Dave Cobb and Anderson East Talk Bromance, Nashville, FAME Studios, Chris Stapleton and More

Dave Cobb makes damn good records. In this week’s print edition of the Scene, I write about Anderson East’s debut full-length Delilah — the first release on in-demand producer Cobb’s new Elekra Records imprint, Low Country Sounds. But while Cobb’s involvement is helping put East on the radar, it’s the singer-songwriter's charming demeanor, raspy vocals and classic soul infusion that’ll keep him in there.

Delilah — which East celebrates with a release show tonight at The Basement — certainly makes good on the singer's budding reputation as a soulful lyricist and charismatic performer, continues the no-hitter Cobb seems to be pitching when it comes to his work, following releases from Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson among man others that have struck a balance between critical acclaim and commercial success.

For the story, I spoke with East and Cobb separately about the album, from how they met to what things were like in the studio. After the jump are some of the bits of the conversations that didn’t make it to print.

On their first meeting and deciding to work together:

Anderson East: I ran into him playing, believe it or not, at the Bluebird Café. Which is — you’re Nashville, right? Is this The Scene that you write for? So you’re well aware that it’s the most Nashville-cliché thing to be doing. It’s hilarious that that was the place, where neither one of us are much in the world of Nashville. He ended up coming up to me after the show, ended up liking the tunes and liking my voice, I guess.

He’s like,“I make records.”

I think, “OK, cool. Everybody [in Nashville] does.”

Then he says, “I actually just started mixing this guy Jason Isbell’s record.”

My ears perked up, because I’d been a really big fan of Jason’s for a long time, coming from North Alabama and all that. So he invited me over to his house and we just kind of started nerding out on gear. I’d worked in studios in Nashville for a long time, so we hit it off just by being music nerds and gear nerd. He’s like, “Man, why don’t we record just two songs — see how it goes?” A day or two later got in the studio to feel each other out, and the rest is history. We’ve become really, really close friends. He’s been a good mentor to me, really supportive. I’m very grateful to know the guy.

Dave Cobb: I went to go see another friend play at the Bluebird on a songwriter round. We got there and it was his turn to sing and he opened his mouth and just his voice — I’m always attracted to voices, I think that’s kind of my thing is trying to find great singers. You can have a great drummer and if the singer’s no good, it’s kind of hard to make a great record. But you have a great singer, everything else feels like it kinda … it’s like cheating sometimes.

So I heard him sing, and it freaked me out: just the sheer tone and rasp and weight of his voice. He started to sing and about one minute into the song, he stops and he goes, “Scuse me y’all, I gotta go pee.” And he gets up and he holds the entire crowd at the Bluebird. He goes to the bathroom and he’s patting people on the back and he comes back out and he’s patting people on the back — “My bad, buddy, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for holdin’ you up.” I looked around at the whole room and people started laughing and giggling. They were just into it, and he had the entire crowd in the palm of his hand.

The Bluebird, in my opinion, is one of those precious places in Nashville, but he seemed to kind of get past the cloud of the history of the place and capture everybody’s heart. He finished the set and everybody bought every piece of merchandise that he had — every T-shirt, every CD, everything he had — and there was a line around the whole place just to meet him. I’m always looking for that, too, that ability to really just charm people and socially interact. He had all the traits. He had the songs, he had the voice and I loved his personality — I thought it was a winning personality. He had me at second one, you know?

On “Find ‘Em, Fool ‘Em, Forget ‘Em,” a song written by George Jackson and dug up on a visit to FAME Studios:

East: I love the writing of it. It sounds to be so chauvinistic right up front, and then by the time the second verse happens you realize this guy’s just had his heart broken; he’s just trying to put up his walls again. It’s still a really sweet song, but you gotta listen to it a little bit. I think that’s how I fell into it.

A lot of George Jackson songs are like that. I think that’s a really good art, to make the audience not be rooting for the storyteller up front. At least me, I wasn’t rooting for him. And then that second part happened and I’m like, "Aw, this is so not what I was expecting." I just fell in love with the story of it and the cleverness of how it was written. On top of that, it’s one of the grooviest things I’ve ever heard. So we tried to take that and put our own little spin to it.

Cobb: I feel like that’s a song that we all should have heard, but we didn’t. It felt like cheating, finding a song that good and getting to record it and getting the blessing of FAME to record it.

On the decision to record LIVE from FAME Studios:

East: Growing up down there, something I’ve always wanted to do was to go make some music in that room. It was all selfish — I’ll say that. It was something we wanted to do, and luckily everybody had the time to do it. We didn’t really think this was what people [were] gonna hear first, but I’m so happy it [was]. It’s really in the same spirit we made the record: just a group of people in a room with microphones on. It was very fun just to get to go do that, and we’re real proud of how it turned out.

Cobb: Yeah, that was just us being selfish. We wanted an excuse to go down to FAME and record. It was so cool, there’s so much history. All that music that came out of there is so powerful and so good. He’s a studio geek like I am, so it was really kind of cheating to have a good opportunity to go to this classic room and record and to capture and encapsulate where he was at this time in his life. It was really powerful going there. The room definitely has ghosts in it — it feels right when you go in there. I think he just went for it. He poured his heart out, because you look on the wall and there’s Wilson Pickett. You look on the wall, there’s Aretha. You look on the wall and it’s all our heroes, so it was kind of a shrine. We were paying homage to where it all came from.

On living and working in Nashville:

East: You know, I’ve been [in Nashville] for about eight years and, coming up, it was the perfect speed. I could get into as much as I wanted to, or stay in my house. The cost of living was so cheap that you could be broke, but you’re still just playing music or just working in the studio. New York, it doesn’t seem like that.

With the big growth that’s happening in Nashville now … when I got there it was right on the cusp of it. You could still be poor and be an artist. And everybody was like that; All my friends, it was the same way. I just hope it stays like that. I think those people make that town what it is, and make it so attractive for all the growth.

On top of that, it’s just a great place — it is Music City, USA. The best music in the world comes through there. Every night, there’s a great show to go see or you show up to a session with some guy you’ve never met, but you have all the same friends and it’s like, "Oh, that’s the best keyboard player I’ve ever met. And I just lucked into this. That’s one of the best players I’ve ever heard in my entire life." It doesn’t seem to happen like that [elsewhere]. Everybody continually makes each other better. I don’t think it’s competition in a negative way: I think everybody’s just trying to better themselves and therefore, just their willingness to share that, makes everybody else better.

On East’s co-write with Chris Stapleton for “Quit You” and whether Cobb had anything to do with it:

Cobb: Oh, yeah — I had just cut Stapleton’s record and obviously Anderson’s a big fan of Chris Stapleton. While we were sequencing Chris Stapleton’s record I had Anderson come by. I was like, “Guys, trust me. My friend’s cool. It’d be cool to have somebody that’s never heard the record kind of help sequence it.” They were a little apprehensive, but they trusted me. He came by and they just hit it off. We had the best time. We had kind of a wine party; drank a little bit and had fun and sequenced the record.

Those guys got close. They heard him sing when he was there — heard him sing along. Chris was like, "Holy shit." It was amazing that somebody, a really respected singer, was acknowledging how good Anderson was. We asked if he would write with Anderson, and he was like, “Hell yes.” So they got together.

It‘s just cool. I love it when really great artists connect with each other. I think that happened years ago in the ‘60s in California. It happened in London at one time, in New York it happened. I think it’s Nashville’s time now. If we can just all collaborate and cooperate and work with each other, it’s just going to make Nashville the strongest place in the world, which I think it is now, musically. I think that’s cool, that nobody has an ego: that they’re all willing to help with each other, write with each other and promote each other. I think that’s great. I love that about this city.