DIY Approach Continues To Work Well for Cleveland's You're Among Friends

While the local rock band You’re Among Friends recorded its first three releases in more formal studio situations with a producer or engineer, since then, it has recorded in its own basements using a digital 24-track recorder.

“This new album, As Normalcy Slips Away, is our fifth release that we’ve recorded that way, and we really love it,” says singer-guitarist Anthony Doran in an email interview. You’re Among Friends performs with Vanishing Shores and Coals and Ashes at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 16, at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights. “Not paying for studio time has allowed us to work at a relaxed pace. We can get comfortable, drink a few beers, catch up with each other and basically just enjoy hanging out together while we work through the songs.”

On the band’s past two releases, 2020’s Start Making Sense and 2022’s Good Enough Sometimes), the routine was almost always the same. Members would get together at bassist Kevin Trask’s house on a Sunday morning, develop arrangements for a couple of new songs, rehearse those arrangements, take a lunch break, and then come back to record basic tracks for those two songs. These basic tracks were drums and a scratch guitar track. Then, Trask would overdub his bass track while they were still hanging out there. Once all the basic tracks were recorded, Doran would take the recorder home so that he could overdub all his guitar and vocal tracks.

“This time around, we changed our routine just slightly,” Doran says. “We ended up working on three songs at each session instead of two. This was made possible by letting Kevin overdub his bass parts on his own during the week between sessions instead of at the end of each session. This seemed to pay off. Not only were we able to track all of the drums in just three sessions, but Kevin’s bass tracks are also some of the best I’ve ever heard him put down. Maybe it helped Kevin to not have us hanging around and breathing down his neck. I know I personally prefer taking my time to work on overdubbing guitars and vocals on my own. I’m glad that Kevin had a chance to try that this time around too.”

The opening tune, “All This Bending Over Backwards,” starts the album off with a bang. It features a Motown-inspired drum fill and a catchy, undulating guitar riff.

“It was written about working conditions during the pandemic,” says Doran when asked about the track. “I’m sure nobody needs a summary of what went down during all of that, but here are some of the things I was thinking about as I wrote those lyrics: So many employers were taking advantage of their employees. The government was even in on it, deeming certain workers as ‘essential’ so that it would be easier to justify putting them in dangerous situations.”

The funky instrumental jam that comes mid-song is something that Doran wrote in 1993 when he was 10 years old. Over the years, he tried to include it in various songs, but it never really worked out.

“Even this time around, I almost chickened out on using it yet again,” he explains. “The night before the recording session for this song, I sat at my dining room table writing out chord changes for Kevin like I usually do. When the time came for that jam part, I figured it would be too complicated to write out and/or explain, so I just decided to skip it.”

But at the session the next morning, Trask noticed it was missing and asked Doran to put it back in.

“Within about 15 minutes, we were playing the full song, including that funky jam section in all of its glory,” says Doran. “Kevin and [drummer] Mike [Janowitz] came up with their parts very quickly. I learned that I should never second-guess my bandmates. Kevin and Mike have been able to pull off just about everything I’ve thrown at them, and their contributions pretty much always sound better than what I hear in my head as I’m writing or demoing the song.”

The funky “Can’t be So Serious” emerged from a slow piano ballad that Trask began working on in 2016.

“The song is about trying your best to manage anxiety or stress so that you don’t miss out on all of the good stuff that might happen in life,” says Doran. “I’m probably talking to myself more than anyone else here. As somebody who gets anxious and stressed out about things pretty easily, sometimes I have to remind myself how lucky I am and how sweet my life actually is.”

Because of the songs’ jammy sounds, the Grateful Dead’s influence is apparent on the tunes.

“We have been told that a lot of our music has a laid-back and relaxed sound,” says Doran. “[The website] Powerpopaholic usually tags our music as ‘casual rock.’ Something about all of that seems to go along with how I’ve always felt about the Grateful Dead. I am not a huge Dead Head when it comes to collecting live tapes and all of that. I am usually much more interested in their studio records. I know that probably puts me in the minority of Grateful Dead fans. I guess you could say we strive for something similar to the Grateful Dead’s loose jammy feel on quite a few of our songs, but we still try to fit all of that within our usual bluesy power pop frame.”

Other standout tracks include the jazzy the garage rock-inspired “Forced To Act It Out,” a song about being present, and the jazzy “Move on with What You’ve Got.”

“Mike’s shuffle beat and Kevin’s walking bass line on ‘Move on with What You’ve Got’ make that song stand out for me,” says Doran. “When it was time to overdub my guitar parts, I decided to drop out during the verses so that their cool parts could shine and sorta drive the song for a while. In a way, that helped to emphasize my vocals a little bit more as well.”

The album title, As Normalcy Slips Away, is a line from the opening track, “All This Bending Over Backwards. It ended up being describining some of the changes that have happened in band members lives since the last record. Doran recently switched jobs after 19 years (the track “Their Own Circus” is all about that situation).

“As somebody who dreads change of any sort, that was quite a step for me to take at this point in my life,” Doran says of his job change. “Kevin and Mike have both gone through divorces within the past few years, which can definitely turn your life upside down for a while — even under the best of circumstances. Much of our new material seemed to fit into a loose underlying theme of seeking happiness in the new normal that emerges after facing changes in life. That is really why we ultimately went with that album title.”

Doran promises the upcoming Grog Shop show will be “a fun evening of music.”

“We plan to play most of the songs from this new album, plus a few older YAF favorites from our past releases,” he says.