Musicians Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks have been married since 2001. Though they’ve both had successful solo careers, and Derek played with the Allman Brothers Band for some 15 years, in 2010 Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks formed Tedeschi Trucks Band.
“People ask us all the time, like ‘how can you be in a band with your spouse?'” Trucks told Here & Now’s Robin Young. “You just have to marry the right spouse I guess, you have to be with the right person.”
The duo talks about TTB’s new album, “Let Me Get By,” and about working together to make music.
Interview Highlights: Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi
What were those last concerts with the Allman Brothers like?
Derek: “It was pretty intense. I thought it was a really amazing way to go out. The last show especially felt right; it was dignified, everybody stepped up and you could really feel it in the audience. I’ve probably been up on stage for 150, 170 shows at that venue with that band and it was certainly, if not the highlight, one of the highlights.”
On the sound of the album
Susan: “The whole thing sounds like us, honestly. We kind of created our own sound from a lot of different influences and I think that is really unique and this band is unique anyway because it’s a 12-piece band and everybody really helped write this record in the band, which is a first.”
Derek: “I think it captured the personalities and the spirit of this big monstrosity. It has quite a personality when it rolls down the road. I think finally in the studio we were able to capture kinda what it feels like to be on stage and to travel with the band.
There is a retro feeling to a lot of the music. Is this due to the equipment in your home studio?
Derek: “It’s a lot of vintage gear. We got our old Neve recording console, it was owned by The Kinks for a long time. A lot of the gear came out of some of the old studios here in New York City. We picked up a lot of old microphones, reverb tanks, tape machines, so yeah, we try to record the old way, which takes more time and energy, but it certainly feels better when you’re getting to the end of the process of making a record. I feel like all the sound holds up and it has legs when you make records that way.”
Songs In This Segment
- Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi and Mike Mattison “Anyhow” performed by Tedeschi Trucks Band
- Derek Trucks, Tim Lefebvre, Susan Tedeschi, Kofi Burbridge, Mike Mattision “Laugh About it” performed by Tedeschi Trucks Band
- Derek Trucks, Doyle Bramhall II “Hear Me” performed by Tedeschi Trucks Band
- Doyle Bramhall II, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi “Just As Strange” performed by Tedeschi Trucks Band
- J.J. Johnson, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Mike Mattison, Kofi Burbridge, Tim Lefebvre “Don’t Know What It Means” performed by Tedeschi Trucks Band
- Mike Mattison, Derek Trucks, and Susan Tedeschi “in Every Heart” performed by Tedeschi Trucks Band
Guests
- Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, members of Tedeschi Trucks Band. They tweet @DerekAndSusan.
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