The Only Children - V31 Sept/Oct 2004

The first time I saw Josh Berwanger, he was standing on top of a shaky wooden table, playing guitar in a tiny Kansas bar to a crowd of about 5 people. Over the next few years, Josh's band, The Anniversary, would sign to a hot up-and-coming indie label, release two albums, tour the world, and then implode disastrously just as they stood on the verge of potential mainstream success. These days Berwanger is taking it all in stride as he readies the first release from his new band, The Only Children. Claiming a "ridiculous amount of pride" in his new record, he has no anxiety about hitting the road to bring his particular brand of Kansas barn-stomping '70s rock to the people. Luckily for him, the breezy country charm of The Only Children's debut, much like his own, is undeniable.

T Cole Rachel First let's talk about your new record, how did it come together?

Josh Berwanger Well, the Glurp label had wanted to do something with The Anniversary, but the last year of the band had been such a nightmare that it seemed like a bad idea. Still I had all of this solo material that I'd been recording for the last couple of years and was interested in putting out a folk record. So, I told the label dude if he was interested in hearing it then maybe we could do something on the side. I sent him some of my music and he liked it...and then The Anniversary broke up. So then I just went on to do my own thing. Jim and Jenko (from the Anniversary) were still interested in playing music, so I said, you know, let's just start a new band, get some other people, and do something different.

TCR Who else is in the band?

JB Me, Jim, and Jenko, T.K. Webb, Heidi-Lynne, and Casey. Casey's also in a band called Hot Rod Circuit and Heidi plays on and off with Juliana Hatfield's band and T.K. Webb is a solo blues musician who used to live here in Kansas but now lives in New York.

TCR Everyone seems to know T.K.

JB I sent him the demos and asked if he wanted to play on the record. Then he gets back to me and says, "No, I don't want to play on the record, I want to be in the band!" It's awesome, since T.K.'s solo stuff is some of my favorite music around. So, for him to want to be in the band it's like. . . for me, it's as cool as, say, Keith Richards playing on the record. It's even cooler, actually.

TCR It's a great lineup now

JB I think I have the best backing band in rock-and-roll today. I'll say it. And we'll prove it when we go on tour.

TCR That's a big statement.

JB Nah, I don't think so 'cause we're just so good! [Laughs] I'm serious!

TCR How did you find Heidi-Lynne?

JB Well, I was looking for a girl who could do some Emmylou Harris-style vocals on the record and this guy I know in Ben Kweller's band told me about Heidi. Turns out we had actually played a show together once and sort of knew each other. So, I sent her the demos and she liked them and then she came down and we played together and she was basically just like "I'm in the bandŠ and there's nothing you can do about it." And that was the plan.

TCR And the other guy in the band, Casey, is the really skinny guy from Hot Rod Circuit, right?

JB He's an amazing pedal steel player. I had been writing lots of folky country sort of stuff and sending it to him, so when the opportunity came to do a real record, he was more than down with it.

TCR Sounds like it was all meant to be.

JB Yeah, the lineup of this band is just so awesome, so amazing. I didn't expect it to be this great, especially coming out of something like The Anniversary which had been so great at one time but then became, I guess, kind of a nightmare. I hate to say that, but it really did turn out to be a mess.

TCR Let's talk about the tragic demise of The Anniversary. You guys were all childhood friends, you start this band together, you become successful on a label that was, at the time, this hot new thing, you do two records that were good and then some big tours. How long did it all last?

JB It would have been about eight years? It felt more like 40 by the end.

TCR: So, in the end, because of tangled romantic issues between people in your band and another band on your label, everything kind of just blew up, ending not only in a divorce but, ultimately, the end of your band. That story, and the subsequent fallout with the label, was very "behind the music."

JB Yeah, well, everything kind of ended when we were in Japan. We were there for all of seven hours, after traveling for over 24 hours, and...god, it was such a hard time. I get a phone call, it's over, we're being sent home, and we'd just got there, hadn't even played a single show yet! Being in the middle of everything, tying to not overreact and keep cool, it was the toughest thing ever.

TCR For the record, all the Fleetwood Mac-esque hijinx didn't really involve you.

JB No, but it involved my band and people that I loved, so I had to try and be supportive. I'll always stand by my friends, you know? Whether you stab me in the back or give me a diamond ring, I'm always gonna stand by you. Guess sometimes that isn't always a good thing. You don't always get that same kind of support in return, which is kind of how things were towards the end, but whatever.

TCR I can't imagine how you navigate a band dynamic...it's like having an intimate relationship with four or five other people.

JB I prefer to think of it like being on a basketball team. You can't worry about it too much and have to trust everyone to pull their own weight. I learned that from my previous band. When you become a band and start to really get to know people‹which is usually on your first tour­you figure out whether it's gonna be a long-term thing or just a one-night stand.

TCR And how does it feel with The Only Children?

JB I think we all feel so good about the music that we just don't feel like we have anything to prove. There's no attitude. We don't give a shit where we play or who we play with, because we're ready. When we first started rehearsing as a full band, which, by the way, takes place in a giant old barn in the middle of Kansas (which sucks right now because it's infested with hornets)...anyway, when we started playing together it was just amazing. We all knew it.

TCR It's fitting that you guys play in a barn. The music is very earthy, '70s country rock.

JB I get bummed sometimes because I'll never know what it was like to play music back in the '60s or '70s, but with this band and the kind of music we make, it feels like it's as close as you can get to that kind of feel. Just open and free and not giving a shit. When we play together everyone can't help but just smile.

TCR Oh yeah, what about your basketball team?

JB For the record, pretty much the whole band is on a basketball team. We're called "Chico's Bail Bonds" and we're part of a summer basketball league. So, if anyone is ever interested in coming up and talking to me, don't talk to me about music, just talk to me about basketball. I love it more than anything.

TCR It's hard for me to form a mental picture of you guys playing basketball

JB Dude, we're good! We're totally like the Bad News Bears. The other teams are freaked out by us­we have long hair and beards and when we run up and down the court it smells like cigarette smoke. I'm telling you, we're a sight for sore eyes.

The Only Children's debut album, Change of Living, will be released November 2nd on Glurp Records. For information: theonlychildren.com