Artist Interview: Q&A with Noah Lit of Grackles
We sat down with the seasoned indie-rock musician about his new band, their deeply Austin-influenced sound and their self-titled debut album.
Noah Lit of Grackles. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Digging into the self-titled debut from Grackles—which comes out tomorrow, Friday March 29—is like opening an unexpected care package, each item a surprise but also delightful, like whoever sent it to you knows how to get your attention. From intriguing lyrics to unpredictable twists and turns in the sound, it keeps you guessing in the best kind of way.
Turns out the band itself is a sort of happy accident, which might partly explain their fun, eclectic, exploratory sound. In October 2022, drummer Jimmy Paxson (who was playing with The Chicks) got in touch with guitarist Jason Mozersky, whom he knew from playing together for Ben Harper. The old bandmates set up a recording session in Austin’s Arlyn Studio and enlisted their buddy Noah Lit, a local songwriter and musician, to write some songs for it. The magic they started there became a full album, as well as an eight-piece band who sold out their first show at Antone’s in downtown Austin.
What a story! I needed to know more. I connected with Lit to learn about the inspiration behind Grackles and some of my favorite songs from it.
Carol Roth: Hi Noah! Thank you for making time to talk to me—I love your album so much. I jotted down notes when I first listened, and they cracked me up afterward, so I wanted to share what I wrote: sixties, seventies, garage rock, psychedelic, blues rock, countrypolitan, outlaw country, spy movie theme, Elvis, Jake La Botz … does that sound right to you?
Noah Lit: That’s perfect. I need to remember that verbatim so when people ask, I can say, “Do you have 30 seconds? I’ll explain my style.”
CR: It was so fun, and every single song was a surprise. I loved how it was dark but playful at the same time. I’ve read that there are Austin influences in your sound, but I don't know much about specific markers of the Austin scene or sound. Can you tell me more about that?
NL: Sure! There’s some big ones like getting my friend David Grissom to play guitar on the song “Barn Burner.” He’s an Austin guitar god; he’s insane. He’s played with James McMurtry, an amazing Austin singer-songwriter. I could spend the whole time talking about how great David is and what his resume is like.
For me, I was trying to make a record that was like, if I were to go out on South Congress or Sixth Street back in the day, what kind of band would I wanna see? Austin always kind of had this way of going sort of blues, sort of country, never too far in each direction. Nashville is more country and other places are more straight-up blues, but Austin has this in-between thing. Plus a lot of psychedelic acts, like The 13th Floor Elevators. There was a great psychedelic country blues scene in Austin in the late 1960s and ’70s. So this album was me kind of imagining what I’d want to hear if I was going out to see a band at the Continental Club.
I was also taking from a lot of records that weren’t necessarily from Austin, but from my time in Austin, like the Willie Nelson stuff that came out in the nineties that Daniel Lanois produced. We kind of way missed the mark, but I don't mind where we landed!
CR: That’s a great explanation and makes a lot of sense based on what I heard on the record. I also read that you kind of came out of music retirement to form this group and make this record. Aside from being drawn to a challenge, what persuaded you to take it on?
NL: Yeah, I feel like I got tricked into making it! My friend Jimmy was gonna be in town and my friend Jason was like, let’s go record with my friend Kyle Crusham, who works with Paul Simon. That was how it all started. After the first day of recording, I was like, this feels right. It felt right geographically, and it felt age appropriate. When I was younger as a songwriter, a lot of times I tried to sound older and wiser, and now I am older! It just felt like this is music I could feel good going out and playing.
CR: Had you been entirely dormant creatively at the time?
NL: I have a surf band with my wife called Endless Bummer, but the main band I was in before was called Oliver Future. We were an indie rock band from Austin and moved to LA and did a bunch out there before breaking up. But we became friends again and, during COVID, we made a whole new Oliver Future record. We only played it out once and that was it. I felt like I wanted to get that out of my system and then I was like, okay, I’m good. I think it’s a pretty cool record, kind of psychedelic indie rock.
CR: That leads nicely into my next question; what’s different about what you’re doing with Grackles from the music you made before?
NL: I sing in a lower register now, so I’m intentionally writing for that lower register. Songwriting-wise, I felt a little more free to sit with a chord for a little bit longer, to make room for more guitar playing. I’ve been a guitar fanatic my whole life and Jason is one of my favorite guitar players, so I wanted to write songs that allow for some guitar work. In previous bands, writing more ethereal indie rock, electronic stuff, you don’t always get a chance to wail.
CR: What was the recording experience like for this album?
NL: Super fun! We met at Arlyn Studios, which is a really cool place on South Congress, and it was very luxurious, like we got to set up in a room and look at each other and play through songs. It was very old school and very cool. That was the initial session, just meeting up and playing through these little sketches I had and getting a take that we thought sounded cool. From there, I kind of had melodies in my head already, but I didn’t have any words written, so I wrote those after the fact. I put in my earbuds and walked my dog through Pease Park a million times listening to the instrumental tracks. It was a really fun way to do it, because I got the excitement of being in a room with my friends making music, but then I got to take a breath and sit with everything for a while.
Grackles album artwork.
CR: Besides your main collaborators who prompted this project, you have some cool guest vocalists on the album. How did those come about?
NL: Lauren Harris is a friend of mine who’s in an amazing band called Passiflora here in Austin. I just love the way she sings. I also love the way Leonard Cohen combines female voices with his deep vocals and wanted to play with that on this record. Lauren was game for it and just so great.
Then, my friend Kat Edmonson—she’s in New York now but I still think of her as an Austin artist—is just one of my favorite singers ever. I’d gotten to record with her with my last band, called Noah and the Megafauna. With those two songs that she’s on for Grackles, I just sent him over to her and she was happy to help out.
CR: Did they both record remotely and send you their parts?
NL: Lauren’s here in Austin, so I got to record with her here. But Kat did all of her stuff from New York.
CR: That’s amazing, because it sounds like it’s happening with you together.
NL: I know, it’s pretty wild. It’s so easy these days too.
CR: Yeah, I’ve heard multiple stories like that. You make it sound so good! I want to talk about two of my favorite songs from the record. I love “Eternal Return Blues.” It’s so atmospheric and I like the retro feel and the way you do your vocals, and it almost has this campy quality as well. Can you talk about the song?
NL: Yeah, that's my attempt at writing a blues song! I’ve loved the blues since I was in middle school, but where I was at the time, a white kid from San Antonio, it wasn’t the most popular choice. But it kind of set me on the path I've been on ever since, and I really wanted to do a blues song but flip it on its head a little bit. You're right, there’s a bit of sixties campy surf guitar. I played a Fender Jazzmaster, which is a real classic surf guitar, with a lot of reverb. But I wanted to have a breakdown where Jason could do a traditional blues thing, and he went into this really fun early Eric Clapton kind of vibe that we just loved.
CR: Yeah, it was fun! I also love “Top of the World.” It has this sweet countrypolitan feel, kind of lazy and rolling, but then it has these nihilistic, hopeless lyrics here and there. It’s a cool, crazy contrast. I was wondering what the story behind that one is.
NL: Jason had the chords and we messed around with it in the studio and the melody came pretty quick. He put it in a key I probably wouldn’t have written in—I got to go really low on it—and so I wanted a female singer to do the octave with me, which is what Kat does. We do that kind of Lee Hazlewood, Nancy Sinatra thing. Then she said, “Is it okay if I do some ‘oohs’?” I said she could do whatever she wanted. I got it back and she’d added all these big ahs and oohs, and it just kicked it into this whole other place like, okay, now this is the scene.
The lyrics I tried keep very straightforward and just very much how I felt right then. Like wow, my life is really special and I’m really lucky; I have all these great musicians and friends and I get to make music, which is such a great thing. At the same time, just the worst shit is going on in the rest of the world, like a slow-moving horror movie. And how it's hard to keep both those feelings in my head. I just wanted to talk about that, very simply.
CR: I think that that’s why it drew me to it—that pretty much explains my life and probably a lot of other people's lives; like, things are good, but it feels like the world is ending. I think that’ll resonate with a lot of people.
Do you have a current favorite track on the album or a song with your favorite backstory that we haven't talked about?
NL: I really like the last track, “Send Back the Roses.” From the moment we started recording it, I knew it was gonna be cool, but then we got to add a string section! Lyrically, it’s one of the few songs where I’ve allowed myself to be a little more narrative and sort of tell a story. And if your follow-up question is “What's the story?” … I don't know, but there's a story in there somewhere. I’m really proud of it.
CR: It’s a great way to cap off an album that’s full of surprises! Okay, completely changing gears: Where’s the name Grackles come from?
NL: They’re just really gnarly blackbirds—I think I saw one stealing a French fry from a baby and I was like, yeah, that’s the band name. They’re tough and cool and kind of scary. You think of birds as being these beautiful things, but when the grackles fly to your table, you’re like, oh man, those things look diseased.
It’s funny because ever since I picked that name, I’ve realized how many places in Austin have them as their mascot. It’s not just me; it's the city’s bird.
CR: Speaking of places in Austin, do you have plans to support the album with live shows?
NL: We’re gonna play a lot locally, because like I said, I really wanted to make music that can fit in a bar here—elevated bar music, I guess you could say—like “Eternal Return Blues,” which is just a cool vibey blues song where people can have a drink and not pay attention to but still enjoy. If people want to pay attention, that’s great. If not, we could settle into the background and just have a good time playing our guitars. I just wanna get out and play; I did it so much in my twenties that it sort of became a drag, but you start to miss it. As of right now, there’s no plans beyond Austin; just becoming a fixture here would be cool.
CR: Anything else you want to make sure you talk about before you go?
NL: I’m just really excited to know that people are hearing it and enjoying it, so thank you very much. It’s so hard to get anybody to listen to anything these days; everyone's attention is shot, myself included. Maybe we should all listen to more new music this year!
CR: Yeah, I think that's a good idea! I’m so glad I got to talk to you because I just love your album. It's so original and so fun. I wish you a lot of luck becoming an Austin fixture again. I’ve never been and people keep telling me I should go to Austin, so maybe that’ll be my excuse someday!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carol Roth. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Carol Roth is the primary writer, social media manager, podcast producer and event-calendar updater for Adventures in Americana. By day she’s a marketing writer/brand strategist. In addition to playing guitar and songwriting, she writes self-proclaimed “trashy” novels under the pseudonym T.A. Berkeley.
