“Ha; it may be old news for us, but it's news for most of your readers,” Amy Boone laughed when told that this interview covering her band, the Damnations, would not focus solely on the band's recent saga of leaving Sire Records.
Boone, who plays bass, piano, organ and sings for the band, is joined by her sister, Deborah Kelly, on acoustic and electric guitars and vocals and Rob Bernard on acoustic and electric guitars, banjo and vocals to form the core of the Damnations, formerly DamnationsTX. The Austin band (Boone and Kelly hail from Schorahie, NY., outside Albany) reclaimed its original name and formed its own label, Joy-Ride Records, after leaving Sire, and recently released its new CD, “Where It Lands.”
Soon after the Damnations released “Half Mad Moon” in 1999 to much alt-country/roots rock fan acclaim, Sire merged with London Records, leaving the band feeling less than warm and welcome. Eventually, when it was time to release “Where It Lands” in 2000, London didn't exactly do cartwheels over the result, a louder, more rock oriented recording, and it was suggested that the band be moved to parent Warner Records’ country label, Curb Records. Kelly wrote a letter to Sire owner Seymour Stein, and the band bought back its master tapes.
The change from major label to independent/self-owned label certainly brings up a lot of emotions.
“It's good and sometimes a bit overwhelming; we have more control over things, but there is less money at the moment,” Boone said, apologizing if her voice still had morning cragginess to it (at noon Austin time, 1 p.m. Buffalo time). “We're enjoying the independence of doing our own things; we don't have an official manager or booking agent, so Deborah is doing most of that. It is different because we feel that we were held up; it is a shame that we had to play that game for a while, but London's roster was dominating things. We were kind of the last question mark and the new CD was not as countrified or folkified a record. Touring is different; we just went up the West Coast. We are now doing it without tour support, but we have product.”
But really, there are more things to discuss than the label change; Boone doesn't believe the change or versatility in sound from the first CD to “Where It Lands” should be a surprise to people who were listening.
“Those songs, we were working them into our live show; those who saw us live know what we would sound like,” she said. “I hope it (the blend of styles) doesn't sound forced; it would probably sound forced to me if we stayed in the same genre. When I'm writing a song, I give it the treatment of the content, I don't say, `oh here, I have to write a country song.’ We sound eclectic because we are from America.”
Listeners shouldn't expect a hardcore fusillade of sound on the new CD; there is a good amount of harder indie rock sounds and some punk rave ups, but even more 1970s rock in the “Exile on Main Street” vein joined with country sounds. Among the three covers accompanying the eight originals are a Minutemen tune, “Corona,” as well as “Wanna Be Your Mama,” a Doug Sahm song.
“Rob kind of turned me on to the Minutemen and X. He is the guy who grew up more with the Minutemen; I like punk, but I seem to go more for melody,” Boone said. “There are some things we brought in kind of new, and we had our producer (J.D. Foster), another cook in the kitchen. We were trying to be open-minded, but he is more non-alt country, so we just had to put our foot down and say no. Sometimes, our musical tastes did not agree; we had to check each other. I don't even know how to define alt country.”
What some might consider a sour experience hasn't deterred the Damnations.
“We all want to go and make another record; this one has been done for another year and a couple of months. It's a good feeling that we don't have to go run to someone if we want to record another record or do anything else,” Boone said. “It's good not to be naive, but the business end has dominated the creative side and this whole thing has just taken up so much time. Deborah is a bit stressful about songwriting right now, but we could go in and record at least some of the new record. I've got some cabaret songs I may have to save for my solo record. We all have this place where our tastes meet, but there are places where they diverge.”
One good sign is that after taking up full-time non-music jobs, the band members are not doing so at the moment: “We just played a Ride for the Roses with Lance Armstrong, then played a wedding. We were paid in cash, food and cake; it was wonderful,” Boone said, as is, apparently, getting the original band name back: “That TX was never really our name; Sire just added it. We just found it to be cumbersome, and people didn't know if it was Texas or TX.”
The Damnations will tour the East Coast with the Kirk Rundstrum Band in September; people can contact the band or buy “Where It Lands” at the Web site www.damnations.com.