“It’s like Bon Jovi,” Alejandro Rose-Garcia laughs. “It’s just, exactly like Bon Jovi.”
The Austin native is better known by his stage name, Shakey Graves, which was a one-man act at one point but has since evolved into a full band. And like Bon Jovi, both he and the band are now known by the same name. That name came from some friends a few years ago as the group sat around a campfire and gave each other Native American guide names.
This year, Shakey Graves was awarded “Best Emerging Artist” by the Americana Music Awards. His acceptance of the award included a performance at The Ryman in Nashville, his first opportunity to take the legendary stage. “The crowd was great and the legacy is astounding,” he said. “Personally, that’s one of my favorite things that I’ve done.”
While the year has been kind with the success of 2014’s And the War Came and the AAA mega-hit “Dearly Departed” featuring Esme Patterson, Rose-Garcia still calls Austin home. He also made his Austin City Limits debut this year, an especially satisfying achievement because it was in his backyard. He said it seemed like an unattainable goal. “It’s like, ‘Wow! I’m part of this now? Okay.’” Although it’s often difficult, he’s tried to maintain a connection to the city – to help nurture the careers of younger artists in the music mecca.
“It’s sort of a blind leading the blind type of situation, but yeah, anytime I can really go out and see shows, I try to,” he said. “It’ll be hard when you go home – the last thing you want to do is go see live music because you’ve just been doing it every night forever. But it’s important to me. The scene there is crucial and it’s hard for younger bands to make a living. I’m always very concerned with that and trying to keep my finger on the pulse.”
One of the things that makes Shakey Graves most unique is “Shakey Graves Day.” On February 9, 2012, Austin’s mayor proclaimed the unofficial holiday, and for each of the last three anniversaries of the occasion Shakey Graves has released all of its’ music for three days on bandcamp for “pay what you’d like to pay” prices. Sometimes it has included B-sides and rarities, but as the band prepares its next release, 2016 could be the biggest “Shakey Graves Day” yet.
“I kind of let the content dictate what it is,” he said of what to expect from forthcoming Shakey Graves Day releases. “I’ve had theories about what this one may be. I’ve thrown around doing a voice memo album at some point because I have so much weird rehearsal stuff and behind the scenes things that I’ve recorded on my phone and on my portable recorders. That’s one way to do it that might be really fascinating. There’s a lot of different possibilities. And there’s tons of B-sides from the record that didn’t work that might be there or alternate takes of certain songs. It’s that stuff and it’s kind of skimming the cream off of that and making sure it’s cohesive. I try to make it feel like an album. The one I did last year is one of my favorites, period. I’m considering releasing a hard copy of that at some point because I like it so much; it has a really nice flow.”
This year’s release included tracks titled “Haven’t You Noticed (The Ladies)” and “Chlorophyll (The Ladies).” And as they are only available within that three-day window, they’re difficult to find. Rose-Garcia explained the inspiration for those twin songs:
“We found this old tape,” he said of “The Ladies.” “My drummer and engineer — he bought an old reel-to-reel tape player on eBay and it had a recording in it. It was these two girls from the…anywhere from the 50’s to the 70’s – it may have been the 60’s – and it’s them [expletive] around. It sounds like they are doing a magazine quiz on each other; it’s so weird. They are telling all of these jokes that don’t make sense; they’re either inside jokes or jokes from the time period that I have no idea what they’re talking about. But the way they’re quipping with each other, it sounds like it could be a recording of anybody. We became enamored with these girls.”
He expects a new record to be released by fall. As such, there’s plenty of material ready to be heard, so choosing what to release in February will be more calculated.
“That’s the other thing – making sure that I don’t release something where I’m like, ‘Oh [expletive]!’,” he said. “The way we’re looking at it, we’re hoping to see the next album by next fall. And that’s also not to say – we’ll have to see how this winter goes, but we may be ready to release something totally unique on February 9. You might get a whole album that’s just a standalone. I’m playing with a lot of concepts.”
Shakey Graves was originally scheduled to perform in the Workplay Theater on Monday, November 23, but due to high demand, more tickets have been made available for a performance in the larger Workplay Soundstage. Wild Child opens. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20. For more information, visit workplay.com.