Interview with Chad Staehly from Hard Working Americans

Tour starts today. What can we expect from that?

Well, we’ve got a few new songs that we’re gonna be performing tonight that are gonna be coming out on this record early next year so we’re excited to play some new songs and this is our first show together since last December, so it’s been quite a while since we’ve had a chance to play together. Everyone’s super excited.

Is there a city that you’re most looking forward to on this tour?

There’s a bunch of great stops on this run of shows between festivals and playing a bunch of our favorite places. One of our favorite shows from last summer was actually at Iron City in Birmingham. We’re looking forward to getting back there as much as anywhere.

What do you think are some of the struggles facing touring bands right now?

Well, I mean money. [laughs] There’s no other way to put it. It’s so expensive to tour, even if you’re crammed into a hotel room and downsizing as much as possible, just gas for a van and a hotel room every night is $500 plus, so it’s always a money thing that makes touring difficult. And then there’s the thing of a band can be like a marriage and it’s a very intense relationship with your bandmates and top of that you work together every day, you travel together everyday, you’re usually sleeping in close quarters, so navigating all that personal stuff is tough too, but I think the money thing is the most difficult piece of touring. A lot of bands come home from the road broke.

Do you have a favorite aspect of touring?

Well it’s the music. I always tell people that we get paid to be truck drivers or travelers and music is our hobby. That’s our passion and that’s what we love to do so those few hours of getting to play music is what makes everything else so worth it.

Do you have a strange or memorable moment from the road?

[Laughs] There’s a big ole’ list of those. Let me see if I can come up with a recent one. Just last night as we left for tour to head to Virginia, we hung up our tour poster on the wall and used this new app that will make a picture talk so now there’s a female head on our poster and now we’ve started to make her talk and say things and we’re calling her the voice of reason and she’s going to post something everyday.

The members of Hard Working Americans come from several different backgrounds and different eclectic bands. How do you find a happy medium when y'all are playing together?

Right now, it’s not anyone’s main project, although we all want to continue to do more and more with it, this band is a refuge for everyone. Everyone wants to be here doing this. We’re all having fun doing it. There’s no pressure. It’s just a fun thing. That’s what drives everyone to show up and do this together. It’s a lot of fun.

Would you consider Hard Working Americans a concept band?

You know, some could argue that. Todd, our lyricist and writer, he’ll think of an album in terms of a screenplay or a movie and he was the one that named the band so he certainly had some thoughts behind how this band was supposed to go. As far as I understand, of course, the guys who get up at 6 o’clock in the morning and go put in 12 hour shifts at the paper mill or the factory, they’re no doubt hard working Americans. But people from other walks of life are hard working Americans too

Do you have a personal favorite Hard Working Americans song?

I would say right now that it’s one of the new songs that’s gonna be on the new record. It’s called “Roman Candles” and people should be able to hear that hopefully at one of these shows coming up or when the new record comes out early next year.

What would you say is next for the band?

Putting out this new record. It seemed like everyone reacted really well to the first record, but it was an album recorded of other people’s songs so I think some people looked at like “Oh, these guys are just a supergroup or whatever that is just getting together for fun to do this record of covers.” There was certainly a bit of reaction like that, so to be able to put out a record of music we wrote together and that really carries our own voice, I think that’s exciting for everyone to take that next step together.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Well you know the old saying goes “Never miss a Sunday show” so we would just encourage everyone in Birmingham to show up and make Sunday night feel like a Friday night.