Teenage Bottlerocket

I recently sat down with Ray Carlisle of Teenage Bottlerocket at their stop in Edmonton, Alberta. My first discovery of Teenage Bottlerocket happened by accident back in 2006, when I kept punching in the wrong track while searching for Lucero. It was an instant love affair, but it wasn’t until 2009 that they moved from casual play to constant rotation in my music library.

Every once in a while you see a musician who so openly loves what they are doing on stage that they make you smile. While his day job may be working in the natural gas industry, which ironically often brings him into Alberta, Carlisle is definitely a punk rocker at heart. Around the time of their recent sold out shows in the 2 major cities of the province, 70s rockers KISS played a small town festival way up North. Maybe it’s safe to say that Teenage Bottlerocket is finally Bigger Than Kiss?

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How’s it going so far?

Ray: Great, fucking awesome.

Is this your first time in Edmonton?

Ray: It’s our first Alberta show ever. Next up is Calgary, the competition is on.

You guys are from Wyoming. It’s similar to Alberta, people think of it like a cowboy type of place. How is it being in a punk band coming from an environment like that? I know that there are punk bands in Alberta, but they go against the stereotype.

Ray: I think it’s similar. People could be so quick to judge, but there is a lot of diversity, especially in Langley where we live, it’s where the University of Wyoming is, lots of college students, so you sort of get everything there. Everything from Buckcherry to Chuck Berry.

Nice. How’s it being in a band with your brother?

Ray: It’s nice, we fight like brothers sometimes but then we are over it in 3 minutes. Someone explodes and everyone is like oh no they’re fighting, but then we finish and are like let’s go hang out and play video games.

Does it affect the relationships with the other guys?

Ray: No, they are used to it. They just ignore it.

With your latest release, They Came From the Shadows, on Fat Wreck Chords, it seems from the outside that you guys have really exploded on the punk scene with “Skate or Die,” but when you dig deeper you see that Teenage Bottlerocket has been around a while.

Ray: 10 years.

From your perspective, it probably doesn’t feel like you just exploded then?

Ray: It’s weird, you just take it day by day. It seems like a lot of stuff happened just last week that happened years ago. It doesn’t feel like 10 years to me. It just feels like its just beginning.

Your sound draws from old school pop punk bands, like Screeching Weasel and the legendary Ramones. You are doing really well right now with a throwback style.

Ray: I feel fortunate that we are fortunate enough to play punk rock music in today’s day and age. Right now I think that there is just something going on as far as independent music is concerned. There’s an explosion going on. It’s cool to be able to ride the wave and I’ve been there when things were going on and no one even recognized that I’m even in a band and you write a song and it’s left unheard. I feel fortunate that people are paying attention to what we record now, that’s great.

How has the new 7” been received?

Ray: Really good, we just sold our last one last night. I love the way it turned out, the layout and the recording and everything. We’ve had a positive response from people that got into it. We haven’t had any negative response. It’s going great.

So you are on tour with Old Man Markley and NOFX. It’s a pretty diverse lineup. How do you think the crowds will react?

Ray: OMM, it would seem like they would be the odd man out because of their sound, but they have a really positive vibe onstage and the crowd absorbs that vibe and spins it back to them. It’s sort of like a party between the band and audience. It’s been great for those guys and for us. We’ve toured the United States and Europe and now Canada with them. I think Canada is a more positive crowd. People come here to have fun, more smiles, and not as many middle fingers.

How did the lineup come about?

Ray: Kent (NOFX’s infamous manager) asked us. Sure Mike knew, but Kent emailed us, do you want to do this tour of Canada? Yes. Simple as that. Do you want to? Yes.

I can’t imagine turning down an opportunity like this. I know Vancouver’s sold out, tonight is, most of the shows are.

Ray: Every show has been sold out, except for maybe London, so it’s been fucking badass.

What’s next for you guys?

Ray: Calgary tomorrow night… We are doing Reading and Leeds in August with the Strokes, then we are doing some other UK shows, then we are going to fly right home and head to Australia and do a two week tour in Australia with Frenzal Rhomb which is going to be great. Then we are doing a Wyoming tour in October, which is kind of funny. Eight shows only in Wyoming. Can’t wait. Then right after that’s done we fly to Gainesville to play The Fest.

How do you find playing a tour like this as opposed to festivals?

Ray: I love it all dude. I love basement shows, I love club shows, I love Groezrock Festival in Belgium where there’s 10000 people watching us, these NOFX shows have been phenomenal. We played with NOFX at SXSW at this little place called Red Seven with 300 people capacity. They throw down the small shows too, it was awesome to be a part of that. I like them all.

At smaller headlining shows, most of the people would be there to specifically see you guys. Do you feel like you have to win over people at a massive festival where they may not know you?

Ray: I think if you let the pressure get to you, you probably won’t win anyone over. You have to go out there and be yourself, whether you are in a basement or 20000 people. Do your best. Sometimes we rock out a show and it seems like we did great and crowd response is great, but we don’t even sell one tshirt. Sometimes a thousand people stand and watch us with their hands in their pocket and we think that we fucked up, but we sell a shit ton of merch. You just never know.

Thanks for your time!