Las Vegas’ Rusty Maples aim big with full-length debut, ‘Detach’
With an easy laugh, he talks about going hard.
“I feel like the way that indie rock is going right now in the mainstream, it’s too soft,” says Blair Dewane, singer-guitarist for Vegas’ Rusty Maples, punctuating his thought with a chuckle. “And this whole folk indie rock thing, it’s kind of driving me crazy. I think I’m kind of done playing acoustic guitar.”
Dewane’s change of heart has been greatly abetted by the dude currently lying on his back in the middle of the studio in which Rusty Maples is rehearsing on a Tuesday afternoon, bracketed by music gear and an excitable trio of dogs, including a personable shih tzu with a purple mohawk.
Dewane eyes the bandmate in question, drummer Mike McGuiness, as he explains the impact he’s had on the group.
“Mike’s a metal guy,” he says. “Once Mike joined the band, right when he started playing with us, I was like, ‘This is legit rock and roll.’ ”
And the first record that they’ve all made together, “Detach,” the band’s full-length debut, is a legit game changer for Rusty Maples.
Since forming in 2011, Rusty Maples (whose lineup is rounded out by bassist Mike Weller and guitarist Ian Dewane, the latter participating in the conversation via cellphone), has become one of Vegas’ most critically acclaimed acts, lauded in numerous local publications — including this one — as one of the city’s best bands on stage and off.
They’ve released a trio of EPs, all of them more acoustic-based and Americana-leaning, their earliest material frequently enhanced by cello.
“Detach,” though, is decidedly more full-bodied and visceral, the country influences turned down, the guitars cranked up. “Give me emotion, wrapped in a chorus,” Dewane sings early on the album, delivering that which he seeks, his voice and aspirations rising in unison.
Rusty Maples have never sounded as invigorated as they do on songs like “Brand New Bones” and “Forever Alone,” a pair of surging rockers they fire off consecutively during the second half of an album that’s unabashed in its pursuit of big, emotionally resonant moments.
To make a record like this requires confidence, because there’s little middle ground when aiming big: You either succeed spectacularly in creating something genuinely stirring, or you fail embarrassingly and come off as overwrought and maudlin, the musical equivalent of some mawkish, wannabe Oscar contender with its big, fat heart pinned to its tear-stained sleeve.
And so while making “Detach” was a risk, it doubles as its own reward.
“I don’t think we had room to not be ambitious about this record,” says Blair Dewane, periodically taking his stocking cap off and on as he reflects on Rusty Maples’ past releases. “There’s always something that we can pick out of everything that we’ve done and say, ‘I wish I would have done this,’ ‘I wish I would have done that,’ ‘I don’t like the way we recorded this,’ ‘We should have waited to do that.’
“With this album, I feel like we were ready to record, and I think the dynamics fit because we put in the time to make it right. We practically took a year off of everything to write and record this album.”
Though they cut the demos for “Detach” locally at Naked City Audio downtown, where they’re at on this day, they traveled to Texas to track the album at Sonic Ranch studios, a sprawling compound just outside of El Paso where bands like the Yeahs, Yeahs, Yeahs, Broncho, Band of Horses and Cannibal Corpse have recorded.
It was a serious commitment in time and money, taking almost a year to complete at considerable expense to the band members, who had to make the decision to really invest in themselves.
“It was kind of like that ‘all or nothing’ feel,” Blair Dewane says, reflecting on the band’s mindset prior to making the record. “It was like, ‘We can run in place, keep day jobs and release EPs, or we can really try to release something that’s really great and go in debt.’ That’s what we did with this album.”
Everybody in the group is a veteran musician at this point, and “Detach” is a reflection of as much, the sound of a band becoming increasingly comfortable with who they are.
“We’ve learned from a lot of mistakes, learned how we are as touring musicians, songwriters and recording artists, all those things that happened at once for everybody,” Weller says. “There’s a point where you feel all right with your navigation of it, like, ‘OK, I feel like I know my way around enough to relax and be serious about something.’ ”
The album born from this mindset is a direct product of its environment, evocative of barreling down desert highways and the possibilities implied in the wide-open expanses that surround Rusty Maples’ hometown.
“It’s intentionally a Nevadan record,” Blair Dewane says. “The lyrics for me are definitely all about Las Vegas and the surrounding desert. That’s the whole point of the album for me.”
As such, the band is releasing it on Nevada Day, hosting a record release show at The Bunkhouse Saloon on Friday, where they’ll be joined by The Killers bassist Mark Stoermer and his band The Howndz, as well as Reno’s Failure Machine and Vegas’ We Are Pancakes.
“What’s more Nevada than that, dude?” Blair Dewane asks rhetorically.
It’ll be a big moment for Rusty Maples.
They have bigger ones in sight.
“With the last three EPs, I really don’t think there was material on there that could get us to that spot,” Ian Dewane says of his band taking the next step. “I feel like maybe we might be ready with this one.”
Read more from Jason Bracelin at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com and follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter.
