motel void

MOTEL VOID: You’ve just released your new single At War With The Dogcatchers, which will be part of your upcoming album Circle Breaker. Could you tell us about the writing and recording process for this record? How did it compare to your previous albums, such as Big Delusion and God, Forgive These Bastards…?

THE TAXPAYERS (ROB): The writing and recording process for this record was fairly unique, I think because we all live in such different places. We have members in Portland, Minneapolis, Detroit, and Philadelphia, so we had to start this process differently than before. We started out with some basic demos and decided on a short list that we would focus on. In the winter of 22-23, we all arrived in Minneapolis, where Rob had turned his basement into a full on recording studio. Our friend Eric helped us mic everything and set everything up, but then he got sick (we all got covid) so we ended up just recording everything ourselves which was really fun! It was the first time we had played together in eight or so years, so we had a lot of fun coming back together and writing some brand new songs.

I joined the band in 2007 and played accordion on our previous records/attended to vocals, I switched to bass for this album and the foreseeable future. It was a new experience for me being on a different instrument that I have played a lot, but not with The Taxpayers.

That wintertime in Rob‘s basement was truly magical, and we poured a lot of ourselves into recording those songs. Since we only had a limited time to record, we all had to learn how to self record in order to do overdubs and redo parts from afar. We held zooms and did group mixing meetings which were really interesting and helped us bond as a group.

Writing and recording this album was pretty different than our other albums because simply we don’t live in the same place anymore. Previously, we could spend a lot of time having band practice and honing the songs before going into the recording process and this time it was a little more freeform, but we did end up spending almost a year and a half honing in the mixes ourselves.

MOTEL VOID: Your new album explores dark themes of death and murder. Was this the most challenging record to create out of all your albums?

THE TAXPAYERS: All of our albums touch on brutal experiences of humanity, and sometimes we describe that brutality through storytelling. By that I mean, storytelling of a fictional character going through fictional experiences that many people can relate to. Circle Breaker is a particularly vulnerable record because we are speaking from our own traumatic experiences of losing friends, loved ones, community members. I think the challenge has been not recording the album exactly, but in playing these intimate new songs live and knowing that once we release the art, we don’t have control over it anymore. We hope it is moving and inspiring to others going through these human experiences, and helps people find a place of connection.

MOTEL VOID: Who or what had the biggest musical influence on this record?

THE TAXPAYERS: Jimmy Buffett.

MOTEL VOID: You’re originally from Portland, Oregon. How would you describe the current music scene there? Are there any local artists or venues you’d recommend?

THE TAXPAYERS: Lazy Sunday, The Skylarkers, Never Better, JAB, The Collaborators, Divers for bands. We played the Mission Theater a year ago and it was fun!

MOTEL VOID: You’ve played shows all over the world, and to support your new album, you’ll be performing a series of Midwest shows, followed by summer dates on both the East and West Coasts. Do you have any plans to tour outside the U.S. as well?

THE TAXPAYERS: We had the beautiful opportunity to go to Australia and Tazmania in the fall of last year. Shoutout to Mark and Hobopo Fest! We would love to tour more outside of the US, though we do not have anything set up at this time. Let us know if you know anyone that wants to book us abroad!