Interview: My Morning Jacket Recorded Their Album In A Haunted Mansion

My Morning Jacket are contenders among the privileged few music industry veterans who can boast 15+ years and counting. And after chatting with Tom Blankenship and Pat Hallahan briefly at Bonnaroo, it's easy to see why MMJ aren't just survivors of the industry, but true lifers. After all the years, they still know exactly what it takes to stay inspired. This year, to stoke the embers in preparation for their seventh studio album, The Waterfall, they packed all the gear they'd need and headed up to Stinson Beach in Marin County, CA. 

The beach, which is storied to be haunted, it is where an unnamed home studio was erected long ago using co-opted cobblestones and other 'reclaimed materials.' Blankenship explains, "It's super beautiful... to not be influenced by where you're recording. And out there, being around literally nobody at all, and being able to walk out at any time, out of the recording situation, and out of the weird headspace you get in when you're recording... there's a lot of freedom."