By Ben Richardson
Saviours. Photo by Magda Wosinka
Scott Batiste of Saviours is in a unique position regarding the band's transforming sound. Unusually for a drummer, he is also the band's primary songwriter, hammering out riffs despite his limited chops with a pick. Though previous albums were crafted on a bass, this year's Accelerated Living (Kemado) was written on guitar. “I got a shitty Flying-V copy and it just became my muse," he says. "I was playing guitar so much, just unemployed, sitting at home and playing guitar all day. Everything just came out faster, and tougher.”
Saviours, "Livin' in the Void"
Once the rough riffs are completed, guitarist Austin Barber takes over, acting as a sort of musical translator. The close understanding between the two is palpable in person, but bears its ripest fruit in the practice space. As Batiste admits, “A lot of the guitar playing I do isn't really decipherable [to the rest of the band].”
The arrangement has other drawbacks. “I feel like I can write myself into a box.," says Batiste. "I only write what I can play comfortably. I do it less now than with the earlier stuff.” Though he rarely has a drum part in mind when writing, Batiste benefits from a deeper understanding of the songs in rehearsal, which further stokes his creative fires: “On this record, I was trying to push myself on drums. I'm playing two kick drums, which I had never done before, and I was going down to the practice space, playing along to Motorhead's Overkill (Sanctuary, 1979), trying to learn the whole record.”
In the studio with Saviours
A change in percussive power is certainly noticeable, along with an improvement in every other conceivable metric. Though the approach is idiosyncratic, the strength of Saviours' shuffling grooves, the intricacy and melodic potency of their leads, and the arresting rawness of their sound all point to a band ready to escape their humble Oakland roots in the pursuit of wider renown. In keeping with their hedonistic lifestyle, their transformation into a bigger, better, faster band left no room for second thoughts. Says Barber, “we've played so much together, and toured so much together, there was no real discussion. It was just like, 'go!'”
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