By Monica Collier Staff Writer
Originally published in the TimesDaily April 16, 2017
The Boxmasters are coming to town on Tuesday night. Band founders Billy Bob “Bud” Thornton and J.D. Andrew, along with Teddy Andreadis are bringing their mix of 1960s, British invasion and hillbilly inspired rockabilly to Shoals Theatre in Florence.
Thornton and Andrew are in their 10th year of performing together as The Boxmasters. With seven albums to its credit, the band released two albums in 2016, "Boys and Girls ... and the World" and "Tea Surfing," and has another album scheduled for a 2017 release.
Thornton and Andrew recently took time from their “Tea Surfing” tour schedule to answer a few questions by phone.
TimesDaily: Hey there. How are you both?
Thornton: Hey Monica. Sorry we’re late. I was asleep. I just woke up.
TimesDaily: Are you both settling into the tour? What is a day in your lives like right now?
Thornton: I think we’ve done five shows already.
Andrew: No. We’ve done seven shows already.
Thornton: Seven?
Andrew: Yeah. The two California shows, three nights in Laughlin, and two nights in Vegas. We went straight from rehearsals into that. This is our first day off. I had forgotten we were scheduled today. I knew we have a super early radio call tomorrow morning. I didn’t even think about it. I apologize.
TimesDaily: It’s fine. You do not have to apologize to me. The meet-and-greets you do after shows look like so much fun for the fans, but do you enjoy them, too?
Thornton: Well, it depends on where you are. I mean, in other words, down there, it will be fun. They’re our kind of folks, you know? The thing about playing down in that area — Huntsville, Muscle Shoals and Florence — we know a lot of people there. We get to see a lot of friends. It can be a lot of fun, but sometimes you run into some real characters.
Andrew: The problem with doing them in Laughlin and Las Vegas is they’re places where people go to party. By the time the show’s over and they get back to see us, some of them are a little impaired. When you can’t string a sentence together, it makes it a little hard.
TimesDaily: When you’re on stage at a show or see fans at meet-and-greets and look into the faces, do you find that your music is transcending generations?
Thornton: Yes, I think so. We have fans in their 20s and fans in their 80s. That makes you feel good. When you get to a show and see that the audience is diverse, sometimes that scares the heck out of a band. But with us, we do have people of all ages who like us.
And if we play in a city where we haven’t played before — where we’re not that big — we always try to do something. We adjust to the audience to try to (connect). Let’s say it is an older audience, we may do something a little different just in terms of the way we present the songs and what we say between songs. It’s just a general attitude. If it’s a younger audience in a rock 'n' roll club, we just do whatever we want.
TimesDaily: You guys have been in a band (you founded together) now for 10 years. How did you first get together?
Andrew: I was hired as an engineer on Billy’s fourth solo record called “Beautiful Door.” While we were doing that, he came in one day and asked me how well I played guitar. He needed to record a song that day for a Canadian TV show. All the rest of his frequent collaborators were out of town, so I was the only one around. It was just one of those lucky moments where the song we recorded had a thing to it. That was inspiring to us.
Then Billy started telling me about other British invasion acts like Chad and Jeremy and how we could take some of their songs and twist them up in our own way. We did that and have evolved past those early records and are into our more natural sound. We switched it a little bit again for this “Tea Surfing” record.
TimesDaily: The Boxmasters had a busy 2016: two albums, touring and another album on the way. Is this breakneck speed of production a sort of inspired renaissance for the band?
Andrew: We’ve always recorded so much. A lot of the “Tea Surfing” stuff was done in the past — in 2009 and 2010. They were songs that were already written. It just took us a little bit of time to touch them up and make them all kind of fit together properly. Then, some of the other stuff is new songs. We’ve got such a back catalog that we could be picking albums out forever from stuff that we have.
TimesDaily: Although you have a back catalog of songs, are you writing new music together?
Andrew: Constantly.
Thornton: Oh yeah.
TimesDaily: So you haven’t lost your touch?
Andrew: No. There is always something that needs to be discussed. Or, Billy always has an idea about something or something is bothering him or something is just causing him to create. To write the words. Then, we all get together and we work on musical ideas. For the most part, the songs start with a lyric and maybe a little bit of a melody. Mostly they’re ideas and thoughts that Billy is having — the way the world’s going or something that’s happening in his or somebody’s life causes inspiration.
TimesDaily: You mentioned that you have friends in the Shoals. Have you both been influenced artistically by Muscle Shoals music?
Thornton: Absolutely, there’s no question. The first time I ever recorded in my life — a real recording in a real studio — was at Widget Studios in Sheffield. That was in 1974. Ron Ballew ran the studio back then. Of course, we know Donnie Fritts, Jimmy Johnson, Roger Hawkins and all those guys.
Andrew: Really, the highlight of every tour is coming down into there. On the last tour, we were able to have a day and go over to Jimmy Nutt’s Nutthouse and record a couple of songs. Those songs are part of the next record that we’re working on, too. If we have a chance, we like to record in some legendary music places. We recorded at a couple of different places in Memphis and in Muscle Shoals. It’s just places where music and rock 'n' roll was born. We’re really inspired by the history of music and the history of the places that are the foundation of what record-making is.
TimesDaily: You both have successful and diverse creative careers. Does your love of music go back to childhood?
Thornton: Oh absolutely. No question about it. I listened to all the stuff my mother listened to as I was growing up. It was a lot of Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich — all the Sun Records stuff. I listened to a lot of Jim Reeves, Ray Price and people like that. Then, the British invasion happened. That was a huge deal. Then I was into soul music — Otis Redding and people like that. Everything like that to Captain Beefheart and The Mothers of Invention to Cream, Traffic and the Allman Brothers.
I listen to everything. I literally love every kind of music. There was a time when I would have probably said I like everything but classical music. But now, I even like that. I can find something in pretty much every kind of music that I like.
Even with the pop music that’s out now. Even though it’s not what I would ever listen to, my daughter’s 12 years old and she has favorite songs that are on the radio. How can you not appreciate music if it makes your kid happy?
TimesDaily: We have such an active local music scene with young up-and-coming performers who are amazing. You both are veterans in the music industry — do you have any advice for young artists?
Thornton: Do it from your heart. Don’t do it just to get a smash hit. Don’t think about that. Write what you know and what you feel. If you do that, somebody’s going to notice sooner or later. I’d say, don’t go for something that’s not you just for success.
Andrew: Along those same lines, with music, sometimes it feels like you have to suffer for your art. That’s not exactly the case. What you need to do is live your life. You need to seek out characters and seek out other music that’s maybe not mainstream but that inspires you. You have to be true to yourself and not try to chase what’s cool or hip. Do what’s in you.
At the end of the day, be nice to people. Be nice to the people who work for you and help you out. People are going to help out someone who’s nice to them a lot more often than somebody who’s not pleasant to be around. That’s learning from experience. Sometimes you may be in a bad mood, but you’ve got to suck it up.
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