Interview: Guitarist David Abeyta Discusses New Reckless Kelly Album, 'Good Luck and True Love'

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I think it was different from the Sugar Hill days, but no so different from the Yep Roc days, if that makes any sense. With Sugar Hill, we had to deal really closely with the A&R guy. There was more oversight, and it felt more like turning the record in. Yep Roc was a lot looser with letting us produce our own record and do what we were going to do. It was pretty similar to the Yep Roc experience, because we had the freedom to self-produce. The three of us that produced the record, Willy, Cody and myself, each have our own little departments. Mine tends to be the sonics — the gear and the geeky studio end of it. Willy writes the songs and messes with arrangements, and Cody deals with logistics. We’ve always been about doing things our own way, and with the recording industry changing so much; it just made a lot of sense.

I’m proud of the way it sounds. I think we get better and better at capturing the band’s sound as we go. I guess that’s the idea, though. I’m particularly happy with the guitar tone. Every time, I feel like I get a little closer to capturing the tone I hear in my head. Over the years, we’ve gone back to using ribbons and doing different things to try to get a more accurate guitar sound. So I think I’m as pleased with the guitar tones on this album as I’ve ever been. I guess that means we’re headed in the right direction. My main concern is always to make the record sound as cool as we possibly can. We all have our favorite records, and we always try to make something that sounds like those records that we really love.

I don’t think there is, actually. The only things I would change were just little hiccups that worked themselves out during mastering. Certainly there’s nothing I would change about the way the album turned out — I’m really pleased with it. If you’d asked me that question four records ago, my answer would’ve been completely different. I had a little bit of a perfectionist streak, but I think I’ve been able to outgrow that. Once you give birth to the record, you just have to let go and try to hear it from a listener’s standpoint.

This time, they didn’t evolve on stage at all. Willy Braun does all of the writing, and he brought the material in, and we rehearsed on what was supposed to be our days off from the road. So, we rehearsed and worked out arrangements, and then we started recording. The arrangements were pretty much intact by the time we got there, so it was really just a matter of getting in there and figuring out which one was the take. The band prefers it that way, too. I try to walk that line of making sure everyone’s not rehearsed to the point of having nothing spontaneous about the performance. I think we struck a good balance.

The one guitar-driven rocker on the record, “Hit the Ground Runnin,’” was kind of rocked out at the end anyway, so that one is a little open-ended live. I like the way it turned out on the record, and I enjoy playing it live as our opener. Willy comes out and plays some traveling blues by himself, and we walk out on stage one at a time and pick up that tune. There’s not a lot of that on this record, so that’s the one real solo-oriented song. That’s such an obvious answer for the guitar player to like the one guitar tune, but it’s got great energy.

It’s a lot of fun. Since they’ve been a band, we’ve done a lot of shows together, and I enjoy getting to see those guys every day, because they’re a lot of fun. But, I think the fans really enjoy getting to see four Braun brothers every night. Both bands live in the same area sound-wise, so people feel like it’s a good double bill. Micky and Gary will come out and do a few songs that they’ve written together. It feels like a treat for the fans.

I started playing ukulele when I was 4. A guy in my neighborhood had a ukulele band. There were all these different parts, and some of the older kids would play baritone, and the younger kids would play a regular ukulele. We would learn these single-note lines, which were written out in standard notation, and everybody had their own part. It was like a little ukulele orchestra. It was a pretty cool opportunity for me to start playing, and I took to it pretty quickly. When I got older, I moved on to a baritone, and when I got a little older, I moved on to a guitar. I just kept going on from there. I went to Berklee College of Music in ’87. That was a huge turning point for me. I graduated in ’90, and ended up meeting up with these guys in Austin.

For the last couple of years, I’ve been playing with Divided by 13 amps. I use the SJT 10/20 — it’s a little 20-watter. Our stage volume has gone down more and more, so I’ve moved to a smaller rig. It’s that 20-watt head and a 1x12 cabinet most nights, unless we’re outdoors. Then I’ll use a 2x12 Matchless cab that I have. That’s my main amp on the road. On the board, I’m pretty simple: I use an Analogman King of Tone and a ZVex Super-Duper-2-in-1 clean boost. I’ve also been using a Strymon El Capistan tape-delay emulator. I use delay a lot. I almost always have a short slap effect.

I do. The one that’s on most of the record was done by Gamble Guitar Works. I had an old Fender that was covered in that horrible photo flame finish. It was really bad, so he took all that off and refinished it to model it after a Tele that a buddy of mine had growing up that I always coveted. We put a banana-pudding finish on it, and put a new neck on it, so it turned into sort of a Frankenstein guitar. I also have a ’62 reissue Strat that I’ve had since 1986. It’s starting to look like the real thing with all the wear on it. I also carry a ’61 reissue Gibson SG that I use for the humbucker stuff.

The lead guitar thing that really got me and wouldn’t let go was Stevie Ray Vaughan. When I was in high school, he’d come through Tulsa, where I grew up, and we’d go see him. He blew my mind. I started working backwards after that, so that took me to Hendrix, and I worked my way back through the blues. I was definitely bit by the lead-guitar bug at that point. As I worked forward from there, I found guys like Robben Ford, John Scofield, Bill Frisell and Pat Metheny, and I totally immersed myself in that. I think Robben Ford is my biggest influence today.