Against Me! guitarist James Bowman has some fond memories — and a band, The $cam$ — to reflect on when he thinks about the few years he lived in St. Pete, but he always comes back for the record stores and Bodega.
“That place is really amazing,” Bowman, 37, says when we get to talking about the mini-vacations he takes down here with his five-year-old son Hollis and Fat Wreck Chords publicist Vanessa Burt.
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Here’s how to get a free pass to Pre-Fest (and Fest 16 if you’re lucky)
On October 25 & 26, Against Me! is set to play a pair of sets as part of Big Pre-Fest in Little Ybor — a two-day punk rock takeover of the district that includes nearly 100 bands playing five venues. Bowman, who lives in Gainesville (where Against Me! will play its breakthrough 2002 album Reinventing Axl Rose in full during Fest) took some time to talk about Vegas, losing Tom Petty, and whether or not the politics on Axl still resonate within the band. Read our full Q&A and get more info on Big Pre-Fest below.
James, how are you?
You caught me in a little bit of a sneezing fit, but other than that I'm doing pretty well.
Nice. Sneeze two? Sneeze three?
Uh, I think I'm on six.
Are you guys on the bus right now? Driving to Boston?
We are in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for a day off, but yes, en route to Boston.
Anything in particular you like to do on your day off? FaceTime with Hollis or anything?
Yeah, talking to the family and catching up on laundry. You know, the usual, not very fun stuff. Might catch a movie.
Ooh, Blade Runner?
Yeah, probably, seems to be the only thing out right now.
Seems to be the move — everyone is talking about it today.
It's true.
When did you move away from St. Pete — is there a reunion for The $cam$ in the works?
Haha. Um, let's see. I moved to Gainesville from St. Pete in '99, maybe. I think that's right. I was talking to Laura and she was getting ready to go on this tour, like I think it was the second Against Me! tour, and I kind of weaseled by way onto the tour.
So the story about the guitar strings is true.
Yes, 100-percent.
Okay, just making sure.
So I moved up and learned the songs a couple days before, then we left. As far as a $cam$ reunion, I see Bill Alleman every once in awhile. I haven't seen Ryan or Chris in a very long time. I don't think there would be any chance of a $cam$ reunion.
DJ Vanarchy opening? I was wondering, your wife's name is Vanessa, and I was wondering if it was Vanessa from Fat Wreck Chords.
Uh, yeah. She does work for Fat Wreck Chords.
And she still DJs, right?
Uh, I think that was like a couple little instances where people asked her for, like, special events kinds of things. She doesn't really make a habit out of it.
So I don't know if Katy told you, but I was supposed to talk to Atom initially, but since you're playing Reinventing Axl Rose at Fest I wanted to talk to someone from the band who played on the record. So if you talk to Atom, it was nothing against him.
Yeah.
Against Me! came out of the gate politically charged, and was a big record for the band, especially with the abundance of electric guitars, but it's been over a decade since Axl. Do you think the band's politics have changed in those years? Do you think your own personal politics have changed?
Um, I don't think so. The same general themes and messages are still there. Unfortunately the world has taken a turn for the worse in my opinion. So I guess it's just for fodder for songwriting, but I don't think any of our views have changed over time.
It's got to be frustrating, right? I mean Axl was kind of Laura’s reaction to people saying Against Me! Wasn’t going to be able to it on its own terms, but so many of the things you were talking about on that record are still problems this many years down the road. Does it ever feel, I mean you do win fans and change hearts at every show, but in the grand scheme of things, kind of a losing effort.
It's a little disheartening at times. To be in constant war for the past 16 years. Seeing that nothing is really changing, but I still think it's fighting the good fight. You gotta keep, I guess, trudging along and hope that a maniac doesn't kill us in an unnecessary nuclear war.
Oh yeah, not to mention the maniac we've got here stateside.
That's the maniac I'm referring to, haha.
Oh, you're referring to our maniac.
Yes, unfortunately.
Well you're also playing Fest out in Bo Diddley plaza, an open-air space, is that something you have to talk about with Vanessa and Hollis — how old he is he now, five, four?
He is five years old.
OK, is that you have to talk about with him. Explain that dad is going on tour or even explain Vegas to him?
Um, he's too young to know about the Vegas stuff and anything like that, we try to keep him a little sheltered for as long as possible, you know, not let him know that the world is a terrible place, but as far as prepping for tour it starts a couple weeks before I leave. I just kind of sit down with him every once in a while, and tell him, "Hey, you know I have to leave for a while," and he's like, "Yeah, I know." He kind of gets it at this point, and they come out and visit on the road, so it makes it a little easier.
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Does the approach to tour or the daily huddles kind of change after something like Vegas? I mean, in a way it really reminded me of the Eagles of Death Metal incident. I mean, it's crazy.
No one really talks about it. There's no real need to talk about it. I think everyone feels the same way. It's always in the back of your mind, you just try to — not really forget about it — but, I don't know. It's such a hard thing, you know? It definitely hits close to home just 'cause of the business we're in. But, yeah, it's just one of those things. You don't want that to happen to anybody, anywhere for any reason. I don't know, there's no real way, for me anyway, to need to bring it up and talk about it because we all know what happened, and it's the furthest from anything you ever want to happen on any day be it a show or life in general. So yeah, it doesn't come up too much because it is pretty scary.
You’re fans are pretty cool, especially nowadays — you probably have one of the most diverse crowds in rock and roll, but there was definitely a sect of them (like Fat Mike) that “only like Axl Rose” — have those people come out of the woodwork since you announced you’ll be doing the record in full? I mean you already play some of the songs in the current set anyway.
Um, yeah, we've played a few of them because we need to practice them. I haven't really seen, I guess we haven't played it in full, but we've definitely seen a reaction to some of the songs from that record that we haven't played in a really long time. I guess we wouldn't really see the overall reaction until it actually happens, you know?
Yeah, all the reviews have really loved your performance of “Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious…” — everybody is loving that.
Oh, right on.
Is it hard to re-learn those songs? I know that was kind of the record where you came back to the band after some time away. Does playing those songs take you back to the place in your life or bring back memories of funny and poignant things that happened while you guys were recording and touring behind this album?
Um, some of the songs are just really weird.
Really.
Yeah, they're just like, I don't know, like, kind of like my first punk record songs, so it's interesting to go back and be like, "I played that?," Like, "OK, I guess I gotta go back and relearn it," and make some minor tweaks to things. And for most of those songs — you know, Inge (Johansson, who joined the band in 2013) didn't play on that record as well — Atom (Willard, who joined in 2013) didn't.
Yeah, I think it was just you and Laura.
Yeah, and the, like the four of us have never played quite a few of those songs ever, together, and, I mean quite frankly Laura and I forgot a few of those songs. We're going to spend a little time today going back over a couple of them. Figuring those out so we can start peppering them into the setlist.
Is that a situation where you have to rent a practice space?
No, we just do it on our acoustic guitars. So we'll just sit in the back of the bus and figure it out.
It’s been some time since Laura came out as trans, and things have cooled down. At the time, you were very vocal about that fact that Laura is your best friend and that there is no other person in the world you wanted to do this band thing with. In the time since, what have you learned about that friendship which goes all the way back to high school in Naples?
No, it's just the same friendship.
Just different pronouns.
Yeah, exactly, nothing has changed. Still best friends, still there for each other and, I mean, that's all you can really do. That's what friends...there's a song that comes to mind...
Haha.
Haha, but yeah it doesn't change anything about anyone's friendship.
Speaking of songs that come to mind, can we talk about Tom Petty? Are you relieved that you have Axl Rose to play since everyone is going to be doing Tom Petty covers at Fest?
Um, we've been actually doing one in our set every night since we got the terrible news. And, uh, yeah man. It fucking sucks. That was a big one. Definitely one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters, bands in general, in my entire life. It still chokes me up a little but thinking about it. But, yeah, I don't know if we'll bust out our cover or not — we'll see what happens.
Can you think of any specific Against Me! songs where you referenced a Petty lick, sound or tone when you were composing?
Um, I mean for me, like, I'm trying to directly rip off Mike Campbell any chance I get, so, yeah, definitely a guitar hero of mine.
All the way down to the Les Paul.
Yeah. Everything.
You gonna start wearing the hats, too?
Yeah, maybe get some weird curly dreadlocks. We'll see what my older age has instore for me.
I was listening to a podcast where you mentioned drinking a couple glasses of wine before bed. Does the drinking that surrounds Fest frighten you?
No. Um, when you have a kid it really changes your lifestyle a little bit, a lot actually — well it should, anyway. So, it kind of tones down the partying. I really only have a cocktail here and there, a couple glasses of wine after a show just to relax and hang out and then, you know, go to bed. But as far as, I mean I have a clear advantage on everyone coming down for Fest because I live down the street, so I can just go home. I don't have to be around the mess of that — except for in Tampa, I'm kind of screwed there.
Yeah, we have you for two nights.
I've never been down there for the Pre-Fest, but I imagine it's pretty similar, smaller scale.
Yeah, it's probably less serious. I think Pre-Fest gives people a chance to see some bands that they might not be able to go see in Gainesville because of timing, so it's a lot of people hanging, catching up.
Yeah, makes sense.
You’re playing both nights of Pre-Fest here in Ybor City, but you already play a ton of songs in your normal headlining set. Have you thought about the approach Against Me! is going to take down here, since you have two headlining sets back-to-back?
Um, I'm not sure. For this tour in particular we've been doing an hour and a half, so I don't know. It'll be mixed up for sure, but I'm not sure just yet what the approach is. We don't make set lists in advance. We kind of just do them the day of the show and pretty much an hour before the set time.
So you can neither confirm or deny that you'll play Axl in Tampa.
The record or the song?
The record.
I can't, actually. I don't know.
Would you throw a pitch out at the Rays game again if you could?
Absolutely, 100-percent. Yeah, that was a really cool opportunity, and I would 100-percent do it again.
Yeah, when you lived in St. Pete you were in the sweet spot, man. That was the dream season.
Yeah, it was pretty cool. I head down whenever I can, whenever I'm home we go down to St. Pete for little mini-vacations still, to go to the beach, the family and I. I try to catch as many games as I can while I'm there. I made it to, I think I made it to four this year. Just because we're really busy, but yeah. I still spend a lot of time in St. Pete.
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Is there any particular place you like to go when you're there?
I go to a lot of record stores. Eat at Bodega a lot.
Yes, that lechon sandwich is good.
Yeah, that place is really amazing. I go to the beach, hang out with the family — that's about it.
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Do you remember much from the time when you quit the band while Against Me! was recording Crime as Forgiven? Do you remember that impetus that made you want to rejoin and what made you finally do it.
It wasn't really an official quitting kind of thing, like, we got back from a tour where the tour ended with like, a horrible van accident.
Yeah, where people said some shitty things about you.
Yeah, absolutely, so everyone just kind of took a break and went about their way, and I was dealing with, I tried to go find myself and go backpack through Europe, but I got detained and held and returned to the States.
What?
Yeah, it was a mess. So I got back, and I was not having a good time living in Gainesville, so I just moved back down to St. Pete for a little bit, and after being there for, I don't even think I was there for very long, less than six months. I decided to move back up. So, you know, Laura and Dustin were still kind of plugging away at it. I just didn't live there. I imagine if I lived in Gainesville at the time, then I would've been a part of it, but I just wasn't there, you know?
Cool, well thanks for your time. Hollis does listen to Against Me!, right?
Yeah, he does.
Does he like it?
Yeah, he does. His favorite band is the Ramones though.
Good. Well he's kind of in a rock and roll family. That's a pretty rad unit to be a part of.
Yeah, but he's also a big fan of current pop music, so we get to listen to a fair share of that driving around town.
Like what?
Like, anything popular. I couldn't tell you the names of most of the people. So, like Bruno Mars and Justin Timberlake, all of that stuff. His favorite song for a long time was that "shut up and dance with me" song, so it's kind of nice because it keeps you current with what's going on with music even if you don't enjoy it.
That's awesome.
Yeah, he has a wide musical palette.
Well thanks, man. Thanks for the time, and I guess we'll see you for two nights in Ybor City.
Yeah, alright right on sounds good.
Bye James.
See ya.
