The Barr Brothers: TAS In Session

Brothers Andrew and Brad Barr of the trio The Slip, credit a serendipitous encounter during a Montréal gig as the catalyst behind not only a life-changing move to Canada, but the genesis of their latest project, The Barr Brothers.

The band released its self-titled debut last fall on Secret City Records and found themselves kicking off 2012 with an appearance on "The Late Show With David Letterman."

The Barr Brothers are currently on tour and play the Bearsville Theater in Bearsville, New York tomorrow, February 14, before heading back to Canada for more shows. Both Andrew and Brad are also working on their next album as The Slip with bandmate Mark Friedman.

Recently The Barr Brothers  — which also includes harpist Sarah Page and bassist/accordionist Andres Vial — came by WFUV and The Alternate Side for a session which airs tonight, February 13, at 9 p.m. ET on 90.7 WFUV and streaming here.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNsIgX2hzVM]

Alisa Ali: What was that sample that you used [in that song]?

Brad Barr: I have a little tape recorder that I carry around with me and will record whatever sounds interesting and that was the niece of somebody counting … and then my brother’s wife talking on the phone, without her knowing.

Alisa: You think she’ll be okay with that?

Brad: She’s okay with that. I double-checked. One of the coolest sounds I’ve ever recorded were these frogs that I recorded outside a hotel room in New Orleans. They’re called the funk frogs down there, apparently.

Alisa: Do you have those frogs on any of your songs?

Brad: No, not yet. I’m saving it up for the next record.

Alisa: The song “Beggar in the Morning” is from your debut album and some people might thing you’re newcomers. But no. You’re seasoned musicians, in fact.

Brad: You could say that.

Alisa: You and your brother are also in the band The Slip. And Sarah, you’re classically trained.

Sarah Page: Yeah, I’ve done a lot of symphony work up in Montreal. I’ve been doing some improvising for a while and I played with Llasa de Sela, I did her last album with her. I’ve been working with Patrick Watson on and off for a while too. There’s a whole Montreal community.

Alisa: And [Andreas]?

Andreas Vial: I’ve played a lot of different music, everything from Balinese gamelin music to contemporary minimalist music to a lot of jazz and world music. Mainly in Montreal.

Alisa: So you two are the actual Canadians in the band? And the Barr brothers are ….

Sarah: Imported.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYzGGebktMc]

Andrew Barr: We were born in Providence, Rhode Island. A lot of good things coming out of Rhode Island right now. The Low Anthem. Lightning Bolt, another great band. Deer Tick, who you can’t miss if they’re anywhere near you. Just wear your goggles.

We were playing with The Slip up in Montreal and we’d not really crossed the border in almost eight years of touring and we crossed into this wonderful city. We were playing a show and a fire happened in the backroom of the venue during our last song, which was fortunate for me because I had eyed this beautiful waitress who I was sure was going to become my future wife, my snow princess. There was a fire in the venue and we all got whisked out into the street with our instruments as the sprinklers were going off and I lent her my sweatshirt to stay warm — and get her phone number. Then I lost complete track of her for a year and then finally found her address again by some roundabout way. We ended up moving up there. That’s the story.

Alisa: And you are now married to her!

Andrew: I am now married to her! Brad and I completely fell in love with the city along with me falling in love with this woman. It took no pressure to move up there and relocate. It was a really inspiring move.

Alisa: Did you move up there at the same time or, Andrew, did you go first?

Andrew: I think 11 days and then Brad called.

Brad: I had a total meltdown after he left.

Andrew: (in a high-pitched voice) “Do you know what day is garbage day, man? How do you make a pasta fagiole?”

Alisa: Separation anxiety from your bro?

Brad: I guess so. A momentary lapse of reason.

Andrew: Brad and I have played music together our whole lives so the thought of not having that as a daily routine was a little scary so it was really nice that he came up. We’d been living together up to that point.

Alisa: And now you live together again?

Andrew: The same city. Down the street. We virtually live together.

Alisa: What about The Slip?

Brad: Besides Andrew and myself there’s one other guy in The Slip named Mark Friedman and the three of us have been slowly tracking a record that should be out something [this year]. That’s our hope. But right now, The Barr Brothers is very satisfying and giving us what we need and is kind of our priority as we stand here before you.”

Alisa: You recorded [your self-titled debut] yourselves?

Brad: Yes, we were fortunate to find a little room in Montreal not unlike this one. Maybe a little smaller. We just started chipping away at songs. Started about three and a half years ago, when we laid the first tracks down, not really knowing that we were making a record. We were just having fun, experimenting, getting to know each other, getting to know Sarah and Andreas and feeling our way around this music and piecing it together. Next thing we knew we had what sort of resembled a record.

We were really learning how to record. Fortunately, we were just doing it very whimsically and getting a lot of enjoyment out of learning how to record ourselves. It was really the first time that we’d ever had space and some gear and all the time in the world to construct an album. I think it’s why this record sounds the way it does. There’s a lot of artifacts and things that trickle in. Sounds that feel like they’ve been unearthed … and it’s probably just the water heater going off in the background or something. Or someone opening the door on us. We were pretty careless and I’m sure a lot of engineers would hear problems with it, but we enjoyed all of those problems.

Alisa: You weren’t even trying to make a record? You were experimenting?

Andrew: Like Brad said, it was really learning how to record and also just meeting Sarah. Brad would write a song and we thought we might as well record the process of learning it and some of these songs we must have recorded six or seven times over the course of two years. The nice offshoot of that is that some of them were recorded the first time we played them. With “Old Mythologies,” I think Brad showed it to Sarah and twenty minutes later we recorded it and that’s the version on the record, live. That’s the beauty of having a space of your own. You can capture those moments.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th3KIVw0gyM]