Smoking Popes

Before the world was screaming infidelities, the Smoking Popes were mixing their sensitive lyrics and crooner vocals with power chords and catchy melodies. They released a new concept album on Asian Man this year following the life of a fictional high school teenager, and embarked on a tour marking their 15 year anniversary.  Lead singer and guitarist Josh Caterer kindly sat down with ThePunkSite.com on night one of their two night stint with Alkaline Trio at the Metro in Chicago to discuss being in a punk band, touring, and the new record. 

All photos by Katie Hovland.

---

Amy: The new album, This is Only a Test, came out on Asian Man this year, how did you get involved with Asian Man?

Josh: We’ve been involved with Asian Man for many years. My other band, Duvall, released a couple of albums on Asian Man. Asian Man puts out a lot of Chicago bands and so Rob Kellenberger, who was drumming for Duvall, had been in a couple of bands that were on Asian Man and was friends with Mike Park. He said we should talk to Mike, I’m sure he’d put Duvall out and we did. When the Popes got back together, we were on a couple different labels, but we always seem to keep coming back to Asian Man.

Amy: This is Only a Test is a concept album about the life of a fictional high school teenager. The Smoking Popes have never done a concept album; why did come you decide to go that direction this time?

Josh: I went that way because the idea came to me, and I just yielded to the force of the inspiration. I didn’t say to myself, it would be cool if I wrote a concept album, I wonder what I should write a concept album about. It was more like, I realized one day that even when I was a teenager, I never wrote songs from an explicitly teenage point of view. I was always trying to pretend like I was more sophisticated. I was listening to a lot of Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme, and was intrigued by that kind of voice. There’s a certain lyrical approach, it’s kind of a romantic sophistication to the lyrics that has always in-tranced me as a songwriter, and I’ve been trying to emulate like that even when I was a teen. I was like well, it’s kind of too late now, it would be kind of funny if I was in my thirties and writing these songs, but then before I could dismiss the idea as a joke, the concept for the album just started to emerge and I went with it.

Amy: Did you mean for it to be funny, with song names like “I’ve Got Mono.” Did you mean to go the sophisticated route or funny, or welp, this is pretty much what high school is like for someone.

Josh: Just a blend of it all; that has happened to me a lot in my songwriting. I will write something that at the time seems somewhere between serious and tongue-in-cheek, but years later when I look back on the song, I realize it’s totally ridiculous and funny. Unintentionally funny, that’s the story of my life.

Amy: How is it being back on the road?

Josh: It’s fantastic, we love it. We’ve done a couple tours this year already since the album came out. We are having a great time touring.

Amy: You have been cited by Alkaline Trio, among other bands, as one of their greatest influences. How does it make you feel that so many bands cite you as a huge influence to their music?

Josh: It’s nice to be appreciated. It’s nice to see the fruit of what you have done and the way it has touched some people, it’s really gratifying. It also makes you feel old if you have been around long enough to influence another generation of bands. Although, Alkaline Trio is not really the next generation of bands because they started only a few years after we did. They were still in high school when we were just freshly graduated.

Amy: What bands or things in your life influence the music you write? Do you write all the songs?

Josh: I do write all the songs. I tend to listen to stuff like the Secret Sisters; it’s a new album, but it’s kind of traditional country. I like Gillian Welch, so I listen to a lot of that kind of stuff.

Amy: When you write songs, does it tend to be from something that’s going on in your personal life or more so what you see going on around you?

Josh: A little of both, even if I am writing about things that are not autobiographical, like our latest record for example, I’m always going to make it personal. I created this character for the album and I wrote all of the songs through his point of view and he wasn’t me, but it gave me the opportunity to say a lot of things that I personally wanted to say about being in being in high school, so it is both/and.

Amy: When this show was initially set-up, it was Q101 (Chicago alternative radio station that was bought up and recently changed format) presents show and now Q101 is gone.  I’m sure local 101 helped you out, and Q101 gave you some radio play over the years, how do you feel about the only alternative rock station in Chicago diminishing?

Josh: I’m sad about that. Q101 always supported us and we had friends over there, so it’s sad to see it go. What is it now, some kind of talk station?

Amy: I think so; it’s just weird because there’s no other station like that. Regardless of what they evolved to today, there’s no similar radio station to take its place, it’s strange.

Josh: It is strange. There are other cool radio stations in Chicago though. WXRT is an incredibly cool station, and they are also a very unique ratio station in that they actually give their DJs the ability to pick what songs to play, which believe it or not, is very rare for a radio station. You can do that at a college radio station, but if you are doing things at the level of XRT, usually it is all preprogrammed. Chicago has other things going on, but still Q101 will be missed.

Amy: What is striking about the Smoking Popes that may draw them to you guys? This is kind of my ongoing, why should I listen to your band if I have never heard you question.

Josh: The description that we always hear from people is that it’s like a crooner singing for a punk band. It’s like Frank Sinatra as the front man for the Ramones.

Amy: Do you like that description?

Josh: Sure! I love Frank Sinatra and the Ramones, and am complimented by both comparisons. I think that sort of our novelty, that relationship between the music and the singing. It’s not as unique as it used to be, there is a whole other generation of bands that blended very aggressive music with more sensitive vocals….I think it’s called emo.

Amy: What does 2011 hold for The Smoking Popes? You have this new album out, you’re touring again, and you are really active again.  I’m sure it is harder to get together as a band when you got back together due to the responsibilities of the nine to five and family obligations.

Josh: I’m always trying to find that balance between the Popes, work, and family.

Amy: It can get tough.

Josh: It is tough, but that’s the eternal struggle for everyone, a balanced life. Does anyone ever really achieve it? I don’t think so, not in this life.