I had planned to post this question/answer session prior to the Jenny Lewis/Deer Tick show this past Sunday as a little preview, but it works just as well as a post game interview.  John J McCauley III was nice enough to answer a few questions for me about Deer Tick’s live show and their new album, Born on Flag Day, which hits the shelves June 23 on Partisan Records.  You can check out the first track, “Easy” from the new album on a previous post here.

1.)    What can people expect from a typical Deer Tick show?

When we have a lot of room on stage or if we’re headlining, we typically go a bit nuts. It’s hard to really get crazy when you have another bands stuff all set up behind you that probably costs way more money than your equipment. But we like to have a lot of fun on stage and with the audience. Some nights we’re really on top of our game in that respect. For instance, last night in Iowa City I poured a pitcher of beer on my head, tackled Andy while he was soloing, I punched my guitar until my knuckles were bleeding, I crowd surfed, and in the end we created a Nirvana-like mess of our equipment, throwing drums and guitars around.  It was a really high energy set to say the least. But then, you know, the night before in Lawrence we kind of just stood in place and played our instruments.

 2.)   Have you been to Saint Louis before?  What do you know about the city?

 I don’t know too much about St. Louis. But I’ve managed to have a pretty great time the 3 or 4 times I’ve come through the city, thanks to our buds in Theodore we always feel welcome. We’ve played at the Lemp and at SLU in the past.

 3.)   What are you favorite venues to play when you’re out on tour?

 I’m a big fan of most of the clubs in Baltimore, Austin, and Portland, OR. I was really impressed by the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, very excited to go back next month. The Pageant was great, they took good care of us there. But the 9:30 Club in D.C. may be my favorite club of them all.

 4.)   Can you shed some light on the recording process for Born on Flag Day?   Where was it recorded and how was the process different this time around?

 We recorded the album in Baltimore at the same studio I recorded War Elephant in back in 2006, called Yellow House Studios. It was nice to work with the guys in the studio. We got a taste of what it would be like when Dennis, Chris and myself did a Daytrotter session in 2007. Then Andy joined the band right before we went into record and it was exciting to work with a new guitar player. It was a little hectic at first but we pulled it off.

 5.)   What was the most interesting moment during the recording of Born on Flag Day?

 Watching Andy learn the songs and then immediately go record his parts. He works unlike anyone else I’ve seen in the studio. He’ll just jam over a song for an hour, record everything, edit everything into the parts he wants to play, relearn the song that way, and then knock it out in one take. Its bizarre. It was interesting watching the beer and whiskey bottles pile up too…

 6.)   How has the popularity of facebook/myspace/twitter/blogs/etc impacted your band?

 It definitely helps, thats for sure. I’m not sure to what extent, but its gotta be big. I wonder what it would be like without those things. Ideally, I’d like to live in a word of mouth music world, but its impossible now. I’m just getting finished with This Band Could Be Your Life and its fascinating to read about how these bands made a name for themselves back in the 70’s and 80’s. Making a million phone calls, xeroxing a million flyers, making shit for money, barely eating. Those must have been the days, man.