double D (brother Dave). He recorded all of Valerie on it and when I heard it I begged him to put it on the album. But there was a lot of tape hiss. So we decided to re-track it using the 4 track as much as possible. Even if it's just running the audio through the machine into Pro Tools I like it better. Must be the preamps or something. When I say we used 4 track, I mean it was a very mixed media thing. Eric from Blitzen Trapper told me that all of "Wild Mountain Nation" was recorded on the same exact machine and I kind of challenged myself to use it more but to do a whole album on it requires a magic touch that I'll never have.

(John breaks down the recording of a song after the jump. He also talks about fighting one of his brothers, and the South.)

Picture: Kaija Cornett