The Riverboat Gamblers – 17-11-2010

Interview with: The Riverboat Gamblers
By: Nina Mende

During the Eastpak Antidote tour I got to interview the singer of The Riverboat Gamblers and had a nice little chat with him. He told me that they’ve basically been touring since June and are quite tired. But it’ll all be fine once they go onstage and perform for their audience. This tour has been going on for 3 weeks already and two weeks were still to go. He was totally feeling like being in a tour bubble. Especially in Europe the days on tour were so busy that he didn’t get to see much of the cities at all and has seen the sunlight only twice so far, which was also because of the grey weather… The singer kind of understands the kids who like Twilight. Saying that we drifted off talking about True Blood and Fangtasia, which actually is a bar in Long Beach called Alex’s Bar where The Riverboat Gamblers play quite often.

To get back on track I asked him to tell me something about the band. He told me that they were all originally from a little town in Texas called Denton. The band has been together for about 10 years now, but the first four to five years it was not too serious. They moved to Austin like about six years ago and became more serious about the band. Slowly it built up to a fulltime job, but back in the day they started out to play at parties and such. Initially they were influenced by the late 70s and 80s punk rock music like Ramones and The Dictators.

Sometimes it seems kind of surreal when they think of it as being a fulltime thing, being on the road for weeks instead of being home. It never really was the plan, but now it is the plan and pretty exciting for all of them.

Before The Riverboat Gamblers was a fulltime occupation for them, the singer went to school for acting and did a little acting here and there. But he’s always had to maintain a crappy day job which included everything from waiting tables to taking care of handicapped people, bartending, working at nightclubs or music stores and so on. As the touring picked up it changed a bit. From then on he’d be working any job that allowed to be working for a period of time, then be gone for some time and then come back. It is still a little bit like that. Unsure what he’d be doing when getting back home he told me that the best thing to do would be writing the new album as quick as possible to head back on the road right away.

The writing process is a team thing. Everyone contributes their strength to the writing process. Which also includes a lot of re-writing the songs. The singer writes the lyrics, but that includes a lot of re-writing as well. Because what you thought was good last night might sound all strange today and you can’t believe you ever thought of that being good.

The Riverboat Gamblers have been to Europe before. Last summer was the last time they were in Europe. They played a bunch of festivals and some club shows with The Bouncing Souls. The time before that the guys have been to Europe at the beginning of their career and it had been the first time they were gone for a longer period. After that they didn’t return to Europe for about five or six years though which is sad in a way because whatever momentum they might have had during their first tour might be long lost and forgotten. But there are still some people popping up here and there remembering that very first time of The Riverboat Gamblers being in Europe. This time they will try to make the trips to Europe more regular, twice a year would be nice but at least once a year. Actually this tour was just a coincidence as well. They were supposed to head back home and write the new album right after their USA tour, but then they got asked to join this tour which they gladly did. Now they had the opportunity to play in front of a bunch of people that had never heard of them before. So far it’s been going very well. The Sum41 fans really seem to enjoy The Riverboat Gamblers.

The Riverboat Gamblers had toured with bands like Rancid, Against Me, Dead To Me, The Arrivals and many more. By now it seemed like they have become friends with almost all their favorite bands and ended up touring with them. As a matter of fact they have just been touring with Pennywise through Canada and now they are touring with The Black Pacific, Jim’s new band. The Riverboat Gamblers also did the Warped Tour this summer. Andrew W. K. and Alkaline Trio were some bands that were along on the Warped Tour. Looking back it has been a busy year for them.

On a typical day at home he plays guitar or writes songs, but he also enjoys going to the movie theater. There is one in Austin that shows old 70s movies. Further he enjoys live comedy, not only because many of his friends are comedians.

The inspirations for the songs are influenced by country music and the stories that are being told in the songs or simply random ideas. The last record was a lot more personal and storytelling, a little darker and negative. But usually they just try to let it flow and be honest, which is the most important thing. That is basically the bottom goal for them, no matter if they understand it or not. But that’s probably also why they rewrite a lot because the words just didn’t say what it was supposed to say or such.

The plan for the new record is to record it in January, maybe come back to Europe in summer, do some festivals and see what cool tours are up where they could join. There is this one song that they are playing live now that came to existence in between all this touring which they totally want to record. Maybe it might not end up on the full length record but on a single release or EP instead. For now there is no touring planned though. They all have side projects as well. The singer has another band called Highjack Fires and their new record is coming out in March where there is still some stuff to do for. The other projects are also punk rock, one is a little bit more mellow, the other one is more staccato. There is another project called Broken Goal which’s album is coming out in February or March. They basically try to stay busy to not have to go back to a day job.

The Riverboat Gamblers would love to tour with Queens Of The Stone Age, but they’d also love to tour again with Against Me, Rise Against or Strike Anywhere. Also did they just hear and become fans of the UK band The Futureheads which they would love to tour with now. Or even the Rolling Stones would be awesome to be touring with since they are getting back together. Even if they just play in the parking lot for all the fans waiting there.

Trying to stay out of genres made The Riverboat Gamblers special. They are basically free within the width of Rock’n’Roll which can include a whole lot of subgenres where as other bands get stuck and lock up themselves in a tiny genre like garage rock. Yet they still try to have a straight line in their music and have a certain sound and have boarders they would not cross like they would never do a rap-rock song.

That was an awesome interview with The Riverboat Gamblers and a wonderful chat. Check them out on Facebook and Twitter.

Links:
The Riverboat Gamblers Official