Derek tells us how he got back with his old friends in Caedmon's Call for their new record, Overdressed.
In this final installment of our six-part series, Derek tells us about working with his old friends, Caedmon’s Call and how it happened.
Suite: How did it come about, getting back with Caedmon’s Call?
Derek: Well it’s really surprising. It was just a really super organic kind of process. The whole thing was totally unexpected. If you’d have asked me a few years ago If I ever imagined this happening I would have said absolutely not (laughing). Just because this isn’t something I planned. It’s not something I saw coming by any means.
Basically what happened was that Caedmon’s got out of their deal with Essential Records, which is where they’ve been for quite a while, since basically the beginning of our career. They ended up in talks with INO Records, which is where I am currently. They ended up finding them probably because of conversations we’ve had over the years, probably had something to do with that because I’m really happy at INO and I’m sure that I told them how great it is over there.
So they came over and had meetings and hit it off. It just was this organic kind of thing that happened where we started to talk about the band really wanting to kind of, not reinvent themselves, but kind of get back to discovering what was special about Caedmon’s Call and just the things that they do really well and the things they are really clearly called to.
Caedmon’s is a tremendous band and they have such unique resources within their band to do things that nobody else can do. But they’ve kind of gotten away from that in the last few years and I think they have regretted that.
So, here’s the moment, new record label, kind of a new start to regain the trust of the fans and really come out and do something great again. They really have the desire to do that. So we offered to talk about it and it was just this moment where we said, “You know what, we’re all part of one community.”
Caedmon’s has been such a long story for so many people, so many people are a part of it. Bebo Norman, Andy Peterson, there are so many artists that have come out of the Caedmon’s Call community, either people who were on the fringe of our community that we dragged out on the road, or got signed the record deal and we just thought, let’s just put our resources back together and let’s see if we can rediscover what’s really great about this band and what’s totally unique about this band.
So we decided not to try to put any name on it, not to put any kind of category on it, not worry about exactly what it was we were doing. Are we reuniting, what are we doing? We thought it would be easier to let the moment happen. If good things would happen, if good music was coming out of our being together at this moment, then let’s just follow that and not worry about it until afterwards. Which is what we did.
I had just finished The Ringing Bell and I had some songs that I had played for them that didn’t go on that record that I had when I finished. It also was inspiring just being back with my friends in that capacity and I started to write some more songs which was really unusual for me having just finished a record I’m usually not writing again so fast.
There were just these songs that seemed to really belong on the record because they were written in the context of being with these people again. So next thing you know, we’re all just sort of rehearsing each other’s songs, helping arrange everything, then there was studio time getting booked and then we were all in the studio. We were recording the record. It was about a month later that we just kind of sat down and said, "Ok let’s figure out just what this is now, because it’s going to be confusing for people," and so we decided that I would come back for this record and the tour that would follow it next spring.
We’re not going to tour in the fall because of people having some babies and things like that and we’re going to wait until the beginning of 2008 and then we’re going to go on the road. We’re going to tour and I’m going to do that with them. It’s gonna be a really fun season.
You don’t often see bands go in different directions and then actually come back again and do something together again for no good reason other than just the fact that they enjoy playing music with each other. So that’s what we found ourselves in. It’s really remarkable. I’m still really kind of surprised that it happened. (Laughs)
Suite: There are a lot of fans that are really delighted by it too, from a lot of things I’ve read. Personally, myself, it’s going to be a neat thing to see.
Derek: Yeah, It’ll be remarkable to get back on the stage together. We haven’t been onstage together in so long and there’s so many songs that suddenly we’ve got to play together, that I certainly haven’t been playing on the road, I play some Caedmon’s songs in my set, but there’s a lot that I haven’t played, that they haven’t played that suddenly we’re gonna have to think real hard on what songs to play because we’ll have 3 hours of material so it’ll be really fun to get on the road and do that again with those people.
Suite: Kind of like the original Kiss reunion tour.
Derek: Exactly. That’s exactly what I was thinking (laughs).
Derek Webb Interview Part One: Derek talks about the title of his new CD and writing songs.
Derek Webb Interview Part Two: Derek talks about peace and pacifism.
Derek Webb Interview Part Three: Derek expands on pacifism and tells us about his graphic novel.
Derek Webb Interview Part Four: Derek talks about using different mediums to communicate a concept.
Derek Webb Interview Part Five: Derek talks about his courtship and having fun.
