Photos provided by Brother O' Brother

Chris Banta and Warner Swopes, collectively known as Brother O’ Brother, have been passionately and energetically melting faces off of concert goers with their unique brand of garage gospel.

I recently spoke with the duo about touring, taking risks and vinyl.

Brett Alderman: When did Brother O’ Brother start touring outside of the Central Indiana area?

Chris Banta: The last two years. Mainly once we became a two-piece. From then on, it’s been real important. The more you do it, the easier it gets. It’s allowed us, especially early on, to take risks as far as finances. We could go play whatever for next to nothing, because you gotta get into the city.

BA: Was it difficult finding places to play?

CB: I think, with any band, that first six months you’re getting your feet wet in the area you’re in. Man, the moment we started going, really getting out, there hasn’t been a place that hasn’t wanted us back. We’ve even had shows where the bill might’ve been sucky, or there weren’t a lot of people there, but the venue was so entertained by us. They’re like, “We gotta have you back,” and put us on some great bill. Which is great. Booking sucks. It’ll never not suck, [but] it’s not difficult. We definitely have an area now that we can hit.

BA: You’ve had some pretty big shows this summer, like the one Third Man in Nashville, Tenn., and Mile of Music in Appleton, Wis. Has this been one of your busiest time periods for touring?

CB: That’s fair. Yeah, I’d say the last two or three months for sure…

Warner Swopes: We’ve done Mile before. This was our second year [playing there].

CB: The last two or three months is the busiest we’ve been. Especially the quality of what we’ve been getting. We’ve played [at] both Third Man locations, the Detroit one, and the Nashville one. There might be more coming from that. They really like the custom vinyl that we’re doing. They bought our glow-in-the-dark dino-bone record – that’s kind of how all this started. We put our pitch in the other day and we’ll see what happens.

It’s been awesome. There’s been so many cool things that we talk about a lot. “Man, last year we were doing this. This is where we were. [Now] we’re doing this." It’s wild.

BA: There’s definitely a strong visual aspect to the band, both with live performance and the unique vinyl. Has that always been part of Brother O' Brother?

CB: The show part, from the very beginning. I’m all about showmanship. It’s a show. I’d go see Nobunny, or something else and be like, “Dude, I want the crowd to be that entertained.” Or early Bon Scott era AC/DC, where everything was super fast and people were just wild. Or MC5. That’s what I want. It’s hard to find like-minded people that are willing to be that weird or wild for the sake of entertaining people.

[To Swopes] From the projects you were doing before, especially Nuclear After Party, the more folk stuff, that was not a part of what you were getting to do. With this, I’m like, "Dude, let ‘er rip.” The more we’ve been together, especially as a two-piece, we’re on the road for so long that we’re just thinking of things to do. “What are ways we can stick this into our schtick.”

I’m a huge vinyl collector. I was like, "Man, our music is built for it. I think we need to get into it early, and it’ll pay big dividends.” And it has. The more I’ve been in it I’ve been blessed to make relationships with plants, and then started making my own custom records about a year ago.

Once Show Pony came out, up to now, it’s been so wild what has happened. I was doing the math and [we’ve sold] a little over 16 grand in vinyl in the last year. We’ve got stuff in 15 countries.

BA: Are you pressing the vinyl yourselves?

CB: We work with plants. And then, [the plants] do what we need to do, so I can manipulate what I need to; I can’t say too much. There [are] definitely a lot of the custom records being made by us.

We’re on like four indie labels at the moment. There’s a fifth one – the moment we send them songs they’re ready to get it rolling. With this next album, we’re hoping to get on a bigger, potentially more major label. We’re willing to give up some of the money to get a much bigger reach.

BA: You’ve collaborated with other bands for vinyl releases too.

CB: We just did something with Ghost Wolves out of Texas. They’re like the best people. Locally, Veseria, we’re doing a 7” with them. Scantron out of Philly – a lot of the members are from Low Cut Connie. They were on [President Obama]’s Spotify list last year. We have like three or four other bands we’re working on either full-lengths or splits with, we’re kind of deciding which way to go. We’re all about partnering up with people and sharing talent and skills. It’s good for everybody.

BA: Have the collaborations stemmed more from the labels or touring?

WS: I think it’s been mostly touring.

CB: As far as the band’s that we’ve had on there, yeah. As for the vinyl, as far as getting it rolling, that all started from partnerships. I knew where some of these indie labels birthed. I’d say, “Hey, my band has this stuff,” and they were all about it. It went from there.

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BA: Do you feel that you have to increase the sense of urgency to connect with the crowd when you’re in an unfamiliar place?

WS: We always have the same sense of urgency. Our motto for a long time has been, “Five or five thousand.” It doesn’t matter how many people are there, they’re always getting the same show from us. Here recently we’ve adopted this quote from Beethoven. “To play a wrong note is irrelevant, but to play music without passion is unacceptable.” That really fits the design of our band because we’re not perfect musicians by any means. Especially when we start acting crazy. It’s not as big a deal because we’re putting on this show. Give the people a party.

CB: I wouldn’t say we’re sloppy, but being entertaining, putting on a show. I think the show part has, not entirely, there’s a ton of great stuff, but for a lot of people the show has turned into a recital. It’s all about being perfect and locked in. The show starts and I’m just watching band practice. I’d rather see [a band] taking risks, moving jumping off stuff, talking to people, getting in the crowd.

WS: The most recent example of that is when we’re in Wisconsin. [It was] probably our highest energy show, but we had to cut the set early by like two songs because of some technical issues. I thought, “Man, that stinks. They’re here to see a show.” But we got into the crowd and started selling our merch and people had no clue. They were blown away about how crazy the show was.

CB: Didn’t know. Didn’t care. We even told em. “Here’s what’s gonna happen. We’re gonna hit this note and go out in a blaze of glory and see what’s left on the other side." They were like “holy tits.” But it was such an example of, “Dude, go all out. Whatever happens, happens.”

BA: You’ve played in a shower, on a bus and of course a stage. Is there any place you wouldn’t play?

WS: I don’t know for sure that there’s a solid yes or no answer to that question. It would have to depend.

CB: We’re not real sticklers, man. Mainly we’re trying to justify time or distance. And even then, especially if it’s a new city, the requirements are real low. You have to have a level of confidence/arrogance that we’re going to be the best thing here tonight. We’re going to be better than everyone. We’re going to blow everyone away. They may not like our music the best, but we’ll be the most entertaining [band] they see all night. They will not be able to not watch us.

WS: I wouldn’t say we’re always the best [band] there, but definitely the most entertaining.

BA: Have you faced any setbacks or any difficulties touring?

WS: It’s not a setback or difficulty. But, one of the things that makes it hard emotionally is we both have wives, and I’ve got two kids. Being away from home, and we’re super blessed to be able to do it, but I think sometimes people get this exaggerated picture of what that is. “Oh, they just get to go and do whatever they want and be wild and crazy. It’s all fun and games.” And it is really fun, but we’re missing our families. Parts of it are non-stop driving, and neither of us like driving. It definitely feels like work sometimes.

CB: The easy part is playing the shows. All the other parts [are] where it’s hard. [The show]’s your reward. Here’s your opportunity to show people who you are.

The vinyl, I don’t think people fathom, especially for me, because it’s my big passion, how much work I put into these things. Not just making relationships with four or five different plants, but building these things. Some of these custom records take like 45 minutes to an hour apiece. We just did fifty – that’s fifty hours. And then you screen print jackets…

BA: What’s the longest stretch you’ve been out?

CB: With [Warner]’s schedule, it makes it difficult to do like twenty days in a row. So we’ll do like 14 shows in 22 days. Some bands think touring is like going out for six days straight. And then won’t do anything for a month. There is this weird mindset that that’s the only way you can tour. Alright, you’ve played 55 shows this year. If you’d just been about it, and constant and be willing to take everything you can. We both have full-time jobs, [but] we’ll hit somewhere from 80 to 100 dates this year.

BA: Are there any other cities that you frequent more often?

CB: The cities we frequent the most… We’ve been playing Cincy a lot in the last year.

WS: And Appleton, Wis.

CB: The nice things, cities like Cincy and Louisville, people underestimate. People are like, “You guys are really starting to do some stuff. Are you gonna move?” Why would we move? Indiana is so well located. You have cities like Fort Wayne, Dayton, Columbus, Chicago’s on the long end of it. You’ve got like 10-12 cities that are pretty legit, and they’re all like three hours away.

That Third Man show, we played at 4 o’clock their time, 5 o’clock Indiana time. We sold a lot of merch beforehand because we knew we had to leave pretty quickly. We left at 6 o’clock Indiana time. We had a show at midnight in Gas City, Indiana. Which by GPS was like five hours and 45 minutes to get there, so we had like 15 minutes to spare. We lost like four minutes for gas and then I caught a bunch back up. We hit no construction [until] Anderson at 11:15. We roll in at 11:57, through our stuff up [and] we’re playing at 12:02.

WS: That was one of the craziest turn-arounds we’ve ever done.

CB: They’re paying us good money. Sack up. We take a lot of pride in that. There are a lot of bands that we love. You can do more, just be willing. You can sleep later.