Photo credit: Jason Quigley.
Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
Willy Vlautin: The Delines are a new band, we don’t tour a ton and when we do we just rent. But between us all we have probably a dozen tour vans in our past. We’ve all broken down in a lot of states, changed fuel pumps, radiators, heater cores, brakes, etc in mall parking lots, motel parking lots, on the side of the road, in bar parking lots. Man just thinking about it makes me want to lie down.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Amy Boone: Eating healthy on the road is tough. We have to move together as a group or else we would never make it to the next sound check on time. If we stop at a gas station to fill-up and you don’t grab something there, even if you’re not hungry, you may have lost your golden opportunity.
We usually get a rider in the green room with snacks and then take what’s left to the van. Hoarding food saves time and money. Sometimes the club will feed us, but after we load in and do a sound check we end up having to eat right before we go on stage. None of us like doing that, so sometimes we end up wandering around late night looking for food in a town we don’t know very well.
Late night eating is always interesting as far as people watching because it’s usually a diner full of people who work the graveyard shift slamming coffee or people coming from bars drunk as hell. But it’s actually the wait staff I end-up watching.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
Willy: When I was a kid I broke three or four strings a gig. Drunken nerves, Jesus I was a mess. Now I don’t really break many, but then The Delines aren’t a death metal outfit.
Where do you rehearse?
Amy: When the full band has rehearsal we practice in the industrial part of town in a cool old warehouse. The place is divided into rooms for bands to practice and record. Sometimes when we are in-between songs, coming out of a real mellow moody tune suddenly a punk band or a shredding rock band will kick in. All of us have played in bands that have been louder and more rockin’. There’s something nostalgic about rehearsing in a place where our own musical history is still alive with the younger generations. It usually ends up that someone in the band will tell a new story about the old days.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
Willy: One of my first songs was a sad cowpunk tune about an older hooker. I was 13. I didn’t like hookers, wasn’t fantasizing about them. I just grew up in Reno and when you’re 13 or 14 guys throw you in the back of a truck, take you to a whorehouse, and make you go in.
Describe your first gig.
Willy: I can’t remember the very first gig but early on I played an SAE fraternity party. We cleared the place in three songs. It was crammed with people, too. Just three songs and then it was completely empty. Man oh man that was rough, but on the upside no one threw anything at us and the frat guys didn’t kick the shit out of us. I guess we weren’t even good enough for that.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
Amy: My favorite job was working at a club in Austin, Texas. Almost all the employees played in bands and after our shifts we would all go see each other’s bands play either at that club or bar hop down the street. It was a great group of diverse musicians with many influences all supporting each other. It was also a time when Austin was still affordable for artists, so we were all pretty lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
Willy: Jesus, I ain’t smart enough to know what it will be. But I remember in my old band Richmond Fontaine, the steel player was one of the first guys to figure out PayPal. We started putting out our own records and finally getting the money direct. We went from crashing on floors to getting motel rooms pretty quick. New tires on the van instead of used. For awhile we had it made in a sorta duct tape, mom and pop, mildly unsuccessful band, sorta way.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
Amy: It’s always been tough to balance a social life with a solitary life. It’s so important to be a part of a cultural conversation, to talk to people and hear their stories, to go see live music, and go look at art.
But there is a really important part also of being able to digest and interpret what we gather out there and that requires a solitary life style. Setting aside time to be alone and set-up a place where I can work and not be pulled away or distracted by outer influences has always been difficult.
I love music but I’m also interested in other things so my devotion has always been challenged. I do know I can’t live a gratifying life without music and will always play even if it’s just for myself.
Any discipline, no matter what it is, takes a lot of focus and sometimes that means being alone for a lengthy amount of time and being fiercely selfish. That’s probably why all my long-term friends are fellow musicians or people who are understanding when I need to disappear for a while.