Vintage Pistol to Release Second EP

Courtesy Photo
“The Second Amendment” is Vintage Pistol’s second EP with five original tracks recorded locally with Brian Burkhart.

One of Fayetteville’s loudest and most impressive rock n’ roll bands is ready to release their blazing second EP this weekend.

Recorded in early 2016 with Bryan Burkhart of Groovement, Vintage Pistol’s five track EP “The Second Amendment” will be released Friday, Aug. 12 at George’s Majestic Lounge alongside Oklahoma City’s Space4Lease and Fayetteville’s Randall Shreve. It’s only a $5 cover, and the first 50 at the show will receive a free EP — all the more reason to get there early for the full show.

Vintage Pistol consists of Taylor Smith (vocals, guitar), Garrett August (vocals, keyboard), Stan Watson (guitar), Andy Cowick (bass) and now Mike Stewart (drums). The band has been through a few drummers throughout their existence, but they’ve now settled in with Stewart, completing the line up.

The album’s title has no political connotation, the band said, but is considered the literal “second amendment” to the Vintage Pistol constitution that is their studio discography.

Without question, Vintage Pistol is one of those bands in town that can shred ‘till they’re dead. About a quarter of their live sets go into improvised jam sections that lead into different parts of the set. It’s no surprise four of the five songs on the EP feature tracks longer than five minutes, and that’s a good thing.

Every song features stellar instrumental sections, especially the epic, building jams on “There’s a Flame” and “Done Runnin’.” Watson’s guitar solos are always a highlight of the tracks, and when he really gets going, his feel can send shivers down your spine.

Check out our interview with the band:

TFW: When did the idea for a second EP come about?

AUGUST: At the end of last year, we started recording in February of this year. We only had four days to record it. We were there until the sun came up each day.

TFW: How was the recording process?

SMITH: Bryan really helped our sound. He kinda tweaked a few things and really pushed us forward.

WATSON: There was one thing he told me to do, and I didn’t even really think about it, but I recorded like two layers of guitars. I always practice my parts for the live shows, I’d just do this at this point. There were a couple songs where he was like how about you record your rhythm here and Taylor can have his rhythm and you do a solo over that. There was a couple parts in the songs where we had three layers of guitars going, and I never even thought about doing that. That was his idea, and really enhanced the recording.

Staff Photo Nick Brothers
Vintage Pistol is (from left to right) Andy Cowick, Stan Watson, Michael Stewart, Garrett August and Taylor Smith. The band is releasing their second EP, “The Second Amendment” Aug. 12.

TFW: Where was it recorded? Does Bryan have his own studio somewhere?

COWICK: Yeah, it’s state of the art. It’s out by Lake Weddinton.

AUGUST: There’s deer everywhere. Groovement gets to practice there every week. He’s recorded for tons of people out there like Andy Frasco…

SMITH: Yeah, Shawn James did a record out there with Adam Putnam in that studio. That studio is used by a lot Fayetteville people.

WATSON: He’s got a nice Rhodes piano out there and a B3 organ. Very professional.

TFW: What were some of the goals and vision with this EP? Is it an update on where you all are at right now? Or more conceptual?

AUGUST: It’s kind of our second wave of material. There’s more of a jam influence in a lot of the songs. Several ideas on the album weren’t pre-written, they were things we brought to practice and just jammed and jammed until something formed from it.

WATSON: It was kind of out of our element, because we’re so used to being in the live stage setting. We really didn’t structure our songs shorter by any means. We kind of did them how we do them live. There’s two songs that are six minutes long, and shortest one is four and a half. We didn’t try to do a three minute pop song type thing for the radio. There’s definitely some jams on the EP, so it’s not like some straight three-minute pop EP.

AUGUST: We tried to go in there without any requirements and make it as live sounding as we could. There’s a song that we literally wrote and figured out the transitions on the way over there. We jammed it once and one other song, and then Taylor said ‘Hey let’s try that with Done Runnin’” and we did it. That was one of the other things Bryan was like, why don’t you roll your hand up the keyboard or play a higher octave and that was one of the defining moments for how he helped us change our sound for the better and kept pushing the envelope.

WATSON: He was good at telling us where to leave space and where to drop out and where to come in big.

TFW: Tell me a little bit about the songs. Why did you sequence the tracks on there the way you did?

WATSON: “You’ll Never Know” is the first one. It’s the highest energy, fast-paced rock ‘n’ roll song on there. Bryan pointed that out and said we should start with a bang, so we went with that. It’s a good way to start off the EP. The next one is “Clash,” which is our up-tempo, funky one that people could really move to. “Done Runnin’” slows down everything and gets a little more exotic.

COWICK: I think “There’s a Flame” is one of the strongest in terms that there’s a chorus that’s going to be memorable. It’s really funky, too. In the verses, Stan plays a really funky wah.

TFW: What are some of these songs about, lyrically?

SMITH: Relationships, usually. Bad ones and good ones. That’s where most of my writing comes from, just real life experience is what I try to draw inspiration from most of the time. “There’s a Flame” is the exception on the EP. I took inspiration on how it is being in a band. It’s more like dealing with adversity and moving on. “There’s a flame that won’t go out” is the first half of that chorus. You have good shows, you have bad shows and sometimes its hard to keep the flame burning.

AUGUST: You get with other bands, and sometimes they’re not good people. Just kind of stand offish. Space4Lease are like our best friends, and then you meet other bands and it’s the opposite.