Photo by Kenzie Trezise
Them Coulee Boys
Them Coulee Boys
When reached by phone on a Sunday morning, Soren Staff, lead singer of Them Coulee Boys, has only been home a few hours after his band drove all night back to Eau Claire from a gig in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He’s squeezing in the interview before he must go to a two-year-old’s birthday party.
“It’s the life of a musician,” he says.
It’s a busy but exciting time for Staff and brother Jens Staff (mandolin), Beaux Janke (banjo), Neil Krause (bass) and Stas Hable (drums), who return to Milwaukee and the Vivarium on Saturday, Nov. 30. The band’s fifth album, No Fun in the Chrysalis, comes out on Feb. 28. The Dylan-quoting first single from the album, “I am Not Sad,” arrived Oct. 29, and another, “Up Close,” comes out on Jan. 9.
Family Matters
During the band’s 11 years of existence, their lives have changed significantly as Them Coulee Boys have married spouses and added children—two new babies have arrived just since 2021’s Namesake. With all the change, Staff says it made sense for them to return to producer Brian Joseph when it came time to record the new album. Joseph, who won a Grammy for his work with Bon Iver, also produced Namesake. The new album was recorded at Joseph’s Hive Studio in Eau Claire. Being comfortable with Joseph and knowing him better this time made a big difference, Staff says.
“This time it was like, ‘Hey, this is my friend who wants to record a record with us again,’ you know?” he says. “So, the approach was very different. I think the songs are different in that sense, too. I think someone who sees the same producer might expect the same record as before, but you might find something different just because as a lyricist and songwriter, I just was so much more comfortable with myself. It was a time of great change in me, and I found myself, and I found where I wanted to be pointed, what direction I wanted to be pointed in writing these songs.”
A couple of family members found their way onto No Fun in the Chrysalis, including Staff’s mother, who plays clap stack on a song. He says his mother had been “begging for a decade to get on a record somehow.”
“It’s a cymbal that sounds like you’re just clapping your hands,” Staff says. “I don’t know if you can actually hear it, but it’s on there. And she was tickled pink to have that. And honestly, so are we.”
Hometown Boys
The Staff brothers and Janke moved to Eau Claire from small towns in western Wisconsin a few years after starting the band (Kraus and Hable came aboard later). They saw Eau Claire as a music hub they wanted to be part of, Staff says, and the city, in turn, has welcomed them.
“There’s many incredible bands that have come out of Eau Claire, and it comes from, like, a top to bottom community-kind of support for it, and that’s really fostered our growth,” Staff says. “I mean, first of all, they’re investing in performing arts spaces. They’re investing into a summer concert series for bands that are just starting out to try to get audiences, and then, they have some of the best music programs in the state.
“The community cares about music, from every level, and they cared about us. You know, we were transplants, and we took on this label of being from Eau Claire, and they’ve embraced us.”
Black Friday Blowout
The night before Them Coulee Boys come to Milwaukee, they will see many fans at what has become an annual Black Friday show at Eau Claire’s 1,200-seat Pablo Center at the Confluence. The band is known for its energetic, intense live shows.
“They care, and they cared about us all the way through,” Staff says, “and it’s not lost on us that, like, there's not a lot of communities that can do that. So, we definitely love being from Eau Claire.”
Them Coulee Boys perform at the Vivarium on Saturday, Nov. 30 at 8 p.m. Max & the Fellow Travelers open (catch them on WMSE’s Local/Live on Tuesday, Nov. 26).
