Friday, February 22, 2019

Interview: Matt Chrystal Chats with Vandoliers' Joshua Fleming

Vandoliers by Mike Brooks

Cow Punk, Forever!

By Matt Chrystal

A lot has changed for Joshua Fleming since he last came through New Jersey in 2014 as part of The Phuss, a garage rock trio from Forth Worth, TX. He returned home from that East Coast tour to an eye infection that left him temporarily blind with full-time insomnia. The Phuss broke up and Fleming was left with his back against the wall, literally.

Then one day, as luck or fate would have it, he began to see the light as it reflected off of Marty Stuart's sequined jacket. As his sight slowly returned, Fleming became enamored with the sounds of "old-timers ripping" through country tunes on the Marty Stuart Show. Fleming's eyes eventually became wide open to the possibility of a new musical direction, a vision that would become Vandoliers.

Vandoliers are a six-piece, Dallas-based band of Americana cow-punks with Fleming at the helm. And, in 2019, they have their prospects set toward the sky as they release Forever, their third album and first for Bloodshot Records. I caught up with Josh just before he set off on tour to talk tacos and to find out what all the Phuss is about Vandoliers and Forever.

Uncool Uncle Matty: I have heard Vandoliers' sound described as cow-punk, red-dirt-cowboy-country, Tejano, roots-rock, and alt-country. So, which pigeon-hole do you prefer to be put in? And, if you choose cow-punk, can you please tell me what the heck that means?

Joshua Fleming: To me, it's just Texas music. Where I live is a melting-pot of a lot of sounds and a lot of cultures and a lot of different things happening, all at once. If cow-punk is the little label that people need to put on us to explain us without throwing in every genre in the book then, sure, cow-punk.

I grew up playing punk music, so I do not mind being labeled as a cow-punk. But I'm also thirty now, so I'm not all that pissed off anymore. And the cool thing about country music is that it's just so fucking old now, too. There's so much of it passed down through the ages that we can fuck with it a bit, and it comes out pretty fun. So yeah, cow-punk!

UUM: Vandoliers new album Forever is being released on Bloodshot Records on February 22, 2019. What was the vibe going into making this record?

JF: When it comes to Vandoliers albums, Ameri-Kinda was like my touring out to the East Coast album; The Native was all about Texas; and Forever is about our adventures out West. We started going out west during the last two years, and these were my first trips to places like Montana, Wyoming, and Oregon. It was a long haul to get out there, but it was very inspiring.

I did a lot of writing by myself, then I sent the demos to my good friend, Rhett Miller from Old 97's. He sent me back like a 3000 word essay about songwriting. It was full of tips and critiques, and that was really helpful. I went back and rewrote the songs that I felt needed rewriting. Then I went to Nashville; and, while I was there, I wound up meeting with some friends and writing like fifteen more songs. I had a lot of material going into this record, and we ended up choosing nine songs, and we re-recorded "Bottom Dollar Boy" from our first record, because I thought it made for a great song to add to the Bloodshot Records catalogue.



UUM: Vandoliers seem like the perfect addition to the new crop of Bloodshot Records artists like Sarah Shook & The Disarmers and Laura Jane Grace. How did you wind up with the label?

JF: I don't want to take the magic away from this 'cause it was pretty magical, but it was also pretty random. Apparently, the folks at the Bloodshot office dug our record, The Native; so they invited us to play their showcase at SXSW. At that point, I got really excited because, after we put out The Native, things were just really up in the air with our previous label, State Fair, and I didn't know if I'd ever get to make another record.

We went to SXSW and played a day party at Bloodshot's BackYard BBQ, and it was so much fun. I have played SXSW before with The Phuss, but that was like playing to two people in the back of a pizza place. This was at a real place, with a real stage and a real crowd. All that and free food! We spent the week of SXSW sleeping on the floor of a friend's recording studio; and then, at the end of the week, we got a call saying that they would like to sign us. So, yeah, I definitely got that cheesy SXSW record deal; but, hey, that is still pretty good!

UUM: Your previous band, The Phuss, was a punk outfit but you have now made the transition to "cow-punk."  It seems that most punks around New Jersey discover Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska album, have an "ah-ha moment," and then go the folk route; but your story is a bit more extreme. You discovered a love for country music while you were suffering from an eye infection that caused you to go temporarily blind. With all that said, how scary is it to find out that you are going fuckin' blind?

JF: Yeah, it was really fuckin' scary. It started with my wife. She had an eye infection first, and the doctors couldn't figure out what it was until I got it. I was told it was like a stomach virus but in my eye. I was working as a barber at the time; so, not only did I just take off for a week to tour the country with my punk band that wasn't making any money, but then I also had to take off to care for my wife when she was sick with it. And then, of course, I get sick cause that's apparently what happens when you are married. Not being able to see was terrible, but I also couldn't sleep. So I couldn't see, and I couldn't sleep. I had to sleep standing up. My wife slept on the couch, and we put our bed against the wall and I laid against it standing up. I fell down a lot. It was awful. The Phuss also broke up while I was blind so it was just a brutal time.

UUM: Damn. On the reverse, how much of a relief was it to get your sight back after that experience?

JF: It was great when I started to see again, and it felt even greater when I started writing again.
In the final days of The Phuss, I had been getting into T. Rex and glam rock. Just when I started being able to see a little bit, I started watching the Marty Stuart Show, and I noticed Marty was bedazzled the fuck out. It made me think that if Marc Bolan from T. Rex was still alive and was a country star then he would probably be Marty Stuart.

Marty had the mullet and the sashay; he had the whole thing going' for him. Oh, and he was a bitchin' guitar player. The cool thing about this show was that there were all these old timers just rippin' musically. It sounded fresh to me. I had no idea about the Texas music scene or this Americana scene. I just thought it was cool that you could be over sixty and still playing music. I wanted to move into that area of music and life and elongate my career.  And, hey, Springsteen's Nebraska was pretty great record, so that might have been part of it for me too.

UUM: Many alt-country bands seem prone to writing one or ten odes to whiskey, but it seems Vandoliers' vices are cigarettes and tacos. Can you talk more about that?

JF: I find that there are a lot of tropes in country music. It probably won't help me gain a fanbase, but I try to avoid those tropes. So instead of singing about whiskey, I'll sing about tequila. I'll do that for one song but not every song. I don't see the poetic value in writing about cocaine or being an outlaw, so I try to keep it to where I am at. I am actually smoking a cigarette right now.

I have yet to write a good weed song, but "Shoshone Rose" is about us eating a bunch of shrooms  at the Shoshone Hotel in Wyoming and tripping out at a casino. And our Taco Bell obsession paid off because they hooked us up with cash to get free tacos while we were out on the road! That was so nice! Thank you Taco Bell for saving my ass out there!

Vandoliers by Mike Brooks

UUM: Speaking of Taco Bell, you were recently quoted as saying that you have grown "older, wiser, and fatter." A phrase, I might add, that I now want on my tombstone. Would you mind sharing some of the wisdom that you learned from all this time on the road? Or, if you just want to talk about getting older and fatter, then that's cool too.

JF: As far as becoming wiser, I think I finally started saying "No" more than I say "Yes." With The Phuss, I said yes to everything; and I now realize that sometimes it is just better to say no to some things. Another important thing is just getting the right team of people around your band. It really helps to have supportive people out there who are championing your band.

I felt like The Phuss was always trying to catch up to somebody else. I was younger and had a lot more vices than tacos, so our sound was always changing. It just didn't work. And having not working sucked, because it was a fun band and I love those people.

When Vandoliers started, I had no expectations. People started showing up and people started believing in the music. That to me is what it's all about. My songs were always story-based and not about politics. I'm a middle class white kid, and that's the last person anyone wants to hear more political opinions from. I just never felt comfortable singing about politics, and I cringe hearing songs about girls that guys have been with; so I tried to avoid doing that stuff.

If I can write something that other people can feel and love then that is really, really cool. And that is also something I never really felt before Vandoliers.



UUM: Since we are talking about the road, Vandoliers are out on tour supporting the new album; and it seems New York and New Jersey are  conspicuously missing from list of stops! What’s the deal?

JF: We are a blue-collar band so we can't just book out the whole year at once. This is only the first run in support of Forever, and it is set up so we can get back to play at SXSW. We will be going to the East Coast, though. Vandoliers have never even played New Jersey yet, which is just so fucked up because I have wanted to get back to Asbury Park ever since I played the Wonder Loft with The Battery Electric. It's been too long since I have had some pork roll.

UUM: Great segue; I was just going to ask if you could share any favorite memories of the time you spent in New Jersey when you came through with The Phuss?

JF: I love New York, but I will always park in Jersey. I wear my Hot Blood shirt, almost weekly! And despite having very little face time with them, The Battery Electric are like some of the closest friends I have ever had. I'm so proud of those guys and I want to get together with them one day soon in California and just go eat everything.

Fleming and The Phuss played Asbury's Wonder Loft in 2014

 UUM: Continuing on with the food theme... Vandoliers did a really cool thing in 2018 that I don't think should go unnoticed; you put out an open invitation for anyone that needed a meal to join the band for a Thanksgiving feast. How did that come about?

JF: I am finding out that not every person in the world is very welcoming. But, in Dallas, the bands make up a really tight-knit community. I got an offer from my favorite punk venue in Dallas called Three Links to put on a Thanksgiving show with my friends like Joshua Ray Walker. It sounded awesome, but we also wanted to make it like a real Thanksgiving. So we started thinking about doing a pot-luck dinner for all the bands. Then, just a few days before the show, I just posted online and told people that if they didn't have a place to go on Thanksgiving, then just come to our thing and eat and hang for free. Holidays can get sad for a lot of people, so I wanted this to be a beacon for anyone who needed it. We also gave all the leftovers to the homeless.

UUM: You said that no one was interested in hearing the political opinions of a middle-class white guy, but I am! So, what are your thoughts on today's America and hopes for the future?

JF: I can get pretty fired up (UUM Note: and boy, did he ever!... but off the record! ), but I represent six people in Vandoliers. Those are six people that really mean the most to me, so I would hate to be their voice on what can be some very sensitive subjects.

UUM: Ok, ok. One more thing before you go. There is s a 2018 retrospective of sorts on the Bloodshot Records website and you are quoted as saying you are looking forward to the return of the "pickle surprise." Can I ask what that is all about, or will that ruin the surprise?

JF: Oh. My. Fucking. God. I do'’t know why that is in print! Our producer, Adam Hill, who is by far one of the greatest people to work with, will take these intermittent breaks just to laugh to at YouTube videos. "Pickle Surprise" is a really weird and fucked up YouTube video that he would always crack up laughing about. I don't know how or why that wound up in print, but that is pretty great. Google it!



Vandoliers' new album, Forever, is out today on Bloodshot Records.

For tour dates and more info please go to www.Vandoliers.com.

1 comment :

  1. This dude is a serious poser! A so called punk who keeps his political opinions to himself and off of the record lmao fuck off

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