Q&A with David Wingo of Ola Podrida

Ola Podrida is an Austin-based band headed by film composer David Wingo. The indie folk band released its third studio album, Ghosts Go Blind, in April and have been on tour since the beginning of May. The band is stopping at Local 506 tonight, and Summer Arts and Diversions Editor Samantha Sabin talked to Wingo about the recording process and the band’s new upbeat sound.

Diversions: Before you used to write most of your songs with friends, but this is the first time you have recorded an album with a stable set of band members. So how would you say the recording process for Ghosts Go Blind was different?

David Wingo: The first two records were pretty much just me, in my own studio. It didn’t really have much of a finish line to it — I would just keep going and didn’t know when to stop. And when it was ready to go tour with the record, I was really having a good time playing the more upbeat songs with the other two guys from the first two records. So I just wanted to write a record that reflected that.

So we wrote while keeping in mind that space for (the other musicians) to fill in and change things and add new ideas. Really, up to this point, I was calling all of the shots. I wasn’t very much musically (with one instrument), so I was more than happy to let everybody else have their say.

Dive: Your last two albums were more folky than your newest one. What prompted this switch?

DW: My musical tastes are extremely varied. I grew up playing in a punk band in high school, and that part of me has never really left. But the first record’s sound has definitely been my go to — it’s kind of quiet. And the first record, it was just me and I thought that was a good fit.

In the second record, there was a lot more electric guitar. So I feel like it was a kind of progression. But the new one is a very different kind of mix. You can hear some pretty rocking songs in the second record, but there was a still kind of distance.

So this one was more up front. If you go back and listen to songs like “Cindy” on the first record, it’s kind of foreshadowing it. And I finally had a band, and I just wanted to play songs like “Cindy.”

If it were up to me, I probably would have made a lot more of (those kinds of upbeats songs) from the get-go, but the band just wasn’t accessible to me. And at some point, I’ll probably end up writing a kind of quiet album again.

Dive: Do you think this new sound has affected how your listeners interpret your lyrics? And how so?

DW: I haven’t really thought about that. I feel like the music has a bit more sparkle and sheen to it this time. It seems like it’s playing off of lyrics a bit more than the first album. That wasn’t my intention by any means. But yeah, certainly, that can be an effect.

Dive: Which song from Ghosts Go Blind was your favorite to write? Why?

DW: I would say “Staying In,” both when I wrote it on my own and with the band. I came up with the guitar part first, and I thought it was really pretty. And I thought it be kind of interesting to have a slight wit to the lyrics, where the guitar part still kind of has a bittersweet vibe to it. I wanted to let the air out of the seriousness of the melody that was going on (with the witty lyrics) to make it a little bit stranger. The lyrics are about wanting to stay inside and avoid the world. It’s just a dispassionate thing, and to make that kind of a passionate plea was kind of interesting. It makes passion out of the mundane.

I went in with the band thinking it was just going to be a quiet thing with just a guitar part, and I didn’t see it going any other way. I thought “Maybe that will be the only one on the record that would be like the first two records.” And then we started playing it, they did what they do on (the recorded version of) the song, and it ended up being the fastest paced song on the record. I never pictured it like that, and it was just so exciting for me the second they started playing it. It was a whole other world I had never foreseen. It took the song into a whole other territory.