Jessi Darlin @ Tap Room – SXSW 2009 (Photo – Rollo & Grady)
Murfreesboro, Tennessee trio Those Darlins are taking the US by storm. They have garnered significant praise from the New York Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune and USA Today for their high-energy shows and no nonsense approach to rock n’ roll. They have also caught the attention of Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, Black Lips, The Avett Brothers, King Khan & The Shrines and Deer Tick, to name a few. The band is currently touring the Southeast, including a slot at Bonnaroo before their Nashville vinyl relase party with the Black Lips on June 27th.
I recently spoke with Jessi Darlin about the music business, national attention and who’s the wildest Darlin.
R&G: This has been a hectic year for you guys. Can you tell me a little bit about the highs and lows of your cross country tour?
Jessi: That’s a hard question. It’s been really fun for all of us, just because we’ve been seeing so many places for the first time. It’s frustrating to go somewhere you’ve never been and always wanted to see, but you don’t actually get to see anything that you want to. You have to go to the venue, stay there and maybe walk down the block to eat. We saw the cities from a skewed perspective, at a glance, but we had a lot of fun just getting to hang out with the people that lived in them. Definitely, I think we adapt well to our surroundings. The places we don’t, we get out of there as quickly as we can. I think the actual trips themselves are the high point: seeing everything, meeting people and playing shows for people. There are always the standard low points of touring; being in a van with the same people for hours and hours and hours, being exhausted and, especially, being sick and trying to entertain people and pretend that you’re not sick or not in a bad mood. Not really pretend, because every time we play shows, we feel the adrenaline and have fun while we do it, but sometimes people don’t see the hard part, the turmoil you’ve gone through just to get there. They don’t think about how you’ve been in a different place every single day across the entire country, in every climate. They just see you as this one thing while you play. It messes with your head, especially if you’re not on tour for very long, because you don’t get a chance to get used to it. By the time you get home, you feel like you just went through a whirlwind of craziness.
R&G: You guys recently opened up for The Avett Brothers. They are one of the best live acts out today. Did you learn anything for them?
Jessi: First of all, they were all so super-nice. It was really cool to meet them. They packed the place with 900 people and were still down to earth and cool. They had super-fans. We don’t see that a lot. Even with Dan Auerbach, there are a lot of people that really like him, but The Avett Brothers had the fan club sitting in the front with the Team Avett t-shirts on and stuff. That was kind of weird. It was cool: after the show, they got on their tour bus and this group of 30 fans stood outside their bus for almost an hour until they came back out. Then they stood there and talked to every single one of them and not just like, ‘Hey. I’ll sign your thing.’ They actually had conversations with them and took the time to talk to them. I thought that was really cool, because they could have gotten on the bus and left. No matter how tired, or sick, or unhappy you are when someone says, “Good show,” you still have to talk to them and say, ‘Thanks, man.’ You have to appreciate it. That’s the people that are making it happen for you.
