BJ Barham

Wheels Off with Rhett Miller

Rhett Miller

Music, Performing Arts, Arts

4.9 • 609 Ratings

🗓️ 9 August 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

American Aquarium’s BJ Barham joins Rhett from Philadelphia while on tour to talk about their new record Chicamacomico, and what it feels like to finally be back out on the road. BJ discusses his songwriting process, music as a way to help people through trauma, and how he turns negativity into a creative superpower. North Carolina alt-country outfit American Aquarium rose to prominence in the late 2000s with a sound that mixed twang, grit, and some straight-ahead rock & roll. Focused around the songs of frontman B.J. Barham, the group had already recorded four records and gone on countless tours before finding more widespread acclaim with 2012's Burn.Flicker.Die. Over the years, Barham has retooled his lineup a number of times and became more politically outspoken on later releases like 2020's poetic Lamentations. In 2021, the band offered up a two-volume covers project of '90s/early-2000s country songs under the title Slappers, Bangers, and Certified Twangers, before returning to studio and completing their latest album, 2022's Chicamacomico. Wheels Off is brought to you by Osiris Media. Hosted and produced by Rhett Miller. Co-produced by Kirsten Cluthe in partnership with Nick Ruffini (Revoice Media). Editing by Matt Dwyer. Production Assistance by Matt Bavuso. Music by OLD 97’s. Episode artwork by Katherine Boils. Show logo by Tim Skirven. This podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also ask Alexa to play it. Please leave us a rating or review on iTunes. Revisit previous episodes of Wheels Off with Rosanne Cash, Rob Thomas, Will Forte, Lydia Loveless, Allison Moorer, Ted Leo, Paul F. Tompkins, Jen Kirkman, and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Osiris.
0:04.0	Welcome to Wheels Off, a show about the messy reality of the creative life. I'm Rhett Miller.
0:10.0	That's when it got wheels off. We started ugly. We ain't gonna stop.
0:16.0	Oh, she made me feel like a good God. That's when it got wheels off. American Aquarium has been around for a bunch of years, a decade and a half.
0:27.6	B.J. is the sole original member. He's the heart and soul of that band. He is a great songwriter, great lyricist. They've put out a number of records. Most
0:39.1	recently, their 20-22 album, Chickama Comicoe. They just headlined their first ever
0:46.1	Riemann Auditorium show. They are out on tour now. I caught him, as you will hear, in a dressing
0:53.1	room in Philadelphia. They will be out on tour at infinitum, as is their want.
1:00.0	BJ has a really great take on art, the creation of art.
1:07.0	I really love what he has to say about negative events in your life being an opportunity,
1:16.0	reframing those negative events as a chance to create something that will help not just you
1:24.7	in coming to terms with them, but help your audience because they are
1:32.0	able to relate to it and to learn from it and to feel like they're not alone, which they
1:41.6	aren't. We aren't. And I really love BJ's take on that. I thought that was really useful.
1:47.7	He's a good dude, man. He's a great lyricist, a great performer. He is a great voice. He's a good friend.
1:53.6	I'm really glad that he sat down with me for this interview. So please welcome to Wheels Off from American Aquarium, the great BJ Barham.
2:02.7	Welcome to Wheels Off, BJ Barham. Thank you so much for joining me.
2:06.5	Thanks for having me, Rat. Appreciate it.
2:08.1	This is awesome. For the edification of our listeners, from where are you joining?
2:12.6	I am joining you from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We have a show here tonight,
2:17.1	and so I am joining you from Tour. Nice. We have a show here tonight, and so I'm joining you
2:18.8	from tour. Nice. Well, this won't air for a little while, so if you're in Philly listening,
	...

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