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| Scott and Seth Avett |
Almost
exactly a year ago today (November 10, 2017), I went to a bluegrass, country,
punk, rock and roll, indie, and folk concert. Now, I didn’t go to six different
concerts in one day. I saw the Avett Brothers, a group who the San Francisco Chronicle describes as having
“the heavy sadness of Townes
Van Zandt, the light pop concision of Buddy Holly, the tuneful jangle of the
Beatles [and] the raw energy of the Ramones.”
The
Avett Brothers are an American folk-rock band consisting of Scott Avett, Seth
Avett, Bob Crawford, and Joe Kwon. For Scott and Seth, music runs in their
blood; their grandmother was a concert pianist and their father was a
guitarist. When Scott was in college and Seth was in high school, their
respective bands collaborated on a few songs. However, the two groups
eventually disbanded, leaving only Scott and Seth to work together. In 2001,
Bob Crawford (a bassist) joined Scott and Seth. Together, the three released
their first album in 2002. Within the past sixteen years, the Avett Brothers
have added cellist Joe Kwon to their band and created 8 more albums.
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| Seth Avett, Joe Kwon, Scott Avett, and Bob Crawford |
The
Avett Brothers rocketed to success with their 2009 album I and Love and You. This album was representative of their “heartfelt, plain-spoken hooks and harmonies
straight from the North Carolina mountains they grew up around.” Their next
album, The Carpenter, showcased songs
that the brothers considered very personal, such as “A Father’s First Spring.”
Over time, their albums progressed into cross-genre, musical interpretations of
their “existence as a band.” Two of my favorite songs are “February Seven” and “No
Hard Feelings.” The latter is a track on their most recent album True Sadness. This song in particular
poses a major conflict for Scott; he let out very personal, painful feelings in
this song and to see it commercialized has become quite an internal struggle
for him. The highs and lows of the Avett Brothers’ lives are chronicled in the 2017
documentary May It Last, directed by
Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio. May It
Last narrates the everyday, professional and family life of the Avett
Brothers.
True
friendship and love between bandmembers has been a key player in the success and
longevity of the Avett Brothers. Tragedy struck for Crawford in 2011, when his
infant daughter suffered a seizure due to a brain tumor. The band stayed by
Crawford and his family’s side for weeks while his daughter was in the
hospital. They only left one at a time to go on food runs for Crawford and his
wife. The four grew closer than ever before and even prayed together. During
this difficult time, Crawford found peace through God and music. The love
between bandmembers is evident by their constant support of one another through
the most difficult of times.
As
far as creative process, the Avett Brothers are all about collaboration, especially
between Scott and Seth. Their collaboration reminded me a lot of the
relationship between Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, as described by Sunstein
and Thaler. Like Tversky and Kahneman, Scott and Seth have very different minds
that each tackle their creative projects in their own way. Their current
producer, Rick Rubin, claims that “the
tension between Seth and Scott is the driving force of the band.” Scott will
typically write the darker, pessimistic songs whereas Seth leans towards the
optimistic side of things. With the two working together, they are able to
portray the highs and lows of life with both a cynical and hopeful outlook. In
an interview with the Grammy Awards
Recording Academy, Scott states that they gain a lot of inspiration from
other music and artists. However, he says that most of their creative influence
is just raw emotion that forces them to think and create based on those
thoughts. Like many musical artists, the intrinsic motivation as illustrated by
Teresa Amabile has a huge impact on the Avett Brothers’ creative process. Since
childhood, Scott and Seth have had a passion and a dream to pursue music. In
the end, the Avett Brothers “joined together to present songs about experiences
that they as humans have known to humans who know what they mean.” These
experiences shape their music whether they’re heartbreaking or heartwarming;
they are real, and that’s what matters to the Avett Brothers.
My
favorite aspect of the Avett Brothers is their down-to-earth, “regular” life
amidst stardom. Scott and Seth live less than a mile apart on the North
Carolina farm they grew up on. They wash dishes, make coffee, fall in love, go
to church, and raise their kids just like everyone else. And somewhere, in the
midst of all that normality, they create music that speaks to people all over
the world who are all hoping it may last for the Avett Brothers.
Sources...
It was wonderful reading what you said about the Avett Brothers. I never really knew much about them other than the music they make, so it is heart warming to truly know how much they support each other and down to earth they are. My personal favorite song by them is Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise, mainly because it is in 7/4 for part of the play time, yet the song flows so well that it is hard to pick up on initially.
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