Web Exclusive: A conversation with Smoking Popes' Josh Caterer

Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 13-Aug-08 @ 11:26 AM

Benedict XVI's coming to America earlier this year wasn't the only hugely anticipated tour by a Pope in recent memory. Near-legendary Chicago pop-punk band SMOKING POPES decided to reunite in 2005, playing a show in their hometown that would ultimately become the At Metro live album. They kicked it into high gear with a tour the next year, and have now released their first proper studio album in over a decade, Stay Down. The band will once again hit the road to support the record, which also finds them returning to their independent roots--while the Popes spent many of their earlier years on Capitol Records, Stay Down is being released by Appeal, a label run by former Get Up Kids and current Blackpool Lights guitarist/vocalist Jim Suptic. In between their 1999 breakup and 2005 reformation, Popes frontman Josh Caterer--who'd become deeply involved with Christianity just before the Popes' dissolution--formed an outlet to express his faith: Duvall. That band has since gone on hiatus while the Popes play shows and brood through their jams new and old. Caterer recently spoke with Brian Shultz regarding his faith, the master of the brood--Morrissey--and the incestuous branches of his musical family tree.

How do you see yourself getting into a separate frame of mind writing Smoking Popes songs as opposed to writing Duvall songs? Does it depend solely on working with a separate group of people?
No, because songwriting is something that I have usually done alone. So the focus that I have in my songwriting doesn't depend on the people that I'm playing with as much as what it is that I'm trying to express through the songs. When I was writing for Duvall, I was making a specific attempt to express my faith in Christ and I was trying to incorporate Biblical truths into the lyrics--trying to figure out different ways of doing that, that felt natural to me and that didn't feel like I was necessarily preaching at people. But just trying to have more of an authentic expression of where I was at with Christ.

Then when I got the Popes back together, I just wasn't putting my songwriting in that category anymore. I was just sort of opening it up to [subjects] pertaining to life, although I feel like this version of the Smoking Popes' songwriting is broader than the songwriting I was doing the first time around because that was almost exclusively about romantic relationships.

Did you find it difficult making the shift back to a broader perspective?
Well, again, it was...a shift into trying to express where I am at the present time, which is a particular stage in my life, and trying to do so in a way that seems natural to me. If I really just wanted to recreate the old Popes, then I could try to pretend that I was 19 years old again [Laughs.]--which I guess would be easy to do--[but] it would be insincere, and perhaps formulaic. But I could probably figure out the formula and do it. I'm just more interested in exploring new territory, which I think is what I've tried to do on [Stay Down].

So between the label switching and the pushbacks, can you explain all the issues with why Stay Down took so long to see a release?
[Draws large breath.] Well, it was a process of talking to different labels...

I know the record was originally supposed to be on Flameshovel.
Right. And honestly, I don't have all of the details--I mean, a lot of that process was overseen by our management. So I would just sort of be involved as far as, I would be given an overview of where we stand in the negotiation process right now. [I would look at it as,] "Does it seem like an arrangement that's gonna be good for our band or not?" And not wanting to be hasty. It's not a very... [Laughs.] It's just a lot of phone calls and e-mails and it takes way longer than it should. It was a frustratingly slow process, even when the first time around we got signed to Capitol. It was a period of many months from the time that we first started talking to major labels to the point where we ultimately decided that Capitol was the one. And from there, it was still months before we worked out the details of the contract.

Manufacture your own CDs and sell them out of your trunk. It would be a lot quicker and easier.







So are you with Appeal Records for the foreseeable future?
Well, we're only obligated to this one record. But, if it works out, we would continue to work with them in the future. So far, so good. They seem really excited about the record and they're getting behind it and being supportive of us, so that's great.

When the band first announced they were working on new material, were there any major labels interested?
Yeah; I mean, we were having conversations with people, but at that point it's a lot of just [checking] each other out. [Laughs.] Nobody wants to be committed right off the bat. It's not like anybody was saying, "What? The Popes are back together? Here's a million bucks!" It was more like, "Ahhh. Yeah, well, let's talk." [Laughs.]

When you'd originally reformed the band in 2005 or so and started looking back at Popes songs, did you find any that seemed to conflict with your faith?
There's a song called "Follow The Sound," which is the last song on Destination Failure, which entertains the notion of reincarnation. Since I was still virtually adrift at that point, I was open to that possibility but having subsequently figured out that there is no such thing as reincarnation, I wouldn't sing that song anymore.

You've recorded and toured with Bayside, a band that a lot of people have pointed to as a rather direct descendant of the Popes. Do you see your band playing an influence in their sound?
I don't know. [Cracks up.] I guess when I hear them I think of it more as though they like the same kind of music that we like. They have derived their style from the same sources as us. I don't tend to wanna take exclusive credit for anything. [Laughs.] It's all just sort of this pool of music that everyone's influenced by a bunch of other bands.

I'm sure you're familiar with Botch.
Botch? No.

They were a Seattle-based band who basically pioneered this specific style of metal/hardcore in the late 1990s/early 2000s, and a few of today's bands--like Underoath, Norma Jean, the Christian metal/hardcore bands--they're pointed to as huge Botch followers to the point where even Botch would joke about it on their DVD.
Hunh.

So a lot of people say, "Oh, the singer of Bayside, Anthony Raneri, does seem like he takes his vocal delivery style from Josh Caterer..."
Well, I don't know. People used to say of me that...

The Morrissey comparison?
Yeah, that I was deriving my vocal style from Morrissey, who was certainly one of my influences, but I was also pretty heavily influenced by a handful of other people and I think of my own vocal style as sort of a concoction of a handful of musical influences combined with my own limitations, which sort of gives it your own thumbprint.

I think that [Raneri's] voice is the same way. [Sarcastically:] Like he grew up listening exclusively to Smoking Popes records--[laughing]--and trying to emulate my vocal style. It's very flattering and cool to be cited as an influence. It's just important not to give yourself too much [credit] and to let it go to your head.







With the release of Stay Down and more touring on the horizon, Duvall are still on break. Do you have any sort of timeline for when you would reconvene with them?
I... I don't know. I haven't thought too much about it. I'm not totally sure if Duvall will reconvene. We haven't officially broken up, but given the Smoking Popes' schedule along with my own personal work schedule and family schedule--I have a lot going on--the thought of adding another band project to the mix would be fairly overwhelming to me.

Do you keep in touch with the other members of Duvall regularly?
Well, the real final incarnation of Duvall was me and [my brother] Eli [Caterer], who's in the Popes. So I talk to him all the time. Rob Kellenburger on drums, who I talk to fairly regularly. I mean, I talked to him last week; he lives a few blocks away from me.

Does Duvall ever come up in conversation?
We never talk about getting Duvall getting back together.

When you sing about parenthood, and the child-rearing subjects on Stay Down, is that an interesting perspective for you after all the sort of young romance tales you'd written earlier?
Yeah, it is. I think it's obvious that I wrote the song "Little Jane-Marie" about my daughter. I discovered when I had children that there's a different kind of love. It might sound cheesy [laughing] to people who haven't, but to people who have kids they'll know what I mean when I say that there's a different place in your heart that you're loving them from that you couldn't tap into before. And when you embrace that kind of love and step up to all that it requires of you, it's a very maturing thing. The whole process of being a father has changed my perspective on life a little bit.

Since Morrissey has a new album coming out, has he contacted you about any possible touring?
Not since the new album... When did his new album come out?

I think his new album will be out in September. [Ed. note: Morrissey's new album has now been delayed until 2009.]
Oh. He hasn't contacted us in several months. There was a point--I can't remember if it was very early this year or late last year--he was asking us to do some dates with him in New York and then we got another invitation to do something in Los Angeles. Apparently he was doing several nights in a row out there, and wanted us to open for a couple of the shows, but our touring schedule didn't coincide with that. We would have had to make special arrangements there and all the financial implications are bad. It just wouldn't have worked. We were trying to make it work, because it certainly would have been fantastic to play with him again and we would love to do that again at some point. It's a very cool experience; I hope it happens again. It's just a matter of logistics.

Do you think you'll be able to maintain a balance in the future among your family, your work and the band?
It's working out fairly well right now. I'm hopeful that that will happen. At this point the thing that is really at the top of my list is my family. It's a really important time for me to be around [due to my kids' ages]. I wouldn't want to get sucked into months of time away from home, so I'm trying to avoid that. The strategic amount of touring that we are doing right now is working for everyone--it's all about that.

Can you explain what Harvest Bible Chapel does and your involvement with it?
It's a church. I have a twofold job. First of all, I'm a worship leader, which is basically a band leader and singer. When you go to the church service, there's about a half-hour portion of it in the beginning where we're singing. That's me. But then, I am also the director of adult ministry at the church. We have a group that meets during the week that has kind of mini-church services that are designed for people in their 20s. I actually preach at that.

Have any hardcore Popes fans come to see you perform at the church?
Every once in a while, a Popes fan will turn up. But a lot of times it seems to be by accident. A person will come, and after the service, they'll come up to me and say, "When you started singing, I was like, 'Where do I know that voice from?'" [Laughs.] "And then after a couple of songs, it hit me--that's the guy from the Popes! I can't believe it!" I've had a few of those conversations. alt


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