EVERYDAY PEOPLE: WES BOATRIGHT

THEY\'RE NOT CELEBRITIES. THEY WALK PAST YOU ON THE STREET, BRING YOU YOUR FOOD AT A RESTAURANT, AND LIVE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. THEY\'RE EVERYDAY PEOPLE. JUST LIKE YOU.
SEPTEMBER 2004: WES BOATRIGHT
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT-- SMOKIN\' JOE BLOW SITS DOWN WITH JUNEAU, ALASKA\'S GROPING FOR ELMO LEAD GUITARIST AND SCREAMER, WES BOATRIGHT, TO TALK PUNK, POLITICS, PRODUCING, AND POSSIBILITIES.
Smokin\' Joe Blow: Let me start by having you spell your name for the record.
Wes Boatright: So, this is being recorded now? W-E-S B-O-A-T-R-I-G-H-T.
SJB: And you...?
WB: Play guitar and sing. Well, scream.
SJB: Okay. Who\'s next?
WB: My brother, Max Boatright. He plays bass... and looks badass.
SJB: (laughs) Got it.
[\"THE PATRIOT ACT\" BY WES\' BAND, GROPING FOR ELMO, PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND]
SJB: Hey, this is from the Marine Park show.
WB: Yeah. It\'s one of our favorites. I\'m really proud of it. Production is, well, none of our concern; if it finds its way onto CD in any way, we\'re pleased. Jesse\'s getting kind of finicky about it, but I really don\'t worry about it too much.
SJB: And Jesse is...?
WB: Van Sickle. Two words. Plays guitar.
SJB: And who else is in the band?
WB: Dan Leder plays drums, which is the whole reason this band is here. We spent six months looking for a permanent drummer before we found a kid who could kinda-- well, he didn\'t have a drum set and he didn\'t really know how to play drums. But he could bang on them in a... rhythmic kind of way to the point where we were like, \"Okay, we don\'t sound terrible!\"
Both: (laugh)
WB: But before Dan came along... I mean, we spent eight months not doing anything! We just said we were in a band for the sake of it, and then this kid told us he wanted to drum for us. He fit in pretty well. He didn\'t have the same taste in music as us-- he listens to all the poppy MTV punk stuff-- but, a drummer\'s a drummer, and he\'s a cool kid.
SJB: Let me get some background. You\'ve lived here [Juneau, Alaska] for how long?
WB: Five years in Juneau. Same for Max. We moved here in \'98.
SJB: What brought you here?
WB: My dad got a job and just moved the whole family up here.
SJB: Were there any bands before this one?
WB: (shakes head) First band. The way it all started was Jesse and another guy named Ryan wanted to start a band called Groping For Elmo that had a little bit less of a mainstream sound than something they were doing in another band. I was a huge metal head at this point; punk was something I was totally disinterested in. But when Jesse told me he wanted to start a band called Groping For Elmo, I was like, \"Alright, sure. Why not?\" I had listened to The Misfits, and that was about it as far as punk went. But the more they exposed me to it, the more I exposed myself to it, I totally immersed myself in it. Once I really knew what was going on with it, it became something I identified with more than anything. The thing that fascinates me the most about it is realizing the ideals it was founded on. Take bands like Black Flag: they were one of the first bands to go out and do what they wanted. They didn\'t have anything given to them by anybody; they did everything on their own terms. And when you listen to their music, it\'s music that anybody could play.
SJB: So that kind of opens it up a little.
WB: Yeah. I was used to listening to Iron Maiden, with all these untouchable godlike solos--
SJB: Man, I love Iron Maiden.
WB: And I really like it! But at the same time, when I listened to Black Flag I felt this was something I could relate to. If I talked to these guys I wouldn\'t think, \"Oh, man! This is Black Flag!\" It\'d be more like, \"These are guys like me, just doing what they want.\"
SJB: Yeah. I\'ve read most of [Henry] Rollins\' books. Just that stack I gave you, so much of it is about him just being on the road and wading through shit just to do what he wanted to do: sleeping on someone\'s floor, having his clothes stolen, people spitting on him. But he just kept doing it. It must be something good if you\'re willing to suffer for it, and it takes a certain breed of person to do what you\'ve done. Otherwise, there\'d be garage bands falling out of the fucking trees.
WB: (laughs)
SJB: Do you feel that everyone in the band is on the same wavelength?
WB: My brother, well-- he and I have just recently started to grow as friends. Yeah, there\'s that sibling rivalry that everybody has until they\'re 13, and we used to fight a lot, but it all started when we first heard Megadeth together. That was the first band we ever got into. He bought Countdown To Extinction. We shared a room at this point, so we sat down and listened to it, and after that it was the only thing in our CD player. The CD player could have been welded shut.
SJB: (laughs)
WB: What? It could be worse! That\'s when we started bonding and listening to the same kinds of music. And I remember influencing him a little on what he listens to. I think all older brothers do that. I came home with Slayers\' Reign Of Blood; we were so psyched, so amped. A few years went on, and I was just getting into obscure metal bands. And then I started listening to punk rock and bringing some of that in, saying to him, \"You\'ve gotta hear this!\" And he was telling me it wasn\'t hardcore enough. \"No, man. It\'s not the notes they\'re playing; listen to the attitude!\" It\'s taken some time and harsh criticism on my part, but he\'s really opened up to bands like The Exploited and The Casualties and the Dead Kennedys. Now he\'s at this point where he\'s a crossover from metal to punk, and that\'s really cool because he\'s written two or three songs for the band. They\'ve definitely got a metal presence, but it\'s not something we\'d turn away from. Jesse\'s kind of got the same ideals, but... I mean, I feel when we recorded our demo... well, production sucks. And I really like that! Because when your production is so bad that it\'s actually hard to listen to, but the songs are so good that it makes someone say, \"I don\'t care!\" that\'s what I really like. All the old stuff I\'ve ever listened to... Agnostic Front, a band I love so much, but if you\'re listening to it for slick production, you\'re obviously in the wrong part of town! The songs are so cool and so there; they\'re just great to listen to. But Jesse has started to overkill and get in touch with people who have more technical knowledge with recording, rather than Jason who\'s got this small four-track. That\'s what I\'m into, and Jesse isn\'t. I like the lo-fi end of it, but he\'s telling me, \"It doesn\'t have to be crap.\" I think it gives it a charm. So we argue a lot about that. He knows the direction that my brother and I want to take the band, and he\'s more eclectic. But at the same time, he doesn\'t write a lot of music for the band, so that doesn\'t come out. The drummer\'s the drummer, and he knows it. We\'ll start playing something and he\'ll throw a beat down. He\'s not into the same music we are; he\'s kind of there for fun. I mean, I don\'t know what it\'s like to be the drummer, but it\'s got to be the coolest thing in the world, just playing really fast all the time. He seems to enjoy it. I\'m just really not that close to him. Still, we seem to be doing all right.
SJB: How many shows have you done?
WB: Let\'s see... uh, somewhere in the ballpark of ten. I\'m not sure, exactly. That\'s including four when Ryan was still in town. He wrote a couple of songs for the band, but when he moved to Seattle, that was it. He knew how to sing the songs. We had it all worked out as co-singers, but I didn\'t know how to do them right when he left, so we just scrapped them. Jesse was reluctant to do that, but I told him, \"We can\'t do it without singing. Punk rock is boring without singing or somebody shouting. It\'s cool for about 30 seconds.\" We could rewrite it to go that long, but I didn\'t want to do it if we couldn\'t do it justice.
SJB: Without lyrics, everything just becomes a really great riff.
WB: Yeah. And that\'s cool and everything, but the way I write a song... I mean, I\'ve spent three years learning how to play guitar. And I can play really well. I\'m not great, but I can play well enough that if I wanted to write a semi-complicated song, I could. But I think it\'s much more fun to play a song or make a statement with two riffs, and just hammer that out for two and a half minutes, maximum. Maybe throw a solo in there for show. But to sit down and take the time to write music... if I\'m in the mood, hand me a guitar and in three minutes I\'ll hand you back a song. And it\'s really fun to do that. The hard part, for me, is writing lyrics. A couple of years ago I would have had no problem. But for some reason, in the past two years I\'ve got this crazy block for lyrics. Maybe it\'s because I just don\'t know the direction I want to go with them. I\'ve got issues with a lot of things, and I want to get a lot of rage out and inform people of some stuff they might not know about, like the political or social atmosphere that most people don\'t see. But at the same time, there are moments where I want to be really introspective. There\'s so much trying to come out all at once. It\'s what I like to call the Three Stooges Effect-- all three guys are trying to get out of the door at once, and nothing\'s coming through. So... (pauses) I don\'t remember what question I was answering!
SJB: Oh, I was asking you.... Shit! Neither do I!
Both: (laugh)
SJB: So, what about the messages in your music? What do you sing about?
WB: Well, we only have a few songs that are originals right now. This one [\"The Patriot Act\"] is pretty self-explanatory; being bent over the couch at the government\'s will, which, when I first heard that, I was really pissed. I like to write about the political atmosphere of the country and what\'s going on. I\'ve had friends that have pissed me off, so I\'ll write a song about that. I wrote a song called \"Mr. Orange\", which is a total reference to Reservoir Dogs, one of my favorite movies, ever. It\'s about the kind of person who acts one way when you\'re around them, and when you\'re not, they talk about you behind your back. I guess I like to write songs about social situations; when people are being really screwed up, just telling them to fuck off. But I never want to write anything and just whine. If I write something and it sounds like I\'m bitching about it, but not doing anything about it, I\'m not going to want to sing it. I\'ve heard plenty of bands that\'ve written songs like that, but don\'t do anything about it. The message I want [Groping For Elmo] to have is to take on everything, and change what you\'re not happy with. That\'s the whole goal. I really like music, but it\'s also a way to get a message out. Some people would rather teach; I would rather do this. I just hope that someday people will hear our music and have it strike a chord with them. If they\'ve got something they need to take on, maybe they\'ll look to our music for inspiration. I\'ve done that plenty of times with stuff I\'ve listened to.
SJB: Where do you see yourself going in life, like five or ten years from now? Doing this, or something along the same vein?
WB: Probably not in the same exact line. I just want to keep writing music. My ultimate goal is to find a band that is willing to play songs that I write, find a label that wants to take my recordings. I don\'t even want to make a lot of money off it. It would be nice to get some, sure, but I\'d just like to have our music get out there so someone browsing through a record store could give it a chance. Ours could be that one obscure record that people hear about and say to their friends, \"Hey, if you\'re into that, you should check this band out.\" I just want our music to get out there somewhere. I\'m planning on moving to New York pretty soon; it\'s got a raging scene there, and I hope to find some other like-minded guys that want to do the same thing: write music. At the same time, it\'s about having fun. If I\'m not having fun, I\'m not going to want to do it. If I\'m not having fun, I\'ll go to school. If I have to go back to the old Black Flag days and tour my ass off and practically hand out copies to people, I\'ll do it. I think the songs I write are filled with enough rage, but with a positive energy at the same time. It\'s got a nice mix between the two. It\'s something that people should hear, something they should know about.
SJB: Do you want to make a career out of this?
WB: I kind of want this to be my career. I don\'t know how reasonable that is, the whole dream of the 13-year-old who sees guys make money by playing guitar, and says to himself, \"I want to do that.\" I\'ve gone to shows and talked to people and asked how much money they were making, and they laughed in my face. \"Money? We\'re lucky to break even!\" I think it\'s kind of an investment, not a monetary reward. I mean, it\'s only gonna bum you out if money is the only thing you care about. But as long as I have a roof over my head, food in my stomach, just enough money to scrape by, I\'d be happy. I read this book titled Our Band Could Be Your Life about the indie scene in the Eighties, and about how most bands were dirt poor and barely making it. I thought that if I really wanted to do this, how dedicated would I be? If this happened to me, would I care? I sat around and thought about it, and I realized, \"No. I wouldn\'t care!\" If I could just play music and have people enjoy it, I would enjoy it. I guess I don\'t have any other ideas for a career right now. This is what I want to do. Eventually, I\'ll go to school if I get tired of living in a van, but we\'ll see how that goes.
SJB: Wow. Sounds like you\'ve got your head on straight. Is there anything else you want to say?
WB: I\'d rather play to ten people that really wanted to be there than any number of people that were there just to pass the time. When we played the concert in the park awhile back, we really put effort and energy into it, but got such a golf clap! (opens hands, looks incredulous) \"Hey, I didn\'t just tee off here!\" People don\'t have to get into a mosh pit and beat the crap out of each other for me to pick up that they\'re enjoying it. But, yeah, you can get more from ten than 10,000; it just depends on which crowd wants to hear you more. As long as there\'s somebody who wants to hear what I\'m doing, I\'m going to be doing it.