Adam Granduciel, main man of the American band the War on Drugs, is enthusiastic about getting back on tour after some downtime at home; in December the band returns to New Zealand.
And their trajectory here mirrors the increasing international acclaim they’ve enjoyed since forming in Philadelphia almost 20 years ago. When they played Auckland in 2014, it was the Powerstation; this time it’s Spark Arena.
These days, they are used to massive audiences, in Quebec playing before Lana Del Rey to “something like 100,000, and we played Madison Square Garden [capacity almost 20,000] a couple of times”.
Having started in local clubs with a small band – which included Kurt Vile who left in 2008 for his equally successful solo career – Granduciel has changed his approach to performing. Previously, he felt they had to prove themselves because they were being judged, but “people don’t do that, they go to be with their friends and have a good time.
“So people respond to a band having fun which is what we do, because we love being in a band.”
Each of their five albums has pulled an ever larger audience for their free-wheeling, increasingly psychedelic rock, with A Deeper Understanding (2017) picking up a Grammy for Best Rock Album. So, the War on Drugs: a heartland Grateful Dead, a more psychedelic E Street Band? “Definitely. Live, that’s the sound the band makes.”
And fan of classic rock that he is, Granduciel embarks on a discussion of the many covers they’ve included over the decades: songs by George Harrison (Beware of Darkness), John Lennon (Mind Games) Neil Young’s Hurricane, plenty by the Waterboys, Warren Zevon …
With a bigger band – a seven-piece now – they could do justice to those songs, “because for the first time I had this wall of sound behind me.”
The War on Drugs’ musical breakthrough was their 2014 third album, Lost in a Dream, but it took two years. “I’ve done that on two records, and they weren’t that enjoyable for me. I now want to make something faster and different from what we’ve done on the last two.
“There are times when I’m not interested in writing or working. You have to be okay with the idea that not everything has to be for something, I don’t feel bad if I’m not writing. When you’ve done it for a while you know these things come in waves.”
Personable and modest, 44-year-old Granduciel is also candid. When he’s back home does he miss playing live?
“Ah, no actually,” he laughs. “When you’re on tour and have two days off, I miss it. But when you go through that wringer – the highs and lows of the shows, the late nights, the days that go on and on – and get to the end of a tour I feel completely fulfilled.
“I loved every second of it before I had a kid and after the last show didn’t want the party to be over because I didn’t really have a purpose beyond the tour.
“Now after a tour I’m ready to go home.”
He says he’s not a great reader, a surprise given the literary and sometimes Dylanesque nature of his songs which are frequently personal. “I do write about my experiences and never feel I could sing from someone else’s perspective, it feels awkward to me. I’m [using songs] to figure out my life.”
His music for pleasure is old favourites: “Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 and Street-Legal, Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever and Wildflowers, Neil Young’s Harvest Moon and On the Beach, and the Plastic Ono Band.
“I come back to these because there’s a world and lifetime in those albums.”
He also listens to newer artists and is enthusiastic about touring with one of his favourite bands, Texas’s experimental indie rockers Spoon.
“It’ll be awesome to see them every night and … wow, we’ll … we’ll follow Spoon every night?” he says, stopping himself. “Oh man. I hadn’t thought about that!”
The War on Drugs and Spoon play Anderson Park, Wellington, December 1; Auckland’s Spark Arena, December 2
