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Chris Wollard - & The Ship ThievesAlternative Press - Editorial Intern on 1/21/09 @ 11:26 AM - altpress.com
These days, there are as many country-rocking singer/songwriters as there are Los Angeles baristas with head shots. So Chris Wollard's solo debut, & The Ship Thieves, isn't going to grab anyone by the lapels like Andy Dick on a bender; its charms work a longer game. Wollard's moody, drawling croon wins your confidence slowly with each successive encounter. Though largely driven by folksy, acoustic strumming, Wollard does tap the electricity of his day jobs (Hot Water Music and the Draft) for the ringing power-pop opener "No Exception" and "All The Things You Know." Songs like these contribute to & The Ship Thieves' steady momentum, as Wollard mixes it up without muddying the disc's reflective tone. This attitude is epitomized by the jangly album highlight "Oh Whatever" with its self-indicting chorus, "It turned out to be a long, long, long/Time and I'm feeling so/'Oh, whatever'/So jaded, complaining, 'Oh, whatever'/Sounding old and full of shit." Not everything works, though; the martial, two-step twang of "You Always Leave" is undercooked, but it's the only dud among the 10 tracks. The arrangements are prim without being austere, placing Wollard's diffident, shuffling vocals center stage. & The Ship Thieves feels as breezy as it does wistful, and lingers like memories of summer vacation. (NO IDEA) Chris Parker
IN-STORE SESSION WITH CHRIS WOLLARD
Why now for the solo album?
Originally, I thought I was going to get this done before the Draft album [In A Million Pieces] came out [in 2006]. If I would've done that, it would've been a very different record. We finished up [Hot Water Music's 2004 release] The New What Next, and I had a handful of songs... I was like, "We're done with the touring, I'm going to use this time to take a little break and do a record. It'll be fun." Then there was the breakup, and all of a sudden, me and Jason [Black] and George [Rebelo] were in a van in the middle of the desert, and were like, "Shit, we should start a new band. Today, like right now..." So I was like, "Okay, once we get the album done and go on tour..." Years are going by... [And I was] ending up with stacks of songs. Because they're all written with different people, it's hard to put [my] mind around [all of them]. Like, "What the fuck am I going to do with all this shit?" We just kind of pieced it together.
What was the inspiration for "Oh Whatever"?
It was just one of those moments when I was really burned out. I'd been touring way too much and [when] I came home... I was transfixed by these stupid houses falling apart in [my] neighborhood. I was being a little self-pitying, down on my shit, and because I knew I was doing that, I think that was kind of preventing me from wanting to work on the lyrics more. It wasn't a fun song to write, so I wasn't eager. [It was just] kind of like, "I got down what I meant, and that's going to just have to be good enough because I don't feel like dwelling on this shit."
There have been a number of Hot Water Music reunion shows in the past year. How's that going?
It was easy. We weren't getting together to write, we were just getting together to practice old songs and just kind of have fun in the warehouse, just to get the vibe back. We [initially] only booked, like, two shows, because we were kind of freaked out. [I was thinking,] "I don't want to book five shows, what if the first one is a nightmare?" So we just did a weekend in Florida, [and thought], "Okay, that was fun, let's book another weekend." So that's what we've been doing all year. We've just been doing weekends everywhere, and it's a fucking blast. Nobody is getting burned out; nobody is arguing, or has any reason to. [CP]
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Official Website: http://www.noidearecords.com
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