Nightlife / Music

Band tests out theories of male friendship

By Sean Moeller | Thursday, December 21, 2006 | () comments

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Bloomington-Normal, Ill.-based band Backyard Tire Fire performs next week at the Redstone Room, River Music Experience, Davenport.

When Ed Anderson was a graduate student at Illinois State University in Bloomington back in the mid-’90s, he lived in a house with the school’s lacrosse team as he worked on his thesis paper on the dynamics of male friendship.

He had aspirations of tricking out his resume by getting his doctorate in interpersonal communication, but during those days, Anderson — now the lead singer and chief songwriter of Backyard Tire Fire — was already playing 150 shows a year.

Nothing much has changed since then, except he’s playing even more shows. He’s still up close and personal with those dynamics of male friendship — rolling around the country in an old van with his younger brother Matt Anderson and drummer Tim Kramp — but he’s no closer to that doctorate. He finds nothing wrong with that. Challenging college-aged minds in a lecture hall setting isn’t how he wants to spend his days.

He’s happy to write some Midwest Americana about throwing everything away and every night becoming a Friday night, but does it without too much extravagance, just the salt of the earth rock.

“I did nothing with that degree,” Anderson said from his home, a place he rarely lives in, just visits. “It’s a gamble. We think our music’s going to break and it’s going to sell and the right people are going to hear it, but it’s a gamble. There are so many people who want to do this for a living. You want to play music for a living? Good (freaking) luck. I could be a teacher at a college right now, with a Ph.D and making $100,000 a year, but I don’t want to do that. I want to do this.

“I’m lucky that I’m in a band with two other frugal dudes who choose to live the way they do so that we can do this. If they weren’t like that, I don’t think we would be able to do what we do.”

What Backyard Tire Fire does is make sure that no stone goes left unturned and no bar or venue in the United States is left without them drinking its beer and using its urinal. It’s been a motto for Anderson since he was in Brother Jed, the previously alluded-to jam band he played in while he was doing his graduate studies.

“I’ve always been huge on touring. I’ve played 150 shows a year for the last 10 years. I’ve always really believed in getting out there in front of people,” Anderson said. “I think we did 10 straight weeks in the van at one point this year. We hit every corner of the country. Back when I was booking our tours, I would take every show people wanted to give us — it didn’t matter how far away it was.

“I think we’re trying to be smarter about it now, but I’m not going to turn down opportunities.”

Anderson said that 2007 will be “the year of the Tire Fire,” with a new record — “Vagabonds and Hooligans” — set to be released in February and a full-out onslaught of paved roads, truck stops and dive bars for the next year following. They soon will set out with Montrose, Iowa, homeboy William Elliott Whitmore for a string of dates.

“The bigger we get, the poorer we get. We just spent X amount of dollars on a new van that we’ll be paying for for the next five years since mine caught on fire last year in Seattle, but what were we supposed to do, not buy a van and not tour? We went further in the hole, but we’re putting ourselves in position to make something happen,” Anderson said. “Being home’s been great, but it’s weird. I’m more used to being in the van. I’m like a lot of musicians where you’re lying awake in your bed at 4 in the morning, with your eyes open. You think you should be loading up your last case and going to the next city. Luckily, we have pretty cool ladies who don’t give us much (junk) about what we do.”

Sean Moeller can be contacted at (563) 383-2288 or smoeller@qctimes.com.

if you go

What: Backyard Tire Fire with Jim the Mule

When: 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 29

Where: Redstone Room, River Music Experience, 129 Main St., Davenport

How much: $6

Information: (563) 326-1333