A key part of the Deer Tick sound is John’s voice – John, how many bags of gravel does it take to create a voice like yours or has it been there since birth?
Birth? No. Puberty? Maybe. There’s no trick to it. I don’t condition my voice to sound like that. It just happens that way. 4. Ragged Words understands that John played the majority of instruments on debut ‘War Elephant’. Has your latest release ‘Born on Flag Day’ been more a full band effort and if so do you prefer to record solo or with the band? I like recording and playing with the band much better. I’m a hack drummer and bassist anyway. 5. Born On Flag day appropriately depicts a flag banner on the sleeve, the original War Elephant release had an ancient War Elephant on the cover. What inspired the decision to change the War Elephant sleeve for re-release to a band, babes and guns photo? It’s a joke, much like most of the music industry. We weren’t planning on using that for the cover, but when the idea came up, it was difficult to say no to. 6. Much of ‘War Elephant’ was apparently astonishingly written before John’s 19th Birthday. John when did you first start writing songs and
