Avett's habit

"We don't stage dive every night."

If a punk singer said that, you wouldn't bat an eye. But hearing that quote from Seth Avett, the guitarist and vocalist of folks-roots-blues-country band the Avett Brothers, is startling.

In its six-year existence, the Avett Brothers—Seth, banjo player-singer Scott Avett and bassist (and the one non-Avett) Bob Crawford—have confounded and delighted audiences with their variation on American roots music. Adding in shouts and tempos more akin to a metal band, they've earned comparisons to everyone from the Everly Brothers to the Violent Femmes.

The North Carolina group's fourth full-length record, "Emotionalism," is comprised of pretty ballads and features a more polished sound. That said, the band's live shows still defy all categorization; if you're in the front row and a banjo-clad musician comes flying your way, duck…and don't say we didn't warn you.

So the Avett Brothers is you, your brother Scott and your non-sibling bassist Bob. What are the dynamics of the band like?
Well, Scott and I do not have much trouble. A lot of brothers fight a lot, but we rarely fight. We look at it like, if you can't count on your brother, who can you count on? When you're out on the road, it's good to have a family member—someone who you can trust. Bob tells us that he has no problem with it. He says we get along really well for brothers.

You hosted Tuesday night parties when you lived in Greenville, N.C., that you've said helped shape and inspire your music. What went down on these events? We're guessing there were shenanigans…
Greenville was basically your normal college scene: Young people getting together, drinking too much, making young people mistakes. There's always a lot of music going on in college towns, but there are these swells of great band scenes. We got caught up in one of those swells; we started out playing living rooms and house parties, and there was just this discovering excitement of playing American roots music.

The terms "roots" and "new wave of indie-roots music" are thrown around a lot with your sound. Is that accurate?
It's difficult to give it a name. It's the same difficulty when we describe what type of band we are—it's impossible to have perspective from the inside. But we are part of something that's a collective, or movement; we know a lot of bands and acts that are the same as us. It's part of a new exciting energy in music, and it draws from a lot of things, that, on face value, come from American roots. But we can't pretend we're from the '30s and '40s. While we do draw from folk, country and blues, we also draw inspiration from heavy rock, metal, hip-hop, calypso, classical…you name it.

All that influence, and yet no drummer…
[Laughs] My brother and I used to be involved with this heavy rock band, but we switched to guitar and banjo. What we loved about that was the mobility of it, being able to just show up and start playing with two instruments in a living room or street corner. Eventually we decided we needed a bass player, so we got Bob involved. But it was never a conscious decision not to have a drummer. I do play some drums in the studio, and I play the high-hat on stage and tap my foot a lot for a beat.

Given your unusual sound, have you had a concert where you paired with a band that you had no right playing with or vice versa?
[Laughs] Actually, when we headline, we try to incorporate acts that are not necessarily the same genre as us. We played one show near us with Valiant Thorr, who are this really super-energetic awesome rock band that we're friends with. That was clearly two different things!

I saw a picture of one of you guys banjo stage-diving…is that a common occurrence?
It's not a one-time thing, but it's not every night either…one of those things, when the spirit gets you. Sometimes, when things get out of hand, we get a bit reckless. I remember we played this tiny club in New York, and by the second song we got too excitable on stage and I had pretty much trashed all of our equipment. And that was just our second song! Of course, we do some nights that are really gentle, and those go really well for us, too.

How did you record your new album, "Emotionalism"?
Each experience is different. This record was our fourth full-length, and we went in with a clear agenda. It was very focused—we knocked out a 14-song record in 10 days. We need things to go perfectly, and they did. It was very fortunate.

You're playing Coachella, the giant music festival, in May. That's kind of…well, huge.
Well, we've done Bonnaroo and the festival circuit, but yeah, this is huge. Coachella is going to be great—we get to see Willie Nelson and a reunited Rage Against the Machine. I can't think of anything better.

You have a number of songs that begin with "Pretty Girls" in the title. Why?
We were doing it in the tradition of [legendary country music singer] Jimmie Rodgers with his "Blue Yodels"—instead of coming up with different names, he just had a different number. There seems to be a lot of material you can do with songs that begin with "Pretty Girls." Actually, we just recorded a new song called "Pretty Girl From _____", with the "blank" being whatever town we're in. It's just a way of capturing the energy of the night.