Devoted ukulele rock legends Winchester 7 & The Runners are about to hit the ground rightfully running. Their brand new album The Waking Giant tackles an imagined yet poignant realm in which a savvy tech investor seeks to create a wholly AI-driven immersive world for the retired, the wealthy, and the doomsday preppers alike.
The songs of the project delve into various perspectives and reactions to this idea, and even feature an exploration of the views of the AI itself.
We caught a much-needed interview with the band, to find out more about how this idea came about, how they wrote many of the songs, and what the recording process was like. Here’s how it went.
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Hello again! It’s been a little while, how are you doing?
Winchester 7: Hello! Well, thank you. Looking at your site, I can see that you’ve been busy! It’s nice to have the opportunity to be a part of it again.
Thank you – it’s always a pleasure to catch up! What’s been the biggest change for the band since we spoke last?
Winchester 7: I suppose that after some visa snafu’s during our last tour, we’ve sort of settled into more of a studio-first mindset, the boys and me.
Jack: It’s a lot easier on the lot of us, isn’t it?
Phil: Hotel coffee all tastes the same…
Jack: …unless it’s a cuppa.
The brand-new project is beautiful – tell me about the creative process; were you all in the studio until something was finished, or were the songs created separately over time?
Winchester 7: Thank you very much! We were for some of the foundation tracks.
Jack: But, it all took quite a bit of time, in the end.
Phil: A lot of overdubs!
Winchester 7: Yeah, so, after some of the troubles during our last tour, we felt it would be good to get a change of scenery. So, we left our studios behind to record in-person with our mix engineer/producer, Jon Paz, at Halfway to Hell Recording Studios in Albuquerque for a few tracks.
Phil: A change of scenery and good tacos…
Jack: Still, we hadn’t written over half of the album by that point, so eventually, we bailed and finished up from our studios.
Phil: The best of both worlds!