Austin-based band, Briscoe, talked to Erin O’Neill at this year’s 2nd Annual Sound On Sound Festival in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The band, consisting of Truett Heintzelman and Philip Lupton, were meant to play the festival early in the day, however, due to weather complications, were unable to. In this interview conducted amidst the rest of the festival, Heintzelman and Lupton spoke with O’Neil about their songwriting process, Texas barbecue and their recent listens.
Check Out the Full Transcript Below!
Recorded at Sound On Sound Music Festival, October 30, 2023. Edited for Clarity.
Erin O’Neill: What’s the dynamic then? If you’re like the songwriter? What do you do?
Philip Lupton: I write songs as well, we just do it kind of… It’s been a natural thing so far, we just kind of do it individually and use each other in sort of a consulting way. Like, talk to each other with, Hey, I’ve got a song, what do you think? Or hey I’ve got half a song? What would you add/change. You know, a handful times we sat down and wrote a song together as well, so a little bit of both, but for the most part it’s an individual thing.
So do you, like, just write the lyrics and then like, jam until it makes sense.
Lupton: I feel like we usually come with a musical idea. Okay, at least for me, it’s easier to get the music down. And then yeah, lyrics on top of that, I feel like I kind of have phrases and ideas that you have stored away. So maybe those come before, but the actual lyrics, Yeah.
Oh, my gosh, I was gonna ask, What’s your opinion on Texas barbecue?
Lupton: Ooh, great question, honestly, if you’d like to answer…
Truett Heintzelman: I just had Blacks barbecue. Which is a legendary Texas barbecue.
Heintzelman: Now, there’s two. See, so Black’s is the original. And then, by the time it was like, the guy who founded it had a son, and he had a son. So the grandson of the founder was like the pitmaster. Okay, and then his nephew’s split off and started a new chain in Austin, called Black’s. But then the pitmaster, the third generation pitmaster, filed a cease and desist against the nephews for using Blacks name, so then they changed it to their father’s name, Terry Blacks and then the other Blacks remain. So there’s a little bit of a family rivalry going on. So I ate at the original blacks the other day with my family. It’s in Lockhart.
This is so crazy. You know, all the lore.
Heintzelman: And the only reason is because I freshened up on it. Like last week, a week or two back. It’s so good. I mean, I, it was the most food I’ve had in one sitting in a long time. It felt so bad after.
Did you get like the white bread slice, the cornbread, the mac and cheese?
Heintzelman: The bread slice. Cream corn. Yeah, brisket, turkey, chicken. Oh my god.
That’s so good. Okay, great opinion. Can I ask why you’re not into barbecue?
Lupton: That is a great question. I do love Lamberts. I’m not like against barbecue. But, honestly, it’s really expensive if you want to do barbecue right here. It’s the equivalent, you think of barbecue like, oh it’s just like, you know, napkins and you know, you get messy. You probably don’t spend that much money. To do barbecue like, well, even if you’re in like smaller towns in Texas, you’re gonna spend like $30 to $40 a person and it’s hard for me to drop that kind of money anytime. But I love barbecue, brisket isn’t my favorite meat. I’m not a die hard brisket guy but good brisket is really good.
Heintzelman: Texas barbecue like, is good brisket for sure.
No, yeah, it is. I feel like it’s like brisket and beans. That’s okay, though. You don’t have to love it. That’s ok, the spirit is there.
Heintzelman: I feel like he said his favorite, at least in the past is that his favorite restaurant in Austin is Lambert’s barbecue though. Another small town barbecue chain.
Lupton: They do like that’s like a sit down barbecue place, they serve like nice ass Whiskey. And like, we’ll get like, roast like fire roasted quail or some s***. It’s not just like.. That’s my birthday spot, it is my birthday spot.
That’s your birthday spot? No way. That’s pretty legit then, must be a good spot. Okay, interesting take on barbecue then. Love hate relationship. Okay, another question that we always ask people is what’s your favorite kind of pasta? Like the actual like, bit.
Heintzelman: Favorite kind of pasta, this is up to you. I’m not a huge pasta guy.
Lupton: So you just mean noodle or do you mean like, dish?
Like noodle
Heintzelman: You go
Lupton: I would probably say uh, fettuccine noodle is my favorite
Heintzelman: What’s it called, does uh Gnocchi count? I’ll take that
Yeah. That’s a good one. That’s creative. I haven’t gotten that one. That’s a good one.
Heintzelman: What’s your favorite?
Mine? Honestly, I feel like Fusilli is cool. It’s like the little, like, twirly ones cause they like, they get all the sauce in there, like they hold it up. You know? It’s good. Okay. I’ll do one more question. I saw that you guys have a cabinet on your website where you put like your favorite music. But what’s, like, your favorite album right now?
Lupton: That’s on there now or just in general? Off the cabinet?
Yeah, I was gonna say off the cabinet but we can go in general
Lupton: Let’s do favorite album at the moment. I’ll go, Something More Than Free, by Jason Isbell. We listened to the whole thing in the car today.
Lupton: I got to be on aux because I was driving.
Heintzelman: I’ll say my favorite album at the moment is Southern Star by Brent Cobb. Brand new.
Got it. Good choices. I will listen to them. Maybe we can, like, put them on our website or Instagram. Could be like this is what Briscoe likes.
Heintzelman: They’re gonna think we’re super country, they really are, but that’s, that’s perfect.
That’s ok, that’s ok. I think you guys should do like, maybe for your next album cover you could do like a cowboy photoshoot? I think that would be sick.
Heintzelman: Cowboy hats, the whole nine yards.
Lupton: I mean, you don’t, you have it when you’re from Texas. So we’ve got all the stuff.
I see those.
Lupton: Yeah, you can see my boots
Heintzelman: He’s a bold man.