PORTSMOUTH, NH – Matthew Logan Vasquez’s musical career has had a variety of facets. He’s the vocalist and guitarist for the San Diego indie rock act Delta Spirit and he’s also been a member of a couple supergroups, Middle Brother with Taylor Goldsmith from Dawes and John McCauley from Deer Tick, and Glorietta, which includes Adrian Quesada from Black Pumas, Kelsey Wilson from Wild Child, Noah Gunderson and Robert Blum. Along with this, he has a prolific solo career under his belt, and he’s currently on tour with a backing band. The expedition will be making a stop at The Press Room in Portsmouth on May 21. Jacob Alan Jaeger and Kong Moon will be opening up the show, and it all starts at 7 p.m.
Vasquez and I had a talk about a series of recordings he’s been releasing recently, recording in a cabin versus recording in a fancy studio, and his love for the New England region.
Rob Duguay: Last year, you started a series called “Frank’s Full Moon Saloon” that features more explored versions of songs both from your solo material and the Delta Spirit discography. What initially inspired you to do this project and is there an actual place called Frank’s Full Moon Saloon where these recordings were done or were they done at a studio somewhere?
Matthew Logan Vasquez: The place where we recorded “Frank’s Full Moon Saloon” is basically a three-car garage that got converted into a honky-tonk, and my neighbor Frank and his wife Rena are these really cool people in the 70s. Frank used to be a DJ, like an actual DJ where he would go to weddings and play all the 45s they had back in the day. He’s seen [Jimi] Hendrix live and he’s just the coolest dude, he’s originally from Houston, but he ended up out in the Hill Country and started up this crazy place. Booze isn’t for sale there or anything, but all of our neighbors go there to hang out ranging from my kids, who are as young as four, to all the retired folks. We play live music there just to get people dancing and have a nice time, so I wanted to make a record where I could revisit some old songs, but in a different way, and I figured I’d name it “Frank’s Full Moon Saloon” as a tribute to my 76 year old best friend, so that’s how it happened.
RD: There are three parts to this series with the first part being collaborative where you have Shovels and Rope and your Middle Brother bandmate Taylor Goldsmith and his brother Griffin, who are also in Dawes, among others joining in on the songs while the other two parts have more of a rock & roll approach to them. When it came to sorting these parts out, were they planned out beforehand or was it more organic where it came together as the process went along?
MLV: We just recorded the principal live tracks of the album, which pretty much had the vocals with the song being done. The main songs I wanted to do were for the first part, but then we kept on coming across a bunch of others that were really fun to do, so we just kept doing it and re-envisioning all of these songs. It all happened in a two week period, and with Shovels and Rope and Taylor and Griffin, I just sent them the track and they would send back their harmonies through the internet and it was awesome. Because we had so many songs, I knew it was going to be a multiple part release kind of thing, but I wanted to make the initial recordings a bit more folkier because it was just the songs that I had been pulling from while doing house shows. I wanted to make sure that I had that in hand, but I really love these other versions, so that’s why I put them together for the other parts.
A lot of them are older deep cuts and there are others that are newer Delta Spirit songs. Some of them didn’t get much legs since they were released during the pandemic, and it was all a big mess trying to put it all out, so it was nice getting to give those songs another little platform.
RD: Yeah, another dose of life.
MLV: Yeah, exactly.
RD: When it comes to artistic and creative fulfillment, what does your solo material do for you that sets it apart from the music you make with Delta Spirit? Do you feel with your solo music that you have more of a personal stamp where with Delta Spirit, it’s more of a joint vision?
MLV: I think they both come from the same well no matter what. I have this weird inability to think about my audience when I’m writing a song, whether it’s a Delta Spirit song or an MLV song or whatever. I just write them and then when we’re planning on putting out a Delta Spirit record, the songs take a certain shape because all of our attention is on that particular album. The last two Delta Spirit records were certainly a bit more modern in production because we had a $60,000 record budget, so we could do whatever the hell we wanted in a big fancy studio. I have my own studio where I can make whatever vision I want when I’m home, but I think what I’m looking for in my own music, or at least when I’m releasing it under my own name, is that I’m always just looking for immediacy. I’m chasing that time with Middle Brother, or the time with Glorietta or the time with the first Delta Spirit record where I go to a place with all my studio equipment in road cases, I unpack it in a cabin and just go make a record.
That makes it so much more fun, it really marks the time and it’s just a different vibe. If anything, the difference is the record budget and the need for a fancy studio, which I don’t need.
RD: I get that. What are your thoughts on coming back up to the New England region to perform at The Press Room? I know you’ve performed at the Newport Folk Festival a bunch of times and you have a connection to the region due to John McCauley from Deer Tick also being your bandmate in Middle Brother.
MLV: New England is one of the most familial areas in America. You’ll meet the warmest people there and their great-great grandma is a Celtics fan, I love it. I’ve always loved Boston and all of New England, it’s a really heart-forward culture and I’ve always been like that. I’m a cutthroat extrovert, so the New England vibe is for me. I also love the beach and the ocean, so anytime I’m there, I feel very at home.
RD: That’s great to hear. After this run of solo shows you have going on? What are your plans for the coming months? Are there any plans to work on a new album of some sort?
MLV: I’m going to be doing a living room tour in September and October to get out of the Texas heat because right now, it’s basically like a New England summer and it’s beautiful, it’s amazing. Once July happens, it’s brutal until October so I booked a tour to go through Michigan, Vermont and Massachusetts. A lot of them are private shows, but I’m getting out of dodge. I’m going to finally be working on some new music, this is the second year of the “Frank’s Full Moon Saloon” thing and I’ve been writing like crazy while figuring out what’s next.