VolcomStone

The Riverboat Gamblers: Balance And Talents

from volume 03 issue 11 // admin

Words: Scott Harrell

Photo: Courtesy Volcom Records

Yeah, that band you’ve seen off and on making the acts they open up for look silly by comparison? They’re called the Riverboat Gamblers, and they’re from Texas. The gentlemen are aces in the studio, as well, and their new album Underneath The Owl is about the tightest mix of rock, punk and fun to come along since the Supersuckers demanded that you buy ‘em a beer. We talked to Gamblers guitarist/chief misinformation officer Fadi El-Assad about conspiracy theories, mixing it up and how his band is so consistently amazing on the road.

REAX: Are you guys all Austinites now?

FE: We are. We’ve been down here, the band has been sort of relocated for about five years.

REAX: But you got started in Denton, right?

FE: Yeah. It's a little college town just north of Dallas that had a heyday in the '90s with a house show scene.

REAX: So what's up with the album title?

FE: It's sort of a cryptic, dark-imagery homage to a lot of symbolism behind secret societies, oppressive secret power, The Illuminati, The Masons, and governmental figures. It's also a direct allusion to the Frost Bank Tower here in Austin, which is built to resemble an owl. It ties into a figure named Alex Jones, a local radio show host who presents what people commonly call conspiracy theories.

REAX: You guys always have the best song titles. It makes me envision you sitting around the practice space, one-upping each other and cracking each other up. Is that the case?

FE: With our song titles? Which ones? What are you thinking of specifically?

REAX: Well, stuff like “Biz Hearts Sluts” from the last album ...

FE: Well, I’ll tell ya, specifically “Biz Loves Sluts,” we did crack up at it, but it wasn’t us. We've got a good friend from high school - remember book covers, that shit you put on your school books and drew on? His nickname was Biz, he got called that because when he was 12 he was selling weed, taking care of business, and on his book cover he had this giant thing that said “Biz Hearts Sluts.” Like, in junior high! And it made a perfect allusion to the music industry, those people in it who whore out for anything.

REAX: It seems like the song arrangements are a little more stripped-down and straightforward this time around.

FE: Really? I guess so. I don't know how to respond, really. We just kind of went in with a lot more focus, the last one was sort of us putting thogether - one, we didn’t have a set band last time around, we were using a friend who played in another band. The songs weren't as fully written, they weren't as formed, thought out. And this time, we didn't have the luxury of eight weeks in an apartment, we had five weeks literally living in ths studio. It was good for the sake of focus, and bad for the sake of comfort and emotional stability.

REAX: A lot of the songs, like “Keep Me From Drinkin',” have a classic, High School Confidential feel, then there's really different stuff like “Robots May Break Your Heart.” Were you listening to anything in particular when you were crafting these tunes?

FE: Everything, really. Here's the weird thing - I don’t have an iPod or a laptop, so I didn't listen to anything the whole time. Well, that's not true, I listened to Zeke and Minor Threat.

I don't think ... this time around we weren't drawing literally or specifically on our favorite bands or genres. ‘Here's a bunch of songs, let's cut a record.’ No pretense, we're not trying to make a concept record or trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Whatever we liked, we did.

REAX: Who's that singing lead on ‘Sleepless’?

FE: Um, That's Mike Wiebe, lead singer.

REAX: Really? He sounds so different.

FE: Yeah, he does sounds a bit different in the first verse.

REAX: I just assumed it was you or somebody.

FE: I had one lead part I was singing when we were rehearsing, but we couldn't nail it. For some reason, my vocal wasn't going right, so I got cut. I got cut! So we had Todd Congelliere from Toys That Kill and Underground Railroad to Candyland come in, and it turned out really well. As long as I get my ASCAP money, I don't give a fuck! No, it worked out better anyway.

REAX: Do you guys make a conscious effort to do a different album each time?

FE: It's not really conscious to the extent that we write the songs a certain way, we just don’t get our songs from wherever. We're writing, and we're like, ‘let's try to write it this way.’ But w'ere not trying to make every song or CD sound different. We're in a different place. People want to compare this record to Something to Crow About, and that was six years ago, you know? If I sound the same six years from now, I'm gonna fuckin' shoot myself. It's always gionna change, at least a bit. We're in a position where, apart from the producer, we have complete artistic freedom, so we just make it sound the way we want, and I would consider us very lucky in that respect.

REAX: I've always thought of the Gamblers as one of those bands that just puts out records to tide fans over until the next show, but this record more than any of the others has the feel that you're pretty serious about crafting and putting out the best sounding album you can.

FE: I think to us, they're equal in the sense that they’re both important. But they're so different. When we’re on tour, we're not thinking about the little nuances, how they're gonna translate live, we're just thinking about going out there and busting ass on the road, playing as well as we can for however long. It's a really visceral, primal, emotional outburst of all those things. In the studio, it's very intellectual. I hate to use that word, but it is, you think about every little thing. You dissect. Thery're really different, but I love doing both. I love being in the studio.

REAX: I know a lot of musicians, especially guys in punk in rock, that hate it. They hate the pressure, and doing exactly that, dissecting every little detail of the music.

FE: Well, I love it. There’s something about when you get into the studio, this idea - it's like when you’re a little kid, and your parents don't believe you have this friend that they can’t see. It doesn't manifest itself in reality until you get into the studio. It's inarticulate, there’s not cup to hold the water in, you know?

REAX: What's the secret to putting on consistently great live sets? Do you pace yourselves on the road, or is it all out all the time?

FE: Uh, I don't know. There's no secret. My bass player’s here. Rob, what's the secret to us blasting out our sets?

ROB: gumble futz snark bong unintelligible

FE: Yeah, that's a good point.

REAX: I didn't hear him.

FE: Well, I'm gonna tell ya. You start off on tour, going balls out, you never learn your lesson, it's the same every time. But after a week, you remember you have to pace yourself, you're getting a little older. But you still go for it. You nurse your wounds a little bit, and you go for it.

Underneath The Owl is out now. The Riverboat Gamblers play Tampa’s Orpheum April 9, Orlando’s The Social April 10, and Lady St. Johns Riverboat in Jacksonville April 11.

myspace.com/theriverboatgamblers