Artist: Tom Hamilton/American Babies
Website: http://americanbabies.net/
Buy Flawed Logic from Amazon MP3 or Apple iTunes
Tom Hamilton is one of the Philadelphia music scene’s most talented artists. If his electrorock band Brothers Past isn’t to your liking, check out American Babies, a hook-driven roots rock band that draws upon The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Jayhawks, Whiskeytown, and other seminal Americana acts. We recently got the chance to talk with Tom about American Babies’ sophomore album Flawed Logic, the Philadelphia roots scene, and his parents’ critique of his music.
Juli Thanki, STPP: American Babies is completely different than your work with Brothers Past. What led to your interest in roots music?
Tom Hamilton: That’s what I grew up on. I listened to The Band and old blues guys like Freddie King and Albert King and Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. That stuff really did it for me when I was growing up. It never stopped doing it for me, I guess. With Brothers Past, the trends got to a point in that scene where any kid whose parents buy him a laptop or a JUNO keyboard could start making electric music, and I felt like it was getting really diluted and insincere. I wanted out. I wanted to do something that felt right and felt more organic. I got back to where I started, kind of.
STPP: Is the songwriting process different depending on what style of music you’re creating?
TH: Brothers Past has much more bleeps and bloops and computer things, and the Babies are all about the skeleton of the song, the core of it. That’s the main difference. Not that I didn’t concentrate on the core of the song with Brothers Past, but there were certain things you could sort of get away with because you knew you’d be dressing it up in such a way where function could mean as much as anything else. With the Babies, it’s like “hey, this is the song.” It is what it is, and if it’s not passable on its own, it’s not going to be.
STPP: I noticed that the new record has mostly Philadelphia folks on it. How important was it to you to keep the album local?
TH: The Philly scene in general is a really wonderful thing. There are so many great bands; the Philly Folk Parade, Hezekiah Jones, and all those people. I think it’s great. And on the more indie side you’ve got Dr. Dog and Kurt Vile. I was in New York for a while, and I found that there was a weird sense of entitlement with a lot of the musicians up there, and I kind of took offense to it almost. The guys I know here in Philly are, for lack of a better word, much more blue-collar. People are willing to work more for their paychecks and not feel like they deserve success, you know? It’s just grimier in Philly, and that’s my thing. It’s hard work; roll up your sleeves and dive in. You’ll only get out of it what you put into it. In New York it seemed like a lot of folks were like “Oh, I’ve got rich parents; I’m going to live off their credit cards and start a new rap band.”
STPP: You’re also working with Bill Moriarty on the new album. What did he bring to the table?
TH: Bill is the best. I didn’t know Bill before making this record. I knew of Dr. Dog obviously, and our paths [had] crossed here and there, so I reached out to Bill and said “Let’s meet up and see if we get along, and we’ll go from there.” The end result is that Bill is now one of my dear friends. He’s very relaxed, which is really cool. He doesn’t overthink things. In a studio setting where you have every option in the world at your fingertips, he doesn’t overthink it. He kind of throws a microphone up and we just get it. It was very calming to work with him.
It was a contrast to the first record we made a couple years back, which was five guys in a room; we did almost everything live. It was interesting this time with Bill because we did everything in a piecemeal fashion. There’s not, like, one band on the record: it’s all different players. It was much more experimental. Not in a psychedelic way, but just the process of bringing in different guys to track different songs.
STPP: Thematically, Flawed Logic feels very different from the first one. What was your mindset going in to making the album?
TH: I’m definitely a sap. I’m a sucker for love songs. If you’ve ever heard the first record, that’s blatantly obvious. In making the second record I didn’t want to do that again. I spent a lot more time thinking about an angle. I’m getting older and there’s more to my life now than a chick. I started paying attention to what’s going on in the world. The financial meltdown was happening when I started making this record, and the wars and all that stuff.
My older brother, who’s a bass player, is in the military; he’s a reservist. Right before I started making the record he got activated to do some domestic thing; at that time he didn’t get sent overseas. When he got back he told me that he’s going to get activated again within the near future, and this time he was going to have to go to Afghanistan. So that threw me off. I’ve been playing music with my brother for as long as I can remember. We’ve always been a team. That getting interrupted was jarring enough, but the reason it was getting interrupted—him going to do what he had to do over there—had a very profound effect on what I was thinking about and writing about. Seeing how his wife and kids and our parents were feeling about it, and seeing other friends who were being sent over or just coming back really affected me. You read about what’s going on with the war, but when it becomes a reality and stares you in the face, it’s a pretty intense situation.
I’m not trying to sound all preachy, but the financial thing pissed me off. I had friends that I grew up with that were in finance who were losing their shirts. These are people with wives and kids. I lose my shirt and it’s like “Eh, whatever. I’ll eat ramen noodles.” But these guys are responsible for other lives.
There were just a lot of adult situations going on in my life. I’m sure you know a lot of musicians; we’re all children. No matter how old we are, there’s a Peter Pan complex where you’re perpetually 22 (laughs). There was a lot of real world stuff happening and it was just fucking with me, so that’s where a lot of the songs came from on the record.
There are aspects of the record that have to deal with love. I had just gotten out of an engagement that didn’t work out. There were a lot of things happening. I just took all of that stuff and looked at [the songs] as little short stories of people who were dealing with what was going on in the world in different ways.
STPP: As far as the sound goes, I get sort of a Jayhawks meet The Flying Burrito Brothers type of vibe. What are some of your essential roots music bands?
TH: I love the Burrito Brothers. I’d say Willie Nelson kills it for me. I’ve listened to Patsy Cline for as long as I can remember. Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash, too. I grew up with Johnny Cash records, but the American Recordings sessions he did with Rick Rubin just destroyed me; they were great.
STPP: Were your folks country fans?
TH: They were music fans. It was a pretty well-balanced diet of music growing up. My mom was way into Clapton and the blues; The Beatles, too. My dad was more of a country guy, and he’s still a blues guy. When I was a kid, he’d sit me down with these records and be like “This is Freddie King” and teach me about everything. Now I’m 30 years old, I’ll go over there and he’s doing the same shit, just with YouTube! My parents are both very concerned with what I listen to. My mom sends me Buddy Holly links: “You should listen to this! It’s great songwriting!” It’s funny.
STPP: Do they listen to your stuff?
TH: Hell yes. My dad is way into it; he loves the fact that I have made a career out of music, and he loves everything. My mom is funny because she’ll say “You know, I don’t like that song.” Or if there’s a curse in the song she’ll be like “Do you have to curse?” It’s cute. But they listen and they give me feedback. They’re very active listeners.
STPP: Tell me about the upcoming American Babies tour.
TH: We’re going from Burlington to Charleston, just getting out there and doing what the job is: trying to win over as many fans as we can one at a time. Touring is my favorite part of the job. I like being out there and meeting people. At this point we’re planning on being on the road for the rest of the year. It’s going to be a good time!
