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Living the rock star life: House of Fools comes to Legends |
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Tuesday, 28 August 2007 |
 Greensboro native House of Fools performs at Legends Thursday.
| Special to The Appalachian.
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by LINDSAY CRAVEN
Lifestyles Reporter
Appalachian State University students are always looking for an excuse to act a fool.
This Thursday night, the perfect excuse arrives with House of Fools taking the stage at Legends.
Doors for the show will open at 9 p.m. Tickets for the show are $6 in advance for students and $8 at the door and for guests.
Show is 18 and up and the event is BYOB with a six-pack limit and proper ID.
Greensboro natives, House of Fools, got their start in 2004 and
released their first full-length album, “Live and Learn,” in March of
this year.
House
of Fools is comprised of drummer Phil Bell, bassist Jeff Linn,
guitarist David McLaughlin, guitarist Joel Kiser, vocalist/guitarist
Josh King and keyboard player Matt Bowers.
King took some time to talk with The Appalachian about his band, the music scene and what it is like to tour.
The Appalachian: Why the name House of Fools?
King: “I guess
everybody has their own definition of the name for the band and what it
means to them I guess. It was actually just on one of our friend’s
refrigerators; it was a magnet that had everyone that lived in the
house and it said house of fools and we thought that we didn’t have
anything to name this little project so we named it that.”
TA: How would you describe your sound and if you had to place yourself in a genre, where would it be?
King: “I’m more
of just a singer/songwriter I guess and I listen to more
singer/songwriter stuff like Ben Kweller and Elliot Smith. Everybody
listens to something different. Some of our people like classic rock,
some like metal so our sound is more rock. Our last show turned out to
be more like a theatrical rock show than anything.”
TA: What do you mean by theatrical? And is that something that students can expect at this Thursday’s show?
King: “We get pretty animated and have fun up on stage. When we
have a show we just like to have fun. You get a simple song that’s
really just a guitar and you add five other people to that and it turns
into a big beast.”
TA: What are your expectations for House of Fools’ performance at Legends?
King: “I don’t know. Is there beer there?”
TA: Yeah actually, you can bring a six-pack with you.
King: “Then I guess they’ll like it if they drink a six-pack. No, I’ll think it’ll be fine.”
TA: What is something you always hope to see when you look down in the crowd during your live performances?
King: “People
watching and a smile, a smile’s good. People having fun is always nice.
Maybe a really hot girl that’s checking me out.”
TA: How has the
development of Web sites like Myspace.com, Pure Volume, Facebook.com,
etc. changed the way people find your music?
King: “Myspace
is completely incredible for a band. A lot of bands are getting signed
just because of how many hits they have on Myspace, which is insane to
me. It makes it completely easy to find out about new bands and I think
it’s a good tool if you use it right. It can have a lot to do with your
success.”
TA: Do you have any words of encouragement for Appalachian students to come to your show Thursday night?
King: “Is it on Thursday? Is there anything else going on?”
TA: Nothing else major on campus.
King: “I think that’s a good enough excuse.”
TA: Your band mysteriously inherits $10,000 and you can choose to do with it as you wish; what will your band invest its $10,000 in?
King: “Pay off
our debt. No, we’d definitely use it for buying a rehearsal space and
we do have some debts from touring all the time ... and stupid stuff
that I wish we wouldn’t have to spend $10,000 on.”
TA: So you went
on tour with He Is Legend, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and Modern
Life Is War; how did you get on this tour and what was it like playing
with bands that aren’t quite the same genre of music as you?
King: “Before
House of Fools, four of us were in a band called the Necessary and when
He Is Legend first started was when we [the Necessary] first started
and actually our first tour ever was with He Is Legend and it was their
first tour as well. So we’ve been buddies ever since. When they were
going on their headlining tour and they called us up and said ‘hey,
this may sound crazy but do you want to go on tour with us?’ and it was
completely stupid because we didn’t fit on the bill but...we could go
out and get drunk every night and have fun so we did it, but playing
those shows turned out to be one of our better tours. Instead of having
beer bottles thrown at us we actually had people applauding and having
a good time.”
TA: What are the worst habits that come along with touring? What are the positives of touring?
King: “We end up smelling pretty rowdy.
Worst habits would be drinking; being in a bar every night. We get to a
bar around 4 p.m. and we don’t end up playing till 10 or 10:30 p.m. and
that’s plenty of time at a bar where there’s nothing else to do but
drink so we end up getting pretty wasted sometimes. The good parts are
getting to see everything and other states.”
TA What’s been the best place that you’ve traveled to so far?
King: “I love the Northwest like Portland, Ore., Seattle. Just driving through it, it’s beautiful. As far as hanging out, Texas is always real fun - Austin and Dallas.”
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