Interviews

Rocky Votolato

Interview with Rocky Votolato on Mar 27, 2007 by Archive Bot

Rocky Votolato is a very important musician for me. His solo material has always connected with me because of its straightforward presentation and earnest simplicity. Votolato has penned four solo records since the breakup of his criminally underappreciated band, Waxwing, which you should look into if you enjoy Jawbreaker and old Sunny Day Real Estate. Votolato’s newer material, though, falls more towards the Bruce Springsteen and Ryan Adams side of things, which is just fine with me. His first album on Barsuk Records, Makers, was a critical success and now, he is gearing up for a run of dates with Owen and the release of a new record, The Brag & Cuss, due July 19th. Back in November, I was given a last-second opportunity to interview Rocky, who happens to be one of my songwriting idols, when he came to town on tour with Lucero. What follows is the transcript of a very drunk fan (me) given the chance to speak with one of his heroes backstage at The Metro in Chicago.
 
By: Ian Lashbrook
 
Go ahead and introduce yourself and what you do.
 
Rocky Votolato: Rocky Votolato, singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington. Grew up down in Texas but I live in Seattle now.
 
How has this tour been with Lucero and William Elliot Whitmore?
 
RV: It’s been fuckin’ amazing. I met Lucero randomly on a show out in Des Moines, Iowa at a place called the Vaudeville Mews. I was actually on tour and I just ended up at the show and both of us were randomly playing it and when I saw them, I just fuckin’ knew right away that they were a band that I’d like to tour with at some point in the future and they dug my shit too, so we just hit it off. And then I saw them again in Seattle when they were on tour with Ted Leo and it kind of rekindled our friendship from there and they were just like, “fuck yeah!” And they were talkin’ about it and they just offered me the tour. So they thought that William Elliot Whitmore, openin’ up the shows, and then havin’ me as main support would make a good package and so far, it’s been fuckin’ amazing. And every night, it’s just really inspiring to watch these other great songwriters – in my opinion – play music. And it’s made this tour one of the best I’ve ever been on. Most fun! One of the drunkest for sure!! [laughter]
 
Do you have any favorite spots on tour? Any places that you look forward to?
 
RV: Ohh yeah. It’s been a while since I’ve been out on tour, so I’ve been pretty excited about this trip. I did some stuff in the spring but, you know…all of 2005 I took off from touring…
 
You were taking off time to record Makers…
 
RV: Yeah, I was recording Makers. A lot of it had been written on tour, on the road on previous tours. But yeah, basically, that whole year was just wrapped up in finishing that record. And so, earlier this year, Makers came out, started doing some touring and it’s been exciting…yeah, I’m always excited to go to, ahh, Denver’s been really fun for me, it’s always been a good town…
 
Well you guys are hittin’ the final third of the tour, right?
 
RV: Yeah, we’re almost done. We’ve got two more weeks left of shows. But there’s been so many highlights…I mean…Seattle, Spokane were both fuckin’ amazing. Basically, the whole west coast was great. From Portland to…Reno was cool. San Francisco was amazing. Los Angeles, San Diego…I mean I do well on the west and with Lucero too, you know, most of the shows were sold out, if not close to. Salt Lake and Dever were cool and then we went down to Memphis and all through Arkansas and Lucero, that’s their part of the country. So you know, it’s just been great overall.
 
You released Makers on Barsuk and that’s your label now. Why did you switch from Second Nature [Recordings]? Your old band, Waxwing, was on Second Nature and you released two records on Second Nature, Suicide Medicines and your self-titled…is that it?
 
RV: My self-titled actually came out on a different label. It was on Status, which is a small indie rock label out of Thousand Oaks, California. My friend, Seth Brown, runs that label. And then Dan, from Second Nature, released Burnin’ My Travels Clean, which was my first release on Second Nature, which is actually my second record. My third record came out on Second Nature as well, which is Suicide Medicines.
 
And you had the Light and Sound EP between the two, right?
 
RV: Right. And that was just some extras from Suicide Medicines. And then Makers was obviously Barsuk. But basically, the transition was…it just seemed to make sense. It happened really organically at the time because I knew Josh, the owner of Barsuk, Josh Rosenfeld, from when I recorded Suicide Medicines with Chris Walla, the guitar player from Death Cab for Cutie…
 
Who did you end up doing Makers with?
 
RV: I ended up doing Makers with Casey Colbert. He used to play drums in Pedro the Lion and now he plays guitar with Sufjan Stevens. He tours with Sufjan and he’s actually recording my next record, too. But, uhh…
 
Sorry to get you sidetracked!
 
RV: No, no…anyway, I got prompted from a couple friends that are on the label, who are signed, to give my stuff to Josh. And Phil, who used to be in that band Whiskeytown, and he played on my record and he’s on Barsuk now in a band called Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter. He was basically like, “You should give this to Josh, I think he would really like it.” And it was still in a sort of demo-ish phase of the recording. But I did, I gave it to Josh and he really dug it and so we got into negotiations with Second Nature to buy out my contract and luckily, it happened cause Barsuk’s got a lot more resources they can devote to it.
 
Well, I actually wanted to ask you about that. How has it been switching from a small label like Second Nature, which has a great roster but maybe not the resources, to something much more public and larger, like Barsuk?
 
RV: Ohh, it’s been great. It’s had a huge impact on, like you said, my visibility. I’m just excited to be a part of it cause they’ve got a really cool thing going on.
 
They really have a phenomenal roster…
 
RV: Yeah, the roster’s great; The Long Winters, Jesse Sykes…
 
Harvey Danger!
 
RV: Harvey Danger…I’m tryin’ to think of who else…
 
They Might Be Giants joined the label as well…
 
RV: They Might Be Giants…Nada Surf…
 
Yeah, it seems like they cover everything.
 
RV: Yeah! Aquaduct…there’s just all these bands. It’s probably much more indie rock than my stuff but I really like being on the label and I get along with them…they’re in Seattle which makes sense. I live ten minutes from the office so I can drop down. And I feel supported, and I feel like they really want…and I felt that way at Second Nature, don’t get me wrong, and I love workin’ with Dan but it just seemed time to move on and it made sense. And Dan agreed, so…
 
Yeah, it seems like Barsuk is the next natural step. You gave Second Nature two records and Barsuk was the next place to go…
 
RV: Yeah…there’s no bad blood…
 
And Second Nature has their own reputation as well, they have a great reputation.
 
RV: Ohh, totally.
 
Well I’m glad it worked out cause I had heard that there were a lot of delays with Makers…
 
RV: Yeah, there were.
 
It was crazy, too, cause you got reviewed in Rolling Stone…
 
RV: Yeah, I got a lot of press.
 
Yeah, all this press and the record wasn’t really quite out yet. And I was left wondering where the record was cause here I am reading all this press and I can’t get the new record. So I was left wondering if it was Barsuk’s fault or if you were just taking your time…
 
RV: Yeah, it was definitely my decision, honestly. I mean I just wanted to make sure that the record was done right and so after basically recording the whole thing once, we revisited it, re-sequenced it, I recorded another four songs, took a bunch of the songs off the record. I think three of the songs from the new sessions ended up on the record. And it was just in a totally different order. And I rerecorded some of the old songs that were still kept as the lineup for the record. And I just wasn’t happy with it, so I didn’t wanna put it out, so I just decided that I was gonna stop playing shows or doing anything until the record was done and it was the way I wanted it to be. I feel like I’ve finally got there now; I feel like that record is the closest thing to realizing my musical vision for what I wanted a record to sound like so far. I’m hopin’ I can do that again. [laughter]
 
Why did you end up going with the title Makers? Obviously there’s the booze reference but were there any other reasons?
 
RV: Well, I like it cause it’s kind of a drinking song, as well as the tone of the rest of the record; Makers really fits the tone. I guess there is sort of a dual meaning, kind of an existential, your maker, kind of thing basically and there’s a lot of that theme included in the lyrics; just sort of themes of death and existential preoccupation.
 
When you went in to recording Makers, was there anything you told yourself you wanted to stay away from in regards to Suicide Medicines?
 
RV: Yeah, and I think I’m moving way more in the Makers direction. The next record will still be in that Makers vein…
 
Is it gonna stick with that sparseness?
 
RV: Yeah. I mean, I may have more instrumentation but the songwriting itself is still gonna be in that…you know, I’m not planning on doing any screaming or jumping around or any of that. It’s all about the songs and I do like that it has moved more towards some of my early influences in life, a lot of sort of the folk-country stuff, more harmonica. That’s the kind of direction I’m heading. Yeah, I definitely liked the direction Makers went from Suicide Medicines, I thought it was a natural progression. You know, I don’t know if I’ll have as drastic a change, but I’ll keep moving forward.
 
Was there any moment in your life where it struck you that performing, writing lyrics, was what you needed to be doing?
 
RV: You know, it’s weird, I’ve kinda known for a really long time, like since I was a kid. At prolly seven or eight, I knew I was gonna be a performer of some kind and also…it’s really weird, this is always what I thought I would end up doing. I didn’t ever really think that there would be anything else that I would end up doing. So, I don’t know, I think that’s a blessing to me, in a sense, ya know? Cause, fuck, I know so many people that, it’s really hard for them in their life, just because they can’t figure out what the fuck they wanna do. And knowing what you wanna do, early on, just allows you to focus on it and get better at it earlier. Obviously, there are a lot of other things I do in my life; I’ve got a lot of other roles that I play, or whatever. Father, husband, you know…but, for work, I never wanna have any other job. This is what I wanna do.
 
What did you grow up listening to?
 
RV: God there’s so many…when I was first exposed to music, and I grew up in a rural town in Texas, population 600, ya know, it’s called Frost, Texas. It’s about 100 miles south of Dallas, out by Waco. The music I was exposed to out there was definitely different from what I was exposed to in Seattle. It was your average, run-of-the-mill for growin’ up in a rural Texas town; a lot of country music and Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Steve Earle, and my dad, he’s a bit rough around the edges himself, there was a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd and all the 60s stuff, Zeppelin, The Doors, Hendrix…all that stuff was what I really started with. And then a bunch of hair-rock, too, like Stryper and Poison.
 
And you moved to Seattle when you were sixteen?
 
RV: I was fifteen. I was in high school. And I strated going to shows in Seattle, seein’ bands like Jawbreaker, Drive Like Jehu, Fugazi, you know, those were the bands that really started it for me.
 
So you were there for Sub-Pop starting up?
 
RV: Yup and I was in Seattle when grunge hit. I saw Pearl Jam and Nirvana on the Nevermind tour. And that was my first real experience with music and it was a real vital time. It was first experience with punk rock. And so, I took to it. I loved it. I was super into punk. I went to shows constantly and I started my band, Waxwing, of course. We were in that band for ten years. Obviously, the style is very different from what I do now…
 
Well, if you follow your progression, it doesn’t seem that different…
 
RV: Yeah, you can sorta hear the same themes.
 
Yeah, well I dug up your old stuff after hearing Suicide Medicines and was really impressed with Waxwing…I kinda had this Sunny Day Real Estate vibe with the meandering guitars and raw vocals.
 
RV: Yeah, and I think there’s a definite Jawbreaker vibe as well. That was probably the biggest influence for that band.
 
I really hear a lot of Sunny Day’s Diary...
 
RV: And, ya know, I saw Sunny Day a bunch back when I was real young. I saw them prolly ten times and that was before they were even famous…so that prolly did have something to do with it.
 
How do you balance being a father with being a musician?
 
RV: It’s really difficult. It’s really hard, you know, cause I miss my family when I go on tour but touring is the only way I can really support the family, so that’s the only way I really make money. I enjoy touring and, like I said, I always knew I was gonna be doing this…that’s the trick, cause my wife supports what I do, she’s an amazing woman and she knew when she married me that I was a musician and that I was eventually going to be doing this, and she wanted me to be doing it. I mean, I’ve worked lots of different jobs, I’ve had tons of different odd jobs and did what I had to do to get us through some hard times but I think we both believe in what I’m doing and we’re gonna keep doing it until there’s a point where we can balance it without as much sacrifice. Right now, it’s pretty hard…
 
Is she in Seattle?
 
RV: Yeah, she’s raisin’ the kids in Seattle.
 
How old are the kids?
 
RV: My daughter’s 13 and my son is 7.
 
Now in your career, you’re touring as a solo act…
 
RV: Actually, I usually have a drummer these days.
 
Has that been ever since Suicide Medicines? Cause that didn’t seem like the quintessential “solo record.” There’s a lot of…
 
RV: Yeah, more band stuff.
 
Exactly. There’s a lot of orchestration and arranging going on.
 
RV: Yeah, you know, and the thing is, I just sort of moved to a point where I stopped playing acoustic guitar…this is more for Makers…
 
Which was funny cause tonight was the first time I’ve ever seen you and after you walked out with the tele, I kept expecting you to switch to an acoustic…but you never did.
 
RV: No acoustic guitars.
 
It works but it was a bit bizarre to me…
 
RV: Yeah, I think it is to a lot of people at first cause it’s louder, first of all. I mean, it makes for more of a…I like the tone of a tele through a fender amp, I think it just works. I really like the tone and I can never get a good tone on an acoustic guitar live. I can in the studio, I definitely can in the studio but live, I just feel like my show works better with an electric guitar, especially when I’m playin’ to big crowds and I’m main support on a tour with Lucero. I know there’s gonna be a good amount of people that are gonna be talking and drinkin’ and that’s fine with me but I don’t wanna hear’em, so I turn my amp up. [laughter] I just have it cranked on stage and it works for my set. Hopefully you don’t feel like it hurt the interpretation of the songs.
 
Well, I’m a classic music listener in the sense that the way and artist interprets a song live is the way I should hear it because it can be completely different than on a record.
 
RV: And that’s my take too. I mean, I still play the songs intact, you can tell what the song is…
 
Right. How is touring as a solo act different than touring with a band like Waxwing?
 
RV: We didn’t tour that much. We did, I think total…about five weeks of touring. We did like three west coast trips that I booked myself, I always booked all the shows and they were all terrible. It was like the worst punk rock tours you could play, playin’ to like one person. Or the show would get cancelled all together. Eventually we did better, later on, but we never toured because I had a family. You know, I met my wife, she got pregnant when that record [For Madmen Only] came out and I was in college, tryin’ to get my degree.
 
Where did you go to school?
 
RV: University of Washington.
 
What did you study?
 
RV: I got a bachelor’s degree in English literature. And my life was just not in a situation which was conducive to touring at that time. I needed to be makin’ money and settin’ up a foundation for my family, so I did that. And it was a sacrifice for me; I didn’t want…I mean, I wanted to be touring, I wanted to be doing stuff with Waxwing but, honestly, in retrospect now, I think it was the right thing because I’m much more comfortable with and happier in this type of music career than I think I ever would have been screamin’ in that band. I definitely want to write songs, you know, that’s what I care about.
 
What do you think about the rising popularity of independent music, having experienced two very different scenes in your music career. And things like Myspace and all that shit; is that a good or a bad thing?
 
RV: I think it’s great! Fuck! Why not? [laughs] I mean it’s better that independent musicians be paid attention to. I think what’s happened is that the industry has changed, there’s what they call the “long tail,” I don’t know if you’ve heard of that? But it’s basically just that the “hit” is kinda going away, there are more small niches. There will be more people that will have a moderate level of success and less people that will just be these huge stars because of the way the dissemination of information has changed in society. I mean, I’m cool with it, it’s fine with me. I’ve never had these visions of being this huge star anyways. So that’s what I think, I’m cool with it…I’ve got a lot of friends on Myspace and I’m cool with that. [laughs]
 
What do you see in the future for yourself?
 
RV: I’m stoked about where I’m at right now and the direction I’m heading in, I’m excited for my next record and more touring. I’m definitely happier with it as a project than anything else I ever worked on. I’ve got a great booking agent, a great label, I feel like there’s a good team of people supporting what I’m doing and I feel like the record was well received, definitely more so than anything else I’ve done in the past. There was a lot of good press…I’m feeling pretty good about where things are at so I just wanna keep doin’ what I’m doin’.
 
www.barsuk.com
www.rockyvotolato.com
www.myspace.com/rockyvotolato
 
Thanks to Ever at Barsuk for setting the interview up and a huge thanks to Rocky for putting up with me for forty-five minutes!