Last month, Teenage Bottlerocket released their latest full-length, Stay Rad! It marks the band’s first album of new material since the unexpected passing of founding drummer Brandon Carlisle in 2015. We spoke with Brandon’s brother, singer/guitarist Ray Carlisle, and discussed the circumstances surrounding the creation of this record. We talked about when the band felt that it was an appropriate time to start writing again, how they found new drummer Darren Chewka and what it was like recording without Brandon. We also covered their extensive touring schedule this year, what they’ve got planned for the future and more. Stay Rad! contains the youthful energy and humor that Teenage Bottlerocket is known for, but also adds layered songwriting and the inclusion of new influences. The resulting album is one that finds the band sounding assured and ready to move forward with the next chapter in their career.
Bill – How would you describe the writing process for this record? Given everything that you guys have been through in the last four years or so, when did you start to think about writing again?
Ray – Shortly after we recorded Tales from Wyoming, I went in the studio and did the Ray Rocket record, which came out in April of 2016. Then we did the Stealing the Covers album and that kind of gave us a little buffer zone between Wyoming and this new record. We also had a couple songs that we recorded for a 7-inch that were new, whenever we did Stealing the Covers, so we were kind of getting there. It had been a couple years since Brandon passed away at that point. We didn’t have a time crunch that we were dealing with, so we were sort of cranking out two or three songs every six months, between Kody, (singer/guitarist Kody Templeman) and I. Once we had probably nine or ten, we booked studio time, which kind of lit a fire under our ass and we had to get four to six more done. We went into the studio with 16 songs total, so it was sort of a process that happened over four years and in different stages.
Bill – That makes sense. How did you go about finding your new drummer Darren?
Ray – I was working for a company in Alberta and I went and saw Kathy Camaro’s band play, the Riff Randells. She’s married to KJ Jansen from Chixdiggit. Darren’s band, Old Wives, opened the show and I fell in love with his drumming. I didn’t even really talk to him at the show. I just watched him play. I certainly didn’t realize that eight years from that point I’d be asking him to play in our band, but he was the first person I thought of. That’s basically how it went down.
Bill – What do you like best about Darren’s contributions to the album?
Ray – I think that compared to Stealing the Covers, he was a little more reserved on that album or maybe even gun-shy. I think on this record he really let loose and was able to be himself. We were also there to share feedback as he tracked his drums, but he definitely kicked ass and we were all really excited about the way the drums turned out, especially at the end of the whole recording process.
Bill – That’s great. You guys once again recorded at The Blasting Room with Andrew Berlin. What was unique about your experience in the studio this time?
Ray – Well, we all had to step up our game as producers because Brandon was always at the steering wheel with the production of Teenage Bottlerocket records. Everything from vocal takes to mixing the album, he produced all of that. We all had to step up and grab the reins. Sometimes you have to get away from it though. Whenever you’re in the studio for 14 days tracking, sometimes you just gotta go to the lounge and watch a movie while something important might even be going on. It’s good to rest your ears sometimes. When I’m doing that, it’s cool to have Kody or Miguel, (bassist Miguel Chen) in there. I trust both of them. Andrew is someone that we all trust too. If I’m recording vocals, then I can’t really produce myself at the same time. That’s where Brandon was really driving the car when it came to production. We let that kind of fall in Andrew’s hands this time. Things were definitely different this time around. We also tracked the entire record with Brandon in mind. We’d be like, “Would Brandon think this is rad? Would this fly with Brandon?” And at the end of the day, I know he would love this record.
Bill – That’s awesome. Tell me about the song “Everything to Me” and what made you want to write it.
Ray – Well, I’m a huge Shellac fan and I’m a huge Fugazi fan. Alkaline Trio has done it on a couple songs with a rhythm where the third beat is accented and then the next time the fourth beat has the accent. It’s hard to explain, but it’s kind of a repetitive rhythm. I’ve always wanted to do a song like that and then my friends in Plague Vendor sent me a song and it sort of followed that pattern. They did the triple hit with the accent on every third note. I was like, “Holy shit. Why haven’t we done a song like this?” That was really what sparked it. Then it was like, “Okay, what am I going to sing about?” I hang out with my kid constantly, so I decided to write a song for my son Milo. I just grabbed a pad of paper and a pen and finished it in about five minutes. Then I grabbed a guitar and it seriously sort of wrote itself.
Bill – I feel like I’ve heard numerous bands say that about songs that people really respond to, just that it only took minutes to write…
Ray – Yeah, Kody and I talk about that all the time. Like “Blood Bath at Burger King,” Kody grabbed his guitar and finished it within a couple of minutes. Like, “Boom. Here it is.”
Bill – It’s really interesting it can be that easy sometimes. What inspired the song “Anti-Social Media”?
Ray – Well, a lot of people act like they’re hot shit on the internet. And there’s a lot of people who don’t do shit. I’ve always had some resentment towards people who talk shit, but don’t do shit. And the internet has certainly facilitated that. For instance, you could pretend to be a really good dad on Instagram and post all these pictures with your kid from one day or one event, but there’s obviously a lot more to it than that. And also, being backstage at a punk show nowadays, it’s certainly not this wild party with people throwing shit around. Typically, if you go backstage, even at a Teenage Bottlerocket show, you’re going to see the four of us staring at our phones, which kind of bugs me. It like, “Here we are in Paris, let’s go to the Eiffel Tower. Let’s go out and do it.” Chewka being new in the band is more down to do that kind of stuff with me. His first time to Europe was with us a couple years ago. As bands, we would go out and walk around together and just get outside and do some stuff, rather than just sit there and stare at our phones or text our girlfriends or whatever we were doing. That was a little bit of the inspiration to that song. It’s just kind of gross how everybody has an opinion on the internet and there’s definitely some trolls out there. I do think that some people are just mean on the internet to get a reaction out of people. It’s not necessarily a good thing all the time and that’s what the song sort of circulates around.
Bill – I think there’s something to be said too for just being in the moment with wherever you are and not staring at that screen. It’s like put the phone in your pocket and talk to the person across from you or just look around and observe your surroundings.
Ray – Yeah, I was in Hawaii and we went on this whale watching tour and everybody is so preoccupied with getting their phones out and trying to take photos of these whales. It’s like, “Just watch these whales. Just watch this. It’s rad. You’ll remember it. Are you preoccupied with showing your friends that you did this or are you preoccupied with fucking doing this?”
Bill – Right. I think people forget which is better, like enjoying one of the most beautiful places on earth or sitting there and staring at it through your phone the whole time.
Ray – And I’m guilty of it still. I’ll be having dinner with my kid and I’ll grab my phone and I’ll catch myself. It’s like, let me bug him about his homework assignment or whatever. Just try to be there in the moment.
Bill – For sure. “Little Kid” is a tribute to your brother Brandon that revisits some of your childhood memories. Was this something you planned on doing when you first started writing the record or did it just kind of happen?
Ray – It materialized for sure and that was one of the last-minute songs. We had nine or ten written and that was one of the last six. And “Everything to Me” definitely was as well. “Everything to Me” and “Little Kid” were the two last songs I wrote, and “Anti-Social Media” was the last song I wrote lyrics for. I had some different words written for that song and they weren’t good, so I had to start from scratch and actually finished those lyrics in the studio. But “Little Kid” was the last song I wrote and again sort of back to the Fugazi thing, just the one repeating note. I wanted a different vibe with the guitar and then it sort of buzzed into the “whoa oh” part, which is staple Teenage Bottlerocket back to Another Way, like a song I would’ve written with Brandon in 2001. So that was unintentional, but it turned out really cool. I remember hearing it for the first time and being stoked about how it turned out. It reminds me of a song from Another Way and then it goes through this transition that sounds more progressive.
Lyrically, this is what I was feeling in my living room, walking around and sort of pacing back and forth. I was writing one line at a time and scratching out lines as I was going. Whenever I saw the lyrics on the layout of the album, I was surprised at how short the song was. There’s not much to it, but I think people are sympathetic and also some people are relating to the song and a lot of people are mentioning it. It’s cool. You never know what people are going to react to when you release a record, but it’s cool to read everybody’s reactions. With vinyl being pressed months after you’re done recording, three or four months later, it takes a long time between finishing a record and everyone actually hearing it. You hear all this feedback all at once and it can be overwhelming. We waited four months for everybody to hear this and all of a sudden it’s like being hit with a tidal wave of compliments and stokage. For us, it’s really cool. That’s the cool thing about the internet and social media. You have to dig pretty deep to find a bad review of the new record and that’s what I think we were out for. It’s easy to focus on the bad ones, but anyway, here we are.
Bill – You guys have several shows scheduled in South Africa in April. What are you most looking forward to about those?
Ray – I heard we’re playing a beach town there and that’s pretty cool. I’m into that. We always get into the food whenever we’re in new places, like the food they’re famous for. Even if it grosses you out, at the end of the day you have a story. I’m excited about the checkmark. It’s the sixth continent we’ve played. To me that’s an accomplishment being from Wyoming. There are people in Laramie that don’t leave and Bottlerocket is about to go play our sixth continent. That’s certainly something I can brag about at the bar, (laughs). We have no idea how many people are going to be at those shows, but we’re going, so it’s exciting.
Bill – What else does the band have planned this year in terms of touring?
Ray – We’re going to Japan and we added some dates in China. Miguel is part Chinese and he’s really excited about that. We’re going back to Europe in August and we’re doing a lot of ten-day stints in the states. We’re hitting the Midwest, hitting Texas again and the East Coast in June. Before Punk Rock Bowling we’re doing the West Coast with Nerf Herder supporting us. Next week, we start tour with Pegboy supporting us. Pegboy is just such a huge band for us. Brandon was buried in his Pegboy jacket.
Bill – Wow. I had no idea…
Ray – Yeah. Pegboy was always one of the first punk bands that we loved and really got into. We had a VHS tape of them playing with The Jesus Lizard and Brandon and I watched that thing hundreds of times. So, bringing Larry and the Haggerty dudes to Laramie, Wyoming is a huge deal to us. It’s going to fuckin’ rock. There’s a lot more as far as scheduling goes, it’s just a lot to get into, but those are some big ones.
Bill – When you think about the future of Teenage Bottlerocket, what are some of the initial things that come to mind?
Ray – Record, tour, repeat. That’s always been the philosophy of our band. I think things are going to continue to be vibrant and we all just look forward to playing together, and the audience feeding off of that. Just going out and having a party. That’s really what we’ve always kind of gone out to host, like “Hey, let’s throw a party tonight. Let’s get out there and do it.” Just putting the guitars on and going out there and shredding is important to us and it’s something that we can’t live without. So, I think the future is going to entail more releases and more shows and more band fights and more weird food.
