The Coal Men Interview: SXSW 2010

Nashville trio the Coal Men is composed of lead singer and guitarist Dave Coleman, bassist Jason "Hitch" Hitchcock and drummer Dave Ray. Their music is rich with storytelling yet has an easygoing, "down home" feel that washes over the listener like a warm breeze in some Zen-fully pristine field. In advance of the band's SXSW debut, we talk to Coleman about being too rock 'n' roll for country, taking it back to roots rock and refusing to grow a beard.

Describe your sound in your own words.

I usually just say it's Tennessee rock 'n' roll with a little bit of country soul to it. We like to play what I consider straight up rock 'n' roll. A lot of what I see as rock 'n' roll today isn't what I remember rock 'n' roll as being. There's a lot of pop-punk stuff going on now and to me, I'm just a more roots-rock kind of guy, and that's where we come from. It gets so confusing to me. The [genre] labels are a little strange for me to kind of weed through these days. We do a lot of different things well, whether it's folk or rock or country. Hopefully [by] doing that we appeal to a lot of folks. A country journalist might call us too edgy or rock 'n' roll.

How did your band form?

The bass player and I grew up together. We've known each other since we were 4, 5 years old, riding bikes. I moved to Nashville to go to college and Hitch and I were still friends. I became a writer, and out of being a writer, I started a band. We met [Dave Ray] when we both moved to Nashville.

What are your musical influences?

From Radney Foster to the Rolling Stones and Lucinda Williams.

How did you come up with your band name?

It's my last name, and it started out with my songs and the fact that me and the bass player started out in East Tennessee and there's a lot of coal mines. It seemed like the core of the band was the friendship of the three guys that has lasted for 11 years now and the songs I was writing, so it kind of came out of that.

You released an album called 'Kids With Songs' in August. Explain the title.

That song [on the album] is really the story of a young woman coming to a city to play music. The chorus is essentially a reminder to myself to keep doing what you're doing because you love what you do. Everybody walks up to the edge but you've got to do it. After 11 years it gets tougher. As long as we get people to listen to what we're doing, that's the goal now.

What are your expectations for SXSW? Are you excited?

We've done a couple things in the Dallas area but we've never done SXSW. I'm excited to go down there and see what it's like. I know through talking to friends that it's a wonderful chance to get together and meet people and it's a big party and a big celebration of music, which I'm really looking forward to.

What's the biggest misconception about your music? Some might listen to it and think that it's just country.

I don't know, [with] rock 'n' roll now there's so much of a trend toward really rift-oriented rock. For me, as a writer, I found growing up that I could write more literal songs in the vein of Hank Williams. I came from more of a literal school where I wanted to write stories and have a little more of a transparent meaning to what I was saying. I love the kind of straightforward nature to it. I know that it's not for everybody, but trying to draw from different palettes, I feel like I do have the elements of that. People might not think we're the hippest or coolest but hopefully [when] they take a listen they're going to hear something they dig. We've never really kind of dressed the part or grown the beard. I just never felt like it was the genuine thing to do. I dig that approach; I just can't necessarily do it myself.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

David Lee Roth is my definite guilty pleasure. We listen to 'Yankee Rose,' turn it up really loud.

Beatles or Stones?

I'm going to say the Stones, but realistically if you listen to my songwriting, it maybe is a little more Paul McCartney-sappy sometimes.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

We were on stage in Florida and a couple was having sex at the bar. [Another time] a former Rockette once got up and danced. There was a trombone convention and three trombone players once became a really impromptu horn section.

What's your most recent work and are you working on new material?

A record called 'Beauty is a Moment' on Funzalo Records, but I'm working on an album right now for the fall. We're trying to be prolific as we can in terms of getting as many songs out there as possible.

After 11 years do you feel like people are really catching on?

We're not a pop band by any means, but we could be. It's really kind of an arbitrary business and that's what so uncontrollable. It's kind of a big gamble and we enjoy the game. I'm a pretty reserved person and I'm not going to hard-sell what we do. We've been really lucky through the years. We have some real cool notches in our belt. I would never say we weren't a huge success, in my mind, from what we've done through the years, but I would always say there's a chance for more people to hear what we do. After 11 years together it's essentially like you're brothers now.

Amy Kuperinsky is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.