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Wheels Off with Rhett Miller

John McCauley

Wheels Off with Rhett Miller

Rhett Miller

Arts, Performing Arts, Music

5.0596 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John McCauley, singer-songwriter and the frontman of band Deer Tick, joins Rhett to talk about getting back on the road with the band post-lockdown and balancing his on stage persona with his life offstage. The two discuss John’s evolution as a songwriter and desire to become a better musician, and John explains why his band continues to push themselves creatively with each new record. Founded by John McCauley in 2004, Deer Tick’s sound blends elements of folk, rock, country, and punk, creating a distinctive and eclectic musical style. Known for his distinctive gravelly voice, introspective lyrics, and intense live performances, McCauley’s musical contributions often reflect personal experiences, exploring themes of love, loss, and self-discovery. Emotional Contracts, the latest full-length release from Deer Tick, catalogs all the existential casualties that accompany the passing of time, instilling each song with the irresistibly reckless spirit that’s defined the band for nearly two decades.  Listen to the new album Emotional Contracts here Follow @deertickmusic Rhett Miller website Follow Rhett @rhettmiller Wheels Off is hosted and produced by Rhett Miller. Executive producer is Kirsten Cluthe. Editing by Matt Dwyer. Music by OLD 97’s. Episode artwork by Mark Dowd. Show logo by Tim Skirven. Distributed in partnership with Osiris Media. This podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also ask Alexa to play it. Revisit previous episodes of Wheels Off with guests Rosanne Cash, Rob Thomas, Jeff Tweedy, The Milk Carton Kids, and more. If you like what you hear, please leave us a rating or review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Osiris.

0:04.0

Welcome to Wheels Off, a show about the messy reality of the creative life. I'm Rhett Miller.

0:10.0

That's when it got wheels off.

0:13.0

We started ugly ain't gonna stop.

0:16.0

Oh, she made me feel like a good God.

0:19.0

That's when it got wheels off. John McCauley of the band Deertyk is one of my favorite frontmen songwriters, rock and rollers.

0:29.2

A great human being, complicated guy, weird guy.

0:34.7

I don't think he would argue with that assessment.

0:43.2

He's the truth behind the cliche, Still Waters run deep. Though to call John McCauley's Stillwater's Stillwaters is a bit like calling

0:49.7

a tornado a gust of wind. He is, when he gets on stage at least, a tornado. He's crazy

0:59.1

as a frontman, which I love about him. He's like Lux Interior. He's like, you know,

1:06.7

Paul Westerberg on a good night. He's one of those frontmen where you imagine that he was born to do this

1:17.1

thing. He was born to stand on a stage, command an audience, channeled divinity, divine providence,

1:25.0

to insert one of their album titles into this introduction.

1:29.6

He's great.

1:31.2

And I don't think he does a ton of the press for the band.

1:34.6

I think Ian, who's also fantastic, is saddled with doing most of the face man talking work.

1:52.7

And John, when you get him going, you realize there's a lot there.

1:57.8

And I think he gets going pretty well during the course of this interview. I think you're going to love it. I think you're going to get a lot out of it. I know I did. It was good to reconnect with an old friend, and it was really great to get to pick the brain of an artist whom I admire as much as I do, John McCauley from Deer Tick. Welcome to Wheels Off, John McCauley. Hello, my friend. How are you? I'm doing pretty great. Red Miller. Nice to see you.

2:23.5

I won't repeat. You know, I'll tell our audience we had to do a restart for technical issues,

2:28.0

but John and I did have a lengthy discussion about our gold teeth. John, you just got a second

2:33.3

gold tooth. I did last year. It looks so good. It's so sparkly.

...

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