Teethe is a Southern slowcore band composed of Boone Patrello, Grahm Robinson, Madeline Dowd, and Jordan Garrett. Though they were occupying the same DIY spaces in Denton, Texas, the four members were part of various projects that accidentally converged into what they would call Teethe. Patrello had his band Dead Sullivan; Dowd started a project named Crisman, which Garrett joined; Robinson had MAH KEE OH. Sharing song ideas and fragments that didn’t fit into those projects, they ended up with their 2020 self-titled debut, which showcased not just a gift for melody but a willingness to sink you into it. For their mesmerizing second album, Magic of the Sale, the band’s recording process, split between their current home bases across Dallas and Austin, stayed virtually unchanged: tracking demos and uploading them to a shared folder. This time, though, the group of trusted contributors that helped bring to life their tender-hearted melancholy and warm existentialism widened: Charlie Martin of Hovvdy, performing additional piano; Wednesday/MJ Lenderman’s Xandy Chelmis on pedal steel, producer Logan Hornyak of Melaina Kol, and Emily Elkin on cello. “Hear your words like photos felt in sound,” a muffled voice sings on ‘Iron Wine’, stirring a wave of distortion. “Holding what our eyes can’t make up now.” Magic of the Sale sounds like slowing down the blink of an eye, where the smallest, most precious emotions seep into view.
We caught up with Teethe for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight series to talk about the origins of the band, weaving together Magic of the Sale, the album’s lyrical perspectives, and more.
Boone and Madeline, take me back to when you first met at the University of North Texas. Do you remember what your first impressions of each other were like?
Boone Patrello: We met at freshman orientation. We just had similar musical interests, and we shared music with each other, and then we started making music together.
Madeline Dowd: I’d seen Boone around before orientation, but then we really got to talking on that first day of school, which is kind of funny to think about. We just started hanging out – I was recording my own music, and Boone was doing that too. It was really cool to find someone right off the bat and pretty much dive into that world. Boone showed me a lot of cool music that was really inspiring to me at that time. The whole scene in college of DIY and playing house shows, everything just fit into place.
I know there are several different projects that led and coalesced into Teeth. Is there a moment you can point to where Teethe felt like a distinct entity?
Jordan Garrett: In terms of the inception of the band, it wasn’t really a band formally; it was more of a recording project that then necessitated a band. We were asked to play a couple of shows with our friend, Alex of Alexalone, and that was what got us to play the songs live, thinking about more than just the album and recording.
MD: I think about the time that Teethe formed and I feel like it was kind of the perfect time that we made a collaborative project. College had ended, and everyone starts going their own ways, and then we made this project that almost kept us together, collaborating and still involved after that phase of life.
BP: The actual album itself had an inception of just songs that we had worked on together with no end goal. Just a handful of tracks we had collaborated on totally spontaneously.
How do you look back on piecing together that album?
BP: I have random memories of putting the record together, going back and forth with everybody. There were songs that we thought were really good, but it was like, “This isn’t for this solo project.” And then I remember scrounging through the hard drive and there were seven songs, putting those under a SoundCloud playlist, and then it became 12 songs. I remember lying on the floor and just listening to it from start to finish, and I was like, “Damn, this shit’s actually really good.” And then everybody else was saying the same thing.
JG: It’s funny that way because that album in particular feels like a bunch of B-sides from out.
MD: It’s cool that our first album came from the necessity of wanting to just make something. Because there was no intention, it was just from something pure, of just enjoying making music and keeping alive what we were doing in college.
With Magic of the Sale, it feels like you’re trying to preserve part, even though there’s more intentionality and a bigger sound. You didn’t work with an outside producer, for example, but you brought in a number of collaborators. How conscious of an effort was that?
BP: We didn’t change the way that we made the record at all. It is a conscious effort to choose not to go to a studio or hire a mix engineer, but it’s not like we took steps backwards. We have better gear and equipment and probably have gotten better at recording and mixing. It feels really natural, and it’s just the way we’ve always made music. But then there are elements of it where it was a conscious thing, even with the track listing and sequencing and stuff. It was using the first record as a template and not being too OCD about it.
MD: I feel like the first album is a tighter crop or a zoomed-in version of the second. Our second album, even with the artwork, I feel like zooms out and you get to see into the world. It feels the same, but it’s just so many more layers. Yeah, keeping the same template but expanding on it.
What was the process behind the cover art for Magic of the Sale? Was it something you conceptualized with the group?
MD: I just went in with the same mindset as the first record.
BP: And all the same tools and mediums, right?
MD: Yeah. The same way of thinking about it: listening to the music, going from the feeling of that, and recreating that character in a different setting. There weren’t really any stipulations around what I needed to do, which was nice.
When you were sharing ideas in a folder this time around, did you find yourselves falling into a different kind of rhythm?
JG: At least for me, it was very similar to the first LP. We would just share these songs, and then it would either be suggested that somebody add something, or more often than not, we would take the bones that were there and throw something on it. Then we’d put it back in and everybody would be like, “Okay, this is the song now.” It was very similar to that process, except we have a team behind us, so there is this notion that we’re presenting something, whereas the first LP was kind of our pet project. As Boone mentioned, we’ve just gotten better equipment and hopefully better at recording and presenting the ideas.
Grahm Robinson: Also, over time, we’ve all really learned each other’s strengths, so if I’m making a song, I automatically will know, “Oh, Maddie will sound really good on this part,” or “I’m going to send this to Boone because I know he’s gonna play slide guitar over this.” We’ve just gotten really good at knowing how to fit the pieces together on our songs.
Maddie, I noticed a couple of songs you sing lead on are on the rockier, more upbeat side.
MD: It’s kinda nice because even on the first record, there’s a few songs that are more upbeat in that way. Then with this second record, allowing there to be less of a confinement on the Teeth sound, staying in one box – it was fun to have some of those tracks where we experimented more with the sounds being heavier.
BP: ‘Holy Water’, one of Maddie’s songs, was actually a pretty chill demo, and then we turned it into a heavier rock song. But not for any particular reason – just thought it would sound cool.
Is the process usually more about filling out songs as opposed to subtracting or changing things?
BP: It’s definitely more of a maximal approach of just throwing everything at the song and seeing what sticks. More often than not, whether it takes the front seat or gets pushed down in the mix, most everything can work in the song. Whether it becomes really textural and quiet or whether it’s the lead line, this record feels like everything but the kitchen sink in terms of instrumentation and melody.
MD: I remember when you got a lot of stuff back from our collaborators, sending everything they could possibly do, and then you sifting through, picking and choosing what you wanted.
BP: It still was super intentional with those parts. It’s not just playing something and being like, “Sounds good.” It’s fitting as much as possible into every little part and just seeing everything through to its fullest potential. So yeah, I guess it’s additive, but then at the end you strip back and see what makes the most sense, but more of an additive thing.
Were you more selective with the additional instrumentation?
BP: The strings and the flutes were already baked in digitally, we just had them recorded, live. But with the people who played their own stuff, like the piano and the pedal steel and some of the additional production, that stuff was woven in around the songs that we had already fleshed out at 80% or something. There were some moments where it was almost like, “Is this getting in the way of what we already did? Is this distracting from us as a band?” But then it ultimately felt like it kept elevating and making the songs something more grand.
JG: All the collaborators are obviously people we respect a lot and value their musical opinions, so it was very easy for them to get their hands on it, and we could just take the back seat and let them do their thing.
BP: They all either make music or are in great bands that we like too, so it was easy to trust those people.
Was there a cello or a pedal steel part that you heard, and it really made a song click for you?
BP: I remember getting the cello parts back and just being mind blown. We had had the digital strings and thought that they might pass, but then once we got the actual strings, it was like, “Holy shit. This is awesome.”
JG: At our last rehearsal, Boone had soloed out the cello part and the drum parts, and we were just trying to figure out how to play some of the songs in a live setting. And just listening to those isolated, we were like, “This could be its own thing.” It’s very rich in that way.
BP: Yeah. And I remember getting the pedal steel parts back. Despite being kind of overwhelmed by the sheer amount of additional material to try to fit into the record, there are some parts where Xandy’s pedal steel is like, “Whoa.” There are certain aspects of the record where it’s things that we wouldn’t have been able to achieve on our own. It just feels more complete. There was one song, ‘Funny’, I completely restructured around one of Charlie’s piano parts; it was a song that I was kind of insecure about, and then once he played piano on it, I took what he did on the second half of the son and put it back on the first, st and and made it like the foundation of the song. And then I loved the song.
At this point, how do you see the relationship between Boone and Maddie’s voices? How do you feel like that dynamic works in these songs?
MD: I never really thought about it too much till our last show where someone had made a comment about it, but I just think it’s cool to have a conversation back and forth vocally. Obviously, because we’re dating too, I feel like it’s pretty natural. It’s kind of fun in some of the songs to realize that there’s a conversation happening intuitively.
BP: Whether it’s me singing or Graham or Maddie, I think it always sounds cool with a male and female voice. Doubling that is always cool, but because there’s multiple people writing lyrics, there’s a lot of moments or opportunity for the call and response type vocals, or for two speakers to be wrapped up in the same theme.
Graham, what appeals to you about this kind of lyric-writing process that’s different from how you share ideas sonically?
GR: I think generally, my lyrics tend to be really, really simple and not hiding anything. Boone’s lyrics tend to be pretty poetic and metaphorical and stuff, and I think that contrast is pretty interesting. Thematically, it can be cool to pass a song off to somebody else because they might add lyrics in a section that I didn’t even think to add lyrics to, and it opens up a whole new alternate perspective into that theme of the song.
MD: I feel like because we all write separately in our own rooms alone, it feels natural and you can be vulnerable. You can think about what you’re saying or how you’re feeling and then bring it to everyone. Everyone adding from there feels pretty comfortable.
The phrase “gentle like Jesus” from ‘Push You Forever’ somehow feels evocative of the whole album. Not that there’s something overtly religious about it beyond some of the imagery, but this almost spiritual tenderness feels precious to the record.
BP: I think there’s an exploration of spirituality for sure. Without being like, “Oh, this part’s about this thing,” I think it’s all-encompassing.
GR: Obviously, there’s a bit of religious imagery, but I don’t think any one of us is really super religious. But I do think it’s some kind of reflection of where we’re from, in a way. In Texas, at least where I grew up, there’s a church on every corner and you just can’t really avoid that.
BP: It’s baked in, for sure. We’re all steeped in it.
MD: Even outside the religious umbrella, I think there’s overarching elements of grasping for some bigger understanding or bigger picture outside of ourselves.
The record seems to look back on a lot of childhood innocence and playfulness, too. I’m curious if you sometimes talk about lyrics or trade memories that maybe seep into songs.
MD: I would say it’s pretty separate, which is interesting. Once it’s all done, that’s when I can really look at it and be like, “Wow, this is what is being said,” without even really having to look at each other and be like, “This is what we’re talking about.” It just feels pretty intuitive and unspoken.
Boone, I read that stitching together songs took four months. I don’t know how much of it intersected with the recording process, but was it all-consuming and isolating in its own way?
I would say it did feel like a separate time because we had to draw a line in the sand and be like, “Okay, we’re done recording.” We did have to define the time and be like, “It’s time to start mixing it.” But yeah, it was brutal. I really love mixing, it’s one of my favorite things to do. But it can only be so fun because it’s just so much material, and it was also tough to be like, “The mixes are done.” I was just putting it through all the speakers I own and making a bunch of notes and going through rounds of mixing. It’s the same with any mix – eventually, you’re like, “Okay, it sounds good enough.” Once you listen through the whole song without having the urge to pause and start tweaking stuff, it’s like, “I guess it’s done.”
How did everyone else feel during that period?
JG: I just didn’t want Boone to pull his hair out. [laughs] That’s a long process. But obviously, we trusted him to do justice to the songs.
MD: I feel like being in the same house as Boone while he was doing that – he was just locked away in the chamber of mixing.
BP: I also moved back to my mom’s and worked on it for a few months there, too. It was funny because I think they all probably heard the record 300 times. I would mix on monitors mostly, but at my mom’s house, the walls are paper-thin, and anybody in the house would have heard every little aspect of what I was doing. They got to hear it all. But I don’t think it would have made sense to have somebody else mix it, just for the sheer amount of material. It would have just not worked. I remember thinking, why would we have spent this much time learning how to make music and specifically mixing to ultimately get to this point where this record feels something important to us, and then be like, “Now I’m going to send it off to somebody else”? I felt like I’d ironed out these skills, so I might as well put them to use.
Do you feel like that’s the way to go, moving forward?
BP: Sometimes I do listen to the record, and I’m like, “Shit, maybe this mix isn’t so great.” I’ll probably always be doing that, but I don’t know. I think it would just have to be approaching making the songs differently, too, with the idea in mind that somebody else is going to mix it, and that might fuck stuff up. Ideally, we could just keep doing it how we’ve always done it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Teethe’s Magic of the Sale is out now via Winspear.
