Earlier this month, We Are Augustines captivated a sold-out crowd at Bowery Ballroom. Their second of four performances at this year’s CMJ Music Marathon, they had festival-goers screaming along song after song. While tracks like the poignant “Chapel Song” captivated with emotive lyrics, others like the bass heavy “Headlong Into the Abyss” stood out with sweeping guitar and horn features.
After having their album on repeat for days, I chatted with frontman Billy McCarthy about his songwriting process, the band and what it’s like playing live. Formed after the demise of former band, Pela, McCarthy explained the start of Brooklyn-based We Are Augustines.
“I think we had an abbreviated run with our last band and we felt like there was so much more to say so it was worth our time to refocus our lives to do it,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy writes candidly about his life within his music, something he likens to running down the street screaming your journal to rooms full of people.
“Honestly, it’s not always easy to talk about stuff in the literal sense and have to keep redoing it every night but I think it depends what kind of art you’re doing,” he says. “It is personal and I guess that’s just my commitment to the music that we’re making. I just want to be honest. It’s not always easy, but that’s what it is.”
While on stage, McCarthy says a mixture of thoughts run through his head.
“Every single night it’s different, it has a different feel, a different color, a different smell. It’s a lot of reaction to that. The lyrics . . . sometimes it’s a great feeling of relief and sometimes, when I sing in the moment they hurt a little bit. It’s like this big mash up of emotions for an hour. It’s an interesting thing to do with your life.”
You can read my interview with McCarthy on CBS. Below are additional questions that didn’t make it into the writeup.
What is your songwriting process like?
I think I’ll take a song any way I can get it. Maybe one that’s a little more imagined that’s in your head before you even get to an instrument. Or, it’s keeping your eyes open for something that’s happening in the moment. It’s funny. There are songs that happen very quickly.
There’s a song on our record called “Augustine.” I wrote it in the morning, wrote the lyrics in the hotel room and recorded it the next day and it was done. And then there are songs that you work on for eight months. A song, “Headlong into the Abyss,” that song was just really difficult to get control over. It was like a wild horse or something. I just couldn’t reel it in, and then you do. Sometimes you find that you work on a song for months and the song’s frankly not really that good but you just can’t stop trying to wrap your mind around it and get it out. It’s just about getting stuff out.
Do you have a favorite song to play live?
They’re all special to me. I like them all. Some of them are easier than others, just technically. But some of them are really difficult with your fingers and moving around it can be a little hard. Some of them you’re just so happy because it’s like a Cadillac cruising down the highway, a big old boat, just cruising, it’s easy. And then some of them are little nimble, challenging ones.
Is there a song that means more to you now then when first written?
No. I guess I’m like a mother hen with the songs. But there are songs that I didn’t think were very good or didn’t come out very good that I go back and I have a different relationship with them now. They say different things to me now, or they kind of make me smile.
Currently on the road with Glasvegas, visit their Web site for more information. Watch their video for “Chapel Song” below.