DON’T PASS UP PART ONE!
Tedeschi’s vocal was captured with a Neumann U47 running into a 1081 module, then into either an 1176 or 175 for compression. “Good source, good mic, good preamp, good compressor, hit the track,” Tis says. “It’s not rocket science. She has one of the nicest U47s I’ve ever heard. You’re always trying to beat it, and you’re never going to.”
Elizondo had a clear sonic target: “to try and give the sound something more aggressive, more punchy,” he says. Vocals were pushed forward, dynamics managed, intimate moments given room so that when the band wanted to explode, there was space to do it. “Bringing in a couple of us who didn’t have any rules with the band or any history, we could just say, ‘Hey, why don’t we do this?’ And for them, it provoked something new.”
For Trucks, that provocation was the point. “It freed everybody up,” he says. “It felt like the band, but it felt like a different version of the band—which was really fun.”
ADDING PHANTOM LAYERS
When the sessions wrapped, the band headed to Phantom Studios, Elizondo’s facility outside Nashville, for overdubs. There, horn section and background vocalists were each tracked as a group. “Anytime we get multiple people in a room, they’re going to play off each other and the sound is going to be that much bigger,” Elizondo says.
Arrangements were sometimes worked out on the spot, with Trucks, Tedeschi and Mattison weighing in alongside the players. Elizondo often contributed ideas that the band then made their own. “It was, ‘Hey, it’d be great to have a keyboard line come in here,’” Elizondo says. “I’d have a specific idea and let them take it and run with it.”
The Phantom sessions gave the record some of its most unexpected textures. Elizondo’s collection of vintage analog synthesizers proved catalytic: If Trucks heard a sound in his head, Elizondo could locate it almost instantly.
“I would say, ‘I’m feeling this Stevie Wonder sound,’ and 30 seconds later, he’s got it dialed up and on the track,” says Trucks. “It was fun to experiment with him. He has a bunch of cool, weird gear—the Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry reverbs, a bunch of funky old gear…run horns or background vocals through it. It gave it a lot of personality.”
After the Nashville sessions, Trucks returned to Swamp Raga for one more pass at a solo here, a vocal there. When it was done, 17 tracked songs had been whittled to 11. “There’s a half a record sitting there still,” Trucks says. “Amazing stuff.”
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The stereo mix was handled by Justin Francis. For the Atmos version, engineer Ryan Hewitt took an unconventional approach, setting up speakers in the original tracking room at Swamp Raga, playing back stems, and recapturing them with a dozen microphones to recreate the actual space where the band had played.
The result is a sonic fabric that rewards close listening. “When you find those sounds that blend together and just become their own sound all alone,” Trucks says, “there are spots on this record where I was there when we cut it and I still listen back and think, what the hell is that?”
Trucks says he has Future Soul on repeat. “I’ve probably listened to this one more than any record we’ve made,” he says. “It just kind of flies by. And when it’s done, I kind of want to put it back on again.” He pauses. “I’m kind of ready to get back in and do another one.”
