Interview: Dave Hartley (The War on Drugs)
Five years after I Don't Live Here Anymore, The War on Drugs are stirring again.
Earlier this month, the Philadelphia-formed, now geographically scattered band released "Who's That," a synth-drenched, anthemic first taste of its forthcoming sixth album — and, per frontman Adam Granduciel, a song about the private negotiation between self-doubt and self-acceptance written one morning in the minutes between his first sip of coffee and school-drop-off.
For Asheville-based bassist Dave Hartley, the release doubles as a reset button heading into a short tour anchored by marquee slots at festivals such as Austin City Limits, Bourbon & Beyond, and Sea.Here.Now.
“It feels like a nice jolt of excitement to put the single out — kind of like a reminder to the world that we’re here and cooking stuff up,” he says. “It’s been fun to get a lot of great feedback on the tune.”
The run includes a Monday, Sept. 21, headlining show at Asheville Yards, with local pianist Steve Okonski opening the show with his eponymous trio. The War on Drugs has been coming through town since its infancy, eventually landing for more extended stays at Echo Mountain Recording to track portions of several albums, including 2017's Grammy-winning A Deeper Understanding.
Those visits turned into something more permanent for Hartley. “When we had our first child, we were living in a little house in Philly and just felt like it was time for a move,” he recalls. “We kicked the tires on Asheville and it sort of wrapped its arms around us, metaphorically.”
Since forming in Philadelphia in the mid-2000s around Granduciel's obsessive studio craft and widescreen vision — equal parts driving heartland rock and densely layered shoegaze ambience, filtered through Dylan, Springsteen, Young, and Petty — The War on Drugs has built a catalog that trades in patiently glowing, six-minute meditations.
Asheville Stages caught up with Hartley before soundcheck for a tour-opening show in Delaware to explore the band's evolving chemistry after 20 years together and the, in his words, “world’s colliding” feeling of bringing The War on Drugs to his adopted hometown.
Jay Moye: I heard you guys did some recording here in town recently?
DH: Yeah, we did a week at Echo Mountain and a week at Drop of Sun [Studios] last April, which was really awesome. Both studios are near and dear to me. I live very close to Drop of Sun and spend a ton of time working on stuff there. Both [co-owners] Alex [Farrar] and Adam [McDaniel] are good buddies of mine. So, my worlds collide when the Drugs roll into town. And we’ve recorded parts of multiple records at Echo Mountain. I can't say too much about the new record other than I’m incredibly pumped about what we're cooking up.
JM: We all are, too. It was interesting to read Adam describe how “Who’s That” came together so quickly and cerebrally. Is that how most of the band’s songs materialize, or was this more of an anomaly?
DH: It's always interesting because sometimes I learn about the inspiration for Adam's songs when I read interviews with him. [laughs] When you've been in a band with somebody for 20 years, you communicate through shared references and comedic bits half the time. His songs are really personal, and he keeps them to himself. He often writes the seed of a song in an instant, then we spend a long time polishing and tweaking the lighting, like we did with this new recording.
JM: When The War on Drugs started out, you all lived in Philadelphia. Now you're spread out across the country. How does that distance and separation contribute to your collaborative chemistry? Does the fact that you have to be more intentional about getting together to write, record, and perform ultimately serve the band and your music?
DH: You hit the nail on the head. We have to be really intentional with it. Sometimes, when you live in the same city, you can hang out all the time but maybe take it for granted. Anthony [LaMarca, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist] and I fly to LA [where Granduciel lives] for a week and work every day. When the band flew to Asheville, we did 14 or 15 days, and we only took one day off. And every day was 10- or 12-hour studio days. We’re super focused. There are definitely times when I wish I lived in the same town with all my best friends. I miss them, especially when we have these long breaks in touring.
JM: You've been the backbone of the Drugs’ rhythm section since the beginning. How has your working relationship with Adam evolved over the years?
DH: I think it's just a deepening friendship and having deeper shared experiences and references. I think he probably knows more, over time, how to put me in a position to play well on his songs. And I know more, over time, what makes him happy as the main songwriter. It's an honor to help Adam with his crazy vision and to make music with everybody in the band. I knew Robbie [Bennett, keyboardist] before I knew Adam and have been making music forever with him. It's a beautiful thing to make music with your friends for so long and still be surprised by them.
JM: Do hometown shows land differently for you than festivals and other venues, like the ones you’re playing on this run?
DH: For sure. I'll have a lot of friends and loved ones there Monday, including my kids. Like I was saying earlier about my worlds colliding, Asheville has been my home for almost eight years now. It’s where I'm raising my family. And the experience of going through [Tropical Storm] Helene made it really feel even more like home because it was such an intense period of suffering. The character of the community really revealed itself. I now feel so bought-in to Asheville, for life.
But The War on Drugs is my family and my friends and my career, so it's like my career shows up at my house every two years. “Bring your career to home day” as opposed to “bring your kid to work day.”
JM: It’s such a treat to have another local, Steve Okonski, opening the show with his band. I know you’ve done some gigs here with him. Such a talent.
DH: What’s funny is I didn't even pitch him as an opener. Someone else did. Okonski came up in an email as an option, and I was like, “Hell yeah!” I think the world of him and his musicality, so it’ll be awesome to have him on a couple shows.
JM: How did your early trips through Asheville ultimately lead to the put down roots here?
DH: Asheville kind of had a cosmic place in my life because of experiences with The War on Drugs. It was basically the first place we played where it felt like we had fans coming to the show. We played The Grey Eagle [in 2007], and it turns out Matt [Schnable] and Mark [Capon] at Harvest [Records] had been spinning our record, and all these people came to the show. I was like, "What the heck is going on?” We were a baby band at the time, so it was like a dream. That was the first time something like that had happened. Then we quickly met beautiful people there and recorded a bunch at Echo Mountain, so we had these longer stays.
We kept coming through on tour and it just kept beckoning. I sometimes mush some of those early trips together in my mind —they all kind of blur together. There was [the Harvest-curated] Transfigurations, [Festival in 2009 ]which I still have the poster from. So many killer bands [including Akron/Family, Kurt Vile, and Bonnie “Prince” Billy].
What makes Asheville such a unique place is it's this town in the mountains where most of the people made a real decision to live there. It just calls to certain people, which is probably why so many interesting people live there.
JM: You record solo under the name Nightlands. A few years ago, you told WUNC that your compulsion to make your own music might not have happened if what’s in you wasn’t so different from The War on Drugs. Is that still the case?
DH: I think so. In some ways, because my role in the band is so specific — to play bass as best I can and serve the songs — it probably creates an itch in me to exist more holistically;to write songs, sing, and use my voice. But also just from a time perspective, we have these intense periods of touring where we'll do 200 shows over the course of a couple years, then have a year or maybe two years basically off. Your cup is pretty full touring. It’s exhausting, but it tends to build up a creative reservoir in you because you're seeing the world and having all these crazy experiences.
There's a seasonal flow to making music: the touring season and the recording season. If I have a year to fiddle around, I'll go into the studio for a few days and all of a sudden have a song or two, and the snowball’s rolling down the hill.
JM: Are you mainly working out of your home studio, at Drop of Sun, or a combination?
DH: I’m at Drop a Sun a lot. Adam has become a sort of guru for me, creatively. He helped me with my last record and is helping me with this one, which I’m pretty far into. But at heart, I'm a bedroom recorder. I love to wake up, make coffee, put on my slippers, and get right at it. I'm most comfortable, creatively, in that sort of home sanctuary.
JM: Why is Asheville a good place to be during that off season for your creative flow?
DH: I have been falling really deeply back in love with Asheville over the past six months to a year. Being able to drive in any direction and find yourself in a beautiful environment. You can find these really inspiring little nooks everywhere. And Asheville is filled with really profoundly motivated musicians and artists, which reminds me of the energy in Philly in the early-aughts. There's a community of people making music for one another, and not seemingly motivated by some exterior value of success.
There are a lot of “music scenes” all over the country where people are trying to get record deals or get discovered on TikTok or whatever. I don't get that vibe from Asheville. It just feels like a real community where people are making records with each other and for each other, and it's really inspiring. Just because of my age [45], I'm a little bit like a spectator. I’m not going to Static Age [Records] five nights a week, you know. But I still feel like I can glom off that energy.
IF YOU GO
Who: The War on Drugs w/ Okonski
When: Monday, Sept. 21, 7 p.m.
Where: Asheville Yards, 75 Coxe Ave., ashevilleyards.com
Tickets: $65.22
(Photo by Dominic East)
