Premiere: The Uncouth want you to ‘Know Your Roots’

Clockwise from upper left: The Uncouth (Todd Rainey, CJ Wilson, Steve Gardels, Cody Blanchard) with Markel Randle and Simon Williams. // Photo by Markel Randle

Kansas City oi/streetpunk band The Uncouth have been making noise for nearly a decade now, and while they’ve put out a string of EPs and singles, a full-length hasn’t yet materialized. That all changes later this year when the band drops their first full album, and we’re excited to premiere the first video from it, entitled “Know Your Roots.”

The single dropped last summer, but the video takes the song’s influences and brings them to vibrant visual life. Whether you get the references to old-school hardcore bands like Slapshot or not, this is a song to grab you by the ears and eyes, and have you starting a one-person mosh pit in your living room.

We spoke with the band via email about the new album and video, and you can check that out below after you check out the video from director Simon F. Williams and DP Markel Randle.

The Pitch: How important are your influences to The Uncouth?

Cody Blanchard (Vox/Guitar): I don’t know that we’re that focused on them at this point. I think we’ve figured out that no matter what we go for, it sounds like an Uncouth song.

Steve Gardels (Bass): I joined the band in 2015, so they were already pretty established at that point. We’d been friends for a long time and I’d been to a bunch of their shows, so I kind of got the vibe and influences through osmosis (and late nights at CJ’s old house). I’ve brought in a bit of my own flavors through some bass parts and general suggestions when we’re writing together, too. “Oh that reminds me of the one part in this song by (totally unrelated band) and then we could do THIS” kind of stuff. The sound keeps evolving because we all listen to different kinds of music.

CJ Wilson (Guitar/Vox): Influences are very important to us as with any band. If you listen to something and love it, it will make its way into your writing. The trick is not to use them as a crutch and end up ripping them off. We have a wide range of influences in this band, and I think that’s been really beneficial.

The Pitch: How’d you come to work with Simon and Markel?

Steve: I’m a filmmaker/video producer and Simon’s been working with me for a long time on a lot of different projects. More recently, we’ve worked together on the Shiner “Schadenfreude Live at RecordBar” video and Claire Adams’ You Know I Know You album release live stream. Simon and I can kind of read each other’s minds so he’s the first person I call when I need a good film brain. He always finds a way to push the idea just a little bit farther, think about things I haven’t and really get outside the box when it comes to shooting the thing. This is the first project I’ve had him direct and he did a wonderful job.

My full time job is working in the Media Center at the Kansas City Art Institute; checking out/maintaining/teaching students how to use cameras, lenses and other equipment for students to use. Because we’re so camera-heavy, I spend a lot of time with the Photo and Digital Film students. Markel (Kel) is a Senior in Filmmaking at KCAI and he’s been in the Media Center nearly every day since he arrived on campus. He’s always asking questions, pushing himself technically and freelancing in between school days.

Once I saw his work, I KNEW I had to get him on board. His eye is fresh and immediate; the shots are technically exact with the perfect amount of realness and roughness – he knows what looks good and knows exactly how to get it. Kel is already a professional and I’m glad we got to have him with us before his rocket takes off.

Kel and Simon didn’t meet until a Zoom meeting before our prep day, but they clicked immediately. They both put a lot of work into lighting the space, getting just the right angles and making us look as cool as possible. They thought of everything and executed perfectly. All I had to do was put the pieces together and watch them work. It was incredible. The only problem I had with this project was sorting the great shots out from the merely good ones. I learned a LOT from both of them during this process and I’m VERY happy with the outcome.

The Pitch: Why wait nearly a decade to release your first album?

Steve: I want to know, too! Even before I joined, people would be asking the guys that same question. I don’t know if they were waiting for the right sound/songs/time/space or what, but I’m so glad I got to be a part of it. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done and these recordings sound exactly the way they should.

CJ: Honestly at the beginning, or at least the beginning when I joined, we were taking it super lightly. It wasn’t until we started working with Johnny Starke and Teenage Heart Records that we started taking it more seriously. The other reason is we kind of over-extended ourselves with live shows and didn’t have enough time to write for a while.

We also started really examining the songs we wrote and would be throwing stuff out if it wasn’t up to snuff. Just because we wrote a song didn’t mean it was good enough to put out. The lockdown gave us time and perspective to really put our noses to the grindstone. We also knew with Teenage Heart shutting down that we’d need to have something bigger to get other labels interested in putting out our music.

Cody: A lot of reasons. Having the right material, time, and money are probably the biggest. We’re also chronic overthinkers, so that’s a big contributor.

The Pitch: What does Joel Nanos bring to the sound of The Uncouth?

Cody: Sometimes it feels like Joel has a better grip on what we’re supposed to sound like than we do, and he knows exactly how to get a better performance out of us when it’s needed.

Steve: One of the first times The Uncouth walked into Element, Joel said something like “Man, I really don’t get to do fast rock n roll records all that much, this is gonna be fun.” As always, Joel was right. Since then, our working relationship has only gotten better.

I’ve been in some projects where the studio was this “we can’t waste time, get it right, save us money, gogogo” stressful kind of thing. That doesn’t happen with The Uncouth and Joel. This time, we did all of our prep work, came in rehearsed and got to work. Joel made it easy, but he was never afraid of pushing us to do more and get things exactly right. Joel really gets what we’re after and knows exactly how to get it out of us, but BETTER.

It’s guitar tones and drum sounds sure, but smaller things like the attack on a note during a solo or how much air you put behind a specific phrase during a vocal take – Joel knew exactly what we needed to get what we wanted without us asking. With all 5 of us working together confidently, the general atmosphere was easy and chill. We were all cheering each other on, giving good notes and cracking jokes in between takes.

Todd [Rainey, drums] stepped up big time and did all of his drum tracks in ONE DAY, leaving the other 4 days for the rest of the record. I’m REALLY proud of the work we’ve put in, and the final product is a spectacular showcase of what the 5 of us did together. Shoutouts to Chase Horseman and Frieda for the company and Chente’s On The Hill for making incredible pizza that I dream about weekly. In Joel we trust, Element forever.

CJ: Joel understands what we want our records to sound like and most importantly, he seems to know something about how we should sound that we don’t know. He’s fun and easy to work with, not to mention he makes incredible records. He’s really good about letting us do our thing and pushing us in the right direction when we need it. The man is a consummate professional.

You can snag the “Know Your Roots” single on Bandcamp.