After fighting writer’s block for four years, Drive-By Truckers singer/guitarist Mike Cooley is now back to work. English Oceans (ATO) is Cooley’s return to full-on songwriting—splitting the tracklist right down the middle after letting bandmate Patterson Hood steer the ship for the two albums prior—and is a return to form for the group as a whole. While DBT has never been a band to slack on the road or in the studio, English Oceans has the vigor and exuberance that made it one of America’s best rock groups. Cooley, Hood, bassist Matt Patton and multi-instrumentalist Jay Gonzalez will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Drive-By Truckers feature.
Cooley: Being someone who thrives on focusing on one thing and disregarding everything else, I considered multitasking as every bit the creeping menace Paula Deen’s fan club considers political correctness. It created the possibility of having to change something about myself that would be difficult to change. I even characterized it as a positive spin on scatter brained. If it expected me to change, it had to be a threat. A way of getting me used to one thing so I would be less resistant to something worse. Then one day I was leaving the gym and saw a young woman walking briskly on a treadmill, talking on the phone and crying.
I was right about multitasking.
Fuck Paula Deen.
