James Dewees on juggling Reggie and The Full Effect with his busy musical schedule

James Dewees is a New Yorker these days. After a lengthy stint in Long Island, he moved to Buffalo this past August to be closer to his bandmates in his long-running side project Reggie & The Full Effect. But as a member of Coalesce and the Get Up Kids — two local groups whose audience turned national — Dewees has long been a familiar face around Kansas City and Lawrence. (He also joined pop-punk superstars My Chemical Romance as a touring keyboardist in the years before that band hung it up.) 

Reggie & The Full Effect released its seventh album, 41, in February, on Pure Noise Records. Reggie fans will not be disappointed: 41 has gut-wrenching emotive rock knockouts, some big-name emo collaborations, and the riotous return of Dewees’ pseudonymous alter-ego bands Common Denominator and Fluxuation. (Not to mention a jokey cover featuring Dewees mimicking the pose Adele struck on her age-referencing album 21.) When I called Dewees in mid-February, he was back in Lawrence meeting up with the rest of the Get Up Kids and preparing for Reggie’s upcoming month-long tour opening for Senses Fail, which stops at the Granada in Lawrence this Thursday, March 22. 

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The Pitch: It took me a second to catch the Adele reference on your new album’s cover. Would you say you’re a fan of hers?

James Dewees: [Laughs] Oh, of course. Her records are amazing. She has such an amazing voice.

So it’s a pretty playful parody then?

Yeah, it’s funny ‘cause it just all happened in, like, a minute where I was trying to come up with the name of the record, thinking about it while listening to Adele. It happened to be 21 and I was turning 41, so it was like “Oh, that’s what I should do!” 

Did you know when you brought back Reggie for the previous album that you’d want to follow up again?

You know, I never really know. I just write music all the time, between all the different bands and all the different projects I’m working on. Reggie songs just creep their way in, and when you get to a certain number of songs, it’s time to go record them. I’m not releasing an album every year or anything like that, because it’s a side project and it’s a fun project, so when the songs are there I record them and put out a record and tour for a while, then I always have to go back and do the Get Up Kids or work with the [My Chemical Romance] guys on stuff and all that.

I’d read that [Black Lodge Studios engineer and producer] Ed Rose retired after working on the last Reggie album. Who helped you record 41?

Yeah, I got in right at the end. I was very fortunate. This time I did it with Ray Toro from My Chemical Romance, the guitar player. When we were working on the final My Chem record we kept threatening each other that we were gonna do a record together, so when he did his solo record, I did a lot of the piano for it. Our trade-off was that he would record Reggie.

It’s pretty cool thinking about how you and Jarrod [Alexander, touring drummer for My Chemical Romance] both started off in heavy hardcore bands, and now you’re working together on this project. 

Oh yeah, it’s awesome. It’s really funny because we’d met before we played in My Chem — back in Coalesce days, when Jarrod played in The Suicide File.

Did you guys hit it off or was it just kind of in passing?

I think everybody from the old-school scene is still friends and gets along because of that mutual respect where we all appreciate what each other are doing, you know? Going and playing VFW halls and sleeping on floors and all of that.

I’m guessing that when you were touring with MCR, you ended up meeting some more “rockstar” types that didn’t have that background.

It’s really interesting because you meet a lot of people that appreciate where they are, and you also meet a lot of people who don’t appreciate where they are. Like it just kinda got handed to them. But you can tell the difference between the people that stick around for a long time and the people who are only in the scene for a year or two.

“The Horrible Year” reminds me of the Get Up Kids sound, but the composition is a little more theatrical. Do you think you picked that up from playing with MCR and other big acts?

It’s not really the size of the acts that matter, it’s just the music that inspires me. I’ve always been a big fan of musicals and I love classical music. That’s what I studied in college. It’s just like being a fan of all types of music and letting these types of music encompass me when I’m writing and feeling out where I wanna go. That’s sort of the reason I blended in so well with My Chem, since we’re into the same styles of music. So when it came time to write My Chem, there’s very theatrical writing for that, too.

I saw that you mentioned that the song “Maggie” sounded to you like an old Reggie song mixed with a new Reggie song. What’s the difference between the two eras?

It kinda took the vibe of the Promotional Copy record and made it into a big chorus. Old Reggie was all half-time choruses like “Maggie” is, which is kinda like me recording the demos on a four-track and being like, “Ah, I’m just gonna put a half-time chorus here.”

Do you think the new stuff is different because you’ve grown as a songwriter, or has the shift in style been a conscious decision?

I think that after doing this for 20 years my songwriting of course has changed, but at the same time I haven’t forgot how to write that stuff.

On the Common Denominator track on this record, “Trap(ping) Music,” were there any specific rappers you were trying to channel?

Of course. O.T. Genasis. We used to listen to [“CoCo”] before we would go on stage because that song is so funny.

Are there any other sounds you’ve been hoping to explore at some point?

I’ve been doing some stuff with Doug Robinson, who is the singer of the band The Sleeping. That’s a lot more shoegazey-electro, and we’ve got a few songs now. We want to get a couple more done before we try to put it out. It’s another thing where it’s a passion project, so we’d be putting it out just for ourselves and to share with fans.

I’ve also seen you post about another project called Soul Patch. What’s that about?

OK, so Soul Patch I was invited to join by Keith Buckley from Every Time I Die, and it’s our nineties cover band in Buffalo. It’s me, Stephen and Keith from Every Time I Die, our friend Joe, our friend Jeff, and our friend Nico. It’s amazing. It’s fun to play those songs because I was in high school and college when all those songs were popular.

What bands are you guys covering?

We do Pearl Jam, New Radicals. Basically every hit from the nineties. We’re playing Smashing Pumpkins, Alice In Chains, Harvey Danger. The setlist is, like, 35 songs long.

Do you think that’s gonna stay a little Buffalo secret or will you be taking that on the road?

It’s purely a Buffalo thing.

What are you looking forward to most about the upcoming tour you have with Senses Fail?

I’m looking forward to just being back on the road and doing Reggie. It’s always a fun time, and Buddy from Senses Fail and I have been friends for almost 20 years. I was friends with him since before he was 18 years old. And it’s a tight group. Some of the Senses Fail guys are from Buffalo too, so we all know each other.

The Get Up Kids hinted at recording new music back in late 2016 on Facebook. Any update there?

We’re still trying to kinda figure some stuff out, but it’ll happen. Don’t worry. I know for a fact it’ll happen.