The Old Ceremony will be performing at the Shakori Hills Festival in Chatham County on April 17 and at the Garage in Winston-Salem on May 15.
In case you couldn’t already gather it from the name of his band the Old Ceremony (www. theoldceremony.com), Django Haskins loves the music of Leonard Cohen. Being a songwriter, he says it’s hard not to fawn over him. There’s never a syllable that seems forced or out of place and everything just flows like water without ever sacrificing vital elements to make that happen. One line from the song “Democracy” that he holds in particular esteem says, “I’m stubborn as those garbage bags that time cannot decay/ I’m junk but I’m still holding up this little wild bouquet/ Democracy is coming to the USA.” “How do you even try to write a song after hearing something like that?” Haskins asked.“You might as well write another ‘Louie, Louie’ and get it over with, because there’s no point at trying to beat him at his game.” Most lyricists might never approach the poetic qualities of even Cohen’s most middling work, but then again, most little leaguers will never hit as many home runs as Albert Pujols. While Fathead may not make life-sized wall graphics of Cohen, Haskins’ veneration takes on a more intangible quality. Nearly four albums later, the Old Ceremony seem to be doing quite all right for themselves and that much is apparent by their choice billing at the upcoming Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival. Though they’re veterans of the festival, their ascension to the Friday late-night slot on the main stage is evidence of both their increasing popularity and their ability to captivate audiences with their unrestrained, yet highly evolved approach to indie-pop. While the festival’s folk and country roots are ostensible, it plugs in as the sun sets and makes way for an eclectic and electric assortment.
Even with the primo booking in a setting favorable for gaining new fans, the Old Ceremony still have a tough act to follow. They’ll be preceded by international star Rachid Taha’s exhilarating fusion of rock, techno and Middle Eastern music, though Haskins says that picking up after amazing sets by other artists is a bit old hat to them. In fact, the only time he says he’s ever been nervous before a show was following Chuck Berry at a music festival in New Jersey. Still, he welcomed the challenge then and he welcomes it this Friday night. “It’ll just kick us in the ass and we’ll take it up a notch,” he said. Though it might exasperate his fellow band members from time to time, Django Haskins usually can’t bring himself to put together a set list for a show without first taking a crowd assessment. With so many factors to consider before taking the stage, why not do a little engineering? Audiences themselves can be just as singular as each of the individuals of which they are composed, he contends, and such details should not be overlooked.
“I need to feel what the night is like,” Haskins said. “It’s a real intuitive thing, but that’s the fun of it.” Through his band’s five years in existence, Haskins as built a diverse catalog of music spread out over three albums, with a fourth in the works, which affords him a sort of creative elasticity to mold to his audiences’ state of mind. The chamber pop of the Old Ceremony’s self-titled debut album representd to Haskins’ desire to break away from the sound of the rock bands with whom he previously performed.
The follow-up Our One Mistake represented more of a complete band effort and produced several crowd favorites, while Haskins calls the recent Walk On Thin Air the band’s most experimental to date. With help from producer Chris Stamey, formerly of the dBs, and many others, Haskins says the album’s meticulous attention to detail produced a density that acts as the perfect foil to the immediacy of the Old Ceremony’s previous work. With that behind them, they’ve moved onto their fourth album with yet another divergent vision.
The goal, he says, is to record the album in as few takes as possible, essentially creating an in-studio live album. Haskins wants the album to possess the immaculate production values of the controlled studio environment, while also having the urgency and spontaneity of the band’s live show. There’s a sort of undefined energy that he says the band exudes when they perform, though even he admits capturing it will be difficult. “I suppose we could put in some fake crowd noise and do a ‘Benny and the Jets’ type of thing,” he jokes. Regardless of his current studio vision, Haskins is simply looking forward to stepping into a slot at Shakori that was the scene of one of his favorite festival memories.
“I saw the Avett Brothers doing this spot while it was raining with the whole meadow full of people,” he said. “You could see the reflection of the stage lights on the rain coming down while they were pouring their hearts out. It was a pretty magical experience.”
