To hear their voices you'd think that the four members of the Wrens were all twenty-somethings with few cares other than their next party. Instead, they're average Joes, working the 9-5 (except for one who was downsized "a year and some change ago"), touring on weekends and rushing in between shows to see their kids play the first game of the soccer season. Their lifestyles just don't fit what you see on stage: four older men, some gray, some balding and all jumping around, throwing guitars into the air and belting out evocative vocals like they don't have to be back in the office Monday morning. It goes without saying: the Wrens are a band like no other.
The Wrens, Charles Bissel, Kevin and Greg Whalen and Jeremy MacDonnel, began in 1990 under the name Low. Unbeknownst to them, there was already a band named Low, a low-fi indie group who forced them to change their name. When asked how they picked their name, the Wrens said they whipped out dictionaries and banged out a few names until they settled on a name.
Last weekend, the Wrens played through slight technical difficulties and Newcomb Ballroom's horrendous acoustics to give Charlottesville fans an amazing show. There were moments of sheer lunacy (younger brother Kevin jumped on a stack of amps) and moments of unbelievable band/audience solidarity -- the audience claps transformed song into performance.
Before the show, tableau spoke with the Wrens about sketchy venues, late success and the daily grind.
tableau: Have you guys been to C'ville before?
The Wrens: No, I don't think so; first time.
How do you like it so far?
It's beautiful; very historic.
Are you excited about the show?
Yeah, absolutely, it's going to be a blast. First times in cities can be pretty cool.
Do you get excited for every show? Or, for some shows, are you playing a familiar venue, so you know what to expect?
I think you know what to expect. You know what to expect out of the crowds. Some crowds are little bit more subdued, although last night [Friday, Sept. 9 at the Black Cat in D.C.] was a complete surprise. Even after [how well] things have gone in the last year or two, all those other 13 years precondition you that [your expectations] don't matter.
Tonight, we're like, "Are there more than 10 people here?" And then there are 800 or something. Anything greater than 10. Ten's our band cutoff.
Have you ever had less than 10?
We've had less than 10.
Less than 5?
We've had less than 5.
Where was this?
El Paso. We had one person -- the bartender. Here's the scenario: We drove all night from some other place so we could actually treat ourselves and have a hotel for a full day so we could get showers and do whatever.
We wound up breaking down about 17 miles outside of El Paso. So that's desert and there's a whole lot of things that went on as we broke down with these guys [Greg and Charles] getting flashed by strippers or something. Kevin and I jumped in the back of a pickup truck with these two guys that said they could give us a lift and then headed down a dirt road towards Mexico.
Then, [we wound] up at a huge NAPA Auto Parts [store] in the middle of nowhere and finally got [the car] fixed, got to the hotel, [went] out to dinner, got to the venue, the bar and -- before we could set up -- had to remove all the plywood. (They were rebuilding the stage.)
So we had to take all that crap off, set up.... There was no one there. I think there was one person at the bar and they left, and then there was the bartender and I think that he gave us 10 dollars after the show.
Was this early in your career?
Right in the middle. Actually more towards the end of the Act 2.
Can you explain Act 2 theory, the Wrens' running joke?
Well, Act 1 is kind of [like the] first stages -- you're getting together.
Act 2 is you're signed, kind of getting introduced to the whole music business part of it and all the people and all the egos and all the shitty tricks and all the craziness that goes along with trying to make a living playing music. That's Act 2.
Act 2 came to an end, how many years ago? Seven, I don't know, it was more like just a break.
What was your big break?
Meadowlands and the Internet.
People know you better now, after Meadowlands; Is that weird?
It's very weird. It's weird after this many years that that was the big break. Like last night's show was an all-ages show, so it was like, all these kids would come in first, but behind them you'd see people our age with gray hair. It's really kind of wild.
It's like, "You're too young! Why would you be here? You're too old, why would you be here?"
Can you explain the big break between your two last albums, Meadowlands and Secaucus?
I think a lot of it was the time we went through between that record and actually getting this record out as a band, the people, and everything we were going through.
Marriage, kids, jobs, losing jobs, bad record deals, the whole industry thing, problems we had with our old label, the rent... all kinds of things -- day-to-day living concepts.
Does that play a bigger role in your lives than it does for other musicians?
Yeah, it does. [It] comes out in your writing, [the] frustration and all that stuff.
Are you working on anything new?
Just about to start.
What's the one thing you guys would change about your lives to date?
[The] Members.
*laughter*
Charles and Kevin replied that they would want to go to college, but not for music. Charles added that he "drank his way through high school, had one drink in college".
Both Greg and Jeremy had the typical college experiences, unlike their band mates. All joking aside, their honest answer was that they wished their parents could have witnessed the release and subsequent praise for Meadowlands.
The Wrens: Charles' mom died. The next month, [Kevin and Greg's] dad died, and the next month [Jeremy's] dad died.
So for all those years, [they saw] us doing nothing, struggling, and they were all so supportive.
How do you feel about being called "the quintessential indie rock band"?
We're from Jersey, yo -- we're super-flattered. If "indie" still means "independent" or something, [then] yeah, in the ways that count, we are.
There are so many [bands] though, [so] it'd be hard to have a quintessential one. I think that's kind of how it ends up being just because we've been doing it for so long.
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