September 19, 2025 • 30 mins
Join Buzz Knight as he speaks with Truett Heintzelman and Phillip Lupton from the indie band Briscoe. They give you a behind the scenes look at the making of their new album "Heat of July" and the inspiration behind it.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm buzznight and welcome to another edition of Taking a Walk.
This is the podcast where we get the stories behind
the music from all sorts of artists, new artists, hall
of famers, the whole gamut. Today we're joined by a
band that's been quickly turning heads with their sharp lyrics,
rich harmonies, and a sound that feels both fresh and timeless.
(00:25):
They're lifelong friends who turn their shared love of music
into something that's resonating with audiences across the country. They
call themselves Brisco, and if you haven't crossed paths with
their songs yet, you're about to discover why so many
people are leaning in. So settle into the rhythm and
(00:46):
we'll get into it with Brisco after these.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Words taken a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, it's so good on the Take on a Walk
podcast to have Brisco on. That's Philip Lupton and True Heinzelman. Hello, gentlemen, Hello, Hello,
it's going well. It's so nice to have you on
Taking a Walk. So, since we do call this this
little podcast Taking a Walk, I'd like to ask this question.
(01:17):
If you could take a walk with somebody living or dead,
who do you think you would take a walk with
and where would you take that walk?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Wow, that's a great question. I have thought about this.
I've checked out your podcast and had seen that you
asked this question, and it really got me thinking. And
it's funny because my answer, before I even realized that
you had talked to him before, was immediately Lyle love It.
(01:50):
I would just love to take a walk with Lyle
love It. I'd love to pick his brain on everything, songwriting,
everything textas, everything, Mexican food, and I would just take
a walk through the neighborhood that I live in that
(02:10):
we both live in in Austin is a called Hyde
Park and it's just a homey neighborhood. I don't know
where law love It lives, but I've seen him at
a restaurant in this neighborhood before, and I would just
take a walk around the neighborhood, maybe stop and grab
a margarita or something and pick his brain.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
That's a great one. I love it.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
So I didn't come as prepared, but off the top
of my head, I would love to take a walk
with Jerry Garcia.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I am just super.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Fascinated by him, as I think a lot of people
are as a musician, as.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
A writer as just a person, he's just he's such
a peculiar.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Person who had a lot of very profound things to say.
I know, songwriting wise, he wrote a lot of times
with Robert Hunter, so I honestly, if I could pick
both their brains, that'd be great. But even just Jerry,
I think he's a super underrated songwriter and lyricists perhaps.
I think obviously people love his songs, but I think
(03:20):
his lyrics are incredible, and so I would love to
just get to kind of talk about that with him.
And I think to just his viewpoint on the world
and on things was very unique, and would be super
interested to hear what he had to say about everything.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
And so are two good ones. They're all good, but
those are two side by side that would be pretty
pretty incredible. Never had the opportunity myself to run into
mister Garcia while he was on this planet, and having
Lyle Lovett on was a long standing dream come true.
(04:04):
And as you both know, he couldn't have been any
nicer and accommodating, So that was a a big, big thrill.
So we're going to talk about your new music Heat
of July, and you know, get into that, but first
of all, take me here to the beginnings and the
(04:25):
story behind how Brisco came together.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah, absolutely, I'll jump in. Also, I don't think we
introduced ourselves. I'm Philip. This is Truett, Okay, Brisco Brisco
so Trut and I met at a summer camp when
we were in middle school age around around that, maybe
(04:50):
seventh or eighth grade. We went to a summer camp
and we were just talking about this. But it was
so funny when we met for the very first time.
We were wearing the same exact pair of shoes. And
you'll be able to tell, but we have red, curly
hair and we looked like twin brothers. So when we met,
(05:14):
it was comical because we looked like twins and we
were wearing the same exact pair of shoes. We grew
up in different cities and we stayed friends through high school.
We continued to go to the summer camp and we
just started to play music together. We realized we had
(05:34):
a lot of the same influences, We loved a lot
of the same music, and kind of through late high school,
began writing a lot of songs and started to release
that a little bit, and then we got to college
at the University of Texas in Austin, and that's when
we really made Brisco official and began to play shows
(05:55):
and gig around and record music and try to get
get it off the ground.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I'd say, you've gotten it off the ground.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Oh, thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Can you guys talk about though, those musical influences, obviously,
I'm sure it touches a little bit on what you
led with on the taking a Walk question. I'm sure
lyle Lovett's had influence. I'm sure Jerry Garcia has had
influence as well, especially considering what Jerry did so brilliantly
(06:32):
on how he and all those others in that little
supergroup called Olden in the Way kind of took bluegrass
and brought it into a different sense of mainstream, which
was kind of unheard of then and to this day,
that you know, great project Olden in the Way still
stands as a milestone. But talk about, you know, Philip
(06:56):
and true at your musical influences could just get lost.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Talking about our musical influences is kind of like when you're,
you know, a young kid, did a shopping mall with
your mom and you get lost and it's just so exciting,
but it's almost overwhelming because we could just.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Be there all day.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
So musically, I mean, like you said, everything from Jerry Garcia,
that whole late sixties through the seventies decade of music
is just to us the like pinnacle of music, both
from a songwriting perspective that spends plenty of genres, you know,
the whole Laurel Canyon scene, the country scene in that day,
(07:38):
guys like John Prime, you got senior songwriters like James Taylor.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
The Eagles or a band that we think you're one
of the best out there.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
And so that age of music, I think is what
we're both raised on and it's what we both consider
to be like kind of the gold standard of music.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
And so that has a ton of influence.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
And then yeah, guys like Jerry Garcia, like you're saying,
it's so fascinating to me that he, you know, like
started off really as like a blues guy and then
the Dead kind of morphed into this like folk bluegrass,
you know, like working Man's Dead sound into you know,
(08:26):
blues into a jam band, and then obviously eventually got
into the psychedelic thing. But just the way that he
kind of intertwined all those is something that's really fascinating
to us.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And we, you know, call ourselves like a Texas folk.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Rock band, but there's you know, aspects of like country music,
aspects of bluegrass music, aspects of like southern rock music,
aspect of straight up blues music. So we really appreciate
that sort of bouncing and weaving through genres, and especially
in the way that he did it, that was so authentic.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
How about you, Yeah, Yeah, I think that's that's a
great kind of take on where we're at. I remember,
so I'd like to compare it to this. When I
moved to Austin for college, I had grown up in
a town called San Angelo in West Texas, and San
Angelo didn't have very many restaurants with different cuisine. So
(09:25):
I get to Austin and it's like, Okay, I'm going
to try Korean food. I'm going to try chicken tika masala,
I'm going to try all these different foods, and I'm
gonna just like feel like I'm in a brand new world.
And getting to Austin and exploring the music scene felt
(09:46):
so similar because I was in this new world. I
was just inundated by the lore the legends, the blues,
the rock, the country, the folk, the singer songwriters. And
I think that recently, recently, what we've been consuming a
lot of is like true it talked about like that
(10:10):
golden standard of the you know, seventies greater full country
rock and roll scene, and I think that recently we've
been really exploring, like what does that mean through the
lens of Texas. Who are these Texans that we, you know,
can resonate with growing up here that we love so much.
(10:32):
And I think that guys like, uh, well, I love it,
Robert L. Keene, Chris Christofferson, Guy Clark, Willis, Allen Ramsey,
Jerry Jeff Walker. I mean, the list just goes on
and on. But those I'll just say recently have been
(10:52):
such a big influence in our songwriting because they're all
artists to do such a great job of writing music
that's loved you universally, but it's also specific to where
they're from, where they live, and the places and people
that they care about the most.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So let's talk about the creation of the Heat of July.
First of all, what is your process on the songwriting
side of things? Take us behind the scenes on how
you both work in that regard.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Great question.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
So generally speaking, despite being a duo, we tend to
write most of our songs individually and kind of use
each other as like a consulting type of relationship to
where you know, if I or if Philip has a
song that's one hundred percent done and brings it to
(11:51):
me and is like, hey, what do you think about this?
And a lot of times like perfect, don't change anything,
it's great.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Occasionally there'll be like, oh, what do you think about
this here?
Speaker 4 (12:00):
And so this or this here or and then every
probably wanting you know, ten songs or so we'll sit
down and write something together, or I'll bring or Philip
will bring a verse and of course and we'll say.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Hey, what do you think about this?
Speaker 4 (12:17):
So that's generally speaking how we roll songwriting wise. But
this record was kind of a new thing for us
because we put out our first record West of it
All two years ago and then pretty much just hit
the road after that and really spent a lot of
(12:37):
time on the road, which was awesome and it.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Was great to get to play shows, but.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
We weren't home for extended periods of time really much
at all, and so we kind of had to learn
to write songs on the road, which was great, but it.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Was just very different.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
And so it was it was a really good kind
of experiment or exercise, if you will. A lot of
the writing was almost more like writing poetry in the van,
you know, and it's it's super helpful when you're driving
through beautiful.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Parts of this country.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
It's very easy to get in the headspace to write lyrics.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
But yeah, it was. It was, at least for me.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
It was my first time like sitting down and writing poetry,
if you will, and then sitting down later with a
guitar and kind of seeing how it all fits together musically,
whereas in the past it was almost exclusively like guitar
on hand writing a song, you know, maybe.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Taking a phrase or whatever. But so it was it
was a cool I feel.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Like it challenged us and I'd like to think it
made us better songwriters, because it's like you literally just
it's you and you and the words on the page,
and so if those words can't stand on their own,
then then you're kind of in trouble.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
So you found a producer in Grammy nominated Brad Cook,
who's fairly well known. Had you known you knew his work,
but had you known Brad personally before you brought him
on for this project.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
We had known Brad's work for a long time, like
you said, records that we loved, from Nathaniel Rightlift to
Walks of Hatchie to Brent Cobb, bony Vere. Brad is
a great producer and we've loved his work for a
(14:46):
long time. And then getting to cut first West of
it All with him as our debut record was we
just feel so fortunate because Brad was able to to
just really put the greater like ambition into perspective of Okay,
(15:08):
what do we want to do, what do we want
to make? What do we want to present ourselves as?
Like what foot do we want to put forward first?
And Brad helped do that through West of It All
and then getting to do Heat of July with him
as well was just a great next step because Brad
knows us, he knows our sound, he knows like that
(15:28):
we desire more and more to put our lyrics first,
and we got to talk through what we wanted this
Heated July record to be with Brad, and we got
to execute, and we got to bring in new instruments,
we got to bring in new sounds, new ideas that
just really helped build upon what we've already began to build,
(15:52):
but bring it somewhere new. And I think that Brad
just I mean, he's very very wise, and he's very
very thoughtful about the work that he does, and I
think it's just a huge blessing to have him on
our team.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And a bit of a I dare say a bit
of a supergroup behind you. Can you talk about some
of those outstanding players.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
When this kind of all came together, we were literally
in the studio just kind of.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Like, what is happening?
Speaker 4 (16:28):
This has just turned into like a twenty tens folk
supergroup out of nowhere. And all of these artists are
people that we are huge fans of. And if you
had told us, you know, back in high school that
we would be playing or having these people play on
our records, we would have you.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Know, fallen over.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
But yeah, we were super fortunate to have an awesome
roster musicians play on this record, starting off with mister
Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse formerly Mandolin Orange, who is just unreal.
I mean, he's so so good, but not only does
(17:11):
he have the chops, he's so tasteful and he knows
really what a song needs and he gives it exactly
what it needs and nothing more and nothing less, which
is such a gift. And so we knew that we
wanted some sort of kind of flat picking acoustic guitar.
I think our initial thought was like, oh, maybe some
sort of like nylon Spanish guitar, and Brad was like, well,
(17:34):
what if I call Andrew.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Marlin and we're like yeah, please.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Andrew comes in and lays down some acoustic guitar and
also played some mandolin as well, and it's just great.
There's some gold nuggets of parts that he plays in songs,
which is awesome. We also knew that we wanted to
bring in some new instrumentation lean into to our textan roots,
and so we did that with the fiddle as well,
(18:02):
and we got Libby Rodenbaugh, who is the fiddle player
for the band Mipso as well as some other projects
that she's involved with, to come and play some fiddle.
And we had gotten to know her at a festival
and she also just happened to be good friends with
Brad and so she came in and we were there
(18:23):
when she laid down some of the fiddle tracks and
it was just like it was almost overwhelming. It was
just awesome to hear and it brought such a new
dynamic to our music.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
And you know, there's a song.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
That Philip wrote called Flashlights in the Canyon. It's just
an awesome like storyteller's paradise and the fiddle just brings
it to light in a really awesome way.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
So that was awesome. And then we brought back Phil Cook, Brad.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Cook's brother who played on the first record, and he's
just the jack of all trades, can play it and
can play it all better than anyone.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
That was great.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
And then Matt mccon who plays drums from bony Vere
and played on the record again as well.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
We also had Brad Cook played some bass.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
And then kind of towards the end of the project,
we happened to be on the road with a band
called hold Mouth and got to know them pretty well.
In their frontman and lead guitarist is named Matt Myers,
and we put it together that Matt a few weeks
after the run that we were on.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
We were going to be finishing.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Up some stuff on the record with Brad and the
very next day Matt from how Mouth was gonna fly
in and work on some of his new music with Brad,
and so we were like, well, dude, would you want
to play some electric guitar on a couple of songs?
And he ended up wanting to, which was super exciting.
So he played some electric guitar and the same thing.
(19:54):
Super talented, just such a melodic guitar player, and he's
super dynamic and so yeah, so I know, I just
went on there for a while, but it's exciting to
me into us that we got to even you know,
throw their names on a record that we wrote and
that they played on songs that we wrote. So we're
(20:14):
incredibly humbled and just super grateful for how it came together.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Let's highlight a couple of your favorite songs each off
of I know that's hard, I'm sorry, but first, Philip,
what are some of your favorites off of the new album?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah? Absolutely, a couple of my favorites all doubled down
on what True was just talking about. That song Flashlights
in the Canyon is definitely one of my favorites, and
one of the songs that I feel like showcases our
just growing desire to write songs well lyrically. And I
(20:53):
think it's a song that's about a hunting trip that
I took in West Texas out on the border. Ended
up like we're in the middle of nowhere and we
see some flashlights and the canyon down beneath us, people
crossing the southern border into the States, and it just
(21:14):
was really a very unique experience to experience at firsthand.
It just inspired a lot of thought, we you don't
really know what's happening, and you talked to the locals
there and there's just a lot of perspectives. And I
tried to write a song about it, so that turned
out Flashlights in the Canyon. Another song that I'm really
excited about is one a True wrote called Free. It's
(21:37):
great kind of country, just windows down, great instrumentation, just
a song of that I think people are gonna love.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
True. What are some of your favorites?
Speaker 4 (21:49):
I love There's a song Philip wrote called Arizona Shining,
and he Philip is a really talented piano player and
hasn't really gotten the chance to play piano in our
live set in the last couple of years and is
now starting to get to do that, which is awesome.
But this song is very piano forward song, but it
(22:13):
still feels kind of Western, if you will, or Americana. It's,
you know, kind of like, what's the Elton John record,
Tumbleweed Connection.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Yeah, Tumbleweed Connection. It's kind of it's kind of reminds.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
Me of that sort of thing where you're like, all right,
this is an I mean, obviously Elton John englishman playing
the piano, but this could be the soundtrack to like
a Western movie or whatever. It kind of has that
feel and it's a just a beautiful song and it's
the piano hook just catches you instantly. So that's a
great song. Another song I'm excited about is called Adeline.
(22:50):
It's a song that I wrote about just my experience
starting to date my now wife and really love how
that song came to get other and Matt Myers played
some guitar over it, and I just love the part
that he played. It's just, once again, exactly what the
song needs and it's great. And then lastly, I'll tribble
(23:12):
down on Flashlights in the Canyon. It's such an awesome song,
and Philip did such a wonderful job of writing about
a super complex topic that has become ultra politicized, and
he did such a great job of stripping all that
down and taking us back to the humanity of it
(23:35):
all and the fact that there's people on both sides
of the literal border and the literal issue that are
experiencing really difficult things. And so I just I love
the way that that song was written and kind of
re balances, if you will, this complex issue that it's
(23:58):
gotten so so crazy, and just reminds everybody of that
they're human beings on both sides of this equation that
are going through.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Well stated for sure. So in closing, first I want
to go to you, Philip. It's obvious you both love
the art of collaboration. You love it in your work together,
you love it in the creation of Heat of July
with this incredible group of people that you talked about.
(24:31):
Describe the magic of collaboration and what it means to you.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, what a great question. The magic of collaboration, I
think musically, I think that that can go a lot
of different ways. I think being able to where I
see like the magic of collaboration. The most is on
kind of step two of our songwriting process. If step
(25:02):
one is individual, we're separate, we're you know, recording voice
memos on our own, kind of like getting the bones
of these songs. And step two is taking the songs
to each other, and for the past couple albums it's
been taking them to Brad Cook as well and sitting
down in a room and going through the songs and
(25:24):
really just like trying to choose, Okay, what do we
want to focus on, what do we want to present,
what do we want to put on a record? What
works well together here? And I think that the collaboration
there being able to work through a list and to
come up with a batch of songs, and one step further,
to take that song to life in the most basic form,
(25:45):
whether that's putting a harmony on it, whether that's Brad
suggesting to change a certain word or a certain perspective
of a song. And I think that when you really
like are able to get the song even like produced,
not recorded and produced yet, but just to its final
form the way that I would play it for you
(26:05):
if I were sitting in your room with the guitar.
I think when you finally have a song finished, you
have all the lyrics nailed, and you have the perspectives down,
and you have what you want to present. I think
that the magic of collaboration there is so strong, and
I just love the idea of writing songs and being
able to present them with people that you trust and
(26:27):
people that you look up to as well, that are
going to help you just make something special. And I
think that the magic of collaborating and songwriting, especially if
that's step two, is really really cool.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
So well stated, my God, true it. How about you
and the magic of collaboration.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
Yeah, I think to me, collaboration when done right, puts
everybody involved in the best position to succeed in results
in the best possible final product, if you will. And
not to make it sound all business y, because collaboration
really is not an efficiency thing as much as it
(27:11):
is a creative thing. But where my head goes with
that is one of my favorite songwriters of all time
is a guy named Jimmy Webb who wrote a ton
of hits for a ton of people, including Glenn Campbell.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
You know, he wrote The Highwaymen.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Which eventually, you know, became adopted by the highwaymen, but
brilliant songwriter. And I just love that kind of writer
performer relationship that Jimmy Webb had with Glenn Campbell, because
Glenn Campbell's just like a once in a generation talent
and is just born to be up on stage and
(27:49):
play every instrument and sing and tell jokes and is wonderful.
And then when you've got a guy like Jimmy Webb
who writes these brilliant, beautiful songs, it just puts Glenn
Campbell in the perfect position to succeed. And so I
(28:09):
kind of think about it like that, and I think
in our experience you kind of have to humble yourself
a little bit, which is a lot easier said than done.
Another example for us was the next single that we'll
release in Anticipation. It's the first song on this record,
(28:30):
is called Saving Grace, and it was a song that
I had what I thought was finished. Took it to
Brad and Philip and they were kind of like, hey man,
this song's great and like where it stands now, it's fine,
but I think if we revisited these lyrics, this song
could be like awesome, and and.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
You know that's a situation.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
I think in which you can easily get your feelings
hurt if you let yourself. But then when you take
a step back and you're like, oh, they like the song.
They're just pushing me here to like come together and
present the best possible thing. And so we rewrote it
and where it landed was fifteen times better than where
(29:14):
it began.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
And so it's a really special thing.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
And I'm really thankful that I have that relationship with
Philip and now that we have that relationship with Brad
to where we can kind of push each other in
that direction and feel confident in the work that we're doing.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
So I think, yeah, I think that's the beauty of collaboration.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
It just is a refinery process and people bringing their
different perspectives and it ultimately you end up with a
really cool thing.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
The work is amazing. Heat of July is wonderful, Risko.
It's so great to have you on, Philip Lupton and
true at Heinzelman. Good luck on the road bringing this
out to everybody across the country, and so grateful that
you came on taking a walk guys.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Well, thank you for having us on. Truly, it's an honor.
We love what you're doing and know that you have
a high caliber guests and people that we enjoy listening
to as well, So it's an honor to be on
the slate. So thank you, Thank you very much for
having a song.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
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a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm buzznight and welcome to another edition of Taking a Walk.
This is the podcast where we get the stories behind
the music from all sorts of artists, new artists, hall
of famers, the whole gamut. Today we're joined by a
band that's been quickly turning heads with their sharp lyrics,
rich harmonies, and a sound that feels both fresh and timeless.
(00:25):
They're lifelong friends who turn their shared love of music
into something that's resonating with audiences across the country. They
call themselves Brisco, and if you haven't crossed paths with
their songs yet, you're about to discover why so many
people are leaning in. So settle into the rhythm and
(00:46):
we'll get into it with Brisco after these.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Words taken a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, it's so good on the Take on a Walk
podcast to have Brisco on. That's Philip Lupton and True Heinzelman. Hello, gentlemen, Hello, Hello,
it's going well. It's so nice to have you on
Taking a Walk. So, since we do call this this
little podcast Taking a Walk, I'd like to ask this question.
(01:17):
If you could take a walk with somebody living or dead,
who do you think you would take a walk with
and where would you take that walk?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Wow, that's a great question. I have thought about this.
I've checked out your podcast and had seen that you
asked this question, and it really got me thinking. And
it's funny because my answer, before I even realized that
you had talked to him before, was immediately Lyle love It.
(01:50):
I would just love to take a walk with Lyle
love It. I'd love to pick his brain on everything, songwriting,
everything textas, everything, Mexican food, and I would just take
a walk through the neighborhood that I live in that
(02:10):
we both live in in Austin is a called Hyde
Park and it's just a homey neighborhood. I don't know
where law love It lives, but I've seen him at
a restaurant in this neighborhood before, and I would just
take a walk around the neighborhood, maybe stop and grab
a margarita or something and pick his brain.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
That's a great one. I love it.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
So I didn't come as prepared, but off the top
of my head, I would love to take a walk
with Jerry Garcia.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I am just super.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Fascinated by him, as I think a lot of people
are as a musician, as.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
A writer as just a person, he's just he's such
a peculiar.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Person who had a lot of very profound things to say.
I know, songwriting wise, he wrote a lot of times
with Robert Hunter, so I honestly, if I could pick
both their brains, that'd be great. But even just Jerry,
I think he's a super underrated songwriter and lyricists perhaps.
I think obviously people love his songs, but I think
(03:20):
his lyrics are incredible, and so I would love to
just get to kind of talk about that with him.
And I think to just his viewpoint on the world
and on things was very unique, and would be super
interested to hear what he had to say about everything.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
And so are two good ones. They're all good, but
those are two side by side that would be pretty
pretty incredible. Never had the opportunity myself to run into
mister Garcia while he was on this planet, and having
Lyle Lovett on was a long standing dream come true.
(04:04):
And as you both know, he couldn't have been any
nicer and accommodating, So that was a a big, big thrill.
So we're going to talk about your new music Heat
of July, and you know, get into that, but first
of all, take me here to the beginnings and the
(04:25):
story behind how Brisco came together.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah, absolutely, I'll jump in. Also, I don't think we
introduced ourselves. I'm Philip. This is Truett, Okay, Brisco Brisco
so Trut and I met at a summer camp when
we were in middle school age around around that, maybe
(04:50):
seventh or eighth grade. We went to a summer camp
and we were just talking about this. But it was
so funny when we met for the very first time.
We were wearing the same exact pair of shoes. And
you'll be able to tell, but we have red, curly
hair and we looked like twin brothers. So when we met,
(05:14):
it was comical because we looked like twins and we
were wearing the same exact pair of shoes. We grew
up in different cities and we stayed friends through high school.
We continued to go to the summer camp and we
just started to play music together. We realized we had
(05:34):
a lot of the same influences, We loved a lot
of the same music, and kind of through late high school,
began writing a lot of songs and started to release
that a little bit, and then we got to college
at the University of Texas in Austin, and that's when
we really made Brisco official and began to play shows
(05:55):
and gig around and record music and try to get
get it off the ground.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I'd say, you've gotten it off the ground.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Oh, thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Can you guys talk about though, those musical influences, obviously,
I'm sure it touches a little bit on what you
led with on the taking a Walk question. I'm sure
lyle Lovett's had influence. I'm sure Jerry Garcia has had
influence as well, especially considering what Jerry did so brilliantly
(06:32):
on how he and all those others in that little
supergroup called Olden in the Way kind of took bluegrass
and brought it into a different sense of mainstream, which
was kind of unheard of then and to this day,
that you know, great project Olden in the Way still
stands as a milestone. But talk about, you know, Philip
(06:56):
and true at your musical influences could just get lost.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Talking about our musical influences is kind of like when you're,
you know, a young kid, did a shopping mall with
your mom and you get lost and it's just so exciting,
but it's almost overwhelming because we could just.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Be there all day.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
So musically, I mean, like you said, everything from Jerry Garcia,
that whole late sixties through the seventies decade of music
is just to us the like pinnacle of music, both
from a songwriting perspective that spends plenty of genres, you know,
the whole Laurel Canyon scene, the country scene in that day,
(07:38):
guys like John Prime, you got senior songwriters like James Taylor.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
The Eagles or a band that we think you're one
of the best out there.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
And so that age of music, I think is what
we're both raised on and it's what we both consider
to be like kind of the gold standard of music.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
And so that has a ton of influence.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
And then yeah, guys like Jerry Garcia, like you're saying,
it's so fascinating to me that he, you know, like
started off really as like a blues guy and then
the Dead kind of morphed into this like folk bluegrass,
you know, like working Man's Dead sound into you know,
(08:26):
blues into a jam band, and then obviously eventually got
into the psychedelic thing. But just the way that he
kind of intertwined all those is something that's really fascinating
to us.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And we, you know, call ourselves like a Texas folk.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Rock band, but there's you know, aspects of like country music,
aspects of bluegrass music, aspects of like southern rock music,
aspect of straight up blues music. So we really appreciate
that sort of bouncing and weaving through genres, and especially
in the way that he did it, that was so authentic.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
How about you, Yeah, Yeah, I think that's that's a
great kind of take on where we're at. I remember,
so I'd like to compare it to this. When I
moved to Austin for college, I had grown up in
a town called San Angelo in West Texas, and San
Angelo didn't have very many restaurants with different cuisine. So
(09:25):
I get to Austin and it's like, Okay, I'm going
to try Korean food. I'm going to try chicken tika masala,
I'm going to try all these different foods, and I'm
gonna just like feel like I'm in a brand new world.
And getting to Austin and exploring the music scene felt
(09:46):
so similar because I was in this new world. I
was just inundated by the lore the legends, the blues,
the rock, the country, the folk, the singer songwriters. And
I think that recently, recently, what we've been consuming a
lot of is like true it talked about like that
(10:10):
golden standard of the you know, seventies greater full country
rock and roll scene, and I think that recently we've
been really exploring, like what does that mean through the
lens of Texas. Who are these Texans that we, you know,
can resonate with growing up here that we love so much.
(10:32):
And I think that guys like, uh, well, I love it,
Robert L. Keene, Chris Christofferson, Guy Clark, Willis, Allen Ramsey,
Jerry Jeff Walker. I mean, the list just goes on
and on. But those I'll just say recently have been
(10:52):
such a big influence in our songwriting because they're all
artists to do such a great job of writing music
that's loved you universally, but it's also specific to where
they're from, where they live, and the places and people
that they care about the most.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So let's talk about the creation of the Heat of July.
First of all, what is your process on the songwriting
side of things? Take us behind the scenes on how
you both work in that regard.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Great question.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
So generally speaking, despite being a duo, we tend to
write most of our songs individually and kind of use
each other as like a consulting type of relationship to
where you know, if I or if Philip has a
song that's one hundred percent done and brings it to
(11:51):
me and is like, hey, what do you think about this?
And a lot of times like perfect, don't change anything,
it's great.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Occasionally there'll be like, oh, what do you think about
this here?
Speaker 4 (12:00):
And so this or this here or and then every
probably wanting you know, ten songs or so we'll sit
down and write something together, or I'll bring or Philip
will bring a verse and of course and we'll say.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Hey, what do you think about this?
Speaker 4 (12:17):
So that's generally speaking how we roll songwriting wise. But
this record was kind of a new thing for us
because we put out our first record West of it
All two years ago and then pretty much just hit
the road after that and really spent a lot of
(12:37):
time on the road, which was awesome and it.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Was great to get to play shows, but.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
We weren't home for extended periods of time really much
at all, and so we kind of had to learn
to write songs on the road, which was great, but it.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Was just very different.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
And so it was it was a really good kind
of experiment or exercise, if you will. A lot of
the writing was almost more like writing poetry in the van,
you know, and it's it's super helpful when you're driving
through beautiful.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Parts of this country.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
It's very easy to get in the headspace to write lyrics.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
But yeah, it was. It was, at least for me.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
It was my first time like sitting down and writing poetry,
if you will, and then sitting down later with a
guitar and kind of seeing how it all fits together musically,
whereas in the past it was almost exclusively like guitar
on hand writing a song, you know, maybe.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Taking a phrase or whatever. But so it was it
was a cool I feel.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Like it challenged us and I'd like to think it
made us better songwriters, because it's like you literally just
it's you and you and the words on the page,
and so if those words can't stand on their own,
then then you're kind of in trouble.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
So you found a producer in Grammy nominated Brad Cook,
who's fairly well known. Had you known you knew his work,
but had you known Brad personally before you brought him
on for this project.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
We had known Brad's work for a long time, like
you said, records that we loved, from Nathaniel Rightlift to
Walks of Hatchie to Brent Cobb, bony Vere. Brad is
a great producer and we've loved his work for a
(14:46):
long time. And then getting to cut first West of
it All with him as our debut record was we
just feel so fortunate because Brad was able to to
just really put the greater like ambition into perspective of Okay,
(15:08):
what do we want to do, what do we want
to make? What do we want to present ourselves as?
Like what foot do we want to put forward first?
And Brad helped do that through West of It All
and then getting to do Heat of July with him
as well was just a great next step because Brad
knows us, he knows our sound, he knows like that
(15:28):
we desire more and more to put our lyrics first,
and we got to talk through what we wanted this
Heated July record to be with Brad, and we got
to execute, and we got to bring in new instruments,
we got to bring in new sounds, new ideas that
just really helped build upon what we've already began to build,
(15:52):
but bring it somewhere new. And I think that Brad
just I mean, he's very very wise, and he's very
very thoughtful about the work that he does, and I
think it's just a huge blessing to have him on
our team.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And a bit of a I dare say a bit
of a supergroup behind you. Can you talk about some
of those outstanding players.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
When this kind of all came together, we were literally
in the studio just kind of.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Like, what is happening?
Speaker 4 (16:28):
This has just turned into like a twenty tens folk
supergroup out of nowhere. And all of these artists are
people that we are huge fans of. And if you
had told us, you know, back in high school that
we would be playing or having these people play on
our records, we would have you.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Know, fallen over.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
But yeah, we were super fortunate to have an awesome
roster musicians play on this record, starting off with mister
Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse formerly Mandolin Orange, who is just unreal.
I mean, he's so so good, but not only does
(17:11):
he have the chops, he's so tasteful and he knows
really what a song needs and he gives it exactly
what it needs and nothing more and nothing less, which
is such a gift. And so we knew that we
wanted some sort of kind of flat picking acoustic guitar.
I think our initial thought was like, oh, maybe some
sort of like nylon Spanish guitar, and Brad was like, well,
(17:34):
what if I call Andrew.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Marlin and we're like yeah, please.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Andrew comes in and lays down some acoustic guitar and
also played some mandolin as well, and it's just great.
There's some gold nuggets of parts that he plays in songs,
which is awesome. We also knew that we wanted to
bring in some new instrumentation lean into to our textan roots,
and so we did that with the fiddle as well,
(18:02):
and we got Libby Rodenbaugh, who is the fiddle player
for the band Mipso as well as some other projects
that she's involved with, to come and play some fiddle.
And we had gotten to know her at a festival
and she also just happened to be good friends with
Brad and so she came in and we were there
(18:23):
when she laid down some of the fiddle tracks and
it was just like it was almost overwhelming. It was
just awesome to hear and it brought such a new
dynamic to our music.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
And you know, there's a song.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
That Philip wrote called Flashlights in the Canyon. It's just
an awesome like storyteller's paradise and the fiddle just brings
it to light in a really awesome way.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
So that was awesome. And then we brought back Phil Cook, Brad.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Cook's brother who played on the first record, and he's
just the jack of all trades, can play it and
can play it all better than anyone.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
That was great.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
And then Matt mccon who plays drums from bony Vere
and played on the record again as well.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
We also had Brad Cook played some bass.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
And then kind of towards the end of the project,
we happened to be on the road with a band
called hold Mouth and got to know them pretty well.
In their frontman and lead guitarist is named Matt Myers,
and we put it together that Matt a few weeks
after the run that we were on.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
We were going to be finishing.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Up some stuff on the record with Brad and the
very next day Matt from how Mouth was gonna fly
in and work on some of his new music with Brad,
and so we were like, well, dude, would you want
to play some electric guitar on a couple of songs?
And he ended up wanting to, which was super exciting.
So he played some electric guitar and the same thing.
(19:54):
Super talented, just such a melodic guitar player, and he's
super dynamic and so yeah, so I know, I just
went on there for a while, but it's exciting to
me into us that we got to even you know,
throw their names on a record that we wrote and
that they played on songs that we wrote. So we're
(20:14):
incredibly humbled and just super grateful for how it came together.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Let's highlight a couple of your favorite songs each off
of I know that's hard, I'm sorry, but first, Philip,
what are some of your favorites off of the new album?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah? Absolutely, a couple of my favorites all doubled down
on what True was just talking about. That song Flashlights
in the Canyon is definitely one of my favorites, and
one of the songs that I feel like showcases our
just growing desire to write songs well lyrically. And I
(20:53):
think it's a song that's about a hunting trip that
I took in West Texas out on the border. Ended
up like we're in the middle of nowhere and we
see some flashlights and the canyon down beneath us, people
crossing the southern border into the States, and it just
(21:14):
was really a very unique experience to experience at firsthand.
It just inspired a lot of thought, we you don't
really know what's happening, and you talked to the locals
there and there's just a lot of perspectives. And I
tried to write a song about it, so that turned
out Flashlights in the Canyon. Another song that I'm really
excited about is one a True wrote called Free. It's
(21:37):
great kind of country, just windows down, great instrumentation, just
a song of that I think people are gonna love.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
True. What are some of your favorites?
Speaker 4 (21:49):
I love There's a song Philip wrote called Arizona Shining,
and he Philip is a really talented piano player and
hasn't really gotten the chance to play piano in our
live set in the last couple of years and is
now starting to get to do that, which is awesome.
But this song is very piano forward song, but it
(22:13):
still feels kind of Western, if you will, or Americana. It's,
you know, kind of like, what's the Elton John record,
Tumbleweed Connection.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Yeah, Tumbleweed Connection. It's kind of it's kind of reminds.
Speaker 4 (22:27):
Me of that sort of thing where you're like, all right,
this is an I mean, obviously Elton John englishman playing
the piano, but this could be the soundtrack to like
a Western movie or whatever. It kind of has that
feel and it's a just a beautiful song and it's
the piano hook just catches you instantly. So that's a
great song. Another song I'm excited about is called Adeline.
(22:50):
It's a song that I wrote about just my experience
starting to date my now wife and really love how
that song came to get other and Matt Myers played
some guitar over it, and I just love the part
that he played. It's just, once again, exactly what the
song needs and it's great. And then lastly, I'll tribble
(23:12):
down on Flashlights in the Canyon. It's such an awesome song,
and Philip did such a wonderful job of writing about
a super complex topic that has become ultra politicized, and
he did such a great job of stripping all that
down and taking us back to the humanity of it
(23:35):
all and the fact that there's people on both sides
of the literal border and the literal issue that are
experiencing really difficult things. And so I just I love
the way that that song was written and kind of
re balances, if you will, this complex issue that it's
(23:58):
gotten so so crazy, and just reminds everybody of that
they're human beings on both sides of this equation that
are going through.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Well stated for sure. So in closing, first I want
to go to you, Philip. It's obvious you both love
the art of collaboration. You love it in your work together,
you love it in the creation of Heat of July
with this incredible group of people that you talked about.
(24:31):
Describe the magic of collaboration and what it means to you.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, what a great question. The magic of collaboration, I
think musically, I think that that can go a lot
of different ways. I think being able to where I
see like the magic of collaboration. The most is on
kind of step two of our songwriting process. If step
(25:02):
one is individual, we're separate, we're you know, recording voice
memos on our own, kind of like getting the bones
of these songs. And step two is taking the songs
to each other, and for the past couple albums it's
been taking them to Brad Cook as well and sitting
down in a room and going through the songs and
(25:24):
really just like trying to choose, Okay, what do we
want to focus on, what do we want to present,
what do we want to put on a record? What
works well together here? And I think that the collaboration
there being able to work through a list and to
come up with a batch of songs, and one step further,
to take that song to life in the most basic form,
(25:45):
whether that's putting a harmony on it, whether that's Brad
suggesting to change a certain word or a certain perspective
of a song. And I think that when you really
like are able to get the song even like produced,
not recorded and produced yet, but just to its final
form the way that I would play it for you
(26:05):
if I were sitting in your room with the guitar.
I think when you finally have a song finished, you
have all the lyrics nailed, and you have the perspectives down,
and you have what you want to present. I think
that the magic of collaboration there is so strong, and
I just love the idea of writing songs and being
able to present them with people that you trust and
(26:27):
people that you look up to as well, that are
going to help you just make something special. And I
think that the magic of collaborating and songwriting, especially if
that's step two, is really really cool.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
So well stated, my God, true it. How about you
and the magic of collaboration.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
Yeah, I think to me, collaboration when done right, puts
everybody involved in the best position to succeed in results
in the best possible final product, if you will. And
not to make it sound all business y, because collaboration
really is not an efficiency thing as much as it
(27:11):
is a creative thing. But where my head goes with
that is one of my favorite songwriters of all time
is a guy named Jimmy Webb who wrote a ton
of hits for a ton of people, including Glenn Campbell.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
You know, he wrote The Highwaymen.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Which eventually, you know, became adopted by the highwaymen, but
brilliant songwriter. And I just love that kind of writer
performer relationship that Jimmy Webb had with Glenn Campbell, because
Glenn Campbell's just like a once in a generation talent
and is just born to be up on stage and
(27:49):
play every instrument and sing and tell jokes and is wonderful.
And then when you've got a guy like Jimmy Webb
who writes these brilliant, beautiful songs, it just puts Glenn
Campbell in the perfect position to succeed. And so I
(28:09):
kind of think about it like that, and I think
in our experience you kind of have to humble yourself
a little bit, which is a lot easier said than done.
Another example for us was the next single that we'll
release in Anticipation. It's the first song on this record,
(28:30):
is called Saving Grace, and it was a song that
I had what I thought was finished. Took it to
Brad and Philip and they were kind of like, hey man,
this song's great and like where it stands now, it's fine,
but I think if we revisited these lyrics, this song
could be like awesome, and and.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
You know that's a situation.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
I think in which you can easily get your feelings
hurt if you let yourself. But then when you take
a step back and you're like, oh, they like the song.
They're just pushing me here to like come together and
present the best possible thing. And so we rewrote it
and where it landed was fifteen times better than where
(29:14):
it began.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
And so it's a really special thing.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
And I'm really thankful that I have that relationship with
Philip and now that we have that relationship with Brad
to where we can kind of push each other in
that direction and feel confident in the work that we're doing.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
So I think, yeah, I think that's the beauty of collaboration.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
It just is a refinery process and people bringing their
different perspectives and it ultimately you end up with a
really cool thing.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
The work is amazing. Heat of July is wonderful, Risko.
It's so great to have you on, Philip Lupton and
true at Heinzelman. Good luck on the road bringing this
out to everybody across the country, and so grateful that
you came on taking a walk guys.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Well, thank you for having us on. Truly, it's an honor.
We love what you're doing and know that you have
a high caliber guests and people that we enjoy listening
to as well, So it's an honor to be on
the slate. So thank you, Thank you very much for
having a song.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
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