After missing my first opportunity to check out Lullwater live back in December, I absolutely jumped at my second chance on March 22nd when the band would be playing with Passafire at The Jinx. Even more exciting was the fact that I would get to interview the band who had thus far been my favorite review since hooking up with Good Night Magazine. I was excited and nervous about the experience, and after setting this up a month out, it seemed like I would be waiting forever in anticipation.

 

When that Saturday finally came, I rushed to The Jinx and I spotted the guys immediately - Brett in a red hoodie and trucker hat, John's signature long locks capped by a black beanie; Tim must be the taller, blonde guy in the back. Before speaking up, I stopped in front of them for a moment - it's weird to recognize someone who doesn't recognize you. Tim came over and introduced me, letting me know I would be able to talk to John and Brett, although they might need to break for a meeting in the middle of the interview. As we walked inside, Brett asked me about the album review I'd done, and it felt great to know that he had read and appreciated the piece.

 

If you've never been to The Jinx, it's a bit of a hole-in-the-wall type of bar despite its prime location on busy Congress Street. With an ample stage front and center, and music relics all around, it's the type of venue you go to see your favorite up-and-coming performers alongside die-hard fans and general music lovers. It's not exactly known to be a quiet place, but around 8:30, when we finally scooted into an open booth, the noise level was surprisingly low. I couldn't have asked for more open and friendly guys for my first interview, and Brett and John made me feel completely at ease as we talked about a recent stop they'd made in my hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. The guys impressed me with their considerate answers and vast musical knowledge and as the interview went on, more band members trickled in and joined us: first bass player Roy "Ray" Beatty joined us and added a comedic spin on many of the questions, then drummer Joe Wilson, who offered thoughtful insight as the band's newest addition. In lieu of discussing the band's name and origins, facts I'd learned while reviewing the album, we discussed their pilgrimage to London Bridge Studios, the Foo Fighters (a LOT of Foo Fighters,) and taking over the world.

 

Good Night Magazine: I was introduced to you guys through Good Night Magazine and through your manager Tim who called you guys "grunge revivalists." I think it's very fitting, but what do you guys think of about being called "grunge revivalists?"

Brett Strickland: It's cool, like, we definitely have that grunge influence. We're not trying to mimic it. We're just kind of doing our own thing but we all love that whole era so growing up listening to that when you're first start learning to play guitar, it comes through naturally and its…I'd say we're like a modern rock band with like grunge undertones. I would say that. Not like modern as in what you hear on regular rock radio. It's just kind of our own thing. It's really hindered us a lot in the past because no one has sounded like us and we get to play shows with bands that doesn't really fit. But now that people are taking notice, it's really awesome.

John Strickland: Yeah, and I think the grunge revivalist title… there was an article written about the record and someone coined it "grunge revivalists" so it kinda, we kinda thought to ourselves 'okay that's… you know… we can see that. Definitely the grunge movement of the late 80’s and early 90’s in Seattle I would say is our biggest influence when it comes to our type of music, but we also are from Athens and Savannah. So we have that southern feel to it that we're going to put our own mark on that style of music, so you know, "revivalists" yeah. I'm a huge fan of the grunge movement. And I think it should be looked at as something to say hey okay these people are taking influences from the 90’s and making it their own. Putting their own spin on it. Because to me, that was the last era of really good rock and roll. You know, within our lifetime. The post-grunge and all that stuff, it just, everything got lost. And even the bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Blind Melon, you know. Nirvana. A lot of those grunge bands, they had heart. They had that, you know, passion. They changed the times. I mean if you look at what the grunge era was: it was the death of the hair metal bands. I mean it pretty much ended an era and created its own world.

Brett: And it was not songs meant to be sold, you know?

 

GNM: Not meant to be on the radio?

John: Yeah, they just did what they wanted to do. And that's what happened. And people were drawn to that, I was drawn to that, Brett was drawn to that, and I think that really, that's what influences us.

 

GNM: Do you think that kind of music is going to come back? Do you want to see more of that coming out, like more bands similar to your sound?

John: I do, I want to see that because you know I think that today's rock era there's a lot of - I don't know the word - there's a lot of pretending. There's a lot of people forcing to write a certain way and they're writing radio rock and they're forced into this, you know this pigeon-holed Top 40, this is Top 40 and this is how it has to be done and we just said fuck that. That's bullshit music. When you're writing a 3 minute 20 second rock song just to make it on the radio you know, that's to me, it's fake. It has no substance to it. And for us, we can go from a 3minute 20 second rock song to an 8 minute jam. You know, there's no backing tracks? It's just four dudes playing rock music and bouncing ideas off of each other in the moment and improvising certain things while you're on stage that make it real. It's like, we talk about this all the time. You go to a Pearl Jam show, you go to a Sound Garden show, Foo Fighters show and those guys are just playing. There's no set. Obviously they have some structure with the way it's supposed to go but they're not limited to what they did on the record to what they're doing here. They just go do what they wanna do and they rock the fuck out with it, and it's great.

 

GNM: Have you guys ever gotten to go to a Pearl Jam or…?

Brett: Yeah, he and I saw Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters last…two years ago? It was fuckin' awesome.

 

GNM: Both of those are some of my favorites.

[Someone from the Jinx walks by and yells, "Let's go have a meeting!"]

John: Foo Fighters definitely took the festival. They were definitely the best band at the festival, and I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan and I've seen 'em several times and I can't wait to really get to see 'em in this next run 'cause we're always touring. It's hard for us to actually get to go to shows we wanna go see. When we're able to go see a really big show we're just fuckin' psyched. So I'm ready to see those guys again. They put on a hell of a show. I saw them in 2008 at Bonaroo? and it was a four hour show. Unreal. One of the best shows I've been to in my life.

 

GNM: I've never been to Bonaroo. I didn't know they played there, but that's awesome.

John: Yeah it's a crazy time.

 

GNM: So I think it's a good time to mention that my favorite song on your album is "Walk On By" and it reminds me so much of Pearl Jam's "Last Kiss," the cover they did.

Brett: That's what people say.

John: We've heard that.

 

GNM: How's that feel?

John: That's awesome.

Brett: That's definitely a chick song. (laughs)

 

GNM: I don't usually like slow songs, but I love that song.

Brett: It's a good song. That's awesome.

 

GNM: That said, I'm sure you guys get a lot of comparisons to those 90’s grunge bands. Who do you think is the most flattering that you get? You grew up on it, so…

Brett: Foo Fighters.

John: To us, we actually got coined by a venue in Syracuse, New York. They said, 'When I hear you guys, it reminds me of a new, southern Foo Fighters. Which is a great compliment. We love Foo Fighters. It was odd in that like… southern Foo Fighters? Like (sings a southern, crooning-style note or two and laughs) I mean, "y'all?" I don't know.

Brett: Yeah

John: But it's kinda…

 

GNM: Like a twangy sort of...?

John: It's gotta kinda southern allure to it. I would say for me the best compliment would be Foo Fighters and Pearl Jam. That's my top two.

Brett: Same thing.

 

GNM: Was it always you guys? I read you guys met through mutual friends. Did you go through any other band members? And did you play for any other bands before this?

Brett: He [John] and I are the original members left. But yes, we've definitely been through our line ups. We've probably had like five bass players and two drummers. Joe, who is our new drummer, he and I played in a band in high school in Savannah so he and I have had that history for a long time. John had seen him play, too because our old bands played shows together.

John: It was a no-brainer. We were in Seattle, and everything went south with our former drummer. Brett just kinda goes 'Joe?' and we were all like 'yes.'

Brett: Joe's a bad ass.

John: Joe is an animal. That is the guy that we needed. Like Brett said, he's had chemistry with Joe since like 14.

 

GNM: So that makes you fit together really well?

John: There could not have been a better…this is the lineup that we have always wanted. Over the last seven years we've been a band, and it's just been one disappointment after the next, and it's just now taking hold where the music is being realized. Like the music we've had in here (points to head) and what we've been playing as a group of musicians is coming together. It's solidifying.

Brett: This is Ray, our bass player.

John: This is Melanie, she's doing an interview.

Ray: Hey, what's up?

 

GNM: Hey! Nice to meet you!

Ray: Good to meet you. Hey you guys . . . (points to Origin of Species shirt)

 

GNM: You're welcome to stay and get in on this!

Brett: That's hilarious.

Ray: Thank you.

 

GNM: I asked them earlier, and I'm interested in what you have to say. I'm sure you guys get a lot of 90’s comparisons, so what do you think is the best - most flattering - 90’s comparison for you?

Ray: If anyone is to tell me that we sound like Alice in Chains, it's really pretty sweet. Or you know, any Nirvana-Dave Grohl-bass things. We love those.

Brett: Especially Foo Fighters.

Ray: Yeah, cause it's like 90’s but anytime someone says Foo Fighters, I get happy.

 

GNM: Awesome. Love the Foo Fighters. So when did you join the band?

Ray: When I joined the band…I was 18 and I was in my freshman year of college for a little bit, and then I dropped out to be in the band. And that was like four years ago.

 

GNM: Very cool. So, you guys moved to Seattle in 2011, right?

Ray: We went there for a month, recorded the album. We uprooted ourselves and went there temporarily.

John: We were there for a whole month in December. Got back Christmas Eve.

 

GNM: Well that's a good Christmas. So what made you guys take the jump? That's kind of a big step to go across the country to record.

Ray: It was a pilgrimage.

John: The thing about Seattle is I've always just been in love with those bands. All the ones we were talking about earlier. That was our biggest influence. And we were doing pre-production, writing new songs, we knew we had to get a record out. We wanted to get these new songs out, and I was looking up old records that I loved with that old sound, and I knew that we needed to get THAT sound. And I found London Bridge Studio. And the catalog at London Bridge Studio, I just saw all this stuff and it was like oh my god, so I called Ray and Brett like we gotta go to Seattle. We HAVE to get to Seattle.

Brett: We looked up the bands that were there and it was like, no-brainer. That's what we need to do.

John: And we did. And we were able to work with Jonathan Plum who is an amazing, amazing producer and really got us tight. Got us tight as a band.

Brett: Well the cool thing about it is that we did it all live, and they have a Neve board there which is like rare as shit, and we did it all analog instead of digital.

 

GNM: I’m sorry, I'm not familiar - what is a Neve board?

Brett: Neve. It's a console, like for…

Ray: It's just a company but they make like really high quality two and four preamps and boards and stuff, so it's just like adds to the analog sound rather than digital.

Brett: As opposed to digital. We recorded everything on tape. And we did it all live, too. So we were all in the same room. Most bands you hear now are gonna cut a track where, you know, there might be drums first then go back over and do all the other stuff

Ray: We did it all at once.

Brett: Like if you listen on headphones, you can hear other instruments like bleeding in and like minor human flaws of playing, but that's cool, that's real.

John: And the cool thing about that room is that it's world renowned for it's drum sound. So that room is known for it's big, boom-y drum sound, and it was incredible playing there because we're sitting there, plugged in and we're playing and it's just like BOOOOM! It was awesome.

Brett: It was a great experience.

 

GNM: How do you guys feel playing there? London Bridge Studios hosted all those 90’s grunge bands there and now you - how did it feel?

Brett: Surreal. We walked in and saw Pearl Jam platinum records on the walls. Alice in Chains. Temple of the Dog, Mother Love Bone...

John: For me, when I walked in, and I know everybody felt the exact same way it was like a Wayne's World...

Ray: We're not worthy!

John: …type moment. You walk in and you see all these records and it really hits you like as a fan of that music. And it hits you, you kind of lose the reason you're there to begin with. We were just kinda like little kids, like holy shit look at all these records! And then the reality sets in that like, alright, now it's time to go to put your mark on that studio and work your ass off, and then the pressure sets in. You know, you do 14 hour days in the studio because you have to live up and you have to press yourself . You're in a legendary studio, they don't take bullshit. They'll kick you out if you're bad…and they almost did. But uh…yeah it was an overwhelming feeling.

 

GNM: What did you guys do before this? Like what kind of built up to this and got you to where you are at right now?

Ray: We've been on the road for about two years - two and a half years before that?

Brett: We toured a LOT. A lot. We'd leave like, two or three weeks, come home for a week. Maybe two. But we were gone. We had a previous record that we did in Athens, but it really wasn't what we'd been aiming to do the whole time. Like there's some songs on it that sound kinda like how we are now, but…We just kinda evolved as a band

Ray: And on the road, we were just writing all these songs together and we were just like living… and eating and sleeping and breathing. So it really like made us come together as a band in our writing process.

John: I don't even think that with the road, necessarily…the road was a great experience for us as a band, but what really solidified our sound and made us connect with each other, especially us three, within that record, was being in that high intensity environment like 14 hour days for a month straight, making sure that in the studio, in Seattle.

Ray: It really tied the room together.

Brett: We'd finish up at like 5-6 o'clock in the morning, and we started at like…noon?

John: And we started at like 10 that morning. It just was crazy. And you know, our former drummer that we talked about on the Silhouette record… [reverting back to discussing their first album] I don't wanna call it an experiment because it wasn't an experiment, there are some great songs on that record that we're gonna play tonight but Joe has added so much life to those songs and now we're gonna go back to Seattle at the end of this year.

Ray: We're planning to do that.

John: to re-record some of the rock songs off the last record and we're gonna do an EP coming out at the end of next year. So yeah it wasn't really a band, it was more of some dudes playing music together. Brett and I had been playing music together since 2007 maybe? So we were getting our groove and we were figuring out each other and what we liked and how we were going to play together and I really think the magic happened with this band now when Joe came in. That's what started the new revival.

 

GNM: I like that we keep using that word.

Ray: How appropriate. (laughs)

 

GNM: What do you think would be the biggest obstacle to the point you're at today? You guys have definitely come a long way in seven years, different band members…

Brett: Sticking to our guns, I'd say, about the genre like, for real we played tons of shows and everything's either like super cliche vocal or like … and it hindered us. But now people are like, "Holy shit! These guys are real and writing shit that they like," and it's meaningful, you know, and it's paid off. And we're going to continue to do that. Pearl Jam did it and they're like 'fuck you' so…

John: I like Brett's analogy on that too, where he's talking about the obstacle of staying true to what we are, especially in Athens because we love Athens. You know, we love the energy in Athens, but no one else sounds like us it's all…

Ray: There's a lot of indie rock. Lot of blues. Lot of stuff like that.

John: We really have stayed true to our guns instead of switching over to another genre or trying to like be something we're not. We stayed true to ourselves, and been able to do what we wanna do. And another thing that we had an obstacle with is dealing with the music business. And getting chewed up and spit out by you know, crooks in the music business that prey on naive bands and prey on you know, "Oh you wanna get signed, okay. We're gonna fuck you. And then you're gonna have to get an attorney, and then we're gonna do all this stuff,” and it's like there's been so many obstacles leading up to even getting that record out that it's been crazy. And now it's paid off and it feels fantastic to know that we were able to keep our shit together long enough to where we could make something really happen.

 

GNM: You guys have mentioned that on the different shows you've been on, it's hindered you finding a place with similar bands because nobody really has the same sound. So what would you say would be your dream line up? If you got to play a tour…?

Ray: Foo Fighters.

John: Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters.

Brett: Soundgarden. All the bands that we have just…

 

GNM: Everyone we talked about as influences.

Brett: All those bands.

John: And the crazy thing is, they're still touring. Those are the guys that are still touring.

Brett: Soundgarden is back. Pearl Jam is back.

 

GNM: Any new bands or anyone like that?

Ray: Oh, Wilson!

Brett: Yeah, Wilson.

Ray: Wilson would be great, and also Maylene and the Sons of Disaster. Just people who rock really hard.

John: I'm looking forward to Lucero. I think Lucero would be awesome to tour with.

 

GNM: Have you seen any of them live? And is it because of the performances they put on or because of the music?

Brett: Both.

Ray: We kinda like flirt with Wilson on Twitter and they like get back to us like we would want that to happen a lot, but we love their album. It's like, they just go all in all the time.

Brett: There balls to the walls. They rock.

 

GNM: What's your favorite songs to play live? What are you looking forward to playing tonight?

Joe: Mine is “Waste Yourself” right now. Track 11? I don't know

Ray: I think it's 12.

Joe: I think this last tour we did and then into this one, that song is like reenergized and come to life. It's taken off, and it's so fun to play live.

John: My favorite song to play live is…there's two of them…it's “Broken Wings” and “A Forgotten Name.” Those two songs to me were off the old record and they had no life. And Joe, what we were talking about earlier, for Joe to come in and bring that massive energy into those songs. That's the way those songs should have been played for the last four years. So those are my two favorite.

Brett: Broken Wings and Waste Yourself, probably.

Ray: I think my favorite one is Oddline, just come out swinging.

 

GNM: Do you guys plan on making any more videos?

John: Oh yeah, we'll be making more videos. When we get off the road on this one, we're gonna back with our video guy photographer Jason Thrasher who is fucking awesome. He does all kinds of crazy shit for Drive-By Truckers. He's a big Athens name, but he's a super cool guy.

Brett: And we'll probably be working with him again.

Joe: He's a fan first, so it makes it easy to work with him.

Ray: The more content you have to be able to purge on people, you know, the better off you are anyways.

John: We're definitely gonna have more videos. That's a fact.

 

GNM: How much creative input do you guys have in the videos?

Brett: Everything.

 

GNM: Really?

Brett: Yeah.

Ray: I guess really, I mean, if he comes up with an idea and it's great then we're gonna use it. But we also just whatever works. We just wanna work with the best product. But uh…did you [to John] come up with the video for the “Albatross” one?

John: I came up for the idea for “Albatross” but Jason kinda expanded on that idea.

 

GNM: I was actually ask about that [video] next. I love it. That's a really cool video, but um…

John: We get our asses kicked.

 

GNM: Was that based on experience?

Brett: I got fucked in that one.

[Everyone laughs]

 

GNM: You're the one who gets pushed in the mud right?

John: Yeah he did, he got the bad end of that video.

Brett: Yeah I did.

John: We put our ideas in it and that video is, I don't want to say symbolic…

Ray: It's a metaphor for the song, what the song's about, but it's also like a shout out to all the music videos from the days passed when people had fun with it and they had like a plot. Like Foo Fighters videos were always really… they always had something zany going on.

John: In that video, the song for one hits hard because we were actually in Seattle completing that song and our manager Tim called me on the phone and it was vocal day for "Albatross" and we were in the midst of going through a lot of trouble with our former label which was a complete scam. It was total bullshit.

Brett: Yeah.

John: We won't mention any names, we don't want to do that, but…

Brett: They know who they are.

John: Yeah, you can Google it. But they were scamming us really bad. They were very fraudulent with their expense reports and all this stuff, and Tim called me on the way to the studio and he goes, "You won't believe what's going on. They're trying to do this, this, this…" and I was extremely angry on the way to the studio to record vocals. So that day that I recorded "Albatross" was real emotion of how pissed off I was at that exact moment. It wasn't like, about writing a song and "OK, let's to get ourselves back into that."

Ray: Like, "Oh we're done with it." No. We lived that song.

[Everyone in agreement]

 

GNM: It's about getting fucked over, and then you did. So you played off that?

John: And we let it all…it's a very genuine emotion that's actually recorded on that record on that day. It's a special song.

Joe: Going back to the creative input part, it also ties into the whole idea of the video and the song and we're in a position where we're working for ourselves, you know, there's nobody telling us how to do anything, it's all Lullwater, you know what I mean? So that's a position that a lot of bands don't really have the entire luxury to be in, and we're there. So creatively, it's just, there's no wait ever. If we think it's good to go, we're gonna do it. And Tim. Like Tim's got a say, absolutely. If Tim wasn't around, we'd make really bad decisions.

Brett: We wouldn't have anything.

John: We would be nowhere.

Ray: There would be no decisions made.

Joe: So you know, tying that all together. Just had a thought.

 

GNM: I know we've gone over bands that are influences, but what about Are there any other styles that you want to bring into your songs? Like who would you want to collaborate with?

John: Bands that like, I don't know it varies.

Brett: It varies.

John: We are very 90’s grunge influenced but see, Brett is a huge Widespread Panic fan, and Joe's a reggae fan. He's a huge Passafire fan. I think we all have our different sensibilities in the way we write. You'll hear a lot of Jimmy Herring in Brett's solos. You'll hear a lot of different drum feels that Joe will do that you wouldn't hear from a rock drummer but he's a fucking rock drummer. And I'm very rock-oriented, but I also love folk music and southern rock. My Morning Jacket is one of my favorite bands. We're really excited to see where the next record is going to take us. The beauty of it is that we can let ourselves go into different avenues but still stay true to ourselves and still stay true to what we believe in, and that's what we're all about. But that's a tricky question. I mean, I don't know where we're going to go.

 

GNM: I was thinking of some of the mash-ups and stuff you hear now, mixing completely different genres together. Would you ever want to branch out in that way?

Joe: I do think it would be fun to do that eventually. 

John: It would be for fun. I would not want to do that right now.

Ray: For now we're gonna stick to making the only music we know how to make.

 

GNM: I like it, so no complaints!

Joe: Maybe someone put out a random video one day, just something weird.

Ray: Or like a producer like "Oh I wanna do a remix!" or something like that. Let them do that, and they can put it out. And we can be like, "That's really cool!" But we'll probably just do our own thing on our album with our songs.

John: And I've always had this thing where I'm writing or we're going over ideas and strategies, and certain things like that, for me I always have like Dave Grohl, Eddie Vedder, you know, those guys in the back of my mind like if I was to do that, how would Dave Grohl, who I idolize, what would he say? Would Dave Grohl be like, "Yeah, that's awesome" or would he be like "This is shit!" And you have to take a part of that, and do your own thing with it. So I don't know, I think it's going to be interesting to see what we do in the future. And I know we're anxious to get back in the studio, write new music and…

 

GNM: Will you be going back to London Bridge Studios?

All: Yes.

John: It's like a family there. We're family now.

 

GNM: I'll try and wrap this up before showtime. What advice would you give? Joe had mentioned you guys are your own bosses now, but what advice would you give to musicians who want to get to where you guys are now? Like other musicians?

Brett: You need to have a good product, you know?

Joe: Don't be afraid to suck for a while.

Ray: Don't get starstruck. Don't let people jerk you around. Don't like, go for the first deal you get.

Brett: For real, we could write a book on what NOT to do, and we say that all the time, but it's very true. We're a very trial and error band, and I think that's built up our character and evolved us musically and just as people. Stick to your guns, write good music, don't write bullshit, you know?

John: And write what you wanna write. Like if you want to write a certain genre, or not a certain genre, but a song, regardless of what genre it is, do it. That's what we were doing in Athens back in 2008, you know and it was just like this is not this and this is not that, but that's what we love to do. But we stuck with it, and now it's starting to come around like "Oh here we are, writing good music," and for me to tell a musician what to do, on top of what all these guys said, make sure that you have…I guess a sense of perseverance. Don't stop. As cliche as that sounds, you know, it's just like, "Don't give up!" But really, don't. Because what's going to happen is that musicians that are trying to make it in this music business and in the industry are all gonna get shit on all the time and its a matter of being able to decide what route to take and what shit to take. And what shit not to take. And there's gonna be a level there where you have to suck it up and stay true to yourself and keep playing the music that you love to play and don't give a fuck. You can't give a fuck in order to make it. Cause if you do, you're gonna get swallowed up and somebody's gonna change who you are, and that's the death of you. That'll be the death of your band if somebody changes who you are.

 

GNM: Well that's nice, haha. Are you saying deal with those bad record labels you guys talked about? Or is it worse selling out?

Joe: I think it goes hand in hand, really.

Ray: They're just two different evils. The record labels they just kinda do more. Like if someone's trying to change who you are, usually it's gonna be someone who's in a bigger position, and they're trying to profit off of you or something, and you know it comes down to not being starstruck and sticking to your guns. And it's kinda like a last man standing sort of business, honestly. The people who persevere and the ones who really make it in the future, you don't really see all the years of hard work behind it, but that's where it came from.

 

GNM: Anything you guys want to comment on for the future? I know we talked about it briefly, but any future plans?

Ray: Take over the world.

(laughing)

Joe: Yeah, we want to tour as much as we can.

John: And we will be. We're shooting for 200 shows this year, so that's a goal. We might not hit it, but… we're shooting for 200 this year.

Joe: Let's hit it, boys.

John: We'll hit it. We've already got six weeks lined up right now so this is the fourth? show on our Passafire tour and we've got, after tonight, 21 more

Brett: 22? 21? So that's awesome. We'll be touring. We'll be around.

 

GNM: Thank you guys so much!