Rock Fist Reviews

Rock Fist talks with Atlanta locals, The Bastard Suns, on their new album “Here Come The Suns”, being a reggae/ punk band from Georgia, and midget burritos. Get a taste of who the guys are behind this humorous and talented quintet.

Kevin, Levon, Jay Tea, Clay, & Wes of The Bastard Suns (Photo by Andy Renner)

RFR: “Here Come The Suns” is the name of your new album. How was that decided upon and why?

Clay: It’s been a saying and a running joke for a long time. I mean when we started the band we used to this little intro that mocked The Beatles line (starts singing) ‘Here come the suns”, so its just one of those things that’s been with us the whole time.

Jay Tea: I named this house The House of The Rising Suns, but it hasn’t really caught on yet. That’s a really awesome name for this house, right? The House of The Rising Suns.

Levon: And I also think ‘Here Come The Suns’ helps with the declaration of this being our first full length. It really states the fact that this is something were about.

Clay: We threw around a couple, but we felt this was the best one.

Jay Tea: For the record, what were some of the other ideas that we had? ‘Cause there were some funny ones, like ‘Lets Get Ready to Stumble’, was one?

Clay: My favorite was the one that was going to have a big fat lady covered in baking flour and the title was ‘Vulgar Display of Flower’. That’s brilliant man.

RFR: Do you have any favorites off the album?

Levon: I think we all have our own.

RFR: How about we go around the group. I’d like to get a taste of everyone’s personality.

Levon: I like Celina, and it’s not me just being biased because I helped create it. It turned into a really good song.

Wes: I honestly like ‘Go For Broke’ that’s one of my favorites, because it’s actually one of the songs off the album that the band collectively wrote. So when I listen to it, I just think about how it’s the first time the entire band actually… that everybody had input on the song and we just started with a rift and built up from there. So when I listen to it I’m like… sweet.

Kevin: I like ‘What Have We Won’

Jay Tea: Yeah that’s my second favorite for sure.

Clay: I like the diversity in the band in that song.

Jay Tea: ‘Never Say Die’ that’s a good one.

Levon: And I gotta say my favorite part of the CD is the guitar solo in ‘Never Say Die’.

Jay Tea: I knew it was gold right when we first started writing it.

Clay: I think the biggest surprise off the album is ‘Sweet Leaf’, I think a lot of people are going to be like… wait, what do we call it? SBMT?

Jay Tea: I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised.

Photo by Andy Renner

RFR: What made you decide to use older songs like ‘R.I.P.’ and covers like ‘Walk of Life’?

Clay: I can tackle this one. Without stepping on anyone’s toes or hurting anyone’s feelings, we thought that ‘Blood Sweat & Beers’ was a little sub-par and that’s the album the songs originally came from. We thought those were good songs that we all still love and just play, but we never really thought they got their time in the sun. Like, good recording that they deserved. Not to mention…

Jay Tea: Two-thirds of the band aren’t on there or whatever.

Clay: Two-fifths. I’m not good with fractions but…

Wes: No, but we were a six piece at the time.

Jay Tea: Do the math now buddy!

Clay: Whatever. And I don’t know that ‘Blood Sweat & Beers’ is going to be put out anymore. It’s kind of been put to bed. So we took the ones we felt really deserved a second chance.

Levon: And as for the covers, those are songs that we play anyway. We did them live and they had such a good response live that we figured, hey which two get the best response?

Jay Tea: Are we making no bones that there’s a hidden song?

Clay: Well if we’re saying that then I have to say that Queen’s my favorite probably.

Wes: I’ll just to say when you get done with the CD if you have an extra three minutes it will be much appreciated.

RFR: In the past Clay has done the writing of the lyrics and a good portion of the songs. Were other members more involved creatively on the new album compared to the past?

Jay Tea: Of course.

Levon: Absolutely.

Clay: I’m still the lyric guy. You gotta give me that. And there was a time in my life where I wanted to be a writer and that’s what I loved to do.

Wes: Well it’s just like anything you know, when you come into a band that’s pre-existing… I mean when I came into the band, most of ‘Blood Sweat & Beers’ was already written, except for ‘R.I.P.’ and that was the first one I collaborated on with Clay. When you come into a band, you just have to accept that songs are already written, and already there.

Levon: Yeah, it takes time to put your stamp on it.

Clay: And what’s popular is popular. If you say ‘oh well we’re not going to play this specific song because the whole band wasn’t around or didn’t write it’… I mean you do what the crowd likes and what you like. If you don’t you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face. And that’s what some are kept around and some of them are new.

Jay Tea: I love you grandmother clichés.

Clay: You like that?

Jay Tea: It’s like I’ll give a piss to a squirrel at a fair ground. It’s like what does that mean?

RFR: I haven’t heard that one.

Clay: I haven’t either.

Photo by Andy Renner

RFR: You’ve been labeled a drinking band in the past. How do you feel about that label?

Clay: It depends on if you’re looking at it as that’s all we are or… I mean when you cook a dish and you use pepper, does that mean the whole dish is pepper? No, we’re a bunch of different things, and that’s definitely one of the ingredients.

Levon: I think also with that title, I guess you could put it back when bars were the standard place to play. It was at an earlier time in the career of the band.

Clay: I mean, would you call Rancid or Dropkick Murphys drinking bands? No. Do people love to get f’d up? Yes. I mean, are we always going to have a good following on St. Patty’s? Probably. Cinco de Mayo? Definitely.

Jay Tea: Actually we’ve pretty much moved on, we’re more like a crack cocaine band now.

Clay: We’re a meth band. Actually we’re in recovery.

Wes: Next we’ll get into psychedelics.

Clay: Yeah for our Beatles days.

RFR: Kevin you’re awfully quiet over there, is that because you’re the worst with the drinking, and the crack?

Kevin: I’m pretty much just Kevin.

Jay Tea: When you’re that attractive you don’t have to say much.

RFR: You have a unique sound in the Atlanta area and the Southeast in general. Do you think this helps you or hurts you?

Clay: Define helping or hurting?

RFR: The general sound you guys play has more of a west coast vibe compared to what is usually found in the Southeast.

Levon: We’re definitely alone in Atlanta. You may find things similar in Florida. It’s a tough thing to do, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Jay Tea: I think people would rather hear our type of music than that recycled bullsh*t. Can I say bullsh*t, is that allowed? It might be harder for us to be in a market but people are like ‘Man, I’d much rather hear your fresh take on music than the same ole cry metal’.

Clay: The way I look at it is we write what makes us happy, what comes naturally, what we feel like listening to. And all of those factors, if you keep those as your major motivators when writing music, then you can’t lose. I don’t care if we’re all totally stoked on polka. Then write some good polka songs. It’s not about what’s big right now.

Photo by Andy Renner

RFR: Your ages range from 26 to 32. If this album doesn’t create the buzz you hope it will The Bastard Suns continue pushing forward or do you perceive at some point moving on to other ventures?

Jay Tea: Hey, we’d go for broke but we’re already there so…

Clay: I think anybody in music who doesn’t perceive at some point moving on to other ventures is fooling themselves. There’s only one Mick Jagger, and that’s not a real likely outcome, it’s pretty lucky. But you can hope to see the world and do a good bit of touring and have a great run. So the answer to the question is when we’re not happy anymore we’ll stop.

Jay Tea: You don’t have to be Mick Jagger famous to make a living at doing this either.

Clay: That’s the thing, if we can make a living and stay out of the poor house that’s a win win.

Jay Tea: But since we are going to make it the question doesn’t matter really.

RFR: The Bastard Suns have established a very loyal fan base that continues to grow. What do you think it is about your band that has captivated the hearts of Atlanta locals and beyond?

Wes: Humility.

Clay: We try to help the whole scene. I think a lot of people pick up on the fact that we’re not all about The Bastard Suns. A lot of bands are all about, insert name here, whatever their band is. We want to build a scene.

Jay Tea: We stay for bands even if they don’t stay for us.

Levon: And the fans, we have something where they can relate. We’re just like most of our fans. We grew up like them, they’re our friends, and they see that on stage.

Clay: So one thing is humility, we treat everybody how we’d want to be treated. And the second thing is we literally have one show that we play. We go out there and I’m not leaving the stage until I vomit or something along those lines. And I think people identify with that. We’re not, ‘oh this is a five person show so we’re going to play crappy’. We go out there and we kill it every time we play our very best.

Jay Tea: And it doesn’t hurt that we’re like sinfully hot.

RFR: Any stories from the road you care to share?

Clay: First let me say, check our blogs on our MySpace. I write repeatedly about funny things on the road and there’s some gems that I don’t really think I could retell as well as I wrote them.

Jay Tea: Should we tell them about the burrito midget incident?

Clay: That’s personal, leave it on the road. I think we’d violate FCC or a regulation of some sort. But you know I want to do that song, “We can dance if you want to” as a punk song. And I want to get that f-ing midget and put him on my shoulders. Have you ever seen the video?

Jay Tea: Listen midgets live a lot less longer than other people so he’s probably dead.

Clay: You’re a f@#%!

Jay Tea: Tell the folks at home about the game that we play where we eat a hand full of sleeping pills and a handful of laxatives and see what happens.

Clay: Either way you’re a winner, you know what I mean? That’s a good road game. Or the one where you rub your hand or your toe under someone’s nose and they try to tell you which one it is.

Jay Tea: Oh yeah that’s a good one too. Or you can do it with cocks.

Clay: Yeah it’s called hand or toe or cock.

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