Photo by Digital Defection

A Story From The Front Porch

“I feel almost bad for the eighteen year old kids – those boy bands with the three word names that have hairspray in their hair that don’t really know what life is outside of the spotlight. Someday they’re going to be working McDonalds right next to me and I’m going to be like ‘Yeah I was in a band too!’ I haven’t ever had any other option then being a person that works and being a person in a band. I’m thankful for that. I don’t think my personality fits the lifestyle of being a rock star that others emulate. For me, music is just a normalcy in my life.” US Hardcore act AVAIL front man TIM BARRY tells BIANCA VALENTINO a few home truths.

As I speak with Barry from his home in Richmond, Virgina my heart fills with warmth. We’re three quarters of the way through this year and I have interviewed 40+ bands and – until now – I haven’t come across someone as genuine, down-to-earth, sweet and honest as Barry. As we start our conversation he informs in his thick southern accent, “I’m going to tell you straight up that I’m not used to having people dictate the time I can talk”. He’s referring to our twenty-minute limit given to us by his record label. “It’s all a next level thing for me,” he laughs a little perplexed by the whole notion.

Formalities aside Barry explains how it’s been a long summer for him and his bandmates. “It’s been a lot of touring and working,” he says. Despite what people may think – the band being around since the late 80′s, having eleven assorted releases, not to mention countless tours under their belt – all the guys in the band hold day jobs. “We’re not rock stars like a lot of people think,” Barry assures.

“It might be surprising to people but I work for the Richmond Ballet,” he adds. “I just got off the road with them. I drive trucks and I’m in charge of the loading crew and I’m a carpenter. It’s the state ballet – it sounds pretty glamorous but it ain’t nothing but a job working manual labour and long hours.”

Asked what the other band members do? He replies, “Ed (drummer) is a painter and Joe (guitarist) is a carpenter. Beau (band mascot & cheerleader) is a bartender and Gwomper (bassist) is a truck driver. Barry says that the band collectively decided that they wanted to settle a little instead of tour nine months out of a year. “We all have tremendous lives outside of the band,” he explains.

As we converse back and forth the time flies by but, before our twenty minutes is up I asked Barry the question on everyone’s lips, when will we see a new studio album? “We were going to [record] but we decided that the songs sucked. We didn’t feel like putting out songs that we didn’t fully back. We’ve kept a couple of our new songs that we liked and put them on rotation in the set list. Once we wind down in January hopefully we’ll have cleared our heads and then will be the time to really write a new record – no bullshit, no half assed crap. If we’re going to take four years to write an album we may as well make it really good.”

http://www.myspace.com/availrva