Only Thieves – Interview with Jeremy Barnes

ONLY THIEVES
Interview by Jeff Takacs

If you haven’t noticed, there is a revival going on. A revival consisting of bands taking the great punk and alternative sounds of the 90’s and putting their own modern spin on it. Bands like CHEAP GIRLS, THE EVENING RIG and Tallahassee, Florida’s ONLY THIEVES are taking inspiration from the likes of DINOSAUR, JR., GUIDED BY VOICES and PAVEMENT and making a sound all their own. As their amazing full-length debut Heartless Romantics is about to be released, ONLY THIEVES are hitting the road to bring their tales of “romantic pursuits” and letting loose to a city near you. In between tours, AMP had a chance to catch up with the band’s singer/guitarist Jeremy Barnes about the new record, their 90’s inspired sound, self-releasing their record and much more.

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How did you guys meet up to start ONLY THIEVES?

Well that’s sort of a complicated question, Jeff. Since I’m considering this the optimum incarnation of the band I’ll go with the story of this one. Our original drummer split leaving Thomas [Bacot, bass] and I to pick up the pieces. We decided to forge ahead instead of falter and, after trying out a few drummers that just didn’t quite fit, a mutual friend set us up with Aubrey [Young, drums]. It was love at first practice. Aubrey knew Marc [Zivica, guitar] and brought him in to try out. We all went out and got smashed together, which we consider the true “try out” for the band, and it was then that Thomas and I convinced the two to throw caution and sanity to the wind to become full-time members.

So not only did they have to be good musicians, but be able to keep up with you guys afterwards. Awesome. You guys are gearing up to release your first full-length, Heartless Romantics. I have to tell you, I think it’s a phenomenal record and it is one of my early favorites of 2011. While I really liked your first EP Greetings from Levy Park, TLH, the songs on Heartless seem more compelling and dynamic to me. Besides the addition of Aubrey and Marc, was there anything that you guys did differently this time in the songwriting and recording process for Heartless?

When we recorded Greetings we were a young band anxious to start getting our name out there and start building a reputation. I sheepishly admit we were all novices as far as our songwriting, recording, and the overall being-in-a-band-and-taking-it-seriously thing. This time around we had honed our sound, and had spent more time in the actual writing process. And one of the upsides of self-releasing is that the only deadlines we really had were the ones we manifested for ourselves, so we had time to add, subtract, turn knobs, and try this-or-that as we saw fit. Also having access to some better gear and recording in a house-turned-office-turned-storagespace-turned-makeshift-recording-studio was a step up from the garage where we recorded Greetings.

Those differences and improvements really shine through on Heartless Romantics. The best way that I can describe your sound is 90′s alt-rock inspired rock ‘n’ roll, which as an older dude who listened to BUFFALO TOM and PAVEMENT in high school, I totally dig.  What are some of the bands of that era, as well as bands currently playing, that you take inspiration from musically and lyrically?

I definitely romanticize the 90′s. Musically and lyrically I think I “look up” to Paul Westerberg’s (THE REPLACEMENTS) song writing. Let it Be is one of my all-time favorite records, and while we were recording Heartless I kept going back to it to justify how a piano song, and a rock ‘n’ roll song, and a punk song, and a funny lyric, and a sad lyric could all share the same space and fit together even if it didn’t immediately appear so. I also take great inspiration from Bob Pollard and GUIDED BY VOICES. Pretty much every time I sit at a guitar I try to write either my “Game of Pricks” or “Teenage FBI.” These days I love the GASLIGHT ANTHEM, AGAINST ME!, and THE NATIONAL. Matt Berninger (THE NATIONAL) has these incredible non-sequitur lyrics, and every song feels like it’s bottled up to explode. AGAINST ME! and GASLIGHT are two bands at the top of their form. I hope that’s the direction popular rock music is going.

It certainly seems like that is the direction it’s headed. It seems like there are a lot of bands lately who share similar inspirations. Bands like CHEAP GIRLS, FAILURE’S UNION, THE EVENING RIG and SUNDIALS come to mind, even though each band has their own style of music. Do you get concerned at all ONLY THIEVES could get lost in that shuffle or do you see this as a rising tide that you could be a part of?

I think any band who is attempting to “do it,” as in, y’know, make their band their job, has that fear of being lost in total obscurity, and it’s for sure a rational one. As with any venture or undertaking there is a much larger chance of failure than there is of success, especially when it comes to the arts. I’d like to look at it as a wave (hopefully a really big one that lasts a while), and I’d really like us to catch it because, well, I’m just big fans of those bands and it would be awesome to ride it with them. I guess I subscribe to the ethos “good things come to those who work,” and we are working as hard as we possibly can right now.

Putting yourself out there and working to make the band a full-time job is a big leap, but one that if it pays off, can be the most rewarding, being able to survive (at least) doing what you love. You guys are self-releasing Heartless Romantics, which is also a big leap. How has that process been? Is it one that you are happy with, knowing that all of the money earned goes directly back to you or would you prefer to have the backing of a label for future releases?

For us, there hasn’t been another option as of yet, and instead of waiting and demo-ing and shopping around, for better or for worse, we just kind of hopped right in. The process itself is fine, like I mentioned before, we don’t have strict deadlines and get to exercise complete creative control. And yes, we end up recouping a lot of the costs, but then again, we eat a lot of that too and have to settle for dinky CD packaging that I feel bad about charging eight or ten dollars for. We get asked the “label question” by our peers and whatnot and, to be honest, I don’t know the answer. I’ve heard some label-related horror stories and I don’t want to fall prey to that. I guess, if a label I respected came to us with a decent deal to help us release Heartless on vinyl or finance the next record or whatever we might take it. To put it plainly, to me it’s sort of like marriage. Sure, I could see it happening one day and a part of me would definitely like to see it happen, but it’s got to be with the right people who want something long term, share the same feelings and ideas that the band and I do, and can take us to that next level. For where we are right now though, I think we’re doing pretty well.

I think you guys have the right approach about it and agree that you guys are doing pretty well.  Now you guys just got home from a tour that I had the pleasure of reading about on your blog, http://onlythieves.blogspot.com/. For those who haven’t visited the site yet, how did the tour go?

Thanks for the blog plug. I think people have finally started to read it, although, it doesn’t always please everybody, haha. The tour went well. It’s hard to quantify though. I mean, I guess if you look of it from a purely monetary standpoint we just about broke even, which is pretty good for a band at our level. We had enough money coming in from shows to put in the tank and buy certain provisions, i.e. sandwich fixin’s, ramen noodles, 24 packs of cheap beer, etc. etc. when needed. A lot of the time we sold merchandise and played well-attended shows. It was inspiring to see people still interested in seeing live music, watching bands and actually enjoying it. Of course, the opposite happens as well; bored faces in the back of the hall, arms crossed, beer gripped in hands waiting, and waiting. I just want to shake them and ask, “Why are you at this show?!” All in all, as long as we can maintain financially on the road we intend to stay on it.

That is the way to be. I’m stoked that you are able to make enough on the road to continue touring. When you are not touring, you and I call the same town, Tallahassee, Florida, home. I’m curious to hear your thoughts about the town and its music scene.

Haha, what scene? I’m probably going to catch flak for this, but I’m, for all intents and purposes, a townie and have been around this city and its scene long enough to see plenty of waves rise and fall over and over again. It’s a college town, so most of the kids here, save for a group of staunch lifers, are essentially transients. They come for four years or so, start a band for the summer or between classes, and then move on. Your average band lifespan is about a year. We’ve been a band for three years which makes us old hat. This also makes it difficult to keep a solid fan base for the long-term since people are constantly moving. You seem to always be playing for new people, which is nice, but the crowd size always seems to stay the same. Furthermore, there’s a dichotomy here comprised of cover bands who play at the college bars and then on the flipside ardent DIY kids, house shows, crust punks, etc. etc. That’s oversimplifying it, but it’s for the most part true. For a band like us, we have a hard time squeezing in. When we were playing house shows all the time, and sloppy and drunk constantly (not that we’ve cleaned up too much) we got a lot of support from the crusty kids, then we started acting like a professional band and suddenly that wasn’t okay (we’ve been accused of being “fashion punks,” one step away from a sell-out I guess). And we can’t go play the local college bar because all they want to hear is DAVE MATTHEWS covers, and tongue-in-cheek versions of TAYLOR SWIFT songs. I could honestly go on and on about this, but I won’t. To sum it up, I have a real love/hate relationship with this city.

I can see how you could have a tough time squeezing in here. Your sound is more fitting for a college or rock bar, but you also have roots in punk rock as well. I feel like Tallahassee has never really found its footing musically, especially when you compare it to the perceived punk rock mecca, Gainesville, just two hours away. Do you get a different reception there and other Florida cities that you play?

We’ve gotten a pretty cool reception from Gainesville the majority of times we’ve played there. I don’t mean cool as in favorable, but more like cold shoulder. We’ve made a few fans when we go down, but generally there’s a “nope-don’t-give-a-shit” attitude from the kids there sometimes from the bands we’ve played with. But I like Gainesville and I’d like to turn that around. On the opposite end of the spectrum are Tampa and Orlando. More often than not we play well-attended shows, get write-ups in the local publications, and sell decent merch. Luckily we’ve made nice with Joe over at THX MGMT in Tampa and Kyle from Norsekorea Presents in Orlando who do really well with booking and show promotion. This is sort of the opposite of most of the other local bands from Tallahassee. Generally, they go down to Gainesville and have great shows, yet don’t do so well in Orlando or Tampa, if they even go to those places at all. It’s weird. A lot of times I think it just boils down to who you know where.

Well hopefully Gainesville will come around to you guys. I wanted to go back to Heartless Romantics for a second. Several of the songs on the record are about your physical and romantic pursuits of women. On the record’s closer “What’s Wrong”, you reference someone named Kathleen. What is the story behind Kathleen? Is she the subject of the other songs on the record and does she know about it or is she just a fictitious character?

I think of Heartless as a loose concept album about my sexual life between the years 2007 and 2009, haha. So it’s very much autobiographical, but a slightly exaggerated version of it. Though, some of the comments that are made or scenes that I set-up throughout the album are play-by-plays of pieces of my life, Kathleen acts as my foil throughout the record, and I feel like she’s somewhere in the background of most of the songs, even if it’s not explicitly about her. At least four or five are explicitly about her, but I don’t know, I’ll leave it up to the listener to sort all that out. That being said, she is based on a real-life person, and I have informed this person about her place on the record. Name’s have been changed to protect the innocent, of course. Sometimes though, I think it’s better when things like that get left unsaid. Unless it’s an unabashed love song I don’t think I’ll inform people that I’ve written about them anymore… Probably not even then.

That theme is definitely woven throughout the record and I look forward to listening to it again to hear the songs with her in the background. Any final thoughts or words of wisdom?

Listen to Black Metal.

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