A Dirty Dozen with KEVIN HIGGINBOTHAM from WEST OF ROME – January 2025

Photo credit: Alex Burton

According to a recent press release: “South Texas-based indie-rock / alt-country band West of Rome is set to release its debut album, Keep It Fly in the Negative Zone, independently on January 31, 2025. A group of lifelong friends, the band members, who have all performed in a variety of Texas bands over the years, came together in 2019 at the crossroads of pandemic lockdowns, deranged governments, and a superheated climate. Not easily intimidated, musicians Blake Smithson (bass), brothers Charlie and Jamie Roadman (guitar and drums, respectively), and singer Kevin Higginbotham dug deep, looking for the sweet relief of the true grand commons: great songs that can lift us out of the rut.” We get singer Kevin to discuss new music, influences, and more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through? Are there any hidden nuggets you put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

Some nice harmonies that we’re all really proud of thanks to Robert Harrison. Lyrically, there’s some fun references to Philip K. Dick scattered throughout the record.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

Like a lot of musicians my age, hearing Bleach by Nirvana opened up a world of possibility. That record was recorded for $800, and legend had it that Kurt wrote the lyrics in the car on the way to the studio. When they followed that up with the massive success of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” it blew my mind. The guys that wrote “Negative Creep’”are now on MTV and touring the world? It’s on!

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

This band doesn’t exist without our mutual love of The Tragically Hip. So, we have to give a shout out to them.  Early in their career when breaking into the US, The Hip really focused on Texas and played here a lot when we were first starting out, and they had a profound influence.  I remember their Day for Night album really challenging my idea of how a band could evolve.

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

Not sure if we can reach into the cosmos here, but we named our band after a Vic Chesnutt album, so he immediately comes to mind. As a singer, Vic is one of the few artists I’m very wary of covering – he’s too unique. The strength of his voice and subtlety of his phrasing are high art, and his lyrics will always evoke the best of what I remember about growing up in Georgia.

5. What is your favorite activity when out of the studio and/or not on tour? What do you like to do to unwind?

Watch movies and baseball.  God bless America (or what’s left of it). I’ll be watching David Lynch for the foreseeable future – a true American genius.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

Rock and roll with hooks. When this band started playing together during the pandemic, we had more of an “Americana” label, and that was not my favorite comparison. We went back to the drawing board and built this back up from scratch to be a rock band.

7. When your band is hanging out together, who cooks, who gets the drinks in, and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

This one’s easy, as our bass player, Blake, is a trained chef. He was famous in our poorer days for concocting meals from leftovers you didn’t know you had. Charlie is always looking for a guitar to play one of his novelty songs. He’s got a new one about Thundercloud Subs here in Austin that we want to work into the set; we’re just trying to make sure we land on the right side of the coming class warfare (for the peeps!). Even more valuable than drinks, Jamie is a luthier with a months’ long wait list that band members can sometimes circumvent to get our guitars set-up.

8. When was the last time you were starstruck and who was it?

My wife, Chanin, my son, Finn, and I met Mark Mothersbaugh at the Contemporary Museum in Austin. He was already a hero, but his exhibit was incredible. My son was 11 at the time, and he and Mark hit it off. We were beyond starstruck – he was so genuine and cool. He ended the night with a cover of “Blowing in the Wind” sung accompanied by a massive organ-like contraption that he’d built from scrap parts.

9. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

The camaraderie and the jolt you get from coming up with something new – a song, a lyric or a harmony – it’s timeless. The words “dream” and “job” don’t really go together in my world. Jobs pay bills, music gets you through the tedious parts.

10. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?

Would you like to fly to Dublin and play three nights? The answer is yes. In general, you get tired of a question like, “Why did you write this song?” The answer for me is, “Why not?”

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over,” even if it didn’t change your current situation?

In any creative project, you can’t get too hung up on missteps. Fear of missteps can lead to doing anything at all. If you have an idea for something, do it. If it bombs, so what? You’ll inevitably learn something along the way. Ironically, that’s probably the one thing I would change – I would take more chances and try weirder stuff.

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

Great question. Lost in the Dream from The War On Drugs. The record is perfect: the songs, the recording, the vibe. I remember driving through rural Pennsylvania for work after that record came out: the landscape and music just blended together and time seemed to stop. I met my wife soon after, and we listened to that album on the weekend we met. Would love to know what went in to making that album.

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Category: Interviews