The creation of Campfire Club’s debut album, Tin Can Telephone, all began on January 1st, 2010. Now, over twenty-two months later, having experienced numerous line-up changes alongside technical hardships and 1-2 muggings, Ryne Watts’ motley crew crowds together in a South City recording studio and practice space, passing a plastic pint of whiskey. CC chatted IWTAS about crazy shows, recording on vinyl, and the importance of being earnest in songwriting.

Talk to us about a memorable show here in St. Louis.

We played Petra, the tiny hookah lounge [on Grand]. It was absurdly loud and overwhelming, but everyone ended up dancing. We played with Middle Class Fashion, and they totally had a drag show in between the sets. It was awesome! The drag queens were helping to get everyone dancing.

I was leaning against the window and could feel it shaking. I think that makes the best kind for show for us. Whenever we play somewhere that we feel we don’t belong, it ends up being great. We kind of like ridiculous odds.

What caused you guys to release Tin Can Telephone on vinyl, since it’s more expensive and laborious to produce?

A couple of us in the band are kind of audiophiles. Once we decided we wanted the record on vinyl, we also wanted to make it analog, or as analog as possible. So we drove to Texas and bought this tape machine and went for it. Plus, [band member] Daniel is an audio engineer. Trying to get the best product we could using older methods of recording was a good challenge, and it lent itself to the type of music Campfire Club makes.

There’s songs on the album that are just meant to sound a little old-timey. And honestly, when we got the test pressing and heard that first crackle, hiss, and pop, we just got really giddy. It was a lot of fuckin’ work, but we think it was worth it.

Ryne, explain the inspiration behind the songs on the record, which vary from sarcastic and a bit playful to pretty gut-wrenching.

[Laughs] IT SOUNDS LIKE FREEDOM!!! No, but seriously, I feel like I want to represent that laid back, Midwest attitude.

[Band member interjection —>] But not white trash.

No, no! Not that laid back. It’s true, we live in a big little city and so many people are connected. Every song I’ve written is the truth. Real songs about my real life…with a bit of poetic license, of course. I mean, I’m broke all the time and I don’t care [laughs]. I drink, and smoke, and party, and write songs. And sure, there are sad songs on there; you can’t fully realize the actuality of joy without experiencing some pain.

That said, I don’t take life very seriously. I mean, I’ve been robbed three times in recent memory. The last time was like four days ago. They stole my wallet, my cell phone, my guitar and ALL the posters for the release show. So I just wrote a song about it. Hey, do you wanna hear it?

Ryne wrote a quick little tune about gettin’ robbed. Check out our bootleg edition.

Campfire Club – Untitled (Ryne got robbed)

Notes:

On Saturday, Campfire Club releases Tin Can Telephone at The Heavy Anchor with special guests Scarlet Tanager and The Skekses. Details here.

The Riverfront Times’ Christian Schaeffer reviewed TCT this week.

Check out more photos from our time with the band on Flickr. We hope to see all you on Saturday!