Wet Eyed Liars

Bowling Green’s dreamy indie upstart Wet Eyed Liars profess to being “a musical embodiment of glittering sadness.” The four-piece recently ushered in 2017 by releasing a pair of moody, catchy tracks on Bandcamp. Melissa Jones proves to be a commanding front woman, her cutting lyrics tinged with melancholy pair masterfully with the songbird’s unfeigned smoky vocals. The tracks released Jan. 18 “All You Really Want” and “Not Charmed” possess a lyrical candor at times recalling Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandovol, or simply an era when songwriters like Cat Power and Liz Phair were dominating college radio.

Jones paints a vivid portrait of a crumbling, toxic relationship on “Not Charmed”.

“‘Cause I’m not charmed by your bullshit,” she sings in the song’s brilliant chorus, detailing break-up angst and anxiety in anthemic fashion.

“I’m not moved by your tears / Not even a little, anymore,” she admits nonchalantly.
The band’s recent releases cement the group’s status as a Bowling Green act to keep your eyes peeled out for.

Check out a Q&A with drummer Joshua Riddle below.

When did Wet Eyed Liars form? I know y’all have been active for a while, just from randomly catching a couple shows at Tidball’s over the last year or so.

We’ve been a band since about September of 2015. We played our first show on Halloween of that year. We had a member leave last fall, and since they had written a big chunk of our songs, we couldn’t use them, so we had to start over with building up our set. We all work full-time jobs, and a few of us are in other bands, so we have mainly been focusing on songwriting and only playing about one show a month, usually at Tidball’s or The A-Frame. Speaking of the A-Frame, Alex Smith is the one that printed all of our shirts; he did an awesome job, and we need to get another run printed because they sold so fast!

What are the band’s major influences as far as particular songwriters, bands and eras in music? I feel like the most recent releases on Bandcamp (“All You Really Want” and “Not Charmed”) evoke this nostalgic 90s vibe ala Mazzy Star perhaps? I can’t quite put my finger on it. I know comparisons are reductive and your sound is definitely very much original, but just wanted to get a feel for how y’all would describe the band’s sound?

These questions are always the hardest to answer. We’ve resorted to just calling it Dream Rock for simplicity, but each of us have drastically different musical histories that help add a particular sound to our music. I wouldn’t say we all collectively “decided” on a genre, but there was a sort of consensus that the songs would be built around Melissa’s vocal style. Her playing and singing style is very much indie singer/songwriter (Laura Marling, Daughter) with roots in classic female folk and blues, so we just kind of started there. John, our lead guitarist, is excellent with spacey, bluesy licks (Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page), so that helps build the feeling of the songs. Cory, our bassist, is classically trained and has a very diverse skillset as a bassist; he can also play excellent lead guitar, so this lets him be able to go from intricate, melodic bass parts to more simple, backbone rhythm seamlessly. As a drummer, I don’t really bring much to the style of the song; I just try to keep it moving, add some tasteful fills, and stay out of the way of the breathiness of the music. It’s easy to overplay, so I try not to do that. I can see how “All You Really Want” has that Mazzy Star quality, especially with the vocals. We’ve also been compared to Natalie Merchant, Portishead, Stars, Fleetwood Mac, and Broken Social Scene, although none of us are consciously influenced by those artists. We for sure pull elements from a lot of eras from the 50s through the 90s. But, like any artists, we try to expand our sound and grow so we don’t get bored with it. And, truthfully, we’re still a brand new band, so our sound could drastically change over the next few years!

What does the band have planned for 2017? Are you hoping to put out an EP or album?

We just finished recording a set of six songs at Thunder Sound Studio (www.thundersound.com) in Franklin, KY with owner Billy Swayze and engineer Matt Schenck. We sent it to Mike Cervantes at The Foxboro (www.thefoxboro.com) in Grand Rapids, MI for mastering. On 1/18 and 1/19, we released our first two singles from this recording: “All You Really Want” and “Not Charmed”. We plan on releasing the rest of the tracks online over the next few months. Then, around summer of this year, we will release these six tracks, with some added bonus material, on a physical format, most likely CD. We’re currently gearing up to schedule some shows in northern KY, IN, OH, and, of course, Nashville.

From what I can see on Bandcamp, only two official Wet Eyed Liars songs are online. How much original material would you say the band has right now?

As I mentioned, we have six officially recorded. Other than that, I would say we have about another five or so that are either finished or almost finished. And we probably have another six or seven that are still in the beginning writing stages that we hope to have finished this year. They don’t all make the cut, though, so we’ll see.

I was really struck with the lyrics in “Not Charmed,” just the candor and realness in the relationship being detailed. To me, it’s anthemic in the sense that it’s instantly relatable to so many different people, but is also zeroing in on a personal experience. Personally, those are my favorites kinds of songs. Were the lyrics a collaborative effort?

“Not Charmed” is one of my favorites. I still get chills on the line “I’m not sure I like you anyway”, especially with the way the music gets really dark and foreboding at that part. Melissa Jones is responsible for all of the lyrics on “Not Charmed”. As for our other songs, I helped with one song, but 99% of the rest is hers. On a couple of our newest ones that we’re just finishing, the lyrics are written by John Shelton. Our current songs are mostly based on scenarios in relationships; it’s something that everyone can relate to: heartbreak and love. - Fringe Zine

Bowling Green’s Wet Eyed Liars debuted track “The Best” today, arguably their most resonant release to date.

The song features the moody, “glittering sadness” that has defined much of the band’s music. Melissa Jones’ dreamy vocals are paired with lyrics lamenting a relationship too far gone to mend.

“But you stand before me with your wet eyes /And you’re a liar when you say that we’re through,” she coos on the slow-burner. - Fringe Zine

Female voices have created some of the most impactful music in the indie realm over the course of the past few years. Not simply matching the output of their male counterparts, but oftentimes putting them to shame. The New York Times recently launched an interactive piece spotlighting 25 different female voices aptly named “Women Are Making The Best Rock Music Today”.

In the Bowling Green, Kentucky music scene, however, female voices are at a minimum. The Wet Eyed Liars, the project spearheaded by budding Bowling Green songstress Melissa Jones, prove to be a glaring exception (and certainly not the only one to be found in the commonwealth’s third largest city, i.e. Jamie Resch, Mindey Knight, Annie Chimera and Bowling Green music scene alum and current Atlanta transplant Jordan Reynolds). The band’s debut EP dropped in January, featuring six striking tracks of self-proclaimed “glittering sadness”.

Jones proves to be a commanding frontwoman on the release, her cutting lyrics tinged with melancholy pair masterfully with the songbird’s unfeigned smoky vocals. Tracks like “All You Really Want” and “Not Charmed” possess a lyrical candor that recalls Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandovol, or simply an era when songwriters like Cat Power and Liz Phair were dominating college radio.

Jones paints a vivid portrait of a crumbling, toxic relationship on “Not Charmed”.

“‘Cause I’m not charmed by your bullshit,” she sings in the song’s brilliant chorus, detailing break-up angst and anxiety in anthemic fashion.

“I’m not moved by your tears / Not even a little, anymore,” she admits.

EP closer “The Best,” features Jones’ best songwriting chops to date.

On the track she dissects the painful process of watching a relationship flicker and fade.

“But you stand before me with your wet eyes / And you’re a liar when you say that we’re through,” Jones laments.

“No, I wouldn’t be the best for you,” she admits at the end of the slow-burning track. The simple truth also a lesson in knowing when it’s time to go.

Check out an interview with Jones below. She dishes on her songwriting process, how The Wet Eyed Liars accidentally came to be two years ago and her reoccurring bout with stage fright.

FRINGE ZINE: I’m going to start with the cliche questions first. When did you pick up a guitar? Do you come from a musically-inclined family?

MELISSA JONES: No one in my family plays music, but they’ve always had a great love of music. My dad and sister both have excellent voices and we always sang together when I was little. I took singing as a given, but I was really drawn to classical music as a kid. Violin was my first instrument, and I played seriously for about ten years, but it is such a competitive field (and I am not a competitive person) so I didn’t pursue it. I first picked up a guitar when I was about twenty, and my friend Michael Thomas was nice enough to give me a few lessons and let me borrow a guitar to get started. I still don’t really consider myself a guitarist, but I know enough to get by and I’m always trying to get better.

What are your major musical influences? Are you particularly inspired by certain eras or songwriters?

MJ: That is such a difficult question to answer. I grew up listening to just about every genre of music, and I think they all influenced me. Anyone that can create something and put it out there for the world to hear, see, and judge is inspirational to me, because that is such a hard thing to do. I love Nina Simone, Bill Withers, Sam Cooke, Billie Holiday, Tori Amos, Ani Difranco, Tracy Chapman, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Neutral Milk Hotel, Morrisey, Daughter, and Laura Marling, to name a few. I could list artists and bands all day, but for me it boils down to emotional connectivity; I love that moment when you’re listening to a song and it just resonates on a personal level.
Talk about your songwriting process? A lot of artists I talk to talk about this phenomenon where they just get in this headspace and the harmonies and lyrics come to them? Can you relate?

MJ: I can definitely relate to that. When I’m writing a song I usually repeat a simple chord progression and just sing. Once I have that base repetition a vocal melody just kind of happens and then I sing whatever comes to mind. Sometimes it’s silly and it doesn’t make sense, but after a while I will sing a line that sounds true, and I build the perspective and story based on that one truth. I play my simple song structure and the guys transform it into a full song. John Shelton (guitar), Cory Agent (bass), and Joshua Riddle (drums) are all fantastic musicians. I really lucked into an awesome band, they are all so talented and experienced, and they are pretty good at hiding their annoyance when I get super insecure and negative. They’ve spoiled me, really.

I love your songwriting because of the intimacy. Are you ever afraid of making yourself vulnerable in your songs? Is your songwriting a medium for you to kind of make sense of what’s plaguing you or bothering you at that junction in your life?

MJ: When I started writing songs it was just for me; I had no intention of singing them publicly. For years, only a few close friends even knew I sang. But I am really thankful for the people who pushed me to do this, because I think it has made me stronger and encourages me to write more often. It is an intensely vulnerable experience, and stage fright is still a very real adversary, but it has gotten easier. Before we recorded and released an EP I convinced myself that no one could hear the lyrics, but it has been really cool to have people tell me about different lyrics that speak to them, because my songs aren’t always about me. Sometimes I am going through something and a song is a direct reflection of that time in my life, but a lot of the time it kind of feels like someone else’s story.

When did you form Wet Eyed Liars? How would describe the band’s sound and do you plan on maybe making any new sonic changes in sound moving forward?

MJ: We’re coming up on two years as a band, we formed in the fall of 2015. I always joke that I was tricked into being in a band, but that is kind of what happened. My stage fright was so bad that I would shake having to play in front of one or two people, so I had no intention of being in a band. John and Cory lived together at the time and between the two of them they were in, like, five bands, and Josh wasn’t in a band for the first time since he was in middle school, so John convinced me that we could work up a couple of my songs just for fun and we wouldn’t have to play them out anywhere. A month or so later, John and Cory had a Halloween party and told me we should play our short set. We have been playing shows ever since…haha, the bastards.

Joshua Riddle came up with the term “glittering sadness” to describe our sound, and I love that description. Without the band, my songs might just be too melancholic for their own good, so they add that glitter that makes the sadness tolerable. I think our sound will change organically as we grow as individual artists and as a band, but I have no idea what those changes may be. That is part of the excitement of creating as a group.

Is there a song you are most proud of? If so, why?

MJ: I don’t really think I have a specific song that I am most proud of. My points of pride come with growing as a musician or as a performer. At the last couple of shows we’ve played, the guys encouraged me to play my new song solo, and I’m proud of that because it is 100% not something I could’ve done a year ago. So, being able to overcome my fear of performing is probably what I am most proud of.

How much material do you have for Wet Eyed Liars? How many releases have you had at this point?

MJ: We have a self-titled EP that has six songs. So, not much out there at the moment, but we are hoping to change that soon. I have quite a few songs that I am working on and John, our guitarist, has a boat-load (I believe that is the technical term) of songs that we will be working up in the near future.

How inspired are you by the music being put out in BG right now?

MJ: love the BG music/arts scene! Everyone is so supportive and accepting — I think that is the most inspirational thing about it. There is a sense of camaraderie rather than competition. I’ve heard people talk about the music scenes in their hometowns and how hard it is to break into it if you don’t fit in a certain genre or how competitive people are with one another. I love that BG artists encourage one another and how we, as a community, recognize varied talents.

I feel like there is a lack of female voices in the scene at the moment. How important is it for you to kind of carry that torch to say, to be a powerful voice (because your voice is powerful as fuck) and present a perspective that isn’t well represented in BG?

MJ: Firstly, you are making me blush! Secondly, I don’t know why there aren’t more female artists in BG. I mean, on a large scale it makes sense in that BG is a microcosm of the music industry as a whole and there are just fewer female artists across the board. On a smaller scale, I think when there is a predominantly male scene it can lead aspiring female artists to believe that there isn’t an audience for them. I remember starting out, and I didn’t think we would be as well-received as we have been. I think the scene is changing; there are many more ladies in bands than there used to be. We played a show at Tidball’s recently with Jamie Resch and Jordan Reynolds (I know she is technically out of Atlanta now, but BG will always claim her), and Josh, who has been playing in the BG music scene since 1998, mentioned it was the first local show he knew of where all of the acts were female fronted. So, I think we will see more women in the scene in the next few years.

What do you hope to accomplish with Wet Eyed Liars? Any goals for the remainder of 2017?

MJ: Our goal is pretty simple; we want to continue to make music. We’re currently working on writing more songs and playing more shows out of town. Hopefully we will be able to expand our reach and release a full-length album within a year. - Fringe Zine