Sometimes with music – maybe most of the time, in fact – the energy is the most important part.
Artists can while away for weeks, months, or even years in the studio trying to perfect their performance or tweak the sound and production to their liking, and that can result in some legendary (and legendarily dense) studio recordings and albums.
But no matter how hard anyone tries, no matter how loud you crank the volume or how fast and loose you play, it’ll probably always be impossible to capture the real energy of a live act by recording in a studio.
So if it’s that live-level energy, intimacy, and rawness that you’re shooting for on your album, you might as well just cut the album live, right?
That’s the thinking of southern-fried, punk-tinged, folk-slinging married couple Rachel Lynch and Griffin Wade, who are set to record their long-awaited debut album as a duo in front of a full audience live on stage at OKC’s Blue Door on Saturday, June 7th.
“We’ve both released albums by ourselves and with the bands that we’ve played with and everything,” Lynch said, “but we don’t have any music online of the two of us together at all.”
But it’s tough to block out those days, weeks, or months for studio time when your whole brand as artists and performers (even according to your Facebook page) is that you “play everywhere, all the time.”
“Since we’re full-time musicians and we gig so constantly, it’s hard to find the time and energy and money to also go into the studio and write and record stuff,” Wade explained. “It’s like, what do we do?”
The couple answered that question by booking the Blue Door, employing an engineer and videographer, and readying themselves to cut a full album of new, original tracks in one go with a packed audience and all the fun, spontaneity, banter, and compelling messiness that their fans have come to expect.
“It’s hard to convey what we do as performers in just a regular studio album,” Wade explained. “We tell stories and we tell jokes and we interact and we try to put on a more engaging performance and to really work the crowd, you know?”
That’s the kind of live energy that the duo tries to carry into every show in every bar, club, restaurant, or café that’ll have them, aiming to make each and every performance unique and largely improvisational in terms of the stories, jokes, and setlists every night.
And make no mistake, they play a lot of shows.
“Last year, we had 186 gigs in thirteen different states,” Lynch told me. “But Oklahoma City is our home base.”
OKC has been their home together since Wade moved up from San Marcos, TX to be with Lynch, who moved into the city after growing up in El Reno.
They’ve both made music separately for years, both as solo artists and with bands. Lynch fronted Rachel Lynch & The Daydrinkers and Wade covered bass in the Rock Bottom String Band.
However, performing as a duo and living as a married couple has allowed them to develop an easy banter and a comfortable chaos that they enjoy bringing to the stage every night, with no setlist or plan, letting the audience’s energy and their own moods direct the evening on the fly.
But, while they intend to bring a heavy helping of that loose, improvisational approach to the Blue Door show, they also know that they have to plan it out and practice it a bit more to get the album they want out of it.
So, while most performers get more confident with a more strict or clear plan, Lynch and Wade said they’re actually feeling more nervous than usual about keeping themselves in line for a change.
“We’re so used to doing everything a bit more chaotically,” Wade said. “But for this show, there’s more structure than normal. Like, it’s not scripted or anything, of course, but we actually have a set and a song list this time, and I haven’t had a song list in front of me at a gig in probably over two years.”
Ultimately, even with the recording and the filming and the end result to be released wide, Lynch and Wade are still shooting for the comfort that makes their shows unique.
That’s why they chose the Blue Door.
In addition to the room’s acoustics and the venue’s music-first, performer-respecting ethos, they also wanted a space where friends, fans, and family could all kick back and feel just as comfortable as they hope to feel on stage.
“We feel really honored to be able to do this at Blue Door,” Wade said. “We want it to have this real cozy, kind of living room vibe for everyone.”
“And our goal is really just to make everyone laugh,” Lynch added. “We really just want to hear all of our friends laugh on the album.”
Rachel Lynch and Griffin Wade play The Blue Door in OKC on Saturday, June 7th.
For times, tickets, and more information, visit bluedoorokc.com.
You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
