CREATIVE SHIFT
Steel Wheels departs from ‘straight-up acoustic sound’ on latest album
It’s the changing of the seasons in Virginia.
This means that Trent Wagler is gathering wood and tending to the garden.
All of it has to be done before he heads out on tour.
“It’s nice to be home for a few days,” he says in a recent interview. “We’ve had a long summer of touring, and winter’s going to be here soon. By the time I get back from tour, we’ll be burning wood. It’s a busy time, for sure, and I have no complaints.”
Wagler is a member of the folk band Steel Wheels. He is joined in the band by Jay Lapp, Brian Dickel and Eric Brubaker.
The band is touring in support of its 2017 album, “Wild As We Came Here.”
In recent months, the band has been working on new songs while on the road.
“In late November, we’ll go into the studio,” he says. “After 11 days, we plan to walk out with a new album. I love the process. It’s maybe one of my favorite things to do — create the new songs and seeing them go from an idea all the way to the end. It’s fascinating.”
The process hasn’t changed much over time.
Wagler, who plays banjo in the band, is the primary songwriter.
He says the band has always been able to write new songs with “different landscapes.”
“However, it was really enjoyable for us, creatively and artistically, to depart from the straight-up acoustic sound that we’ve been known for,” he says of the most recent album.
While on tour supporting Josh Ritter, the band forged a friendship with Sam Kassirer, who plays keyboards for Ritter on tour and has produced a number of his albums.
Wagler says the band members had been considering other producers and thought about recording in Nashville, Tenn., but they chose to follow their instincts to rural Maine, where Kassirer owns a recording studio inside a renovated farmhouse from the 18th century.
All four band members hunkered down for a week and a half to create “Wild As We Came Here.”
“It’s a gorgeous setup,” Wagler says. “I didn’t grow up in a big city, and I never made a record in a big city. It’s much more my style, and our style as a band, to completely hole up — probably more than we ever have — for 10 full days in Maine. I left the house for a couple of bike rides, but I never went to a restaurant or a store the whole time I was there. We ate on-site; we slept on-site; and we recorded. It was a very immersive experience, top to bottom.”