Lessons Learned

Two years ago – after a couple of years of time out from each other to pursue various side and solo projects and recover from pretty much constant touring over the previous 20 years – Counting Crows returned with an unexpected album of covers of songs by acts as diverse as Madonna, Gram Parsons, Bob Dylan and Faces titled Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Holiday).

Recording and touring that album proved pivotal in the creation of their new album, Somewhere Under Wonderland, as singer, songwriter and frontman Adam Duritz explains.

“That was such a good experience for us. I mean, we really love the record – it was really satisfying to make – and it was great to be able to put all our skills and talents into all that variety of songs. I’ve said it a million times but man, make an album like that and it reminds you what a waste it is to spend your entire career only working on one person’s songs, even though in this case the person is me! I mean I’m not just a songwriter – I’m a musician too – and it was a great experience to work on things that weren’t my songs, because it shows you there are so many ways to do it.

“So I don’t think I spent any time thinking about Bob Dylan as a person writing songs, but I did take You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere inside me and try and sing it from there. And you know what’s one of the things you learn from the way he puts words and rhymes together? They’re ridiculous. For all of his genius – I mean come on, he’s amazing – but he wasn’t afraid to be ridiculous. He wasn’t afraid to write little jokes in a song. So you realise that’s out there too. You can write truly meaningful stuff and also be silly. We’re all silly sometimes too – certainly I am – but I never allowed that stuff to enter into songs at all and I’m glad I allowed it [in the new album]. I’m glad I could go, ‘What is the price for all this fame and self-absorption?/We turn ourselves into orphans/And then spend our nights alone/Living in fear of some imaginary consequence/Terror incognito, ob-la-di li-bi-do’ [Earthquake Driver],” Duritz chuckles. “I mean it’s just silliness but like… why not?”

The lessons learned went beyond merely creating Counting Crows arrangements for those songs. “I can remember the third gig on that (album) tour. We were in Portland and played, like, a spectacular show – and then we did it again the next night – and all of a sudden we realised, ‘Whoa, what’s goin’ on?’ We’ve always been a really good live band, but all of a sudden we’ve gone up a whole other level. That made a huge difference when we got in to record this (new) record because, man, we were flyin’ by the time we got in to record. We’re a very collaborative band and that gets overlooked a lot. I don’t there’s a single song on the record I would have finished if it weren’t for them.”