The Minor Adjustments LIVE Double Decker Weekend!

Interview by Nature Humphries … Photographs by Newt Rayburn

Amid a weekend chock-full of music, art, food, fun, and who knows what-all, one standout performance will be going down on The Blind Pig stage Friday night, April 27th. Celebrating their brand new self-titled CD, The Minor Adjustments are ready to rock your socks (or other various articles of clothing) off. In fact, filled with the band’s captivating melodies and front man Patrick McClary’s voluptuous vocals, the atmosphere in the Pig will be hotter than a billy goat in a pepper patch! Plus, there will be tons of special guests stopping in to jam, so make sure you don’t miss out. They’ll be playing Saturday at 2 pm during Double Decker as well, just in case you need more.

I wrangled Patrick away from his busy schedule to get the scoop on the new recording, and this I pass along to you with a tip: this is damn good stuff.

Tell me a little about your band. How did you get together?
I took a break from music for a year, and then started getting back into it slowly with just some solo stuff and then Chris Steiner and I started working on some songs together. When Mayhem [String Band] took a break, and Steiner and I decided we were gonna do an album, and that was really all we were going to do, but it winded up working out. He wanted to play bass and then Bob [Robert Turan] got involved. And everybody that we would get to come do some chordin’, like Eric [Carlton] would want to keep playing. Ratty [Andrew Ratcliffe] played drums on that first album. We just started writing together and that’s sort of how it all came about. We went on the road for a little bit, we just did a little tour where we played all over the Southeast, we played around here for a while, and then Steiner moved. And so we decided to replace Steiner, and Ryan started playing drums. I’d always wanted to play with Ryan and I wasn’t really aware how great of a drummer he was. You know, I’d sat in with Rocket 88 before, but when I really started playing with him I noticed how awesome a drummer he is. He’s my favorite.

You recorded this out at Tweed Studios. How long did it take?
A while. Well, to actually record it, total studio time was about three weeks to a month. It went really well. The songs now, they all flow really well. This time on track #4 [“Whisper”] we got some of the Ole Miss horns to come in and lay some stuff down, and Rosie & Gin-Gin, and it’s kind of an R&B, fun song. And they were awesome; they came in and just killed it. I stayed out of the studio that day. [laughs]

Tell me a little about the tracks.
“Gold Hardware” has Whit Wright, the pedal steel player from American Aquarium. And I couldn’t even tell you who all—on “Wrong Direction” at the very end you’ll hear a bunch of people clapping and yelling because we watched NFC Championship game (the year the Saints won the Super Bowl), out at Ratty’s. That night, at the end of the party we got like 20 or 30 folks in the room and started playing the chorus and everybody sang on it, and it is so funny; it was great fun. Then, let’s see, “Takes a Toll” is a song that Steiner and I wrote.

As of today the only songs I’ve heard are “Stranger,” “Takes a Toll,” and “Coin Flip.” And they all have that kind of moody feeling to them. I don’t really want to say depressing exactly, but…
Yeah, absolutely, they’re slow. Both of those songs were on The January Sessions, the first one we released. The only ones that we didn’t put on there were “Train,” “Wayside,” “Whisper,” and “Pieces.” Those were the new four. The rest were on The January Sessions, which we only had a thousand copies released.

Tell me the story behind one of my favorite songs, “Stranger.”
It’s just about anybody in a town with a square. I was telling somebody that I wish I’d done more to that song, like maybe another verse. But I feel like it’s just a short little… somebody told me that I couldn’t have done anything more. The “don’t be a stranger” part is – you know when you haven’t seen someone in a while and you know they’re having a tough time? And like 90% of the time it’s because of a break up? So, they’re dealing with it in their own way, self-medicating and they’re off in their own little world and they get a little loose and…

Fall down on The Square?
Yeah.  And that song actually segues to one of the new songs we recorded this last time is called “Wayside,” that Rosie sings on. As we were going through, it was kind of short, just the right length and in the same key as “Stranger,” and it also has the same sort of theme. There’s a line in there – “reach out your hand for me and you’ll find mine.” It just ended up perfect. Eric is holding out this long note on the organ and it just kind of rolls perfect. So we just let them segue into each other. We do that live all the time now, and it’s fun.

Any plans to tour?
Yeah. Hopefully. Right now we’re trying to get the good word out and make sure people come to the shows. World domination—one bumper sticker at a time.

This article was published in The Local Voice #154 (April 19-May 3, 2012)…Click here to download the PDF of issue #154.