J Roddy Walston and the Business play Taft Theater this coming Tuesday, Apil 30th. It's going to be awesome. Buy tickets
here. Our conversation with J Roddy gets into the new album, Cincinnati, and how he manages to keep the energy turned up to 11, night in and night out, for an entire tour.
You're
going to be working with Noble Denim later this year. How did that come together?
We're
gonna come in and spend some time at his shop, get some jeans, maybe
play a song or two. I'm really good friends with photographer Jon
Willis there in Cincinnati, and he's been working with them. So it
all just came together naturally. I like stuff that's
well-constructed and American-made.
One
of the reasons we started Article was to highlight high-qualty people, places, and products that guys in Cincinnati need to
know about. We've highlighted Noble Denim in the past and plan to
work with them more in the future. What are your thoughts on the
resurgence of American-made goods?
To
some extent, I think it ties in to our generation. It has become
cool to start making things again, and I'm fine with that. Many
people are starting to realize that what you eat matters, and where
your food comes from matters. Whether it's your clothes, or your
shoes, or your car, people are starting to ask themselves - has this
been done well, where did it come from, will this last, was this done
in an ethical way? It's hard for people to say, “I'm going to
support ethical food practices, but I don't care where my clothes
come from.”
For
me personally, I'm stoked to come into Noble Denim because I want to
know how jeans are made. A lot of times, I'll deconstruct clothes
when I get them anyways if the fit's not quite right or something
needs to be patched up.
What's
the most ambitious tailoring project you've ever tried?
I
changed a pair of old Levi's that were bootcut into a more slim fit.
That was an intense endeavor. Not that it was all that extreme, but
I guess just the risk of it was. And my dad gave me his old
letterman sweater from college and the sleeves on it were way too
baggy - I'm sure he was a much more muscular man than I was at that
age. I was really worried that I'd totally screw that up. Actually,
I guess the most ambitious thing that I've ever tried, and my least
successful, was to change the sleeves on an old leather jacket. I
don't know what human leather jacket sleeves are made to fit. I mean
it's like, hey this body fits perfectly but the arms are, again,
ridiculous. I learned the hard way that the stitches have to be
really far apart on leather or you just end up perforating it. Plus
the leather was really dried out so it was a double whammy. I mean,
the jacket still exists, but If I try to do anything but stand there
and look cool in it, the whole thing just explodes.
What
do you do, in-between shows, on the road?
At
some point on tour there's only so much record-shopping, or sitting
at the club you can do, so I end up going out looking at weird junk
stores or furniture.
Is
there a store in particular city that seems to have the best junk
shops?
Obviously
cities like Austin or the regular hotspots like Brooklyn are cool,
but they also end up being really expensive because it's almost like
part of their tourism. I've found some really cool stuff in Denver.
I think Denver – I don't want to say is completely unheard of –
but I think it's way radder than most people expect. Last time we
spent like two or three days there on a stop-over on tour and had a
great time. Chicago too. Chicago's got lots of really great stores
in a bunch of different neighborhoods. A lot of the time I'm just
trying to go and see, almost to distract myself. There's been a lot
of times where I'm like, this is the coolest couch I've ever seen,
but I'm six weeks from going home. I think if I tried to convince
the guys to let me put a couch in the trailer, they'd basically just
shoot me in the face.
You
guys keep a pretty relentless tour schedule. How do you keep your
energy up for every performance?
Touring
is a weird thing. You'll hear bands complain about it, and they'll
make the “woes of touring” record about being on the road or
whatever. And it is exhausting to some extent, but really, I mean, I
only have to work one hour a day. You're really blown out tired.
You're not sleeping. At this point we're still driving ourselves and
loading in all of our gear so you have to do some of that kind of
stuff. I don't know how anybody actually gets to the point where
they are actually just riding in a bus and all they do is show up a
couple minutes before they go on stage.
For someone to complain
about the actual performance part of touring is crazy. I love –
all of us in the band – love to get up on stage and perform. To
some extent, it's easy, but you still have to approach each
performance fresh every night. Even if you end up moving around the
same way or trying to get the audience into it the same way – you
have to have in the back of your mind, like, “maybe tonight I'll
fall down or trip over something” (laughs). You know just to keep
it different or whatever.
Is
there an art to getting the crowd into it?
No
doubt there are little things that happen where you're like, whoa,
that mechanism worked and it conveyed what I was trying to convey to
the audience – and then they gave something back. That's the
thing, with us, is interaction with the audience. The worst shows
for us is when we are playing with a bigger band that needs to have a
barrier in front of the stage. That four to ten foot gap is pretty
weird for us. In Cincinnati, in particular, we've had some pretty
gnarly shows at the old Southgate House. Upstairs at the Southgate
House with the crowd on top of you, in your face, basically there's
no separation between you and the crowd at all and that's a great
show for us.
You've
been coming here for a good while. What's some of the best shows
you've played in Cincinnati?
Definitely
the CincyPunk Fest we played was crazy. Cincinnati was one of the
first places we really started playing. We probably played a good 10
to 15 or even 20 shows before anybody actually started showing up.
The first time I played the Comet was really exciting because it was
one of the places I would hang with my friends, and it was one of the
coolest places I had ever been. We had a pretty rad time once
Northside opened up that back bar. That's a pretty rad room.
Cincinnati has always been, to me, one of the more awesome rust belt
cities. I've been waiting for it to officially hit the map as one of
the radder places for young people to live. The stretch of towns -
Cincinnati, Lexington, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Cleveland – is the
first place we felt like we were actually getting traction anywhere.
We've been to all of those cities so much, both on and off the radar,
that we can pretty much drive around without a map or GPS at this
point.
Why
are bands afraid to rock nowadays? Have you thought about that at
all?
I've
actually thought about it a lot, and I think there's a loss of the
thought that being in a rock and roll band is an artistic form of
music. I think that most bands just haven't directly been saying
anything that people actually care about. It's kind of like running
a car. You have to have the right mix of fuel and air. You can't be
so literary that people are having their minds blown off,
but at the same time, you have to say something - and you
also have to be able to dance to it (laughs). I don't want to say
we've mastered that by any means, but I think we've found something
where people can say to themselves . . . “I can completely get lost
in this and dance around and go nuts with my friends or I can sit by
myself and listen to this on my headphones and lyrically be intrigued
or moved.” I think a lot of bands, and people in general, discount
the working man as someone who just gets up, goes to work, eats, and
doesn't think about anything – like mindless worker bees – and
that's just not been my experience. I think that's what rock and
roll has lost is the full connection with human beings. It only
plays up one side of it, like, “we're into drinking and drugs!” I
think it just stopped being “artsy.” So when an artsy kid is
coming up the last thing they're thinking is that they should start a rock
and roll band.
You
grew up in Tennessee. How many of your songs are inspired by
real-life events?
Everything
is launched off of bits and pieces, whether they are personal or
observed. And then generally I'm like, “well that's kinda a weird
or bad thing – what if I made it absolutely bad or weird or
intense?” I'm trying to turn everything up to the most extreme
final point it could hit and then step back and see what that can
teach me about humanity. I continue to believe that the south is one
of the last untamed places in the America. You have to take the good
with the bad, but I love it. Even as a kid, there were a lot of
times that I was like – I don't understand what's going on here,
but I'm going to put this away in my brain and use it later in life.
What
do you do when you're not playing music?
Fortunately
for the last two years, music has been full time, and I haven't had
to have a day job. My wife and I bought a house last year – so
I've been gutting that thing. Really though, writing this record has
taken up the last year. As an escape from the record now and then,
I've been working my way through figuring out how to work on the
house.
Is
there a release date set for your new album, “Essential Tremors?”
Not
yet. We're going through the mixes right now. I'm assuming it will
be sometime late summer, but I don't know exactly when that will be.
I'm super excited about it. I can't wait to have everybody hear it.
That's the fun part of a record coming out is that moment when you
realize that people have fully taken it in, absorbed it, and they
start singing it back at you. I think people are going to be way
stoked on it. It sounds really awesome.
What kind of energy can we expect
from the new album? Does it feel similar to your last?
There's always
going to be energy on our records. If you go back to our previous
recordings you can see that our band is not locked down to one
particular style. Our influences probably remain pretty evident, but
I think the songs are a lot better on this record – catchier, more
fun, but also lyrically a lot darker. I feel like every record has
gotten darker and darker, but the darker the lyrics, the poppier and
catchy things have to be. You don't want to fall into some weird,
depressing sadness pit. It definitely is still rocking and from what
I can tell in the mix, it still sounds really fun, really aggressive,
big and rocking. It is some of the most aggressive stuff we've ever
recorded, but there's also a track that's just me and a piano. So,
it's a much broader record. If you liked our last record, I think
you'll like this record, but not because it sounds the same.
We love Cincinnati - and there is no better time to live here than right now.
Obviously
cities like Austin or the regular hotspots like Brooklyn are cool,
but they also end up being really expensive because it's almost like
part of their tourism. I've found some really cool stuff in Denver.
I think Denver – I don't want to say is completely unheard of –
but I think it's way radder than most people expect. Last time we
spent like two or three days there on a stop-over on tour and had a
great time. Chicago too. Chicago's got lots of really great stores
in a bunch of different neighborhoods. A lot of the time I'm just
trying to go and see, almost to distract myself. There's been a lot
of times where I'm like, this is the coolest couch I've ever seen,
but I'm six weeks from going home. I think if I tried to convince
the guys to let me put a couch in the trailer, they'd basically just
shoot me in the face.
