Everymen has since embraced the troubadour spirit. For over a year, these dudes have been either just returning from tour or about to embark on one. Even so, they managed to compile their sophomore effort, Beautiful Curse. It's a much more expansive and cohesive effort than their debut.
The kinetic band celebrates the Beautiful Curse release this Friday with a proper dress-up shindig at Propaganda. Yes, you read right: The bedraggled Everymen fellas want to party fancy-schmancy style, in the dive-bar confines of Propaganda. We rang up Everymen's colorful and charismatic frontman, Captain Bobo, to double-check that this dress-up thing wasn't some prank.
New Times: Sergio, we know you guys are a bunch of pranksters. Are you for real about this dressing-up deal for your Friday-night CD release fiesta?
Sergio Witis (AKA Captain Bobo): Yes, it's totally for real, dude. We are encouraging the men in the audience to come in three-piece suits and for women to wear nice dresses. It's kind of fun; we don't get to look good too often. This is all really a tribute to my mom, who told me last year she felt there was no romance in music or art anymore. That message really hit home for me. We want to bring the romance back to music.
So that would explain the slower, more pensive moments heard on your new album, Beautiful Curse, moments like "Carry On."
Yes, the romance factor was definitely going through my mind when I wrote that one. We also all had grown tired of playing fast songs all the time. In this album, we tried to slow down a bit. I'd like to put out songs for people to hang out and drive to also.
Beautiful Curse not only differs stylistically than When Water's Thicker Than Blood but also feels like a much more optimistic album?
During the last album, I was coming out of a huge black cloud. I just quit doing drugs and was learning how to live. It's undeniably a very dark album. The Beautiful Curse album is set out to identify with people. We have found our place. We set out to make songs that speak about different experiences in life. The gay experience, the punk experience, the circus-sideshow-freak experience. It's about acceptance and showing kids not to judge each other.
Speaking about kids, how did your recent gigs on the Florida stops of the Vans Warped Tour go?
Warped Tour really woke us up, witnessing the effect we have on kids. It's interesting how bands interact with the young crowd at these festivals. We realized we can make a difference. We can share with these kids all the things we went through, and hopefully they won't make the same mistakes.
Funny, you might be the only band that played both the Warped Tour and St.Petersburg, Florida's Antiwarpt Music Festival?
We weren't asked to play the Antiwarpt, probably because we played the Warped Tour, but we wanted to crash the party anyways. So we drove up there and played the streets. We must of had a crowd of 50 people watching us. We could care less that Warped Tour is more corporate or that Antiwarpt is more scenester; we just want to play.
What is the "Beautiful Curse" anyways?
Everybody's been cursed with something. It goes back to my metaphor with the umbrella, that you see on all of our merch, "Let it rain, motherfucker. I piss on this curse!" We have all been through a lot of shit. Gays, punk rockers, normal working-class dudes -- we don't give a shit; everyone has had rough times at one point or another. It's better if you embrace the curse.
Seems like you are constantly on the road. What's the secret to your endurance?
We torture ourselves, basically, because we love it.
People think it's awesome to tour. Really? You have no idea. It's not all it's cut out to be. I'm 32 years old, still sleeping on couches every night, driving four hours a day, loading and unloading our van. Eating shitty food all the time. It's not glamorous at all. We have built a lot of friendships along the way, and that helps us out tremendously through the rough times.
One year removed, do you still think the scene in Lake Worth is as cohesive as it once was?
It went through a very negative stage for a little bit. When something gets big real fast, there will be growing pains. There was a lot of shit-talking; a lot of bands broke up. Tons of scenster shit took over. Everyone is working really hard now. And we always tried to stay positive. The fads are gone, and the good music is staying, a little fad that we are a part of, but now we are somewhere else.
Everymen at 10 p.m. Friday, August 3, at Propaganda, 6 S. J St., Lake Worth.
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