Popes still smokin' after 7-year hiatus
A decade after the blazing Sinatra-meets-the-Buzzcocks single ``Need You Around" failed to bring the Smoking Popes the mainstream success that they might have hoped for after signing to Capitol Records, things are decidedly looking up for the Chicago band. A November reunion gig (captured for posterity on the CD/DVD ``At Metro") blew the cobwebs off of their seven-year hiatus and revealed a fan base that had only grown in the meantime. Perhaps that's why, when asked what inspired the Popes to return to active duty, frontman and songwriter Josh Caterer says simply, ``We could no longer satisfactorily answer the question `Why not start it up again?' "
With a tour that hits the Middle East tonight and a new album in the planning stages, Caterer recently discussed, among other things, the blessings of maturity.
Q. Almost all of your songs are about love in some form or another. Did you find that that put you out of step in your first go-around?
A. Well, I felt that it put us out of step with what was going on in the punk scene when we were first starting out, although after we signed to a major label and got more into the mainstream pop arena, there's a lot more love songs floating around out there as well. You can do whatever you want. It's just in the niche of Chicago punk, appearing to be too sensitive worked against us, at least at that time.
Q. You and [fellow guitarist] Eli [Caterer] solo up a storm on ``Before I'm Gone" and ``On the Shoulder," almost like Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd of Television . Was it unusual in the Chicago punk scene, to be that solo-oriented?
A. Yeah. I guess you don't see a lot of that in the genre of music that we are playing, although these days, it's becoming a lot more common because present-day punk kids are developing an appreciation for what we would call classic rock.
Q. You've named albums ``Get Fired," ``Born to Quit," ``Destination Failure," and ``The Party's Over." Why so defeatist?
A. I don't know. The first one was ``Get Fired." I can't remember why we chose that as the title. It didn't really have anything to do with any of the material that was on the album, but after that, we decided to run with it as a consistently self-deprecating theme because we thought it was funny.
Q. Does the response that you guys have received since starting up again change your minds, or are you going to keep up the trend with the next one?
A. It remains to be seen. I'm certainly a happier person now than I was then.
Q. What's changed?
A. Oh, everything's changed. My whole life is different. Early to mid-20s was the most emotionally difficult period in my whole life. I feel a lot more well-adjusted now that I'm in my 30s . I've got a family and two kids and some semblance of stability in my life, so these little things like having a crush on some girl, it's not what my universe revolves around anymore.
Q. For a band that hadn't played in seven years, you guys sound incredibly tight.
A. Well, thanks! We were surprised when we got together for our first practice. We ran through some of these songs, and we hadn't played them in seven years and we remembered them. I think a lot of it just becomes engrained in your muscles. It's muscle memory.
