The Weeks, born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi are sure to fuel you with their injection of down south-style indie, soul rock. After forming the band as 14-year-olds in 2006, the band has been on a straight up-swing. And their attitude is certainly one of confidence. Their website proudly declares, “As for our places in history, we will run naked through your streets before we sit decorated in your halls.” The band comprises Cain Barnes (drums), Sam Williams (guitar), Cycle Barnes (vocals), Damien Bone (bass), and Alex Collier (keyboards). For a band that began as a teenage fantasy, The Weeks have put out an unprecedented number of albums and EPs— 8 in total with their Buttons EP out last year by Serpents & Snakes Records. The Weeks have spent most of the last year promoting their 2013 full length Dear Bo Jackson, which included playing over 175 shows in six different countries with tour headliners and record label peers, Kings of Leon. This and a full line-up in music festivals around the country such as: Bonnaroo, Firefly, Forecastle, Wakurusa, Mountain Jam, Shaky Knees, and the Turf Festival. All of these shows and more have actually been captured in a documentary film by Idahoan Eric Kiel, Thick as Thieves, playing in the Sun Valley Film Festival. The Festival is lucky enough to have The Weeks as part of their musical line-up, playing the Saturday night Awards Bash at Whiskey Jacques on March 7th. SVPN’s Hayden Seder caught up with bass player Damien Bone.
SVPN: Can you tell me a little about your experience filming with Eric Kiel for his documentary Thick as Thieves? How has this impacted your career?
Damien Bone: It has been interesting for sure working with Kiel on this documentary. We have loved Kiel since we first met him, which helps us be more comfortable around him and his cameras. All of that just led us to being more open and honest with him, which in turn will hopefully result in an accurate interpretation of our band.
SVPN: What was it like to have your debut album, Comeback Cadillac, released at such a young age (as I understand you were all between 16-18 years old?)
DB: At the time I was surprised that it happened so fast. It didn’t really hit me until a couple years later how young we were and how great it was for us to be able to do that. Getting that experience at such a young age has helped us so much with our later releases.
SVPN: How do you think your sound has changed since starting in 2006 as teenagers and now, as more sage musicians?
DB: Our sound has definitely matured greatly since 2006. When we first started we were in high school so we just wanted to write about drinking at bars and hanging out with girls. We still write about that but we also include a lot of other elements that we didn’t before. Now that we have all been playing our instruments for many years our music has definitely evolved along with it.
SVPN: Your Wikipedia page suggests you are influenced by Rilo Kiley, The Mars Volta, and My Morning Jacket. Would you say that’s accurate? Are there other bands that influence you today?
DB: We are still influenced by those bands. Maybe not as much compared to when that was written. Today we are influenced by a lot of different musicians such as The Band, Bruce Springsteen, Thin Lizzy, and The Allman Bros. Lately I have been listening to a lot of Wilco, TV on the Radio, and Spoon.
SVPN: What are some of your earliest music influences?
DB: My earliest musical influences are mostly from the classics like I mentioned above. You can’t go wrong with classic rock as far as I’m concerned and that is what I first listened to at an early age. As a band we love Skynyrd, Zeppelin, The Who, the Stones. The list just goes on and on.
SVPN: Your band has had a few lineup changes. How do you think this affects your sound?
DB: We have always had the same core group in the band, which has kept us grounded and from straying too far from what we do. Our latest addition is Alex Collier on the keys and he has indeed changed our sound greatly. We have never had a keyboard player in the band prior to him and he just adds a whole other realm sonically for our band. He is a wizard on the keys so that is only a plus as far as we are concerned.
SVPN: Does living in the South/being from the South influence your sound?
DB: It has influenced our sound greatly. We love southern rock and southern living so in turn we try to put that in ourselves and our music. I believe where you are from influences everything that you are about. That goes for everybody and not only with music.
SVPN: In 9 years, you’ve put out 8 albums and EPs. How do you balance time spent writing and producing albums and touring? Do you find one more valuable over the other?
DB: Each one is just as important as the other if you want to be a successful band. It is definitely difficult to find time for each one. When we are in the studio we try not to play shows or go on tour during the process. Staying focused on the task at hand is important. We have been touring a lot these past few years and we are just now getting back to writing new material as a band. We are going to take some time off from the road this summer to work on our next album.
SVPN: Your newest EP, Buttons, includes a re-recording of the first song you ever wrote, “Buttons”. What was it like to revisit something you wrote so long ago? Could you still relate to the lyrics and music or did you reinterpret the song?
DB: At first it was strange going back into the studio to work on this song again. Since we have been playing that song for so long it was only natural for us to get a little tired of it and want to play other songs. I think it goes with a lot of bands that you always want to play your newest material every night. However recording it again gave us new light on the song and just made me fall back in love with it.
SVPN: Last year you did a tour to support your album Dear Bo Jackson that spanned 175 shows in 6 different countries. What’s an interesting/funny/crazy story from your tour?
DB: One of the craziest shows we played was in London at Dingwalls. The stage wasn’t very big and there wasn’t a barricade so the crowd was right there with us. By the end of the show, our monitors were pushed back a good three or four feet with a dog pile on top of Cyle and myself. I remember seeing feet go up in the air that never came down. I thought the stage was going to collapse at one point. It was definitely one of the rowdier ones. To top it all off we had an after-party at a bar right down the street that ended up in a bar fight. None of us were involved but seeing stools and beer bottles thrown across a bar is something you don’t forget.
The Weeks will be performing at Whiskey Jacques March 7th at 10pm. This is a private event and entry is only included with Sun Valley Film Festival Festival Pass and Party Pass.
Thick as Thieves
Idaho-based filmmaker and photographer Eric Kiel had the idea to follow a band and film them before they got big, rather than wait for a band to get big and reminisce on that beautifully simple time of driving around in a van, going to gigs, and waiting for that big break. Kiel chose The Weeks as his subjects, based on their talent and their loyalty to each other (after all, they’ve been playing together since they were 14!) Kiel captures a big break for the band as they embark on a European tour with band Kings of Leon. Catch it all in Kiel’s documentary as part of the Sun Valley Film Festival!
Thick as Thieves will screen Saturday, March 7th as part of a meet and greet with The Weeks at the NexStage.
