The White Buffalo's Jake Smith Talks About Indie Band's Experimental New Album

Prior to heading to the studio to record last year’s Year of the Dark Horse, singer-songwriter Jake Smith, who tours and records as the White Buffalo, had only “bare bones” versions of the songs he wanted to record. While working on the tunes, he would send demos to producer Jay Joyce.

“What I sent Jay [Joyce] was the work tapes that captured first time the songs would come out of me,” Smith says via phone from his Sherman Oaks, CA home. White Buffalo performs on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights. “They were basically jibberish. I thought it was a good idea, but I wanted to keep that purity after providing the song structure. They were completely unrealized, but during the process of refining them, [Joyce] would even go back and reference those things. It was interesting.”

Since the songs tell a linear story that starts in a new year and extends into the seasons and back again, Smith wound up recording the songs in the order in which they appear on the album.

“In this scenario, it was perfect way to do the album,” he says. “It was crucial to the storytelling. Everyday, I would know where we were each day. It helped the process. I have never done that. I have another conceptual album that follows a timeline of a life, which is Shadows, Greys & Evil Ways, but that wasn’t in order. It was more piecemeal, and I would stuff things into it to make the story move along. This one was just moving as we were recording.”

The album strikes a consistent tone until the Tom Waits-like "Love Will Never Come." With its blast of guitars and distorted vocals, “Love Will Never Come” really comes out of nowhere and jars the listener. Smith says that was intentional.

“Jay would just throw you straight in the fire,” he says when asked about the track. “That song was completely different, but we recorded the instrumental part and a vocal thing that had about 100 to 200 words. It was really syncopated and kind of repetitive. [Joyce] said, 'I’m getting bored with that. Do something else.’ That put me on the spot, and it turned into that barking and chanting or whatever the hell it is. It’s almost a way to rub the listener in a weird way to get to the spring part where it opens to this prettier, more angelic part where spring is coming. I wanted to show how uncomfortable the character is. We were going for that. I think we achieved it, and hopefully, it’s not too awkward that people turn it off.”

The band cut the album in East Nashville at Neon Cross Studio, a converted church, and that adds to the overall ambience.

“It’s amazing,” says Smith when asked about the space. “We recorded that whole album in 11 days. We used about every square inch of that place. Other than an isolated drum room, most of it is a big open space, which is the heart of the church. There’s not much separation between instruments and people. Some of it was done live. It’s pretty magical space for sure. It’s unique in that it’s a big open space with a console in the middle of the room and all of us were in the same room making eye contact.”

As always, Smith’s baritone voice carries some significant heft. Critics have often compared the singer to the late Leonard Cohen, and this album finds him stretching his capabilities even further on ballad-y tunes like “Kingdom for a Fool.”

“A lot of it had to with Jay Joyce pushing me and putting me in oddly uncomfortable situations,” says Smith when asked about his vocal performance on the album. “I always thought the bigger, the better. He would constrict my body, and I would sit on this low-profile couch and put a microphone between my legs to take my body out of it. He was meticulous about trimming the fat in terms of lyrical stuff. It was interesting. Some of these vocal approaches never even occurred to me. I was always focused on good posture.”

The band pushed itself too on tracks such as “Heart Attack,” which features some off-kilter tempo changes.

“[My bandmates are] both really amazing musicians,” says Smith. “Jay had a lot to do with the instrumentation. Christopher Hoffee , who is primarily a bass player but has expanded to keyboards, is playing a live electric guitar and bass thing, which sends a split signal between his bass and his guitar. One piece goes to a bass rig and another goes to an electric guitar. He could get a huge sound that was really locked in. He played stuff that was completely foreign to him. Matt 'the Machine' [Lynott] was pushed just the way that Jay would record somethings. He’d have to play different parts louder or quieter. He’d have to hit the hard tom a little louder and the high top a little quieter. All of us were pushed to our breaking points.”

The gentle “Life Goes On” works perfectly as a closing tune that brings the album’s theme into focus.

“I just thought it was such a nice summation of the theme and taking that concept to Mother Nature and to love and to actual life and death,” Smith says. “It was perfect for that situation. Because I was so unprepared vocally and lyrically, [Joyce] was wanting a moment where I would sit down and know what I was doing. He wasn’t getting it and surprised me on that one. I thought I was recording a guitar scratch track that could be the springboard or building block of it. He recorded my vocal and the guitar part at the same time. He said, ‘We’re good.’ I said, ‘Lemme try again.’ I thought I blew the lyrics. He thought it was great.”

The trek that brings the band to the Grog Shop represents the group’s third leg in support of the release, so the group will simply pick and choose a few tunes from Year of the Dark Horse and mix in tunes from the band’s catalog.

“It’s such a large catalog," says Smith, who adds the group will open for Bruce Springsteen when the Boss plays Rome in May. "We play four to six of the new songs. Sonically and genre-wise, we tried to stretch ourselves with this new album. I wanted to get out of the acoustic thing, although it’s still there. There are still songs there with the purpose of emotionally moving people if people can get over the largeness and fullness of the album.”

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