Sad Dads: The Flagpole Q&A
"It kinda sounds like shitty Pavement." "In other words, Pavement."
What does it mean to be a Sad Dad? We spoke with two of the dudes in the brand new local band, which features members of Blue Division and Velocirapture.
Flagpole: Who are Sad Dads?
Cameron Evers: Actually, technically anyone’s allowed to be in the band, like onstage. As far as who comes to practice…
Thomas Bauer: It’s me, Cameron, Winston Barbe, Wyatt Pless, Emmett Cappi and Michael Jeffs. The first true supergroup of Athens. All the saddest members of all the bands.
FP: May I have a reason for each individual’s sadness?
TB: I guess the real reason is that we’re all single and all drunks and depressed, but we all have separate backstories as to why we’re sad.
CE: Wyatt’s unhappy with his career, Emmett’s bald…
TB: No, his ex-wife turned his son gay. I’m sad because my wife left me, and took all the money, and Winston’s sad because he never even had a wife.
"The first true supergroup of Athens. All the saddest members of all the bands."
FP: So I guess we’re getting at origins at this point—how did the band start?
TB: It was this project that I had—I recorded a five-song EP in my bedroom by myself because I drank too much coffee and I was awake all night.
CE: I walked in on him during this and it was the saddest of any dad I’ve ever seen.
FP: So Cameron, why are you depressed?
CE: I’m sad—well, for the same reasons that every dad is sad. It’s the endless drinking and long nights and.…
FP: Why do you think Cameron’s sad, Thomas?
TB: Because his parents don’t love him, or something like that.
FP: Thomas, why are you sad?
TB: I just really don’t know what I’m doing with myself. Really.
CE: That’s probably my sadness, too: Uncertainty of the future, as well as a steady amount of failure with women. Like, up-to-bat failing, and then failure in the long-term as well.
TB: I’ve been having a lot of nightmares that my dick just falls off, and I think it’s come to the point where my dreams aren’t even something I have to interpret at all, because they’re so openly…
CE: [laughing] So openly sad!
TB: Oh, my dick fell off. I guess that’s sexual frustration.
CE: I had a dream that I walked to The Grill, where a girl that I wasn’t dating, but in my dream I was dating, was cheating on me, and then I got fired from The Grill. So it was multiple sad failures of things that hadn’t happened yet.
FP: What kind of music do you play?
TB: It kinda sounds like shitty Pavement.
CE: In other words, Pavement.
TB: Most of it is three-chord songs—not even power chords, just regular chords, and Winston’s doing the whole thing where he just sings and plays tambourine.
FP: He’s the hype man?
TB: Yeah.
CE: But anyone can come onstage with us.
"I think the saddest thing is when you see someone high and watching 'Two and a Half Men' and not laughing."
FP: What kinds of emotions do you want to convey with your music?
CE: Not sadness. It’s supposed to be a remedy for sadness itself, but that’s yet to happen.
TB: The music is kind of happy, or hyper, and lyrics are so openly sad, it’s just kind of silly: "My ex-wife is a bitch/ Everybody knows it/ She took all the kids and money/ And it ain’t even funny."
CE: I should point out that none of us are dads, but we see these guys who are in the liquor stores in the afternoon—we know what a sad dad looks like.
TB: My dad is one of them. Most of his time he spends sitting in a recliner, smoking a bong and watching "Two and a Half Men."
FP: Your dad really smokes a bong?
TB: Yes.
FP: Is that a post-divorce thing?
TB: That’s his entire life, actually. I think the saddest thing is when you see someone high and watching "Two and a Half Men" and not laughing.
FP: How do you want the audience to feel?
TB: I want them to feel happy, but also self-aware.
FP: Do you think people are capable of changing?
TB: No. You can change certain habits, but that’s always self-aware—you’re aware that you’re changing it.
CE: Sure. I mean, like, addiction, for example. There’s plenty of stories of people out there stopping what they’re doing. But relationship shit, and mental problems? Probably not.
Sad Dads play their first show on Tuesday, November 20th at Go Bar with Rayvon Pettis, Spirit Tramp and Alligator Indian.
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