Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Interview: Backwoods Payback

Backwoods Payback
When picking bands to write about or to review, it's a lot like flipping through the records at your local record store...(You still do that don't you?)

I've talked about, in the past, how much available content there is and what it's like choosing what to talk about. Well, my current mindset is...be unique, stand out, but do it for the right reasons.

Recently, I started receiving press mailings about Backwoods Payback. 

It would be near enough impossible to hear that name and it not make stop for a second. When they hit my inbox, my family and I were in Washington DC on vacation, but that email was read.

After checking out their upcoming release, Future Slum, it was clear that this is a band everybody needs to hear about.

For lack of a better way of putting it, they're a Stoner Rock band...but that doesn't really speak to the name or the cover of the album, so we talked to Mike Cummings to get the 411 on this trio.

Glacially Musical: Thank you for taking some time for me today.

Backwoods Payback: No prob, thanks for getting into it.

GM: If I'm being honest, I'll tell you that 9 times out of 10, bands have pretty terrible names that aren't remotely memorable, but yours...it gave me pause and I remembered it. Tell me about it.

BP: Thanks! Yea, it definitely has a ring to it. I live out in the woods and there are always folks coming through and staying, hanging and roaming. 

At one point there were a bunch of friends over and we were playing little pranks on each other, someone got me good with something and I think my reaction was something along the lines of "I'll get you back, and you don't want the kind of payback coming from out here!"

A few weeks later I was giving a friend who was there at the party the demo of what would become this band and he asked what I was going to call it. 

I just blurted out Backwoods Payback, and here we are.

GM: I really dig the cover of Future Slum. What's the story behind it there?


BP: We were writing the record and it was starting to take a theme lyrically of feeling lost and searching for people to connect with. 


It evolved into a story of finding and joining a cult of sorts.I stumbled across the artwork of Nick Potts out of Australia and he showed me this image of what is now the cover of the record. A man holding a knife. 

It lined up eerily with lyrics from one of the songs and I knew we just had to work together. 'Week never ends up right, don't let that dull your knife'

GM: What do you think about the current state of the music industry?


BP: Man, I feel like i live so far outside of it I don't really know what to think. It rules that music is so accessible to the masses right now, and I feel like there's a growing underground scene again of bands that don't really fit into any particular genre. 


Especially in the Philly region, there just so much good music happening. 

GM: Tell me about the last album you listened to...

BP: I have been listening to Drug Church's 'Hit Your Head' on repeat lately. That and their new single "Weed Pin'. Something about them is just speaking volumes to me these last couple weeks!

GM: What was the moment that made you say..ok...that's it...I'm getting in a van and going from town to town in order to play music?

BP: I don't know if I have one moment....I was playing shows from the time I was 14 and was 19 when I went on my first tour. Getting in the van and driving from town to town just immediately made me feel like i was where I belonged. 

Even the bad shows/tours, i'm still moving...and that's where I want to be at all the time.

GM: Your songs have a great groove to them. How did that get there?


BP: Erik and Jessica are such a powerhouse of a rhythm section they just kind of always end up having that swing to them. I've always loved Depeche Mode and synth type stuff as well, so I'm sure that's been sneaking in for as long as I've been playing. 


I just tend to write what I want to hear, and most of the time its groovey ;)

GM: What is the burning question I didn't ask that you need to answer?


BP: Off the top of my head I got nothing. I think every question leads to another and to another and to another. There's always going to be something else to ask. Have you ever followed?


Backwoods Payback has a new album coming out on 8/3/18 on digital, CD, or vinyl.

No comments:

Post a Comment