Interview: Jason Stollsteimer of Von Bondies
ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY MYCHELLE PETERSON
It always amazes me when bands that have been out of the spotlight for a while can still draw a decent-sized crowd when they get back on the road. So I was quite surprised and relieved to see a great turnout for the recent Chicago return of the Von Bondies. The Detroit five-piece has been keeping a low profile since 2005, following exhaustive touring in support of their major label debut, Pawn Shoppe Heart. While most bands rush their next studio album in a desperate attempt to avoid being usurped by the “next big thing,” the Von Bondies took some time off to live their lives. It’s a risky move in today’s fickle musical climate, but with their recent, rock solid EP release, We Are Kamikazes, and the promise of a lengthy tour before their fourth studio album drops this year, the Von Bondies are poised to come back better than ever. The Scenestar recently caught up with the charming and affable Mr. Von Bondie himself, frontman Jason Stollsteimer, before he hit the stage at the Abbey Pub in Chicago.
SS: First off, thank you so much for taking the time to meet with us and talk a little bit about what’s been going on in Von Bondie-land.
Jason Stollsteimer: No problem.
SS: Why don’t you go ahead and tell us what you’ve been up to the past few years since the last album.
JS: At the end of the touring off Pawn Shoppe Heart, our last record, we’d gotten … It’s really strange … We’d done the opposite of what every other band does. We got to a peak where we were selling out the biggest venues we’d ever sold out. Which I mean, they weren’t like 5,000 seaters or something crazy, but for us they were really big. And then I stopped. I’d toured non-stop for three or four years straight with like a week off here and there, and I was just, I was burnt out. And if we had kept playing, we were gonna get more money of course, because the bigger you get, the more money you make. But I would have just been taking people’s money. So I stopped. It’s a Midwest attitude, I think. It’s not about the money, because our rent in Michigan is so cheap. You know what I mean? If I lived in California, I’d have to keep going no matter if my heart was in it. For most people I could understand that, you know? It’s expensive to live there. And so, in that time, I’d gotten married, near the end of the tour. In the last three years, I’d gotten married and then I got divorced. And getting a divorce kind of sparked me into wanting to do this again … live. I mean, when I started this I was 19, because I wasn’t happy, you know. It was the best way to get out my emotion. But when I got married, I was happy!
SS: And the creative juices stopped flowing…
JS: Yeah, I didn’t want to write a song about children or something. I don’t have any kids. I wasn’t gonna write about puppy dog tales or whatever. So when I got a divorce, I actually had a bunch of songs written. And a lot of them were about divorce, from like three years before. I never stopped writing. I kept writing after Pawn Shoppe Heart; I just didn’t tour. I didn’t write any songs about divorce once I got divorced, but before I did, I wrote about breaking up. Like a song called “Pale Bride” off our EP, that was written two years before I even thought about getting a divorce. At the time, I was like, “Oh yeah, this is fictional.”
SS: No, it was foreshadowing!
JS: I know. At the time, it really was fictional. And so now the joke is that I need to write about winning the Lotto or curing cancer.
SS: There you go! Curing cancer is a good one. You don’t need to win the Lotto; you’re not all about money.
JS: Exactly. But you know what I mean?
SS: Totally. It’s very interesting.
JS: So getting divorced, I needed a way to get out what I was feeling. And it was better than drinking. And I do have fun on tour, but I’m looking at it differently now. I’ve never been single on tour.
SS: And how has that changed you? Or does it?
JS: [Laughs] It hasn’t … yet. It’s only the third show in….
SS: Aha! Gotcha!
JS: I haven’t even tried to talk to a girl, but you know… I mean, when you’re 19, you just do whatever you want. You don’t care. So I need to think about things more now. But I’m still a young guy!
SS: True. Very.
JS: I’m still young. I have to shave in the morning though… [Laughs] It’s not as easy as it used to be.
SS: I guess a lot has happened in the music industry since the last time you toured too.
JS: Yeah, it’s weird.
SS: How do you feel about that? You guys have released an EP exclusively through MySpace and also being sold on tour.
JS: Which I paid for. I put it out.
JS: We are surviving. Especially for the last three years. I haven’t had a job since 2001. But it also helps being from Michigan and not having high bills. We were smart about it. We didn’t buy crazy cars or anything. I have the same clothes I’ve worn for the last three years. But the strange thing is that I … There was a point where we signed with Sire/Warner Brothers. And I had a goal in mind of selling a certain number of records. Like why else would I sign to a big label if I didn’t want to sell a lot of records? And we sold that many! So we reached that goal. And on this record, though this record is better, probably, to the band it’s a better record. It’s well-written and has been well-received. It is more open to interpretation than a Detroit rock record. So for me, I set my sights a lot lower, knowing that the Internet has kind of destroyed record stores and consumers from spending even $10 on a record. Where you know, it used to be Fugazi would sell all their records for $9.99, and people won’t even pay that now. I mean, I understand. I go to MySpace. I update the site, and I see it. The big thing for me is to get people to come to shows. And it’s not even about money. It’s not that we make more money that way; I’d just rather see their faces than not know who downloaded the song. I can’t see who downloaded the song. And we’ve always been a live band. Unless I’m sick. And then we’re terrible. [Laughs]
SS: Yeah, it seems like things have gotten so crazy. And a band at this level is in a different position than say Radiohead doing their ‘pay what you want’ thing. And other bands purposely leak tracks ahead of time to create buzz. It’s a weird time, you know? I mean, when Pawn Shoppe Heart came out, I bought that physically in the store. It was easy to find; I even bought it at Best Buy, you know?
JS: That was right when iTunes kind of broke out.
SS: Exactly. And now I feel like people never really own the CD anymore. It’s not easy to find anymore either.
JS: It’s like you go to Amazon.com, and that’s pretty much it. So we’re trying to figure out the best way to do it. It’s been three years since we toured or put anything out, so I thought the best thing was to release a few EPs and make them really cheap. And not have b-sides on them; these are all songs that are worthy of being on an album. It’s just I had three years worth of songs … I actually had to start a different band because I had so many songs that were different. So I started a band with a different concept, not one where there is two girls singing. Because the Von Bondies is specifically written with that in mind.
SS: Really? Interesting.
JS: Yeah. A lot of bands don’t do that.
SS: You mean, setting parameters?
JS: Yeah, I sing a part an octave higher with female vocals in my head when I’m writing. But you know, the music industry is really changing right now, but the people running it don’t want it to, you know? The last time the music industry was really thriving was probably Nirvana in the early ’90s. Before that it was hair metal! So yeah, like Nirvana and hair metal were the last times they gave out any kind of big record deals. And now record deals are kind of a joke. Labels are taking a band’s merch money when they sign now.
SS: Really? I hadn’t heard that!
JS: Yeah, so T-shirts used to pay for a band’s gas to the next show.
SS: Sure. I buy a shirt at every show I go to in hopes of getting them to the next town, or to get dinner. I’m so disappointed.
JS: If you’re buying it from a bigger band that just got signed recently, [the label] takes it. They don’t take ours; we got signed before that. Yeah, we definitely are paying for our gas from T-shirt sales.
SS: That’s crazy!
JS: And I put out the EP myself, and that money gets split five ways amongst the band. So everybody gets $1 from every EP sold.
SS: Wow.
JS: But it adds up. If you buy 50, that’s $50. But you know, it’s not about the money; it’s about surviving. Like being able to offer the best product possible without having to play with the worst sound system in the world.
SS: It’s definitely a good attitude to have. You know, the new songs on MySpace sound a lot poppier and a lot more polished than Pawn Shoppe Heart and even more so from Lack of Communication.
JS: Which is funny. It’s the least expensive record we’ve ever made. The funny thing is [drummer] Don [Blum] and I are the ones who record all the records. The new members aren’t on it. None of the old members were ever on the albums either.
SS: Oh really?
JS: It’s always been that way, but there was no reason to say it, you know. I mean, it’s not like Billy Corgan or something because Don is really part of it. The difference is that when we first started writing songs, we were 19, and we’re older now. We’ve been writing for 10 years. The songs have gotten better; they’re better written. To us. They have more parts to them. And yet, we spent like half as much on this album. So if they sound polished, it’s because we’re playing better. I mean, I could get drunk and make a really sloppy record if that’s what people wanted. But that’s not what I wanted. It feels like crap to play bad on purpose. I can make it low-fi!
SS: You can totally hear the progression amongst the albums back to Lack of Communication.
JS: Which is a live record.
SS: And it sounds it! You can tell that. And as a fan, that’s fun progression to follow.
JS: The thing is, if you hear these new songs live, they’re just as raw as anything on Lack of Communication. That’s what we sound like live. So that’s why Lack of Communication sounded exactly like what we sound like live, and Pawn Shoppe Heart doesn’t. And this one doesn’t either. But if you come to the show … If anyone says the songs are too polished, I kind of laugh. It’s just like, “Come to a show.” I mean, sorry I didn’t record it on a hand-held recorder like I did on the first record!
SS: So with the lineup having changed for this last album, are you planning on being more collaborative in the future, or it is really just you and Don?
JS: I started playing music because I had songs to write, and whatever friends were available at the time were in the band. And that’s OK. I mean, we never tried to trick somebody.
At this point, Jason looks over at the door a bit stunned, as his cousin drops by to catch the show. He gives her a quick hug and says he’ll be over in a few.
JS: Wow. My cousin’s here. I didn’t even know she lived in Chicago!
SS: How funny.
JS: But yeah, sorry. For me, it was like, whatever friends were around would play with the band.
SS: Kind of like the Brian Jonestown Massacre, where it’s always Anton, and whoever else he gets to be in the band that day…
JS: Yeah, but there are no fights!
SS: Well, then, that’s good, isn’t it?
JS: Yeah, there’s no one getting kicked! It was just, it had been three years. It had been so long. I couldn’t expect the other members to stick around. Don was still around of course because he’s in the band, you know. I mean, if I was in another band, he’d probably play in it too. So it was like, if you were around, and you could sing and play bass, well, then come on. I’m not gonna stop writing songs because I don’t have a band at the moment.
SS: Definitely. But it’s a different approach than a lot of people take. A lot of people really need that core band, but it sounds like that core is you and it’s Don.
JS: The Rolling Stones had a different bass player. The Beatles always had different people playing in the background.
SS: The unspoken members…
JS: Yeah, but we speak about them. So when I do an interview, I always say Matt, Leann and Alicia are in the band because they’re on tour.
SS: Absolutely! So with that said, what’s the plan for the rest of the year? Hopefully some releases and a lot of touring!
JS: Nine months of touring. We’ll be back to Chicago at least twice.
SS: And what about West Coast plans? You’ve got a lot of anxious fans in California. Can we hope for an appearance at Coachella maybe?
JS: We hope! I mean, Coachella usually asks bands on medium to big labels, and we’re not trying to get on a big label. We’re independent right now, and so a lot of bands, they get picked because of marketing efforts of the label who will put up big posters advertising Coachella. And we don’t have that anymore. So it’s up to them.
SS: I think that would be a great spot for you right now though.
JS: Yeah, we’ve already played there.
SS: It’s good timing for you too.
JS: Yeah, it’s where a lot of bands have their comebacks. Although ours isn’t a comeback, it was a hiatus really. It’s not like we were gone for 10 years. But a lot of bands have those giant comebacks there. The Stooges, The Pixies…
SS: Yes, and I think we’re hoping for Spiritualized this year…
JS: When is it?
SS: It’s the last weekend in April, and typically the lineup is announced the last weekend in January, but they continue to add bands up until the festival.
JS: Yeah, it’s gotta be picked though. I don’t even know if our booking agent has thought about it. I mean, we haven’t played in so long; everyone keeps asking when the record is coming out. And it won’t be out [by Coachella]. So no one wants to have a band whose record hasn’t come out yet.
SS: That’s just wrong. I mean, everything else about the industry is changing, so why not this? They do everything else backwards; they might as well try something new.
JS: It takes like 10 years for them to screw up in order to fix something.
SS: But no matter, you are going to make it out to the West Coast and spend some time in L.A.?
JS: Yeah, L.A., San Diego. We love being on the West Coast. Of course we love the Midwest because it’s our home, but it’s a different kind of crowd. I mean, no one really dances in L.A. You know, the Troubadour crowd. [Laughs] At this point, what venue do we play in L.A.? The Roxy?
SS: Hmm, I don’t know. If we’re keeping in line with the size of tonight’s venue, you could play the Key Club?
JS: What is that? About 800?
SS: I think it’s about 600.
JS: Yeah, maybe that would be good.
SS: Or Safari Sam’s? Black Rebel Motorcycle Club just announced two intimate shows at both clubs. They’re playing a few small shows for die-hard fans, not really for more publicity, but that seems like a good size venue to start out in.
JS: Yeah, Safari Sam’s could be fun.
SS: We just want to make sure you don’t forget everyone in L.A.
JS: No, we’ll definitely be there. It’ll be around April.
SS: Good! See … That’s why the timing for Coachella would work so well.
JS: I know, I know. I didn’t even think about it. Just because you know, you don’t want to get your hopes up. It didn’t even cross our minds. But hey, you can put in a good word for us!
SS: We will! We want the Von Bondies to play Coachella. And then you can play Lollapalooza back in Chicago in August.
Being the friendly guy that he is, Jason and I proceeded to talk about the fact that he’s never seen Radiohead live and that despite playing numerous festivals over the years, he always manages to miss bands that he wants to see. Interestingly, he did catch Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in Dublin in December.
We also talked about what he’s been listening to, and he admitted that most of the music he’s exposed to is via a mix CD or something someone puts on an iPod playlist. He did mention one of his new favorite bands from Ireland called Fight Like Apes. While sounding nothing like the Detroit rockers, Jason and the gang are bringing them out on tour with them for a handful of dates in Europe beginning this month.
When the band took the stage a few hours later, any doubt about the new songs was obliterated from my mind. As gritty and raw as ever, new tracks “Pale Bride” and “21st Birthday” held their own next to such classics as “Been Swank” and “It Came From Japan.” If the crowd at this show was any indication, the Von Bondies are in for a warm welcome back to the fold.
The Von Bondies are currently finishing up a few dates on the East Coast before heading to Europe in February, but they will be making their way to the West Coast in the spring. Keep your eyes on the Scenestar for dates and ticket information.
Ha ha. The L.A. crowd... so true. :)
Posted by: Janet | Jan 20, 2008 at 05:49 PM
last time i saw them they played the troubador and house of blues in anaheim.
fuck yeah!! good times!! good times!!
awesome article lady!
Posted by: paulag | Jan 20, 2008 at 09:12 PM
i love you von bondies!!!
Posted by: paulag | Jan 20, 2008 at 09:13 PM
Chido! Great interview =)
Posted by: Oscar | Jan 21, 2008 at 12:06 AM