Boys Night Out

		Boys Night Out by Stella Kim
		LINKS: boysnightout.com
I didn’t know much about Boys Night Out when I went to see them at the Knitting Factory last month. A pre-show crash course taught me that they were from Canada, their last album was a concept album about a crazy man, and they had recently put out a self-titled album. Pretty generic stuff. But it certainly did not prepare me for what I was about to see. I did not expect to feel old at twenty-one, as I did when I walked into the venue teeming with teenagers singing along to every line of lyrics, yelling “Yeah!” into each other’s faces. What was the secret? The band played an energy-packed set with songs from all three albums. Certainly solid, catchy tunes, but I’d be lying if I understood their appeal one-hundred percent. Let’s hear what Jeff Davis, the guitarist and main songwriter of Boys Night Out, has to say about the new, self-titled album, fun touring episodes, and other things.
STELLA KIM: Who are you? JEFF DAVIS: My name is Jeff, and I play guitar in Boys Night Out. SK: What’s going on? What you’re doing today, this week, et cetera. You’re on a long, grueling tour of the U.S. for one. JD: Yes, we’re on tour right now. It’s the first headlining tour for the new album we put out. Tonight we’re playing the Knitting Factory in New York City.
SK: Tell me about the new album, Boys Night Out. Why self-titled? JD: Because it’s kind of return to form for us, and we feel really comfortable and confident with the music we’re writing. We thought it was a pretty good statement of where we’re at as a band, musically. Also, lyrically it was a chance for us to get back to writing about us since the last album was a concept album. It was about a pretty abstract story. Overall it’s indicative of where we’re at, so we thought self-titling the album would be appropriate. SK: Would you consider doing another concept album? JD: Yeah, definitely. It was a lot of fun, so I can definitely see it happening again in the future. SK: What’s your favorite song off of the new album? JD: My favorite song is the last song, “It Won’t Be Long.” I really like the music for it, and the lyrics, and everything else. It’s really fun to play. SK: There have been quite a few revolving doors of members in this band. I counted six former members in six years since the band’s inception. Do you feel that this is the band’s lineup to last? The “classic” lineup, if you will? JD: Yeah, we feel pretty confident that this is it. It feels really good. SK: Give me some of your musical influences, personal and as a band. Name artists, bands, specific albums, songs, whatever. JD: Personally, Nirvana is my biggest influence. Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, NOFX, Lifetime. That’s me personally. As a band, we don’t really have set influences. We all have really diverse tastes. But if I were to speak for the whole band and name two bands, I’d say Lifetime and Jawbreaker.
	SK: What inspires you? We’re talking about songwriting, of course. JD: I don’t really write many lyrics. I mainly write music. So as far as my inspiration goes, I smoke a lot of weed. I also read a lot, and I listen to a lot of music. SK: What do you read? What’s your most recent memorable reading? JD: It was Rant by Chuck Palahniuk. SK: Do you keep up with reading on the road? JD: Oh yeah, all the time.
SK: Give me some of your best road stories. After the years of constant touring that Boys Night Out did, I’m sure you’ve got at least one! JD: One time we were driving through the mountains in California. Our guitar tech was driving and I was in shotgun. Before I fell asleep, I warned him, “Listen, we’re gonna come up to a really big mountain. Wake me up, because I wanna drive, I don’t want to overheat the van.” So I woke up, and the heat was cranked, the van was overheating, he was driving like a hundred up this mountain! I was like “Pull over!” So he pulled over. He and I got out to look at it while everyone else was sleeping, and the engine exploded. So we left our van in the middle of a California mountain and had to climb into the back of a U-haul. SK: I don’t imagine there was any air conditioning. JD: No. Driving through Los Angeles traffic with seven people and all the gear in the back of the U-haul, it was definitely memorable. SK: Favorite place to play? JD: New York City; Toronto; our hometown, Burlington, Ontario; San Francisco; Orlando.
SK: Any best shows you remember? Really memorable shows that you were on stage feeling, “This is fucking cool.” JD: Just recently we played a show in Burlington, Ontario, our hometown, the first time we’d been back in a while. There were a lot of kids. We had a lot of fun. SK: Form your own "supergroup". You can borrow any musicians from any band, deceased or alive. You cannot pick your own band though! JD: I’ll do John Bonham playing drums, I’ll do... let me think for a second... hell, I’ll have the entire Led Zep with me playing guitar.
SK: For those who’ve never heard of Boys Night Out, finish the sentence: “You’d love Boys Night Out if…" JD: If you... like smoking weed! SK: Future plans? Short term, long term, possibilities... JD: We’re touring for the rest of the year, non-stop, all over the States, tearing it up. That’s pretty much about it now. SK: Final words? JD: I have nothing. I have no final words. Boys Night Out’s latest album Boys Night Out has been released on the Ferret Music label and is on the shelves right now.