As the national shutdown of live music continues across the country, bands are forced to get creative. That can mean doing drive-in concerts, live streams from the rehearsal space, hosting online dance parties, and a variety of other artistic outlets. The New Deal are no stranger to playing on the fly, and they’ve been forced to roll with the changes just like any other act.
The band recently released a quarantine-inspired collection of instrumentals dubbed the Isolation Suite. While many of us have found ourselves talking to ourselves just to get through another day of quarantine, TND keyboardist Jamie Shields decided to capture the captivating conversation he had with himself about his band’s latest project.
Interviewer: Hey Jamie, thanks for taking the time to sit down with me. You’re one of my favorite subjects to interview.
Jamie Shields: Thank you! You’re one of my favorite interviewers!
Interviewer: (laughs)
Jamie Shields: (laughs)
Interviewer: In all seriousness, let’s talk a bit about the Isolation Suite. Care to tell me how it came about?
Jamie Shields: The idea itself was born out of the ashes of our “Solitude Concert” concept. Due to COVID-19 everything started to shut down in early March and we found our touring schedule wiped out overnight, so we made the snap decision to live stream a series of concerts from an empty warehouse facility that was made available to us for this purpose. Our intention was to bring in a bunch of cool lighting and sets and play a series of shows over two or three days in an attempt to make it up to all the fans that were losing their chance to see us perform live. Unfortunately, this plan also went up in smoke as the city started to limit gatherings to smaller and smaller numbers of people and the concern with COVID required us to all shelter-in-place.
It was during this early part of the lockdown that I started thinking about recording a multi-movement piece of music utilizing only the instruments I had at my disposal in my studio. I’ve got a lot of gear and I’ve used most of it quite frequently over the years, but sometimes the computer software versions help speed things along when I’m recording. In this case, I had no deadlines—in fact, I had all the time in the world—so I decided that I would make a record using nothing but actual keyboards, guitars, drums, percussion, etc. and take as much time as I wanted.
I had a feeling that this decision would greatly influence the sound and style of the music in a positive way, which I felt was needed in the early months of the lockdown, but I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to write or how everything would turn out. I remember having a conversation with Dan [Kurtz] about this whole project. He was quite receptive and suggested that I do it with an eye towards releasing it as TND. This was helpful particularly because I knew I could then rely on two guys that could play the drums and bass much better than I ever could (laughs).
Interviewer: Describe the recording process. Was it difficult to piece the four movements together?
Jamie Shields: I have to admit that I was a little hesitant, seeing as it’s the antithesis of how The New Deal records music in the studio. Until now we’ve always created music as a single unit—the three of us in the studio writing music together and on the spot while the tape rolled, but with the Isolation Suite I was turning that concept on it’s head. I would compose everything, play all the arrangements, and then have Dan and Davide [Di Renzo] add their parts afterwards.
I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but I put that out of my mind and decided to just write the best music I could—the rest would work itself out. As for the four movements, I also made the decision to always be recording as I wrote, and the upshot is that most of the parts that you hear on the record were first takes. I went in and fixed up a note here and there but I didn’t spend any time trying to manipulate parts or try endless takes to get somewhere. The goal was to get the feeling down and leave it at that.
I hear saxophone on parts of the record. Any guest musicians?
Yup, but not on the sax! It’s a little-known fact that Dan Kurtz is also proficient on both the saxophone and the violin. He played both in our high school rock band and has recently joined The Omega Moos as a featured soloist. As I progressed with the recording I noticed some spots that would work well with a sax section, so I enlisted Dan to lead the charge. His work can be heard all over “Cycles II” and his arrangements are very sophisticated, harmonically speaking.
The guest musician actually appears in the big guitar outro on “Cycles IV” and that’s Brendan Bayliss from Umphrey’s McGee. He and I have been great friends for a long time and I always wanted his distinctive style and sound to grace a TND recording. I had just never found the right spot for it. As I worked out the arrangement for “IV” and started piecing together the outro, I realized that I had found my Bayliss spot. I asked him if he would honor us with his musical presence, and less than 24 hours after receiving the music he sent back that blistering solo. I couldn’t have thought up a better player to add to the Iso Suite.
How has the response been so far? It’s a little different than what most New Deal fans might expect.
The response has been overwhelmingly positive. I think a lot of people have been pleasantly surprised by the breadth and depth of this release. I know that a lot of our musician friends in the scene were floored when they first heard it, and that makes me happy. We write music for ourselves first and foremost, but it’s always a good feeling when that music also resonates with your fans and your contemporaries. It also feels good to know that TND doesn’t just have to be a dance-music band. The opportunities are endless if you allow yourself to expand your boundaries.
Thanks so much for speaking with me, Jamie. Anyone who wants to check out the Isolation Suite can find it on Spotify?
Yup! Plus all the regular digital music outlets!
Listen to the new EP by The New Deal, Isolation Suite, on the platform of your choice here or stream it via Spotify below.
The New Deal — Isolation Suite