(Photo by Dave McClister)
By DCist contributor Leah Douglas
It’s a dreary day in Birmingham, Alabama. The sun is setting behind sheets of grey clouds, casting a yellow-purple pale over the parking lot. The occasional crack of thunder turns heads in the coffee shop window. Every few minutes, one or two bearded, tattooed men saunter by, climbing into trucks with football decals, holding records picked up at the record store-slash-barber shop next door. This seems the perfect place to enjoy a St. Paul and the Broken Bones record. “Oh, this city’s made me cry,” wails Paul Janeway into my headphones, “but I still can’t leave her.”
Much has been said about the anachronisms of the Birmingham-based soul band’s throwback sound, but the Broken Bones aren’t part of a soul music renaissance—at least, not on purpose. “For us, it’s always about songs,” Janeway tells DCist. “If the songs are good, that’s what really matters.” They’re not trying to make a statement about the musical footsteps they’re following. They’re just making music.
And fans have responded. The Broken Bones are still touring from the success of their debut album, Half the City, which came out in 2014. That album, recorded in just five days, began with Janeway and bassist Jesse Phillips. To bring their ideas to fruition, the two needed a band. Janeway credits Phillips with recruiting the rest of the Broken Bones, which now has seven musicians. “Jesse called Andrew [Lee, the band’s drummer] about 30 minutes before [the recording session], and we picked him up on the way to the studio. Little did he know,” Janeway laughs.
Little did any of the band members know what a splash the Broken Bones’ sound would make. Led by Janeway’s powerful, growling vocals, the band’s sound fills a room with joyful noise. His relaxed singing style can sometimes send the listener adrift, forgetting where exactly the beat is, only to be brought back by a blast of trumpet sound. “Honestly, that’s just how it comes out,” Janeway says of his musical stylings. “I wish I could be like, ‘I really thought about all this.’ Part of me kind of wishes I’d thought about it a little more. And I guess I have, with this [new] record.”
With this second album, the group has had more time to work through musical ideas. Scattered across the South, the men pass songs around over email, editing in Garage Band and recording on iPhone voice memos to keep fresh ideas circulating. “There will be a few songs that could have been on Half the City, and then a few songs that wouldn’t have been,” Janeway says of the new album. “As an artist, that’s what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to progress.” (He hints that some of the new songs will be played during their upcoming shows in D.C.)
But the band’s sound won’t stray far from its soul roots. “That’s what I grew up with,” Janeway says when I ask him about the band’s nostalgic sound. “What else was I gonna do?”
St. Paul and the Broken Bones performs at the 9:30 Club on Wednesday, December 30 and Thursday, December 31.
