Through Smoke and Music: the Spiritual Reckoning of Dax Riggs

The seemingly bottomless swamp that Riggs pulls his passion from is fed by a unique spring: a responsibility, he feels, that musicians have to their predecessors. He is attracted to songs with deep history, like jazz standard “St. James Infirmary.” Covering the songs that came before is part of his job, Riggs says, to interpret popular music from the past and make it accessible for modern ears. Like a musical anthropologist huddled in some haunted archive, Riggs has gone looking for the histories behind songs he feels drawn to perform. He says, “There’s a website that is nothing but people trying to piece together the history of [“St. James Infirmary”], and where it came from, and all the different versions that have occurred. That one we’re used to hearing by Louis Armstrong is not even close to the first version of it.” Riggs became “obsessed” with English ballads and the folk rock of the ’70s, and was fascinated when he discovered many of the songs he enjoyed travelled through the ages with no credit to their songwriters, and how the songs evolved through generations. He says, “I thought it was such a beautiful idea, and something that people who play music don’t think about as much as we should—that is a very noble aspect of what we do. It’s like carrying down the message of your ancestors. To me, it’s a lot like any native people … having spiritual reckonings with their ancestors through smoke and music, so it becomes something more like a magical thing than just a normal song. I feel like there’s some really deep things that go on when you take that.”

Riggs says he is drawn to deepness and darkness, something not uncommon for artists hailing from the bayou ensconced in Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular. Every band he has contributed to has carried the echoes of Southern blues, which means that even when he changes style, there is still a familiar story coming through the speakers. Both lyrically and sonically, Riggs feels the inspiration of this unique landscape. He says, “I’ve always been fascinated with [New Orleans] and always felt like it was the most special place I’d ever been. There’s definitely an incredible spirit there that goes through all the music, from the preservation jazz hall people to the sludgecore metallers. All of them have some amount of that … certain darkness, it seems like. All the music and history of it helps inspire you.” Riggs has never shied away from that darkness. Though his imagery was far more bloody and twisted during the days with Acid Bath, even his mellower projects are built upon what feels like a primordial appreciation for the dark. Also, like many “dark artists,” his music allows him to dance with his demons rather than be consumed by them. “I’m not the person you might think I am from just hearing the music. Not to say I’m not plagued by darkness like anybody is, but for the most part, I’m thinking about positive things. Music is really getting stuff out of your system. I guess it’s like going to church for some people,” says Riggs. There’s a pagan aspect to the darkness Riggs draws, and while his imagery isn’t particularly subtle, it is used with full honesty and intent. Ballads like “Dressed In Smoke” and “Evil Friend” feel like hymns of long-dead swamp specters in floating white dresses; “Strange Television” and “Song With No Name” aim for the psychedelic world: suicidal acid trips transcribed by gravediggers. It’s goth for grownups who grew out of the melodrama but still know death is waiting patiently for them.

It’s been three years since his last record, Say Goodnight To The World, but Riggs says fans can expect a new album in 2014. He has been working on songs for a while, and says it will still be under his name, but will be different, musically. “It’s hard to say until it’s over, but, at the moment, there’s a very rootsy, swamp kind of vibe to everything we’re doing,” Riggs says. “Right now, we’re playing with no drums, basically just an acoustic guitar and bass, and that’s the way this tour will be. I hope it will retain the roots side of it in the recording.” True to his signature, his live audience can expect a handful of fantastic covers, though which covers he’s selected for this tour are being kept under wraps as a surprise for the audience. Aside from album work and the tour, Riggs continues expressing his responsibility as a musical curator by exploring the sounds of every corner of the globe. In particular, he has a great affinity for Turkish and other Middle Eastern pop music from the ’70s, which he loves for the fact that it’s so foreign to Western ears, we’ve reconstituted it as our psychedelic movement. He also just learned his first song from another country—specifically, a rock song from Zambia. His tastes take him through many countries and many genres, which, of course, end up bleeding into his own original songs, arguably giving his listeners a world music introduction every time they pop one of his records in.

This is all part of what makes Riggs so different. He’s never satisfied with what he knows, and only wants to find more.

He may tour a lot, but he doesn’t make it to Salt Lake often, so make sure you catch him at Urban Lounge on Nov. 6.