Interview... Leslie

Leslie

Interview with Sadler Vaden

Words: Ashley Marie Sansotta

There’s a reason why the boys from the band Leslie have been touring pretty much non-stop since their existence. It’s simply because they put on one hell of a show. From Charleston, South Carolina, the trio plans to take over the world – one city at a time. With frontman Sadler Vaden’s renowned guitar skills, and the dynamite charisma between bassist Jason Fox and drummer Jonathan Carman, their stage presence is legendary. I recently spoke with Carman about Leslie, and he had some great stories to tell...

REAX: You guys have been together for three years now (three years to the day – on October 6th). How did it all begin?

Jonathan Carman: We all went to high school together. Jason and Sadler were in a band then, but I never hung out with them. I was more in the punk rock stage of my life, while they were more in touch with their hippie side, so that didn’t put us at the same party very often. A couple of years later, I went on tour with another Charleston-based band, The Working Title. I was driving and doing merch, and Sadler had been hired to play guitar for a couple of tours. I told him I was trying to find a band and he showed me some songs he had been working on. I was into what he was doing, so we started rehearsing when we would come off of the road with TWT. Eventually, we had a few songs and needed a bass player. Sadler mentioned that Jason used to play bass in his old band. The next time we rehearsed, Jason showed up... and the rest is history.

REAX: If you guys didn't do music, what could you see yourselves doing instead?

JC: That’s a pretty hard question to answer. Focusing on our epic quest for world domination? Sadler would probably be writing movies or something of that nature. Jason would probably be a chef at some high-end fine dining joint. I've always said I’d be a truck driver. Those guys are bad asses... livin’ the dream.

REAX: What's your drink of choice?

JC: Johnny Walker Black or Makers. On the rocks.

REAX: What's the craziest thing that's happened to you guys while on tour?

JC: We have a few crazy stories, but the most famous is the Young Jeezy story. We were doing a show in Atlanta. After the show, some friends of ours asked us to come hang out over at their house, but they had to go to a party for this rapper, Young Jeezy. We had never heard of him at the time... We weren’t there long before the party was coming to an end, and the club was closing. While the staff was trying to shuffle everyone out the door, a fight broke out. Well, where we are from, you form a circle around the fight and watch. Not this fight. Everyone scattered, and left the three of us standing next to the bar with the bartenders, trying to tell us to duck down behind the bar. We weren’t sure why, until we heard the sound of gun shots. We immediately hit the deck, and semi automatic weapons were spraying left and right. It took a while for the cops to show up, so we were ducking and running from gun shots for a good 10 minutes. The cops said that there were over 300 to 400 rounds shot off. Not one person got hit – but our van, “Keith Richards,” took a nickel sized hit through the driver’s side, just behind the driver’s seat. It hit just over the gas tank, went through the van, through a pillow and stopped in one of our merch tubs. I found the slug, but had to give it to the police.

REAX: Why’s your van’s name “Keith Richards?”

JC: Keith Richards got her name because she wont die. Just under 300,000 miles, a bullet hole, a leaky roof, and tons of other imperfections, but every time we get it checked out they tell us that the engine is in great shape!

REAX: I've read that Gainesville is one of your favorite cities to play. Why is it towards the top of your list?

JC: Yes, Gainesville is a rock town. They love rock and roll, they love to drink, they love being loud, they don’t care that we stink. The people there are just really down to earth and really cool to us. We have made quite a few friends in Gainesville. Plus that’s where Tom Petty is from.

REAX: What happened on stage when you guys played the last time in Tampa? Sadler went through like 3 guitars or something?

JC: We were on tour with the Mooney Suzuki and were playing The Crowbar in Tampa. We were right in the middle of "Backdoor" and Sadler starts popping strings left and right. Well, Sadler being Sadler didn’t let it phase him, I think at this point he had 3 strings left... I'm pretty sure that by the end of the song, he had one string left and was still keeping it together. I’ve seen Sadler do some pretty crazy stuff with a guitar, but even I was impressed with the way he handled that one...

REAX: When can your fans expect to see you put another album out? Is it in the works?

JC: We have been writing for the record for the past few months and – as of now – we will be coming off of the road just after Thanksgiving to start recording. We are hoping to have our first full-length out in spring of '08. We really cant wait to get back into the studio and start working on all of these new songs. Narrowing it down is going to be the hard part. We’ll be going in with about 30-40 songs and coming out with the best 10-12 for the record... then it’s right back on the road until Keith’s wheels fall off.