Photograph by Otis Gibs
Two decades ago, Brian Henneman, Mark Ortmann, and their fellow bandmates were in music studio in Athens, Georgia, recording their first album. But there was just one problem:they had no name.
“So we were getting these reels of tape with nothing to label them as,” remembers Henneman. “It was Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar from Uncle Tupelo—they were driving down to come sing on the record with us and they were just jotting down names trying to help us out. And they had a whole page of potential band names and we saw Bottle Rockets and said 'That looks like it right there!’ That was how it was born.”
And, like a bottle rocket, they shot off into the music sphere where they have stayed in orbit for the past two decades. The band, which today includes members Keith Voegele and John Horton, have a dozen albums under their belt, several thousand miles in touring, and an appearance on Late Night With Conan O’Brien—in which, it should be noted, that he introduces the band as hailing from "Missour-ah." The foursome are playing a special evening show at Off Broadway on Saturday where, says Henneman. “We’re going to be doing a lot of songs that we don’t normally do or haven’t done in years. it’s going to be a longer show and it’s going to be something that we don’t normally do. It’s kind of unique actually.” Below, Henneman talks about staying rooted in St. Louis, playing classic rock 'n' roll, and why, when it comes to producing good music, slow and steady wins the race.
When the band came together back in the '90s, did you expect to be playing as the Bottle Rockets for this long?
No! [Laughs.] I didn’t really think about it then. It really wasn’t even a consideration or a thought,like "We’re going to do this for 20-something years,” no. As you travel and keep doing it you just wonder "How can it be? How can we still be doing this all these years later?" I guess because we never really thought about it. Without thinking about it or putting any sort of expectations on it, any kind of time frame to any expectations, the time just sort of flew, actually.
As time went on, did you or the band ever consider moving from the St. Louis area and relocating to a bigger city?
We started in Festus, but we didn’t get any gigs in Festus, so it’s always been St. Louis eventhough we were down there. This is where we played. After we started touring a lot, we started realizing that no matter where we lived we were recording in other places anyway. New York or wherever we were doing that. St. Louis is always a very affordable place to live, which is good when you’re a musician, plus it’s centrally located and very easy to make it to all parts of the country from. Lots of very linked up interstates al hook up right here.
Your last album, South Broadway Athletic Club, was released in 2015. Do you have new music coming out soon?
The plan is yes, but it’s not going to be any time real quick. You can get into the modern mentality of that which is that if you don’t release something every five minutes people can’t stay excited about it. But South Broadway Athletic Club is still on some radio charts right now a year after the fact. It’s not completely dead yet. There’s plenty going on. We do our thing and we do the Marshall Crenshaw Band thing. It just takes us a little while to get around to it, but once we get the songs together it doesn’t take long to record them.
What is a Bottle Rockets show like?
It’s probably something very antiquated these days—it’s a rock 'n' roll show. [Laughs.] There’s a saying going around that if it’s too loud, you’re too young. The kids are all into the acoustic thing now; we’re very much an old school two guitars, bass, and drums rock show. If you like good old fashioned guitar rock music that’s pretty much what the show about. There’s no gimmicks, no fire, nobody flies to the ceiling, nothing special, just a bunch of dudes up there playing music to the best of their ability. Back in the day when I was a teenager that’s when rock stars were gods. That’s what made me want to get into it, was back then. Nowadays it’s who are the guys people want to be? You want to be Mark Zuckerberg. You don’t want to play guitar—those guys don’t make money. The Mac and the PC are the new Beatles and Stones. People anticipate new phones like we used to anticipate new albums.
What would you say makes the Bottle Rockets a true St. Louis band?
Probably from being teenagers in the '70s, and growing up on KSHE 95. We definitely had a really good rock station back then. Maybe it’s the whole working class kind of aspect of this region of the country. We’re more like workers than a lot of musicians might be like around here. There’s a little work ethic to it. I guess just because we’ve always lived here. We don’t write fiction, so I guess it’s the sounds, filtered through us, of what goes on around here.
SEE ALSO: The Bottle Rockets: Why Wait?
The Bottle Rockets play Off Broadway (3509 Lemp) on Saturday, November 26 at 8 p.m. For more information, go to offbroadwaystl.com.
