Smart, articulate, funny, and with a charming drawl, BJ Barham is no drunken fool, although he might have passed for one – at least the “drunken” part – ten months ago. Barham, frontman and founder of the North Carolina Americana outfit American Aquarium, knows a thing or two about hard living. Until recently, he and his band were poster boys for the rock and roll lifestyle, drinking and playing their way through more than 250 rowdy shows a year, making some great music and gaining a loyal following along the way. Inevitably, those substance-fueled years on the road took their toll, and Barham found himself facing 30 feeling like an old man. On August 31, 2014, in Fort Worth, Texas, Barham had one last drink, then called it quits.
“I was just sick and tired of feeling sick and tired,” Barham said of his decision to sober up. “I was waking up every day at one o’clock in the afternoon with a hangover. I wasn’t productive. I was feeling sluggish. It just wasn’t where I wanted to be when I turned 30, so I did something about it.”
American Aquarium’s reputation as a party band wasn’t undeserved. “I’d probably drink a 12 pack of beer a night and then half a bottle of liquor, and that was just a normal night,” Barham recalled. “The party nights were a full bottle of liquor and probably 15 or 17 beers.”
According to Barham, his fans have been supportive of his healthier lifestyle. “We realized very quickly that, for almost ten years, we were the band that would go out to the bar with you. We were your neighborhood drunks. We just got tired of that. We felt like we had more to offer than just being able to drink a lot. Our songs and our music should be what our reputation is built on. Our reputation shouldn’t be ‘Man, those guys play so good for being so drunk,’” Barham laughed. “It should be, ‘Wow! Those guys are a really great band.’”
As a songwriter who had spent a great deal of his time under the influence, Barham was understandably apprehensive about writing unaided by alcohol. “I think that the reason a lot of us started using drugs and drinking was because of the creative aspect of it. I know I wrote a lot of songs when I was drinking and when I was doing drugs…but as an artist, you just have to tell yourself that you are the one creating this, not the drugs, and that you can do it yourself without the drugs, without the booze. Once you get it in your head that it wasn’t because of the booze and the drugs that you were writing songs, but because you’re just a talented person, once you can convince yourself of that, it becomes a lot easier.”
American Aquarium’s latest album Wolves (Feb. 2015) is the product of that sober songwriting. “It took a little time. For a while there, I was trigger shy. I was just nervous about it,” Barham said of returning to his writing after giving up drinking. “But then I sat down, and it just kind of happened. And then I wrote the Wolves record, which is arguably the best thing we’ve ever done. Once I got that song out, I was like, ‘Okay. I haven’t lost anything. I’ve still got it.’”
Barham’s music openly reflects his own struggles. “My songs mirror my real life. I’m an autobiographical songwriter. When I’m writing these songs, you’re very much getting to see a glimpse inside the world of me. It’s been really cool to be able to write these songs about such a huge life change and have the fan base follow us,” he remarked.
Writing from his heart has had some unexpected rewards for Barham. “There have been people that have come up to us at shows and said, ‘Man, I got sober because of you guys.’ I would rather somebody tell me that than ‘Hey, man! I really like your songs,’ or ‘I remember one night you drank like two bottles of liquor. That was amazing,’” Barham laughed. “The real joy of this whole situation is somebody coming out and saying, ‘Hey, man. I stopped doing something terrible because of you.’”
* Photo Credit Alysse Gafkjen
– With permission from Red Dirt Nation
