Interview: Cory Chisel

When Decider last checked in with Appleton singer-songwriter Cory Chisel in July, he had just released the Cabin Ghosts EP on RCA imprint Black Seal. With Chisel coming back to Milwaukee on Tuesday for a show with Rachael Yamagata at the Turner Hall Ballroom, we called up to get an update on his forthcoming full-length, which is tentatively titled Mockingbird and even more tentatively scheduled for release in July. Working with producer Joe Chiccarelli—who also helmed The White Stripes’ Icky Thump and The Shins’ Wincing The Night Away, among many albums—Chisel was joined in the studio by an all-star cast that included members of My Morning Jacket, The Raconteurs, and Band Of Horses. Decider caught up with Chisel last Wednesday, the day after he finished recording, for a quick chat.

Decider: How is work coming on your full-length record?
Cory Chisel: We started recording it in L.A., and we did 15 songs in seven days. Then we came down to Nashville to finish it up, because a lot of people that we’re playing with are from Nashville. We’ll be listening to mixes of it while we’re on the road with Rachel Yamagata. I think I really like it. I had my breakdown the other day, where I thought everything we made might not be worth listening to. Joe kind of talked me off the wall.
D: It sounds like you made it pretty quickly.
CC: For my part, it will take three weeks, and that’s including the past two weeks where we came back and looked at the songs and were like, “OK, what the hell did we just make?” We put the pieces back together and re-tracked two songs in Nashville, which isn’t bad out of 15 songs. I’ve never made a record this fast in my entire life.
D: What was it like working with producer Joe Chiccarelli?
CC: It was amazing. A lot of the band members that joined us have worked with Joe in the past, like Carl Broemel from My Morning Jacket and Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler from the Greenhornes and Raconteurs. Joe is like a master Jedi.
D: How did you get hooked up with him?
CC: About two years ago, when we first starting thinking that we’d be making a full-length record. Joe was really high on our list. Every album we were listening to at the time, Joe helmed, either producing or engineering it. So, we started the process of trying to get in touch with him. And then, in the past six months or so, our stuff made its way into his ears, and he called us right away and said he had the time to work with us between records.
D: You're always bringing different musicians in and out of your backing band The Wandering Sons. What’s the current state of the group?
CC: It’s always evolving, depending on who is playing with who’s available. But it will probably be a similar group of characters coming out on the road with us. I would like to keep it exciting for me, to not know who is going to be out. It forces you to feel like you’re 15, where you’re getting to know people and you’re excited about who’s jumping in the van.