Crocodiles Get 'Gritty' With Vintage Gear on New Record

Had the name not been taken, Crocodiles would have called themselves Crocodile Tears, a term that suggests deceptive vulnerability: superficial softness masking viciousness within. In a sense, the San Diego duo of Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell makes music that's exactly the opposite. The best Crocodiles songs have rough exteriors -- scuzzed-out guitars and driving beats -- and sweet bubblegum cores. It's a sound the group introduced on its debut, 2009's 'Summer of Hate,' and revisits on 'Sleep Forever,' due out in September.

The band recorded its sophomore effort with producer James Ford, known for his work with such artists as Arctic Monkeys and the Klaxons, among others. Going into the sessions, Rowell tells Spinner, the Crocs were mindful of maintaining the right balance of dirt and sheen.

"Obviously, we trusted what we were told about [Ford], but we definitely were a bit concerned with how he would clean up what we like and sort of polish it," Rowell says. "But we had a meeting with him -- it just clicked immediately. When we were talking about what kind of record we wanted to make, then it made sense. When we got into the studio, we wanted to ensure it was going to come out as gritty as we saw it being, which meant loud stuff being extremely loud and still having this abrasiveness to it and he was fine with it."

"He knows things about production we don't and was more than happy to make parts as gnarly as we wanted them to be," Rowell adds.

It was Ford who suggested Crocodiles record in a home studio in California's Joshua Tree National Park. This turned out to be the perfect setting, as it gave Welchez and Rowell access to a treasure trove of vintage musical instruments. If the organ on 'Billy Speed' and 'Hollow Hollow Eyes' sounds like the one used on the Swinging Medallions' 1966 hit 'Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)' -- a tune included on much-loved 'Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968' garage-rock box set -- it may be because Rowell stumbled across the same model.

"The studio was just full of instruments, just everywhere," Rowell says. "Fortunately, the sound there and the equipment, it was like hearing what was used on those old 'Nuggets' records. It was like, 'Wow, this is the exact same Sears amp,' so it was like really interesting. We finally had the sound in our heads, and when you never think you'd actually be able to hear them, because they were made 40 years ago, but this studio had everything like that, so it was just a matter of finding it, because it was there, whatever sound we wanted."

"Just being able to hear the kinds of fuzz we wanted to hear on the bass or the kind of wah -- it was purely by chance," he adds. "You just plug a pedal in an amp. Whatever sounded good, we went with, in the moment."