With his EP Last or Later on the horizon (May 17th), Burnt Sherpa’s mastermind, Greg Green, was kind enough to dive into his personal journey of the EP. The EP is not just a collection of songs but one man’s journey that traverses the spectrum of emotions from joy to sadness. Crafting a sound that is both raw and refined, Burnt Sherpa invites one to dig into the complexities of human emotion while rocking out to infectious melodies.
ATN: Your upcoming EP, Last or Later, is described as a ‘journey from the joy of a beach ride to the sadness of hearing the works of artists after they’ve passed on’. Can you delve into the thematic elements of the EP and how you crafted this narrative through your music?
BS: When I left the band, I feared losing my friendship with those guys or at least the camaraderie of being in a band and having the regular social interaction of practices and shows. At this stage of my life, it’s hard to get together socially just because of work and family responsibilities. I felt like I was alienating myself intentionally, as I left the band because I felt like I couldn’t contribute like I had in the past because of those same work and family responsibilities.
I also had a lot of fear that leaving the band would be the end of my creative endeavors with music. I never had much to do with the lyrical content of songs in Mr. Plow, but I wrote a lot of the riffs over the years. And on the last album, I started writing more complete songs and collaborating a lot more with Justin, who had become our primary songwriter.
But they didn’t abandon me, they encouraged me. Justin gifted me with a Les Paul and encouraged me to continue songwriting. So, I spent a few years in the background working on my guitar playing and singing—my wife and I found that there’s a little dive bar at the end of our street that has karaoke two nights a week and we spent the entire year of 2019 singing there both of those nights.
During that time, I started looking through my demo archives and learning the basics of recording. And when the first few songs started taking shape, the lyrics reflected some of the heartache I’d been feeling from leaving the band, but also some of the joy I felt about being able to keep doing this.
Also, I had the freedom to play in different tunings and write songs that never would have fit the Plow ethos. I’m having fun weaving groovier bass parts into a rock context. Not that the Plow doesn’t groove.
ATN: You mentioned that the songs on Last or Later will resonate with aficionados of ’90s music and evoke a sense of nostalgia. What inspired you to draw from the sounds of that decade, and how did you infuse those influences into your own musical style?
BS: I’m clearly a product of my influences, and I was in my 20s during the 90s, so most of those influences are bands like Soundgarden and the Smashing Pumpkins. But I also love the Neo-soul movement that arose in that decade. I love the grooves from Sade and Maxwell, and a lot of the development of my chops came from emulating those kinds of bass lines.
So, this is my attempt to incorporate basslines that evoke that Neo-soul feel in a more rock context.
When John Mayer put out his last album, Sob Rock, he said something along the lines of, this album will give people a sense of nostalgia for the 80s, and I realized I had inadvertently done the same thing, but with a different era and genre.
ATN: “Difficult Gift” was inspired by the passing of Mark Lanegan. Can you elaborate on the emotional journey behind this song and how it fits within the broader context of Last or Later?
BS:I rarely get too worked up when celebrities pass, but when Lanegan died so unexpectedly, especially after having just overcome some serious health issues, it caught me off guard.
I keep a list of phrases and lyrical ideas on my phone, and on that list, I had the phrase “difficult gift.” It occurred to me that the songs or art an artist leaves behind can be a difficult gift for their loved ones, and that became the theme for that song. But as it went on, I also ended up weaving my own departure from my band into the story. So, it ended up being inspired by Lanegan’s passing, but it’s more of an amalgam of events that were all hard on my soul making their way into the lyrics.
The song ‘Memories Collide’ ended up having a similar theme. It was originally inspired by getting back together with the guys for tacos one Friday afternoon, but the final lines of the song–“your voice, when it faded the scene, it wasn’t for better” were more auto-biographical. I know that sounds egotistical, but I guess I was hoping I’d be missed by everyone as much as I missed them.
ATN: As a multi-instrumentalist, how do you approach crafting the instrumentation and arrangements for your songs? Do you find yourself experimenting with different sounds and textures to achieve the desired atmosphere?
BS: Most of these songs start with a bassline that moves me. Once I have a groove I like, I record it to a metronome and then start dabbling with different guitar ideas and building one layer at a time. Once I get the drums recorded and have an instrumental track, I start thinking about vocal melodies and finally, at the very end, the lyrics come.
And the vocals are the last thing I record because I have to wait until there’s nobody home to record them. It usually takes several attempts to get it right, and I don’t want anyone to have to hear how the sausage is made.
ATN: Your project began as a way to finish demo ideas from your time with Mr. Plow but evolved into a full-blown endeavor. What sparked this transition, and how does Burnt Sherpa differ from your previous musical ventures?
BS: I had just started writing entire songs in Mr. Plow instead of bringing together riffs for us to put together like a musical jigsaw puzzle. So, when I left the band in early 2019, I spent that year working on my vocal chops and practicing a lot of guitar. Then, when I started feeling confident enough to try recording anything, I consulted the vault of Plow riff ideas and used them for my first attempts at recording.
None of those ideas made the cut for Last or Later, though. Although I did just finish recording an idea from those archives that will be released as a single sometime later this year.
As far as differences between Mr. Plow and Burnt Sherpa go, Burnt Sherpa is much more introspective and personal when it comes to the lyrics. Mr. Plow’s lyrics have always been intentionally focused on pop culture and the books we like. And as much as I love heavy music, several of these tunes are groovier than heavy, and probably a little more accessible to a wider audience.
ATN: Can you share more about your collaboration with producer Dean Dichoso on Last or Later? How did his involvement shape the sound and direction of the EP?
BS: I’ve known Dean for almost 30 years now. When Mr. Plow was playing our first shows, we often played with Dean’s band, and even then, when he was a teenager, and I was in my late 20s, he was the best musician I knew. And he kept going with music and became a big-time producer.
I didn’t reach out to him when I was first trying to figure out the basics of recording because I honestly thought he was too big time to bother with my little project. But finally, in a fit of desperation, I asked him to listen to one of my tunes and give me some feedback. I had listened to it through my home stereo instead of my car, and the whole mix just fell apart. It sucked and I couldn’t figure out why.
And, when I finally asked, he basically called me a dumbass for taking so long to reach out to him, and the rest is history. He’s mixed the entire album, given me a lot of feedback in general about recording and mixing, and most importantly, it’s been great catching up with an old friend.
ATN: What do you hope listeners take away from Last or Later?
BS: I hope that people resonate with the emotional nature of the lyrics, but still find the musical end of things solid enough to want to turn it up good and loud in the car. One of my first real experiences having any kind of fan of music I had anything to do with was when a German emailed us in the early 2000s to tell us he loved rockin’ out to Mr. Plow while he was driving way too fast on the autobahn. That we were a part of someone’s life soundtrack is an awesome feeling.
What non-musicians don’t know is that every single second of these songs are analyzed a million times over, so when people give a new tune a cursory listen and skip on to something they know better it makes your gut shrivel up a little. But when someone gives it a chance and this work that you poured your soul into becomes a part of their life’s soundtrack, it feels amazing. Because I know what certain songs have meant to me over the years.
ATN: What can fans expect for the rest of 2024?
BS: Right now, I’ve already got three new tunes done. One I mentioned above, originated from a Plow demo and the three people I’ve played it for all said it reminded them of Filter. The other two are poems from a local poet and English teacher here in Houston that I set to music. I really like these ideas, but they are definitely a different direction than what listeners will be hearing with Last or Later.
SAME 3 QUESTIONS WE ALWAYS ASK
ATN: Artist / band that you feel is the most underrated and why?
BS: I think King’s X should get more love—they’re often your musician friends’ favorite band. Ty’s guitar playing is amazing, Dug plays and sings with so much groove, and Jerry’s drumming is some of my favorite. Add the vocal harmonies, and it’s a crime they’re not bigger.
ATN: Artist / band that you would like to collaborate with and why?
BS: I’d like to work on some stuff with Dean, the producer, just because he’s super talented, and I think my sense of melody and time feel combined with his technical wizardry could make for something interesting.
ATN: Artist / band that you would like to tour with and why?
BS: I would love to open for Failure. Their last album was amazing, and I think their fans, of which I am one, would be a good fit for the Burnt Sherpa material.
