Briscoe on West of It All, Working with Brad Cook, and more

Last updated on August 23rd, 2024 at 06:59 am

It’s been a big few years for Briscoe. Between the release of their well-received debut full-length, West of it all, several major festival appearances, and huge support slots for the likes of Noah Kahan, Dave Matthews Band, and Zach Bryan, the Texas folk-rock band has been as busy and buzzy as any.

One listen to West of It All explains why. An instantly likable 10-song collection of (mostly) easygoing folk-rock, West of It All marks a step forward for the band, who sound wise beyond their years. The writing is sharp, the hooks are memorable, and the pace and tone make for an ideal summer listen.

Produced and engineered by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Indigo Girls, Waxahatchee), West of It All builds on the songwriting strength of their 2020 self-titled EP with a more focused and defined folk-rock sound. That sound, both timeless and accessible, pairs supremely with the band’s evocative songwriting.

Briscoe returns to the Twin Cities Tuesday at the Turf Club fresh off a Lollapalooza appearance for their biggest local headlining show to date. The show will be an excellent showcase of the voices and songs that make the album special. If it’s anything like their previous appearances in town, you won’t want to miss it.

Below is an interview with Truett Heintzelman from Briscoe. It has been edited for consistency.

Music in Minnesota: I want to start with your background and the journey that led up to today. You guys have your debut out, but I know you have been playing together and writing together for a long time. I read that you guys met at summer camp. Is that right?

Truett Heintzelman: Yeah that’s correct, like you said we put out our debut album almost a year ago but we had been good friends for a good while before that. Back in summer camp, we were around middle school age, a little less than ten years ago. We just hit it off and became good friends.

We grew up in different cities in Texas. I grew up in San Antonio, and Philip grew up in San Angelo, Texas, which are about three hours apart. We’d get together a few times a year and play whatever songs we were interested in, or show each other any ideas we had. We ended up at the University of Texas in Austin together and started taking it more seriously, playing around and all that good stuff, and here we are.

MIM: Was there a point where you realized this was something you really wanted to do or could do?

TH: When we both ended up at the University of Texas in Austin, we started gigging around quite a bit, and we really started to get a little bit of momentum. It was something we love doing, and it seemed like a lot of the college population around us rallied behind us in a way that made us excited and propelled us forward. From there, we got to kind of make Austin our home crowd.

Once we were playing these shows in Austin, it seemed like every show would get a decent bit bigger, and we’d be selling out these smaller clubs. I think that was when we started to realize that not only do we enjoy this, but these fans do, too. We thought if we could keep growing organically, we could give this music thing a fair shot.

MIM: I’m curious how playing and recording and writing around being in college, especially being around such a scene like Austin, where there’s so much great music historically and now. Did you guys feel inspired by the environment you guys were in.

TH: We definitely feel inspired being in Austin, one because it’s such an incredible city to be a musician in, especially to be a musician who is also in school at the time. Not only did we go to a great university, but we also got to play legendary clubs like Antone’s or the Continental Club in Austin. It was a pretty unique thing to get to do both.

And then also, we’re certainly inspired by the geographical area surrounding Austin. A lot of songs and themes from the record reference are about the Texas hill country or getting out to far west Texas. We love Austin, but it’s a big city, fast-paced with a lot going on, so we also love being able to get out a little bit and slow down so the Texas Hill Country is one of our favorite places in the world to get to do that. That was a big inspiration as well.

MIM: You Guys Worked with Brad Cook on this record, He’s been a part of so much great music. How did you guys get linked up with him, and what impact did he have on the record?

TH: We first heard of Brad because he was producing a lot of records that we liked. When we were looking into producers, we were looking at albums we liked and who produced them. His name kept coming up and coming up. We just reached out to him from there and it was such a pleasure to work with him.

I’ll say this: there’s nothing like the feeling of using a chainsaw for the very first time, and working with Brad was that same exact feeling. It’s an eye-opening thing when you get to start cutting these songs and bringing them to life with somebody like Brad, who is so talented and has so many great musicians around him. To bring a record to life with his expertise was truly a great experience to do our first record.

MIM: You had released an EP prior to that. I know from interviews you guys have said that you grew a lot from that EP to the Record. Can you speak to differences or maturation through the making of that first EP and how that came to the record?

TH: Great question, the record and EP are certainly different stylistically, in the writing, and in the instrumentation. A lot of that was because the EP was kind of us figuring out what our sound was and having fun with it. There are a couple more sax songs on the EP, which is super fun. It kind of spans in and out of genres a little bit.

The record is a little more concise, a presentation of who we are as artists.

MIM: You guys have played support gigs for some of the biggest acts in music. I’m curious what you take away from some of those big gigs?

TH: Absolutely, we’ve had wonderful opportunities, not only to do headline Briscoe Shows across the country, but now we’ve gotten to open for Dave Matthews Band, CAAMP, Noah Kahan, and a whole bunch of other really great artists. It’s always cool.

Every time so far we get to pick their brains a little bit. You get to see how they function in every aspect, as a songwriter, as a performer, you get to see the touring set up.

We’ve found everyone we’ve toured with so far has been especially kind and willing to pass down words of advice or whatever it is. We’ve had a few people that have taken us under their wing as we make their way into this music industry.

MIM: You’ve had such a big year, what’s on your horizon?

TH: We’ve got some good stuff on the horizon; we’ve got some big festivals and then also a bunch of headline shows over the next few weeks. We just played some shows with Flatland Cavalry as well. We’re just hitting the road hard right now, continuing to get in front of people.

Being on the road is super important, and it’s fun. New music has been written and we’re always writing songs, and we’re starting to think through that stuff and take steps towards new music. But for now, we’re just enjoying being on the road.