Late Bloomer Will Teach You to Use Your Words

Charlotte, North Carolina’s Late Bloomer embodies its name better than anyone. It’s not exactly that these guys are old; although they are a few years older than your average punk band that gets hype in the music press, it’s not like these guys are grandpas just yet, but they are about to release a fantastic record that no one saw coming.

The band formed in 2012 and in 2013, released their first full length and a split with Old Flings, 12 songs total of decent melodic punk that threw back to legends like the Replacements and Dinosaur Jr. But with Things Change (Self Aware/Tor Johnson), the band fine-tuned their sound and enlisted the help of producer Kris Hilbert (of Legitimate Business in Greensboro, NC), and the result was 38 minutes of tight, concise, fuzzy rock and roll that’s equal parts 80s college rock, early 90s Dischord, and an alternate-universe post-Stay What You Are Saves The Day that went full-Dü.

Noisey is pleased to premiere the opening track from the record, “Use Your Words," and we had a chance to speak to bassist Josh Robbins about the new record and the band’s hometown of Charlotte.

Noisey: All of you have been pretty heavily involved in the DIY community for a good while and all of you guys have real life things going on—you run Self Aware Records and Scott owns the awesome Lunchbox Records store in Charlotte. How has punk changed for you as you’ve gotten older?
Josh Robbins: I think punk has changed because I have become more open-minded. Life isn't all about being a punk. I look at it more like skateboarding or BMX, in that… punk has changed how I look at the landscape but I still have to live in the normal world. I am not afraid to just speak my mind about things that I like as I get older, and I'm not afraid to involve this influence in writing songs, even if it isn't uniquely punk.

Also, in the past couple of years, I've realized a couple things. One of them was that Late Bloomer, or any band I'm in, won’t be a touring machine because I’m getting older. I'm married and have a lot of responsibilities at home. That doesn’t mean I can’t be smart about what I do and try and get my band out there as far as it can even with those "limits." The other realization was that I couldn’t be everyone's friend. I know that sounds silly, but when I realized that, it really made me just be more of myself.

Do you think that’s helped your songwriting mature as you’ve gotten older?
Late Bloomer is actually the first band that I have outright written songs for. I used to just be a singer in a lot of different types of bands, and then I played bass in a band that I didn’t sing in and it really opened me up to what I could do. I think the simple realization was that there was a much bigger world out there than just identifying as punk, so it definitely helped make the songs we were writing sound more mature.

The first thing that jumps out on Things Change is how different it sounds, both musically and production-wise, than the self-titled and the split with Old Flings. Why’d you decide to go in the new direction?
The big thing with Late Bloomer is that we never specifically set out to sound like anything. I mean, I listen to SST/Dischord late 80s and early 90s punk and indie so much that it just pours out of me. The three of us are huge Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr., and Husker Dü fans, but never said to each other, “Let's write like this." It's just that if you listen to that stuff a lot, it gets coded in your DNA.

To answer your question though, it was just a natural evolution. The split with Old Flings was songs we had left over from the first LP sessions and probably the first two songs we ever wrote together… it's more pop/punk than what we are doing now. For the new LP, we definitely wanted to spend a little bit more time recording it and fleshing out melodies, we wanted an LP that you felt like people would actually be listening to down the road.

Well, it's only been about 15 months since the first full-length was released, was it the kind of thing where you weren't happy with it or was it more like a "we write songs really fast" kind of deal?
We tend to write songs pretty fast. I think the reason is because we have multiple song writers. Neil and I split up the bulk of songwriting and so it helps speed up writing. A lot of bands have one primary writer/vocalist, so it can slow down that process. We had some of the new LP written after the first one was done being recorded, then we had to wait from November to when it was released in March of 2013, so we had a few more songs by the time the record came out. Then we just busted our ass to get a new LP recorded because we had 11 new songs written and it seemed like time to go back in.

I guess we weren’t happy with the last one, I dunno. I don't know if it was that, or more of us knowing we could do better.

Do you have any touring plans for Things Change?
We do—sorta. We’re planning a weekend in August, after that we have some regional shows and some other smaller fests. In October, we are playing The Fest again, so that kinda brings us closer to the end of 2014. Neil and I have discussed going out for like seven to ten days in March of 2015 and the plan is to go to Providence and back. You know, to hang out with Paul of Tor Johnson Records.

I’ve heard that Asheville and Raleigh are the “cool” parts of North Carolina. What’s cool about Charlotte?
Asheville is definitely cool and Raleigh is pretty rad as well. I think Asheville is great because it is really pretty there and is always fun to visit because of that. I think their scene is about the same as ours. Raleigh is historically cool with Merge and all of the stuff that happened in the 90s. Also hardcore punk is always kicking there. Charlotte gets a bad rap. It’s tough geographically. It’s a huge city and it is sprawling.

The scene is actually really good here. It isn’t always one type of music and that’s why it’s hard for outsiders to understand. It is best in charlotte to just not try and push yourself solely to one group. There are plenty of people that go to all types of different shows here. We have a lot of great bands here and in the state. Too many to name and I know I’m going to leave one out and make someone really sad.

I give you a $50 gift card to Lunchbox. What do you get?
It would be interesting to hear what everyone in the band would say about this, I guess Scott could just take it since he owns the store. Neil always surprises me with his purchases, that boy. I would like to buy a copy of any Neurosis album that I don't have or I would get that Taang boxset that didn’t pick up at Record Store Day.

I think the coolest thing I ever saw there was a first pressing Kid Dynamite self-titled. Kids in Philly would murder each other for that one if it was at like, Long in the Tooth.
The most I ever paid for a record was $70 for a Neurosis Enemy of the Sun first pressing. I know people have paid a lot more for records, but that is the top for me. How much was the Kid Dynamite first press?

I think only like $30, it had a scratch on it.
Not too bad, minus the scratch.

Things Change drops July 1 via Self Aware Records and Tor Johnson Records.

Upcoming Late Bloomer shows:

June 13-14 - Charlotte, NC - The Milestone - Self Aware Fest

July 12 – Charlotte, NC - Area 15 w/ Weatherbox, Dikembe

July 18 - Greensboro, NC – NY Pizza w/ Totally Slow (Things Change record release)

July 19 – Charlotte, NC - Snug Harbor w/ Totally Slow, Black Market (Things Change record release)

August 9 – Charlotte, NC - Chop Shop w/ Jeff the Brotherhood

August 22 – Richmond, VA w/ Worn In Red, Brief Lives

August 23– Philadelphia, PA – TBA w/ Radiator Hospital

August 24 – TBA

September 6 – Raleigh, NC – Legends w/ Totally Slow, Black Market

October 31-November 2 – The Fest 12 w/ Descendents, Hot Water Music, Mineral, more