The Morality of Heart Transplants

A Q&A with Alex Cook and Lance Porter on the Rakers' new album

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Almost a decade in, how would you describe the way The Rakers have evolved as a band? 

Alex V Cook: on one hand we’ve become like an old couple that completes each other’s sentences, as it were. We have that kind of ingrained musical relationship. On the other hand, it’s a kind of frisky marriage where we are open to trying new things. 

Lance Porter: We all know what we are supposed to bring to the table, so the creative process moves much more quickly now. I think we are just starting to hit our stride.

How does this record represent where you guys are at now? 

AVC: We’ve become a lot more confident about opening ourselves up in our songs. I think Lance’s tunes on the record are some of the best he’s ever written. “I Think You’re Wrong” is the kind of statement people should be saying more in life. And we loved Lewis’s tune (“Silent Movie”) so much we took the album title from it.

LP: I feel the same way about Alex’s tune, "Orion’s Belt"! Alex also recently taught himself pedal steel, so that instrument has added a lot to our sound. 

AVC: When we started almost a decade ago, we had a lot of ideas on what it meant to be a band. With this record, I think we found out that it is really just being this group of people making art together.

LP: This one allowed us to really get into the process of making a record. Since we did it ourselves, we could take our time. We could write in the studio and re-record stuff we weren’t happy with. Now we’ve settled into that process and have a lot of momentum built up. We've already written most of the songs for the next record.

What sorts of storytelling can listeners look forward to in this collection of songs? 

AVC: I like audacious protagonists. The kind of person who somehow thrives despite themselves. Like “Iron Jaw Samson” a true story about a guy in the '70s who would go from town to town, showing up somewhere and eating a lightbulb. There is a line in there “what kind of dreams does a man like that have?” But the answer is the same kind of dreams we all have. He’s just found a unique way to get there.

LP: There are some deeply personal songs on this record. We’ve written a lot of songs in the past about loveable losers, but I think we are starting to realize those losers are us. 

What did the songwriting process look like for this album? 

AVC: It started around the time COVID-19 hit, so we tried to find a new way of working together without being in the same room. We tried a number of different apps and things with varying degrees of success. I decided I wanted to learn to engineer and produce a record, and I am humbled that they went along with me on this journey.

LP: Alex has the most expansive musical palette of anyone I know, and he really had a vision for this record in terms of production, and he made that happen. I was so amazed at what he did with our songs. 

[Read through Alex V. Cook's archive of cuisine and music writing at Country Roads, here.]

Where were y’all working on it? 

AVC: We built up a studio out of second-hand gear in our Mid-City practice space and decided it was worth it to go through the process of making a record ourselves. There is a whole different level of reflection going on when you listen to your own song that we did all the work on. It was 100% us.

What was the strategy?

AVC: At first it was figuring out how to do all this ourselves and how to get the synergy we had from playing together when we couldn’t during the lockdown. We kind of did this record twice, the second time with our newest member Sam Anselmo on drums. He was already familiar with us and our working process, having produced our previous album NUMBER FIVE. Covid made us be more strategic in our writing, and once we could come together again, we carried that sense of purpose in making the songs.

Who were y’all listening to as inspiration for The Morality of Heart Transplants?  

AVC: At the beginning, I was on deep dives of The Band and The Clash—particularly their sprawling experimental SANDANISTA! where they moved where the spirit took them. The first iteration of this record had a couple of electronic-based tunes, instrumentals I pulled from a Vietnamese guitar book I found at a thrift store, even a collaboration with a rapper friend who did a whole thing about French fries. I was also really into the late MF Doom. Those tunes may yet see the light of day, but even if they don’t, they informed the ones that did coalesce into this album.

LP: We are such Wilco nerds, and some of the dissonant guitar was definitely inspired by them. The Hold Steady and the Drive-By Truckers are huge influences for me. The Dream Syndicate was also on constant replay for me during this time period.

For you, what are some highlights on the album?

AVC: After we recorded “Get Me Off this Boat” —the version on the album is largely a live take we did in the studio—we thought it should have a foghorn at the beginning. After futzing with some samples that didn’t really work, Leon chimed in, “Well, I have a foghorn” because of course Leon has a foghorn. Every time he brings out that thing, I crack up and am filled with gratitude that these weirdos are in my life.

LP: I’m humbled by the amazing guest stars we have on this record. Margaret Fowler lent her powerful backup vocals to many of the songs. Our buddy Dave Noe added some trombone to “Turn 25.” And Rob Hudak, who runs our label (Full Tilt Records), even got in on the act, singing backup on “Next Right Thing.”

AVC: Also, Lance does this intense thermonuclear guitar solo on “Iron Jaw Samson” that just bears me aloft. And if I may toot my own foghorn, the pedal steel on “Silent Movie” was the first take. Not sure I’ll ever play it that well again.

Find the album, Morality of Heart Transplants, on YouTube, Bandcamp, and Spotify.