Rejuvenated
Trampled by Turtles finds ‘joy of being together’ after hiatus
Erik Berry sits on a picnic table outside a hotel in Buffalo, N.Y. It’s a day off from tour, and he has a full day ahead. “We’re taking a rare band field trip to Niagara Falls,” he says. “We’re going to be tourists for the day.”
Berry is a member of the folk-rock/ bluegrass band Trampled By Turtles, and he plays the mandolin.
He is joined by Dave Simonett, Tim Saxhaug, Dave Carroll, Ryan Young and Eamonn McLain in the band.
The sextet was formed in Minnesota and has released nine full-length albums.
Its latest is “Life Is Good on the Open Road,” released in May.
It is also the band’s first album after a four-year hiatus.
“Some of the tunes, Dave was tinkering with them for a while,” Berry says. “It was really only six days of tracking and then six days of the guys doing mixes.”
The album was recorded at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minn., and Berry says it’s more direct and forward than 2014’s “Wild Aminals.”
He says going on hiatus also helped the band.
“We’d been touring for 15 years already,” he says. “Coming back, there was a real sense of focus and a joy of being together. You can hear the happy vibe throughout the album. I’ve been super proud of how it’s being received.”
During the recording process, Berry says the band was able to capture a lot of spontaneity.
“When Trampled is playing a song for the first time, it’s going to be very different from the third time and so on,” he says. “There’s always space in the song, and it’s our job to fill in that space. It’s ever-changing, which makes it great for keeping things fresh.”