Getting Acquainted With The Ballroom Thieves

All three members of the Boston-based act contribute to vocals, effortlessly blending in three-part harmonies, with Earley on guitar, Devin Mauch on percussion and Calin Peters on cello. After independently putting out two EPs, The Ballroom Thieves released its first full-length effort, A Wolf In The Doorway, on Tuesday via Blue Corn Music.

The band recently premiered a video for a performance of “Archers” accompanied by the Maine Youth Rock Orchestra at Q Division Studios in Somerville, Mass., in association with Converse Rubber Tracks. The tune, the first track on A Wolf In The Doorway, is a great introduction to the band’s earnest lyrics and passionate delivery. “Archers” is so catchy, we’ll bet you’ll be humming along and almost swear that you’ve heard the song before.

An Earley quote on the band’s website notes that the band has a certain sound at the moment but it’s constantly evolving. What the trio has going on right now is captivating enough to make you stick around to see what’s next.

Tonight you can catch the band in Portland, Maine, and then Saturday it’s on to Burlington, Vt. Upcoming festival appearances include Boston Calling and FreshGrass Festival.

How long has Ballroom Thieves been around and how did the band form?

Well, Devin and I met in college. We both went to Stonehill, which is a small liberal arts school, just south of Boston. Devin is the percussion player. We met there and there wasn’t really much of a music program to speak of there. They had some classes, but no majors. And so it was kind of interesting because as a result I think it kind of strengthened the community of musicians that still wanted to pursue something like that. Since the school didn’t offer too much in the way of musical curriculum it was easier for those students to kind of form their own community and form their own avenues to explore music and to play and perform for each other and then do all kinds of open mics and that kind of thing. That’s kind of how we met. We were both working with different musicians and I was doing some singer/songwriter stuff and then we started hanging out and playing music together.

And after I graduated we started touring; we called it touring but it was really more like glorified road tripping. (laughs) It wasn’t very legitimate. It was just shows that we tried to book ourselves and house shows and pretty much. We learned a lot. We learned a lot about what it actually takes to play at a bar when no one knows who you are. That was fun. And then we got back and we wanted to record [our] first EP. Through that we met our first cello player, who we hired as a session player for that first EP, The Devil & The Deep, and she stayed with us for almost two years. At that point decided to part ways with us and [then] we got lucky and found Calin at an open mic where Devin was judging. It’s an open mic called The Lizard Lounge Open Mic in Cambridge. It’s one of my favorite places in the world. It’s really great. So we’re lucky that we found her there and we’ve been together ever since. So as this iteration of the band it’s been about a year and a half.

How many years ago did you and meet Devin?

We met in about 2009/2010. I graduated in 2010 and he’s a year younger than me so he graduated in 2011. After I graduated college we went on this trip and then I started working a full-time job and I did that for about a year and a half. So we were kind of doing the music thing on the side and kind of figuring out what we wanted to do and booking our own shows and stuff and doing some college shows. But then I got laid off from my job, which was definitely a blessing in disguise (laughs) so I had some time to really think about what I wanted to do. And I realized that I wanted to give the music thing a real shot.

It sounds like it was motivating to get you to make that big step.

It really was. The whole 9-to-5 thing was really just not for me, at least not in that capacity.

When did you start pursuing music full time?

So that would have been about end of 2011.

So going back a bit further, how long have you been playing music? And what sort of bands and artist did you grow up listening to?

Oh man, the three of us all come from very different musical backgrounds. I grew up listening to, you know, my parents’ music, so like classic rock, the Eagles and some country and then I had my hip hop phase during my adolescence. I started playing drums when I was little and then I graduated to guitar when I was in high school, and started singing and writing songs right around then too. Devin has played all sorts of instruments, he kind of jumps around and is fascinated by it. All sorts of different things so he’s a good drummer, he’s a piano player, he can play some guitar, he used to be a lead singer in a hardcore band (laughs). His musical background is definitely steeped in classic rock too from his parents. And then more of the hardcore scene during his youth. And then Calin is classically trained on cello so she’s been playing cello for like 18 years or something crazy like that. And she is the only one who actually went to school for music. She went to Berklee and studied cello there. So she’s got the classical influence so we’re all over the board really, in terms of what we grew up listening to and the kind of music and the kind of bands we used to be in.

What were you studying in college?  

I have a double major in philosophy and foreign languages.

When you and Devin initially started playing together, were you looking at music as just a hobby?

Yeah, definitely. I hadn’t really figured out what I wanted to do, and obviously with a philosophy and foreign languages degree, there’s not really a clear career path. So I was doing some social media stuff for this big online retailer here in Boston. Music was definitely more of a hobby when I started out in college. It didn’t really dawn on me that was something that I wanted to pursue full time until after college.

You guys started out booking dates yourselves. How long ago did you start working with an agent and manager and what was the process like of getting that team behind you?

That’s being a really interesting path. We’ve been learning a lot there. We started working with our manager. We have two management companies so we have our manager Eric, who has been a good friend of ours for a long time, we met him through his girlfriend who went to school with us. So he was at school at Northeastern (University) at the time. And he started taking an interest in the band because of a class he was in where he had to kind of adopt a band and record something for them. It was like a project. So he kind of started taking an interest then and then he became more and more involved over the years. So he’s been with us for a really long time. So that’s been a really nice, I guess kind of constant. So the next team member to be added was our booking agent, New Frontier, who took an interest in us about, I guess it was a little over a year ago now. So almost a year and a half. They had an agent here in Boston and he came out to see some shows and he really liked us. So we were talking with a couple different booking companies but they just seemed like such a good fit for us. And they just have a really nice family atmosphere with the way they do business. It really makes us feel at home.  And they keep us busy, so it’s nice.

So they joined in and not too long after that we started working with a management company from New York. And so they co-manage with Eric. We work with Gold VE, Gold Village Entertainment out of New York for that. And then just about half a year ago, or a little more than that, I guess, we started working with Blue Corn, which is our label.  They’re out of Texas and they’re just a small indie label but all their minds and hearts are in the right places. It’s a really artist-friendly place so they’re really allowing us to do the types of things that we want to do.

It’s just been a really interesting process because you kind of learn as you go and you realize the types of things were you need to stand your ground and you need to make a decision that’s based in creativity and creative thought rather than music as a business. And something you have to think about it more from the business standpoint. So it’s definitely been a learning process.

Congratulations on the new album! What were the recording sessions like for A Wolf In The Doorway?

The process was a lot different than the last two because with this one we worked with a producer and the last two we really just worked with an engineer. For the last two we didn’t really have someone outside of the whole process that was looking in and telling us opinions and helping out with arrangements and all kinds of creative decisions. So that was really nice. This time around we worked with a guy called Dan Cardinal and he works with people like Josh Ritter and a lot of other Boston-based bands. He’s got a studio here called Dimension Sound. The whole process was just a really good time. It was really nice to get into the studio and have plenty of time working with somebody else who we could bounce ideas off of. The songs have been bouncing around for a while so we’re just really excited to put out a product that speaks [to] our live shows and you don’t lose anything in the translation in the two but it’s still a studio record so there’s still a little added depth there that you’d come to expect from a record.

Do all three band members contribute to songwriting?

Sort of. I definitely write the songs and then we all write our own parts. Calin writes her own cello parts and Devin writes his own percussion parts, and we all come up with harmonies together. But the actual writing process is pretty singular at this time.

What can you tell readers about your songwriting process? Is there a certain atmosphere you prefer – do you prefer quiet or a certain type of background music? Do you have to sit in a specific spot when working on new music or is it whenever inspiration strikes?

I don’t really have a specific spot but I definitely like to be alone when I write. I can’t really force it. I haven’t really found a good ritual or way to really spur on creativity. When it’s not there, it’s not there. I like being alone; I like having a nice glass of some alcoholic beverage or another, whether it’s a nice beer or whisky or something. Yeah, I mean, I guess inspiration can come at any time. I like to read a lot … traveling and driving and stuff, there’s always times where you think of things and jot it down somewhere. But then actually putting a song together usually doesn’t happen unless I’m in my own space.

It’s kind of hard to get creative and write with other people around.

And that’s something I’ve been trying, I’ve been wanting to work on. I’ve been wanting to get into more co-writing. We’ve started to kind of explore that kind of thing with the two guys in the band. We’re hoping to work on that a little, but so far it’s been pretty much me on my own.

How did you come up with album’s title?

The album’s title is a line from one of the songs. So there’s a song called “Saint Monica,” which is the fourth song on the record. There’s a line that says, “She stood like a wolf in the doorway.” The song is about a breakup, essentially. And I just really liked that imagery of a girl who’s breaking up with you or who you’re breaking up with, standing there with this kind of calm but aggressive look. I just like the imagery a lot. When we were looking for a name for the record that just popped up and stuck around.

Do the lyrics come from your personal life?

Yeah, a lot of them too. And of course I take my liberties wherever I wish. So it’s not like they’re a direct window into who I am as a person. But a lot of the songs are definitly inspired by personal things. If it’s not things that have happened by me, it’s maybe something that has happened to a friend of mine or something that’s inspired by one of those moments. But a lot of the songs come from a pretty personal type of space.

You mentioned that your agent keeps you pretty busy. So I wanted to talk about road life a bit. How does Ballroom Thieves get from place to place on tour? Do you travel in a van or a bus?

We have this big GMC Savana Conversion van. We call it The Chariot, just because when we bought it that’s what was on the headrests. We didn’t make the name up; it was already there. So we travel around in that and we’ve done some work, my dad and I. My dad’s an architect so he likes all these projects. We put a bed into the back of the van and we have a closet in here now. So for the three of us, it’s pretty comfortable. There’s plenty of space. And we pretty much use that to get around everywhere. I mean, there were a couple of dates last year where we had to fly just because logistically, obviously, sometimes it doesn’t make sense to drive to Arizona. But more often than not we’re in the van. So we’ve definitely put a lot of miles on it.

Do you have any favorite foods to get on the road?

Yeah, we’ve been trying to stay as healthy as we can, which is not always easy. Calin likes biscuits and gravy, so right there, right off the bat, the healthy factor is out. … She actually keeps a biscuit log. She just started it, which she should have done years ago because if there’s biscuits and gravy on the menu she’s going to get it. (laughs) She’s been keeping track of the best biscuits and gravy across the country so we’ll have to stay tuned to see who wins the crowd.

But overall we try to stay healthy so we stop at a lot of grocery stores and try to get enough greens and fruits and stuff. That will be the next step – installing a fridge in the van.

Too much fast food can definitely make you feel gross.

We try to avoid it but it’s been tough because when you’re traveling, and you have somewhere to be, usually when you stop you’re stopping at a rest stop or somewhere right off the highway and there’s never really that much great healthy food available. We’ve been getting better at discovering those places and keeping track of them.

What’s your live show like?

I think our live show, or at least what I’d like it to be, is kind of the atmosphere of a rock concert but still the intimacy of feeling like you’re in a living room … or feeling like you’re close enough to the performer that there’s not a huge wall between you and the people on stage. Some bands do that really well and some bands purposely put up a wall so that there’s a separation. I’d like our audiences to feel like that they’re at home but that they’re still at this energy-filled show. So that’s kind of what we’re going for.

We sometimes talk too much (laughs). There’s a lot of banter and sometimes we’re funny, I think, but other times we kind of overdo it and it’s tough to realize those times because we get rambling. … The best part for me, at least, is that [the live show] sounds like it does on the record. You’re not missing anything. You’re not going to a show and getting disappointed because there’s something that’s not there. Even though there’s only three of us, we make a lot of noise.

Upcoming dates for The Ballroom Thieves

April 24 – Portland, Maine, Empire (appearing with Tall Heights)  
April 25 – South Burlington, Vt., Higher Ground      
April 30 – New York, N.Y., The Mercury Lounge (appearing with Tall Heights)
May 1 – Philadelphia, Pa., Boot & Saddle    
May 2 – Washington, D.C., Sixth & I Historic Synagogue    
May 3 – Freehold, N.J., Concerts In The Studio        
May 8 – Chicago, Ill., The Hideout    
May 9 – Davenport, Iowa, Redstone Room   
May 10 – Minburn, Iowa, House Concert     
May 13 – Minneapolis, Minn., Bryant Lake Bowl Theater    
May 14 – Marshfield, Wis., Wildwood Park Pavilion (Vox Concert Series)
May 15 – Milwaukee, Wis., Miramar Theatre            
May 16 – Madison, Wis., The Frequency       
May 17 – Spring Lake, Mich., Seven Steps Up Event Center
May 19 – Ann Arbor, Mich., The Ark (appearing with The Bros. Landreth)
May 21 – Northampton, Mass., Iron Horse Music Hall        
May 24 – Boston, Mass., City Hall Plaza (Boston Calling)   
June 13 – Strafford, N.H., Harmony Farm (Harmonium Music Festival)     
June 18 – Uncasville, Conn., Wolf Den         
June 25 – Cleveland, Ohio, Beachland Tavern
June 26 – Covington, Ky., Madison Live       
July 5 – North Branford, Conn., Totoket Valley RV Park      
July 30 – Victor, Idaho, Victor City Park (Music On Main)  
Aug. 2 – Huntsville, Utah, Snowbasin (Blues, Brews & BBQ Sunday Concert Series)

For more information please visit BallroomThieves.com.