Early to bed, early to rise — Punk veterans Social Distortion seem to be turning over a new leaf

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Social Distortion with Civet & The Strangers
MacEwan Hall
MacEwan Hall
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One should know better than to schedule an interview for 9 a.m., especially with a band like Social Distortion. Stalwarts of the North American punk rock scene for 31 years — and one of the first to bring country and western influences into a “cowpunk” style — they don’t usually see that time of day unless it’s to lay their head on the pillow, not to chat eloquently about current events.

However, that’s how it unfolds at their insistence. Maybe they’re turning over a new leaf.

Hardly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, guitarist Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham is desperately trying to be affable but he’s audibly cloudy-headed, struggling to understand questions and formulate some semblance of answers. Even discussing recent band activities — a European tour to inaugurate newest member, drummer Adam “Atom” Willard (Rocket from the Crypt, The Offspring) and forthcoming Canadian dates that bring the band to Calgary for two shows — is a chore. He reaches for anything else to say other than the obligatory “Yeah... it was great,” and “We’re excited to get up there.”

It’s not until discussing rumours of the band’s highly anticipated followup to its sixth album, 2004’s Sex, Love and Rock ’N’ Roll, that Wickersham feels a bolt of inspiration. Thank goodness, because let’s face it: That’s the only real reason to speak with these elder statesmen at this point. With the band’s history well-documented and stage show as finely coifed as its image, it has become a musical freight train: straightforward, it delivers religiously, consistently and unsurprisingly. So what we really want to know is, when the hell is that new album coming out?

“You know, we could be the kind of band that puts out albums regularly, like every year or 18 months, but then it would just get to the point where people don’t give a shit,” he shrugs with disdain, clearly sick of hearing the buzz for fresh material. “We play a few new songs live, but that’s all you’re gonna get for now. Not until we’re ready. This way, we always keep people guessing; keep the anticipation high because they never really know when to expect something. But we just do it when it feels right because we’re doing this for ourselves. We just wanna please ourselves and if we started worrying about everyone else... well, that’s just not gonna happen.”

Anyone keeping even vague track of Social Distortion developments as of late will have noted the mass of suppositions circulating around the Internet regarding this long-awaited release. Even the band’s own Wikipedia page — generally revered as keeping close track of genuine developments despite being “unofficial” — claims that this endeavour will be an acoustic affair seeing release at year’s end. That news surprises Wickersham, who says the band hasn’t even set foot in a studio yet.

“We toyed with that idea, but it’s not gonna happen,” he says. “We’ve been opening shows with a few acoustic tunes because we love it. That’s how the songs are originally written, but then they’re always transferred to electric instruments. After getting back to the acoustic side, we realized that we miss it and it’s different; fun. We do wanna do an acoustic album at some point but not right now. It’s in the back pocket.”

OK, so when? As he relates, not any time soon.

“Like I said, when we get our shit together,” he continues. “We have a bunch of tunes partially done, so when we feel motivated, we’ll get together and hammer them out. I hope it happens sometime within this year but even then you probably won’t see a new album from us until early next year at best. We’re not consistent with when we put ’em out but we’re consistent with how strong the music is on them. There’s always been big gaps between Social D albums. People should expect it by now.”