Lawrence Arms - Brendan Kelly
Words: Jo Taylor
Three piece punk rock band The Lawrence Arms, hailing from Chicago Illinois, have been kicking around since 1999. It’s been three years since the 2009 EP Buttsweat and Tears, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been busy. Lead singer & bassist Brendan Kelly has been keeping himself occupied with his own project Brendan Kelly and The Wandering Birds and writing the entertaining blog Bad Sandwich Cronicles as well as raising two kids.
Returning to Australia for the highly anticipated 2013 Soundwave Festival, Caught in the Mosh spoke to Brendan about the perils of touring in a punk rock band, being audited by the IRS and how online music is affecting the listening experience.
I was reading your blog - Bad Sandwich Chronicles - which is hilarious and it reminded me somewhat of reading Henry Rollins Black Flag touring diary, with perhaps less violence, and I imagine your early touring days were pretty crazy. Before starting a band, did you have ideas of what it would be like to be on the road in a band and all that comes with it?
Well, you know what’s funny is that the first time I ever went on tour with a band, I was probably 16 years old and I was in the back of a rack top jeep and we drove in the winter time from Chicago to northern Ontario to play a show for six people (laughs). It was freezing. The two guys who kinda called the shots in our band, who are the guitar player and the drummer, they rode in a different jeep, like a Jeep Cherokee with all the gear in it and they were warm, but we were in like a real old tiny army jeep with just like the bars (laughs) and it was winter time and we were going into Canada! So I didn’t even have time to consider what it would be like to be in a band on tour. I was already in a band on tour and was kinda like “wow, this kinda sucks!”. There is something so great about that kinda disadvantage, its really romantic and fun, especially when you’re young. I’ve always really enjoyed it. And I just went on this tour that was (laughs) completely a disaster. But i still like it so that’s cool.
Does it get easier as time goes by?
Uh, both yes and no. It gets harder too because at a certain point you’ve done enough touring where like, now I don’t want to sounds like an ungrateful dick or anything, but I’ve had enough tours where there have been people that are taking care of every one of my wishes that now, every once in a while, I can find myself thinking like “seriously, this is the meal?” (laughs) then I catch myself and I’m like “dude, you’re such an asshole! You get to go around the world playing music for people.” (laughs)
What has been a highlight from your years of touring?
Hmmm. You know, honestly, our trips to Australia have really been, honest to god, career highlights for us. We’ve always had so much fun out there. We did one tour with Anti Flag and we did another tour with Frenzal Rhomb and those are all some of our great friends. It’s great to be that far away. We’ve been to Australia twice, and each time it was about two weeks. In that four weeks of time in total, in our entire careers as a band, we’ve made more friends in Australia than we have in like the 11 years we’ve been going to Europe, every year and I think that’s what it’s all about. It’s all the friends you make and the people that are there.
Returning to Australia for the highly anticipated 2013 Soundwave Festival, Caught in the Mosh spoke to Brendan about the perils of touring in a punk rock band, being audited by the IRS and how online music is affecting the listening experience.
I was reading your blog - Bad Sandwich Chronicles - which is hilarious and it reminded me somewhat of reading Henry Rollins Black Flag touring diary, with perhaps less violence, and I imagine your early touring days were pretty crazy. Before starting a band, did you have ideas of what it would be like to be on the road in a band and all that comes with it?
Well, you know what’s funny is that the first time I ever went on tour with a band, I was probably 16 years old and I was in the back of a rack top jeep and we drove in the winter time from Chicago to northern Ontario to play a show for six people (laughs). It was freezing. The two guys who kinda called the shots in our band, who are the guitar player and the drummer, they rode in a different jeep, like a Jeep Cherokee with all the gear in it and they were warm, but we were in like a real old tiny army jeep with just like the bars (laughs) and it was winter time and we were going into Canada! So I didn’t even have time to consider what it would be like to be in a band on tour. I was already in a band on tour and was kinda like “wow, this kinda sucks!”. There is something so great about that kinda disadvantage, its really romantic and fun, especially when you’re young. I’ve always really enjoyed it. And I just went on this tour that was (laughs) completely a disaster. But i still like it so that’s cool.
Does it get easier as time goes by?
Uh, both yes and no. It gets harder too because at a certain point you’ve done enough touring where like, now I don’t want to sounds like an ungrateful dick or anything, but I’ve had enough tours where there have been people that are taking care of every one of my wishes that now, every once in a while, I can find myself thinking like “seriously, this is the meal?” (laughs) then I catch myself and I’m like “dude, you’re such an asshole! You get to go around the world playing music for people.” (laughs)
What has been a highlight from your years of touring?
Hmmm. You know, honestly, our trips to Australia have really been, honest to god, career highlights for us. We’ve always had so much fun out there. We did one tour with Anti Flag and we did another tour with Frenzal Rhomb and those are all some of our great friends. It’s great to be that far away. We’ve been to Australia twice, and each time it was about two weeks. In that four weeks of time in total, in our entire careers as a band, we’ve made more friends in Australia than we have in like the 11 years we’ve been going to Europe, every year and I think that’s what it’s all about. It’s all the friends you make and the people that are there.
So are you looking forward to returning to Australia for the Soundwave festival then?
Oh my god, I can’t wait! I’m so excited about it!
I know you had a big fall out with the Warped Tour; have you encountered support or backlash from other bands?
Ah, nobody cares really (laughs). I think a lot of people are like, they think things like “ha-ha, that’s really funny” or “fuck the warped tour, wish I didn’t have to play it” you know it’s like, its not a political statement like uh “I think that we should be killing retarded people” or something like that (laughs) and people are like “hey, whoa! I’m going to distance myself from you” (laughs) it’s just the warped tour, its not even good (laughs).
Its been a while since your last record with the Lawrence Arms, are there plans to return to the studio?
Yeah, there definitely are! I’m trying my god damnedest to write a new record right now. It’s a little bit harder, our life situations are a little different to they were. We don’t all live in the same town anymore for one thing. You know, so it’s not like we just go out on tour all the time and come home and we’re inspired by the tour to write a new record. We have to kinda make ourselves get up and write songs. It’s been a much slower process. I’m just dying to make a Lawrence arms record. I’ve got about half a record written and I know Chris has some songs written too. I’d love to say that by the time we get to Australia the entire record will be written, that’s a good goal, i think.
I hear you guys were audited, which seems like a crazy concept when you’re talking about a punk rock band. Did it bring the reality of the band as a business crashing down on you?
You know, it was actually just such a nightmare. All of a sudden we didn’t know what was legal, what was illegal. We didn’t know if we were going to go to jail. We didn’t know if like our wages were going to be garnished for the rest of our lives. We just didn’t know! You hear all these horror stories about the IRS especially when you live in the states, they throw motherfuckers in jail and they ruin your life. We were 18 year old kids when we started this band and I was the accountant because I was the guy who had the van! (laughs) and so that apparatus that we put into place when we were 18 is essentially still in place now. So its not like we ever tried to do anything malicious or sneak anything past anyone, its just that we’re just dumb. We’re just doing accounting like we’re teenagers and the IRS came to us and they were like “hey, we wanna see this” and I’m like “well, that doesn’t exist” (laughs) and they’d ask for something else “that doesn’t exist either” (laughs) you know “lets see all your ledger books from 2003” and I’m like “you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me?” (laughs)
I didn’t even know what a ledger was!
Yeah, there’s no fucking way. Like, I’ll personally help you find whatever you want but you’ve got to be fucking crazy!
Oh my god, I can’t wait! I’m so excited about it!
I know you had a big fall out with the Warped Tour; have you encountered support or backlash from other bands?
Ah, nobody cares really (laughs). I think a lot of people are like, they think things like “ha-ha, that’s really funny” or “fuck the warped tour, wish I didn’t have to play it” you know it’s like, its not a political statement like uh “I think that we should be killing retarded people” or something like that (laughs) and people are like “hey, whoa! I’m going to distance myself from you” (laughs) it’s just the warped tour, its not even good (laughs).
Its been a while since your last record with the Lawrence Arms, are there plans to return to the studio?
Yeah, there definitely are! I’m trying my god damnedest to write a new record right now. It’s a little bit harder, our life situations are a little different to they were. We don’t all live in the same town anymore for one thing. You know, so it’s not like we just go out on tour all the time and come home and we’re inspired by the tour to write a new record. We have to kinda make ourselves get up and write songs. It’s been a much slower process. I’m just dying to make a Lawrence arms record. I’ve got about half a record written and I know Chris has some songs written too. I’d love to say that by the time we get to Australia the entire record will be written, that’s a good goal, i think.
I hear you guys were audited, which seems like a crazy concept when you’re talking about a punk rock band. Did it bring the reality of the band as a business crashing down on you?
You know, it was actually just such a nightmare. All of a sudden we didn’t know what was legal, what was illegal. We didn’t know if we were going to go to jail. We didn’t know if like our wages were going to be garnished for the rest of our lives. We just didn’t know! You hear all these horror stories about the IRS especially when you live in the states, they throw motherfuckers in jail and they ruin your life. We were 18 year old kids when we started this band and I was the accountant because I was the guy who had the van! (laughs) and so that apparatus that we put into place when we were 18 is essentially still in place now. So its not like we ever tried to do anything malicious or sneak anything past anyone, its just that we’re just dumb. We’re just doing accounting like we’re teenagers and the IRS came to us and they were like “hey, we wanna see this” and I’m like “well, that doesn’t exist” (laughs) and they’d ask for something else “that doesn’t exist either” (laughs) you know “lets see all your ledger books from 2003” and I’m like “you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me?” (laughs)
I didn’t even know what a ledger was!
Yeah, there’s no fucking way. Like, I’ll personally help you find whatever you want but you’ve got to be fucking crazy!
You recently started another project as Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds. Was it good to go in another direction and do something a little different?
Well, that thing was just kinda bursting out of me, I just had to do it, you know. It wasn’t necessarily uh, there wasn’t a lot of fore thought put into it, you know what I mean? I don’t know if you’ve heard the record, but it is a pretty different kinda record. It’s not a Lawrence Arms record. In every way, the attitude is different, the music is different. And it’s like “what am i going to do with these songs?” And I really wanted to put them out, I was really excited about them. It was the first thing I’ve done in a long time and was like “dude, this is what I’m feeling right now”. It was great for me to do it, but it wasn’t something I really had wired into my head with some kind of strategy or anything. It was more like I ended up with these songs and i really wanted to do them.
But that’s usually a good thing, if it just comes organically and is a natural progression more than a forced change in direction.
Right, exactly! I try to do both though, because sometimes you gotta force yourself. The same way you gotta force yourself to work out if you wanna be good looking, you know? You gotta force yourself, that shits not just going to happen if you just work out when you want to, you’re just going to be a fucking fat slob, at least here in America, I mean, you guys are all good looking down there, i don’t know.
Did the fact you became a father of two have an influence on the direction you went in musically?
Oh absolutely! I mean, that has everything to do with it. You have kids and your entire life changes. Completely. I think about that when I wrote oh! Calcutta! I was just a young, swinging dick dude (laughs) with no worries in the world. And then when I wrote the songs on Buttsweat & Tears I had one kid, but, one kid ain’t shit man! I thought it would be but its nothing.
But then you go to juggling two and its suddenly a whole new story.
(laughs) you go onto two man and suddenly I had to fucking quit my job and stay home with the kids ‘cause it didn’t make any sense, financially. Like, I couldn’t go on tour and I couldn’t do anything. With these fucking kids all the time and so I guess I wrote songs about cutting up little kids (laughs)
Are they tough critics of your music?
They both actually, bless their hearts, they’re really, they vacillate between being big fans of my songs and absolutely hating them, just depending on their moods.
Well, that thing was just kinda bursting out of me, I just had to do it, you know. It wasn’t necessarily uh, there wasn’t a lot of fore thought put into it, you know what I mean? I don’t know if you’ve heard the record, but it is a pretty different kinda record. It’s not a Lawrence Arms record. In every way, the attitude is different, the music is different. And it’s like “what am i going to do with these songs?” And I really wanted to put them out, I was really excited about them. It was the first thing I’ve done in a long time and was like “dude, this is what I’m feeling right now”. It was great for me to do it, but it wasn’t something I really had wired into my head with some kind of strategy or anything. It was more like I ended up with these songs and i really wanted to do them.
But that’s usually a good thing, if it just comes organically and is a natural progression more than a forced change in direction.
Right, exactly! I try to do both though, because sometimes you gotta force yourself. The same way you gotta force yourself to work out if you wanna be good looking, you know? You gotta force yourself, that shits not just going to happen if you just work out when you want to, you’re just going to be a fucking fat slob, at least here in America, I mean, you guys are all good looking down there, i don’t know.
Did the fact you became a father of two have an influence on the direction you went in musically?
Oh absolutely! I mean, that has everything to do with it. You have kids and your entire life changes. Completely. I think about that when I wrote oh! Calcutta! I was just a young, swinging dick dude (laughs) with no worries in the world. And then when I wrote the songs on Buttsweat & Tears I had one kid, but, one kid ain’t shit man! I thought it would be but its nothing.
But then you go to juggling two and its suddenly a whole new story.
(laughs) you go onto two man and suddenly I had to fucking quit my job and stay home with the kids ‘cause it didn’t make any sense, financially. Like, I couldn’t go on tour and I couldn’t do anything. With these fucking kids all the time and so I guess I wrote songs about cutting up little kids (laughs)
Are they tough critics of your music?
They both actually, bless their hearts, they’re really, they vacillate between being big fans of my songs and absolutely hating them, just depending on their moods.
Who have been your favourite musicians to collaborate with?
Um, well my friend Nick Martin, who I did the wandering birds record with, is like my oldest collaborative partner. I started making music with him when I was 10. He had a four-track analog recorder and we started doing stuff when we were both 10. So he has long been one of my very favourite collaborators. Chris and Neil are awesome collaborative partners and I love playing with Dan from the Alkaline Trio who was also in the Falcons. I’ve just been really lucky that I’ve been surrounded by a lot of really great musicians because I’m not one (laughs). It’s good to have those guys around because I don’t know how to play shit.
Well, you seem to be doing pretty well for someone who apparently doesn’t know how to play shit.
Yeah, well, you know, I got a good attitude and I know how to fucking tell a dick joke (laughs) and that’s about it.
With the popularity and convenience of online music, do you think kids these days miss out on that excitement and appreciation of going to the record store and picking up that new album and throwing it on the player? Do you think that’s getting lost these days?
You know, I do, but it’s also bigger than that. That’s just a part of it. The real thing that’s going on right now is this overwhelmingness. Where there is just so much sound that you can’t hear what’s important. There is some political theorist who talks about the fact that there are two kinds of totalitarian. One is when there is only one channel. The other kind is when there is like a billion channels and you have to figure out which one has the right shit on it. And that’s kind of how I feel about music now days. If you put on music and you don’t like it immediately, then it’s like “well, lets just check out this record, well lets check out this record or I can live stream this and I can do this” and your left just listening to this stuff that initially gets you off. But back in the day, I remember the first time I heard Fugazi, thirteen songs. I was like “yeah, this is ok”. But it was the only tape I had and I didn’t have anywhere place else to get any other music so I put it on again and was like “this is pretty good”. Then put it on again and eventually I was like “ohhh, now I see what they’re doing here, this is fucking incredible” and I think that’s what’s getting lost now. I think the stuff that’s like a slow burn kinda falls by the wayside a little bit. Not entirely because some people do wanna still delve into stuff and take chances with it and give it a fair shake but I think that’s the attitude that’s being lost more than ever.
Um, well my friend Nick Martin, who I did the wandering birds record with, is like my oldest collaborative partner. I started making music with him when I was 10. He had a four-track analog recorder and we started doing stuff when we were both 10. So he has long been one of my very favourite collaborators. Chris and Neil are awesome collaborative partners and I love playing with Dan from the Alkaline Trio who was also in the Falcons. I’ve just been really lucky that I’ve been surrounded by a lot of really great musicians because I’m not one (laughs). It’s good to have those guys around because I don’t know how to play shit.
Well, you seem to be doing pretty well for someone who apparently doesn’t know how to play shit.
Yeah, well, you know, I got a good attitude and I know how to fucking tell a dick joke (laughs) and that’s about it.
With the popularity and convenience of online music, do you think kids these days miss out on that excitement and appreciation of going to the record store and picking up that new album and throwing it on the player? Do you think that’s getting lost these days?
You know, I do, but it’s also bigger than that. That’s just a part of it. The real thing that’s going on right now is this overwhelmingness. Where there is just so much sound that you can’t hear what’s important. There is some political theorist who talks about the fact that there are two kinds of totalitarian. One is when there is only one channel. The other kind is when there is like a billion channels and you have to figure out which one has the right shit on it. And that’s kind of how I feel about music now days. If you put on music and you don’t like it immediately, then it’s like “well, lets just check out this record, well lets check out this record or I can live stream this and I can do this” and your left just listening to this stuff that initially gets you off. But back in the day, I remember the first time I heard Fugazi, thirteen songs. I was like “yeah, this is ok”. But it was the only tape I had and I didn’t have anywhere place else to get any other music so I put it on again and was like “this is pretty good”. Then put it on again and eventually I was like “ohhh, now I see what they’re doing here, this is fucking incredible” and I think that’s what’s getting lost now. I think the stuff that’s like a slow burn kinda falls by the wayside a little bit. Not entirely because some people do wanna still delve into stuff and take chances with it and give it a fair shake but I think that’s the attitude that’s being lost more than ever.
Any plans for your downtime while you’re here in Australia, do you even have downtime while you’re here?
I don’t know. We wanna play as many shows as we can while we’re in Australia, and I’ve heard we can play sideshows. We wanna play as much of those kinda sideshows as we possibly can and I’d like to do one in every town if I could. I don’t know how it works, if it can be done the same night as the show, I don’t know?
Usually there is opportunity in the bigger cities for sideshows but here in Adelaide, we rarely, if ever get sideshows.
Right. We heard that Adelaide is the home of the biggest boobs in Australia (laughs). This wasn’t a dude’s thing; this was a woman's thing. She called it Rack-a-laide in fact.
Maybe we need to include that in our tourism advertising?
I think you should, I mean I would go! (laughs)
Well good luck with the tour, hope you have fun!
Oh definitely, can’t wait. Thanks!
The Lawrence Arms join Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Linkin Park, Garbage, Tomahawk and many, many more at Soundwave 2013.
Pre sale tickets have been snapped up in record numbers, with Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne all selling out of their allocation on the first day. Perth and Adelaide are expected to follow suit.
General public tickets go on sale on Thursday 23rd August from Soundwave and Oztix
Soundwave Festival 2013
Sat 23rd February - Brisbane
Sun 24th February - Sydney
Fri 1st March - Melbourne
Sat 2nd March - Adelaide
Mon 4th March - Perth
I don’t know. We wanna play as many shows as we can while we’re in Australia, and I’ve heard we can play sideshows. We wanna play as much of those kinda sideshows as we possibly can and I’d like to do one in every town if I could. I don’t know how it works, if it can be done the same night as the show, I don’t know?
Usually there is opportunity in the bigger cities for sideshows but here in Adelaide, we rarely, if ever get sideshows.
Right. We heard that Adelaide is the home of the biggest boobs in Australia (laughs). This wasn’t a dude’s thing; this was a woman's thing. She called it Rack-a-laide in fact.
Maybe we need to include that in our tourism advertising?
I think you should, I mean I would go! (laughs)
Well good luck with the tour, hope you have fun!
Oh definitely, can’t wait. Thanks!
The Lawrence Arms join Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Linkin Park, Garbage, Tomahawk and many, many more at Soundwave 2013.
Pre sale tickets have been snapped up in record numbers, with Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne all selling out of their allocation on the first day. Perth and Adelaide are expected to follow suit.
General public tickets go on sale on Thursday 23rd August from Soundwave and Oztix
Soundwave Festival 2013
Sat 23rd February - Brisbane
Sun 24th February - Sydney
Fri 1st March - Melbourne
Sat 2nd March - Adelaide
Mon 4th March - Perth