The Weeks: The South, Hero Worship And 'Dear Bo Jackson'
Monday, 15 July 2013
Written by Sam Jones
The Weeks are a band with some lofty ambitions. Their new record, 'Dear Bo Jackson', lands in the UK on July 15 and the boys have named it after one of their greatest inspirations.
Jackson is one of the greatest athletes in the history of American sports, having won the Heisman Trophy – the highest accolade available to college football players – before embarking on All Star careers in both the NFL and MLB. For the Weeks, who hail from Jackson, Mississippi, he's the only guy they could have turned to.
“Bo Jackson can do pretty much anything,” vocalist Cyle Barnes said. “We want to do pretty much anything, so we'll see how that goes. If anyone is going to represent that album, then a giant man such as Bo Jackson should be the one to do it.”
The album is a journey through the band's roots in America's deep south, taking in influences from blues, soul and roots. It's all wrapped up in a modern rock 'n' roll sheen that saw them picked up by Kings Of Leon as tour-mates and members of the band's Serpents & Snakes label roster.
The band recorded 'Dear Bo Jackson' – the latest in a prolific line of releases since their formation in 2006 – in Nashville and, for the first time, made a concerted effort to expand on their live sound.
“We've written a bunch of records and they've been stripped down versions of something we could do live,” Barnes said. “We just wanted to screw around with what we could do in the studio. Our live show is a completely different thing from our recorded sound and we kinda want it to be that way.
“Being in Nashville we just had so many friends and other musicians around. We'd just cook out at the studio and be like, 'Hey, come play your instrument at our studio, see what happens'. We tried to make it a very natural, fun process but we wanted something bigger.”
At every turn, references to the band's past and upbringing confront the listener. On Brother In The Night, as horns pop off and a boisterous guitar line dances beneath his vocals, Barnes sings: “Well if my southern heart's still pumping blood, I'll bury my money in the mighty Mississippi mud.” Throughout the record the south's influence is plain enough to make it something of an auxiliary band member.
“If you're from the south it's part of you,” Barnes said. “I don't know any different. There are some crazy aspects to the south, the poverty and all the other things, but there are some of the happiest people, who make do with what they have. They have fun and make the best of a shitty situation when there's nothing you can do about it. It's where we're from and why we started writing music.”
The band have recently dipped their toes into the world of arena rock as support to Kings of Leon, who have provided more than a helping hand in getting the Weeks' message out there. For Barnes, playing huge halls every night was made easier by the welcoming nature of their mentors.
“The shows have been insane,” he said. “We're not used to playing anything that size, we're used to playing smaller clubs and I like to be able to get down in the crowd and grab somebody if I want to. You can do whatever you want to in a small club, but in an arena, you're 20 feet back with a barricade between you. The Kings have just been so helpful and it's just been a big family environment. With any other band it would probably be hard, but the Kings have made it as easy as possible.”
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