After fifteen years running down a dream, J. Roddy Walston has just about caught it. Walston initially began playing in bands in his native Cleveland, Tennessee during high school, and in true teen drama fashion, one of his scratchy demo tape beat out something like 300 other bands to compete at a national festival. While the rest, as they say, is history, one that includes a number of different lineups since that initial high school iteration, over a decade of touring — some of it within the camouflage confines of a church van — and a transition from self-released tapes to LA’s Vagrant Records to a proper home on ATO Records.
After kicking around the south for a bit, love brought Walston to Baltimore, where his girlfriend and now-wife Sarah Kate Walston was studying opera at the renowned Peabody Institute. That’s where J. Roddy Walston & The Business officially began, and their bluesy bar-rock became a staple in Baltimore, and beyond, as the band toured on an unrelenting pace until their ferocious live show was known, not only around the east coast and the south, but all the way over in the west and beyond. Eventually, they headed back down to Richmond, Virginia, and have settled their home base there for now, while continuing to tour relentlessly.
So when the band officially signed with ATO for the 2013 release, Essential Tremors, it put the band on the map in a new way — TV performances for Conan and Late Night With David Letterman, an Austin City Limits appearance, six-month-long placements on Billboard‘s Heatseekers chart, and even advertisement and TV show placement. These are all huge commercial strides for the group, yes, but on the other hand, they’d already been on the map; their touring had built a rabid audience who was right there to support when the larger breaks came.
It’s that same audience, scattered across America, who are thrilled to watch J. Roddy Walston and The Business break out even bigger with this year’s release of Destroyers Of The Soft Life. While this album is a streamlined, sleeker take on their raucous blues, none of their fierceness is lost inside these silvery, hooky songs. If anything, it’s the ideal scenario for a band who have been grinding away on the gutsy, raw side of things for a decade and a half. Working with producer Phil Ek (Built To Spill, Band Of Horses) to refine their loudest wails into barn-busting anthems. Surely, part of what informs this album’s even more expansive sound is the time they spent in all different parts of this country, discovering America in a way few people do anymore.
I count myself among the band’s many fans, won over back in 2014, about a year after Essential Tremors had been released, and quickly caught up on their generous back catalogue, and eagerly awaiting the eventual follow-up. Today, the band have shared yet another new song, the rollicking shimmer of “Numbers,” which you can hear just below. The band’s new record will be here at the end of September, and Walston was kind enough to talk with me about building up that reputation as a live act, what it feels like to blow up, working with Phil Ek, and chasing down dreams. Read our conversation below.
You guys have really cemented your reputation as one of the best live bands to see, what do you use as motivation to keep that energy coursing through your shows at that same level no matter what?
I think there are a couple of things. One, it’s just how we react to music. If I am at a show, seeing a band that I love, I’m singing along and dancing and sweating. We are just reacting to our own music in the same way. And two, the audience… they give us so much energy and challenge us every night. It’s some sort of contest of endurance where we see who will burn out first, the band or the crowd. On the great nights all of the lines between us and them break down and we all are a part of something special.
This is your fourth album, and feels like it leans a bit more into direct, pop sensibilities, while still maintaining that core underlying sensibility of bluesy country rock. How did you balance all those elements while creating this one? Was it a natural progression or something you were purposefully aiming for? Your note about “nostalgia” in the PR was so interesting to me. Obviously, country and rock struggle with this all the time.
I heard someone say that people used to race each other in the studio trying to finish their records first, hoping to find a new sound and get it out before someone else could beat them to it. That re-sparked a thing in me that I hadn’t felt in a long time. When I was younger and falling in love with music and bands, bands that were new and fresh and state of the art, I remember feeling that they were mine and this was my time’s music. I still loved older music but it felt special to have bands that were making something just for me at that very moment. I don’t think we were ever a band that wanted to trade on nostalgia, but I can see how some people might have seen it that way.
Rock music is just stuck on a loop right now. It bums me out that, most of the time, when people suggest that I listen to some band it’s because “they sound just like ___” or “could have been around during the 1960’s/1970’s/1980’s etc.” It kinda makes me hate rock so I can see why people have moved on from it, or why younger generations have written it off.
What drew you to work with Phil Ek for this album? Looking at his roster of albums, were there a couple on there that led you to that decision?
We had finished about 90% of the record at a studio that we built here in Richmond, Virginia, but the finish line just kept moving further away from us. We needed somebody we trusted to help us draw a line in the sand and say ‘this is good.’ ‘This is finished.’ Phil was the only guy that we could all agree on. I mean basically everything he has done is rad. Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Fleet Foxes, Shins, on and on and on and on.
Your last album put you on the map at some huge events — Lollapalooza, the Newport Folk Festival, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits. Was there one milestone in particular that meant the most to you? Or is there something still looming that you really want to achieve?
Getting to do TV shows (Letterman, Conan, and Austin City Limits) was the thing that made me feel like we had moved up to the varsity level. I would love to really travel the world with our music. We did a little bit in the UK on the last record but I want to go everywhere: Asia / Africa / South America / cruise ships / Daryl’s house… everywhere.
“Bleed Out” is one of my favorite songs on the record, and it gets a little heavier too, which is a nice contrast with some of the more pop moments here on this album. Can you talk a little bit about writing that one and the story behind it?
Musically I think I wrote the parts thinking ‘what if Tom Petty and the Ramones got together and tried to write a pop song?’ From there we turned up the amps and tried to hit the drums as hard as we possibly could.
I am not much for explaining my lyrics, but the well spring for me on this one was a storyline I had started exploring about two people who were friends but also adversaries. One wanted to prove there was a God, the other wanted to prove that there wasn’t. They both agreed death was the only avenue for research. They started dabbling in death but kept having different experiences. Both would return from the other side even more convinced that they were right. In Belief vs Faith, no one wins.
The album title is a super specific one here that evokes a lot. Can you talk about that decision as well?
I think it kinda speaks for itself but I can say that it has room to grow, meaning as I understand the record more the title keeps becoming more correct. I can say that when I wrote that line I was inhabiting a character’s head space that was a mid thirties late bloomer who was finally going thru his rebellious/goth phase, and was feeling bold about being a part of dismantling everything that anyone thought was normal or obvious. This person is a grown man having his first taste of enjoying depression, someone who suddenly understood that they understand everything and nobody else gets it. Basically, I think millennials are going thru junior high again and that is both sad and exciting.
After Fifteenish years doing this band thing, what do you think the most important thing you’ve learned about the music industry is? I know it’s changed a ton over that time. If you had to go back and do it all again, would you still choose to pursue music?
Be nice, be grateful, work hard, those are the things you can control. All the other stuff is luck and gifts. Yeah, I would still chase my dream. I hope my kid has a less evasive dream.
Your last two albums have both come out via ATO Records, how did that relationship come about and what has it been like working with the label?
We toured or opened for a few ATO bands and they were one the few labels we really were interested in. The President of the label came to some of those shows and we just clicked. ATO is amazing, totally supportive, it makes me think of the stories of labels in the ’70s just letting bands chase down whatever they wanted. We love their input but they would probably let us roll with whatever we gave them as well.
A couple years ago The New York Times did a big thing about how you guys tour in a church van, do you still use it? How’s it holding up / are there plans to upgrade any time soon?
No we don’t tour in it anymore. Actually donated it back to a church. It still runs. We are on our third van since we moved on. It still burns.
For people who are just discovering your music, what is the ultimate, number one band-defining song that you would want them to hear?
Geez that’s a hard one. On this record I would say “You Know Me Better.” I think it really pulls together all of the elements of our band that most people would point out as bench marks of our bands vibe/sound. Literate… heavy… catchy… confusingly revelatory… big ending.
Destroyers Of The Soft Life is out 9/29 via ATO Records. Pre-order it here.
