After the release of 2009s’ Love Hate and Then There’s You, The Von Bondies set out on their first tour in some time. Playing new songs was like a fresh breath of air for a band that had been released from the grasp of a major label. However, having the freedom to produce an album you like also comes with the arduous task of promoting it. This, for the Jason Stollsteimer led band, was a old experience that took him and drummer Don Blum back to the early days of the band.

Writer Bruce Matlock recently spoke with Stollsteimer on the band’s touring, video shoot, and album release.

Consequence of Sound (CoS): Hey Jason, thanks for talking with me today, so how are things going in between the tours?

Jason Stollstemier (JS): Talking with my drummer, he’s making t-shirts right now and he’s never tried that before so it’s interesting. On the last tour I told him, just take the Ferrari logo get rid of the Ferrari words, put The Von Bondies and make it yellow on a black shirt, I’m a musician not an artist. I hope Ferrari doesn’t come after me; those guys have a lot of money.

CoS: So what is the future for the band on the road?

JS: It looks like we have until the end of May booked, but we are aiming to go until October. We know where we need to be, but we can only book three months out.

CoS: So the last run of shows went well for you?

JS: It was amazing; Toronto, New York, Cleveland, and Ann Arbor were sold out, so out of eight shows, four sold out. We’re not on a major label and it’s been five years since an album was out, so half the people coming to the shows think this was our first record. It’s kind of like starting over. It’s basically a new band outside of Don and I.

CoS: Do the older songs feel any fresher since you’ve been off the road for so long?

JS: Actually, the old songs kind of feel like we are doing cover songs, we still do them but even the cover songs are more fun than our old songs. It’s so old that its just one note. I just run around the stage like a jackass because they are so boring.

CoS: How are the new members reacting to being on tour?

JS: They are just touring members, but for the bassist, this is her first touring band, so when we go to towns its always her first time, and we went to New York to do Letterman she was really excited.

Don and I, have been touring around the world like 6 times, so its pretty rare to see something new, but they are so excited that it makes us excited.

CoS: I just watched the new video for “Pale Bride”. Who put the idea for it together?

JS: We had a 2000-dollar budget for the video, and for the live scenes we went to my friends welding shop, which is really a garage. We got these strobe lights that looked like crap, so we just turned the lights on and off.

My friend Anthony Garth is the one who directed it, and we did all the other parts first, but it seemed kind of slow for the songs so we went back and did the live shots.

CoS: That’s amazing that it only cost that, the video looks very professionally done.

JS: One of my friends stood behind us while we played and we swept up these metal shavings from the floor and sprayed them in the air. Were pretty much going to die, if I went through a metal detector I would probably go off.

CoS: So did you actually get to set the car on fire?

JS: Ya totally! Though the fire started to get out of hand, so I just got in my car and drove away. All I could think (laughing) was that I didn’t wanna go to jail. The bad part was that the car totally worked, and we torched it. We had to have it working and driving for the video though.

CoS: Any other cool stories about the video shoot?

JS: We couldn’t afford to have the guitar player come out because she was in Minneapolis, so we just had the bassist change outfits and didn’t shoot her face a few shots. If you watch the video it’s the same girl twice, but fuck it, it’s a fun video, that’s all that matters. For pop-up video that’s a great little part though.

CoS: Wow, so you really had to cut down due to the budget? It really turned out great for the money though.

JS: The guy that directed it has directed like thirty-thousand dollar videos and said it should have cost a lot more, but we called in a lot of favors.

CoS: So do you really have a lot of say in what songs are released as singles?

JS: Honestly, Don and I look at every song as a single when we are recording so the label just comes to us and say’s here is the song we want, here’s some money to make the video.

CoS: How did Butch Walker come in as producer to help you finish the album?

JS: The structure was mostly there, all the lyrics, all the melodies, but I didn’t have a bridge for two of the songs so Butch essentially wrote and helped with those along with the kickass baseline on “A Perfect Crime.”

CoS: So it really helped to have another musician in the studio with you?

JS: It was great having another musician, I consider him a friend more so than a producer. We didn’t jam, but I’ve never had a producer sit down and ask me play a song with him

CoS: I noticed that it seems you guys headline much more than most bands playing the same size clubs as you, is there a reason you don’t support bands more often?

JS: We were labeled as a certain type of music that we are not; the new cd definitely isn’t a garage rock album. We have opened for the Donna’s and then in 2001, we did two weeks with the White Stripes. So out of all our tours, we’ve done maybe two months of opening. It’s tough because you can’t make a lot of new fans headlining. I’d love to open up for Queens of the Stone Age, or the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, and we are friends with Franz Ferdinand. So it would be great, but we aren’t exactly the “hot new band” right now.

CoS: So are you guys traveling in style this tour?

JS: Well we are currently traveling in a four seater van. Though on this tour we get to bring a trailer, we didn’t on the last tour due to gas. We are actually staying in hotels now though; concrete floors got really old.

Ouch! Well, be sure to catch the Von Bondies if they happen to stroll through your town. If not, you can always pick up Love Hate and Then There’s You, available everywhere!

Categories: Features, Interview
Tags: The Von Bondies