Stereoboard Speaks To Buckcherry At Last Month's Download Festival (Interview)
Friday, 22 July 2011
Written by Heather McDaid
To many, Buckcherry are one of those bands who shamelessly indulge themselves in the notion of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. With tracks under their belt including ‘Cocaine’, ‘Porno Star’, ‘Too Drunk’ and ‘All Night Long’, you’d be forgiven for writing them off for being so abrasive in their titling but you would, however, be missing out on a pretty fantastic band by doing so. Whether you can forgive yourself for that is not clear.
The band have had their highs and lows throughout their career. Taking a break from music, the band returned at full force in 2005 and Jim – one of the members who joined at this reformation – took a little time at Download Festival last month to talk about his life in Buckcherry and more. Too many people can be too quick to judge this band, but hopefully this will show you that they are just downright nice guys.
“The Glasgow show was fantastic,” begins Jim, touching on their warm-up show for the festival at The Arches, a relatively intimate venue. “We try to come over here more often because we’re trying to build our name over here and it’s completely different touring over here compared to what we have going on the States. We have a lot of touring and a lot of radio success. To me, it’s fantastic that we can play a much smaller show like that in Glasgow because the people are right there and it sort of reminds you what you’re doing this for. We’re proud to be able to do shows like that, it was fantastic. We had a blast.”
“At this point, we’ve done all shapes and sizes when it comes to shows for a long time, but they’re all obviously that little bit different,” he adds, comparing it to the size of their pending Download set. “It’s all great and the big difference is the proximity of the crowd; whether they’re right in your face or far away. I think our dressing room in Glasgow was actually bigger than the one we have here today. We actually came down here yesterday on our day off and we were super excited to see Cheap Trick and some of our buddies. We did a long tour about two years ago with Avenged Sevenfold.”
“So we came to say hello to those guys and watched their amazingly awesome set, which was really impressive,” he continues, discussing the Huntington rockers. “Any time we cross paths we just have to go see those guys. We were playing a few years ago and met the guys in Down out on the road, so that was definitely cool to see them again. It’s been a great time to see all these guys again and more. I guess we should have been resting, but we couldn’t stay away. It was a great time. Today, of course, we’re waiting to see The Cult. Those guys are great friends of ours from home, they’re neighbours and if I’m ever on tour I can just call up and see if I’ve left my lights on!”
“We always have a great time with the Avenged Sevenfold guys, of course. They’ve become very good buddies of ours,” claims Jim, turning from watching bands to touring with bands. “On that tour in 2009, the crowd couldn’t really figure us out. The crowd was a lot more divided on that tour than the bands were. That was a blast though. We do a lot of shows with our good friends in Papa Roach, that’s always a lot of fun. You know, the people you tour with can make or break a tour and, for me, it’s all about the people as opposed to the music itself. Touring with KISS was an amazing experience, we did a bunch of shows with them. We recently did a bit with Motley Crue. All the shows are great. We learn a lot from every show we do and every band we tour with. We’ve had a lot of years touring with bands and you learn something, especially when you get to tour with the huge, legendary bands like KISS and you get to watch people like Gene Simmons at work every night. That’s always pretty cool.”
Having toured with a number of huge, established bands in the time, surely there must have been some smaller acts Jim had come across and really gotten into? “There’s a band that did a few dates with us and we’ll hopefully have them back out with us at some point and they’re called Taddy Porter. They’re from the US and they’re fantastic,” he explains. “I’ve personally been listening to a band who hail from Tennessee called J. Roddy Walston. They’re really cool – a real rock ‘n’ roll band. I mean, there’s always a lot of new talent. There’s a lot of UK stuff I’ve listened to and loved over time like Jim Jones Revue and, of course, our friend Ginger. He’s always entertaining. Yeah, that’s where I’m at. We’re always looking for new ideas and bands and that kind of thing makes us really excited, you know?”
“Being in Buckcherry? For me, it’s all sort of gravy at this point,” says Jim, thoughtfully. “I’m just happy to be alive because for a while there it was touch and go. So, after that, just being able to tour and being given the opportunity to keep doing that; I love it. There’s nothing better in the world. It’s always been my favourite thing to do and we consider it a blessing that we can continue to do so. I just think that’s been fantastic. I think it’s important for both fans and the band,” he adds, touching on the strong relationship between fans and band. On last year’s Taste of Chaos tour, the band held signings every night. “The fans enjoy it but it’s a really important part of our day to be able to go out and see who is showing up. The little stories people are able to tell us in the time of why they’re there and how they’re there, where they’ve come from or how long they’ve been there, whatever, it’s always great. It reminds us why we do this and lets us know the fans’ experiences. It’s moments like those that reminds us why we’re in a particular town and often we hear that people have been waiting for a long time for us to show up, so it’s nice to finally do that and hear from them. Without something like that touring can get into that ‘wash-rinse-repeat’ cycle and we don’t want that.”
Being part of a band who thrives on extensive touring has taken Jim and his fellow band members to all corners of the globe. The typical question – where does he love returning to most? “I think that the first time we went to South America, I just fell in love with Buenos Aires. I’d move there in a second! It was such an amazing place and people were so warm and fantastic. Spain, of course, for much of the same reasons. I grew up in Italy, so I have a personal connection with that country. I always look forward to going back there.”
As for returning to the UK... “Probably not on this record cycle. We’ve been over twice or possibly three times on this record already, but I’ve been told that once we’ve finished this European run we’ll be going back to the States, do more American stuff until October and then I think we’re going to start working on a record then. I don’t think we’ll take too long doing that, so. We rattle that out, we’ll probably be done by like Halloween!” he laughs. Speaking of their current cycle on 2010’s ‘All Night Long’, he turns to the response they’ve had over the last year. “It’s hard to gauge the success of anything we do, for me anyway, anymore. I get emails saying how many CDs we’ve sold and things like that, but it’s like we might as well be having 8-track tapes being sold. It’s a format that’s seen better days. I think the best way for us to gauge the success of anything we do is to go out and play. We show up, we play and if it gets a good response in that capacity, then that’s our main concern. From all angles and chances I’ve had to look at it, I think our album has gone down well.”
“We’ve just been in the process of touring and it’s become a lifestyle for us,” he adds, touching once more on Buckcherry’s dedication to life on tour. “We actually live on the road so we haven’t actually given much thought to that, it just starts to happen when we get to the end. When my tour book runs out, when I’m on the last page, then maybe we’ll start thinking about new music!”
“It’s weird, actually, because when you grow up and dream your whole childhood of becoming part of a working rock ‘n’ roll band and being able to make a living playing music – that’s the goal,” says Jim as we touch on what dreams are left for someone facing such success. “That’s the goal I had personally my whole young life, so now that we’ve gotten to that point I’m beginning to think maybe I should have saw it through a little bit more! Now I’m like “Okay, now what?!” Of course, there’s always bigger shows and better things but to us, the size of the show doesn’t matter as long as it’s a good one. We can travel half way around the world and have people see us and enjoy our songs and that’s an amazing experience, regardless of size. We’d just like to keep doing what we’re doing and take that to other parts of the world that we haven’t been to yet... India, China, anywhere like that would be fantastic. That’s what I’m really looking forward to. The same but more of it!”
Already proving himself to be a nice, fun guy, Jim ends our interview with a little anecdote about his first time performing in Scotland... “Glasgow is one of our favourite places to hit. The crowds are legendary. I remember the first time I played there was when I was in a band with Izzy Stradlin years ago. You know Izzy?” It’s now I point to my dress, which happens to be from Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Appetite For Destruction’ era. “You were probably about that big,” he laughs, indicating to his knee-height. “We played the Barrowlands and that was my first show in Glasgow and I’ll never forget it. I climbed off the bus and a guy on the street was like “Hey, Jimmy, you’re a fucking great bass player!” and WHAM! He just nuts me on the forehead, clean headbutted me and knocked me out. It was great. I always feel welcome in Scotland.”
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“Being in Buckcherry? For me, it’s all sort of gravy at this point,” says Jim, thoughtfully. “I’m just happy to be alive because for a while there it was touch and go. So, after that, just being able to tour and being given the opportunity to keep doing that; I love it. There’s nothing better in the world. It’s always been my favourite thing to do and we consider it a blessing that we can continue to do so. I just think that’s been fantastic. I think it’s important for both fans and the band,” he adds, touching on the strong relationship between fans and band. On last year’s Taste of Chaos tour, the band held signings every night. “The fans enjoy it but it’s a really important part of our day to be able to go out and see who is showing up. The little stories people are able to tell us in the time of why they’re there and how they’re there, where they’ve come from or how long they’ve been there, whatever, it’s always great. It reminds us why we do this and lets us know the fans’ experiences. It’s moments like those that reminds us why we’re in a particular town and often we hear that people have been waiting for a long time for us to show up, so it’s nice to finally do that and hear from them. Without something like that touring can get into that ‘wash-rinse-repeat’ cycle and we don’t want that.”
