The Avett Brothers: Together Through Life

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As for their relationship with each other, respect flows there, too. “I don’t want to come off as bragging,” Seth demurs, “but Scott and I are the ultimate example of brothers working well together. I keep hearing about brothers who don’t work well together and there’s all these legendary brother bands that were at each other’s throats, and I hate it so much for them and I feel so bad for them, because I am living the dream as far as getting along with my brother. I mean, disagreements are very few and very far between and generally have more to do with somebody not having had their morning coffee yet.

“On all the big things, we barely even have to talk; we’re just really one voice in a lot of ways. And Scott, he’s my best friend. His influence on my life is immeasurable. I respect what he says; I respect how he lives. He’s reciprocated the same thing to me, which is pretty much the highest accomplishment that I can get in my life. The man that anyone dreams of him being or guessing that he is – he’s a better man than that. It’s an honor for me to be around him and to work with him. He’s an amazing, amazing person. We haven’t come across something yet that we haven’t been able to figure out with relative ease because of our trust in each other and our willingness to help each other.”

As the older brother, Scott doesn’t sound so worshipful. But he offers a similar assessment of their connection.

“Our relationship is extremely complex,” he explains. “The fact is, we just are hyper-aware of each other. And we just know so well, not exactly what the other’s thinking, but what tempo the other is operating at most of the time. It’s a good indicator to know when to just swerve and stay away, avoid. You only know that about people when you find yourselves in these conversations and reactions and interactions that are, like, completely over the top and wrong. Seth and I are pretty good at avoiding those; we’re good at avoiding the extreme excess of heightened temper or heightened feelings, emotions, the escalating of those kinds of things.”

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When they get right down to it, Seth says, it all really does boil down to the sake of the song.

“What we want at the very base level of this is just for the songs to do the dictating. We’re not really that interested in making certain genre records, but we are interested in letting the song do what it’s supposed to and what it needs to do and for us to just get the hell out of the way.”

And there’s one other task he tries to keep reminding himself about. “I need to be really thankful for what’s happening today,” Seth says, “because I’m not guaranteed anything after that.”