Adam Stephens doesn’t understand why there aren’t any songs about climate change.
He plays guitar and harmonica as half of the San Francisco duo Two Gallants, named after a story in James Joyce’s 1905 collection The Dubliners.
“I don’t really ever hear anyone discussing [climate change] in a serious way,” he says. “I guess it’s not very attractive material compared to a song about someone’s violation of civil rights or something more human; that’s what people tend to care about. We’re a self-centered species that doesn’t have much attention span for things that aren’t human, so as soon as you write a song about the natural world you’re labeled a hippie or tree-hugger, which is a shame.”
Stephens and bandmate Tyson Vogel (drums and vocals) have a difficult time with labels of any kind, especially when it has to do with their band.
“It’s just like why humans can’t describe their own personality,” Stephens says. “I don’t think a band can describe its own sound without betraying itself in a way or getting embarrassed about it. I am comfortable saying that a lot of our music is a modern interpretation of traditional and roots music and I don’t try to label it cause I don’t think I’d do a good job.”
With 2012’s The Bloom and the Blight – the duo’s first release since 2007 – Two Gallants serve up a satisfying heaping of nouveau-roots with a punk rock twist and garage rock chaser.
Stephens says their music is more concise and focused since their last album. It’s also louder and more aggressive. On the blistering “My Love Won’t Wait,” Stephens’ hemorrhaging throat-nodule vocals and bleeding-callus guitar riffs take loving stabs at the broken-hearted blues numbers of yesteryear. Complete with a guitar solo akin to something that may come from Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, “Ride Away” – featuring a shoot out – is unlike any other country-western ballad you’ve heard.
Stephens cites exhaustion as the reason it took five years to release.
“We just needed a break,” he says. “I think it helped a bit. Before that we had been on tour or recording since the very beginning without a break.”
Since jumping back into the game in 2012, with heads full of steam, Stephens and Vogel picked up where their hardworking, do-it-yourself selves left off, performing roughly 200 shows per year.
“The performing doesn’t get old,” assures Stephens. “It’s more of the daily habits and the repetition of being on tour driving and staying at hotels. Each night’s performance is the only part of the day that really matters. We try not to think too much about the rest of it. We probably drink a little more than we should, which only helps temporarily.”
On Friday, Two Gallants’ soldout show at the Henry Miller Library, will definitely stand out as one of the more unique stops of their relentless regimen.
TWO GALLANTS and SLEEPY SUN perform at 8pm (doors at 6:30pm) Friday, June 7, at Henry Miller Library, a quarter mile south of Nepenthe Restaurant on Highway 1, Big Sur. Sold out. 667-2574.