A few words with Lee Williams of Sleeper Agent and his mother Holly Williams
Sleeper Agent‘s Bassist Lee Williams moved from Tony Smith’s second project Downtown Handshake when the group was put on Hiatus to complete Celebrasion and tour. The following is a short interview with Williams conducted via email as followup to research for an article on the evolution of the Bowling Green band which gained national exposure throughout 2011.
You were one of the newest members, with Zach Lindsey continuing to fill in some as they searched for his replacement after he left to pursue Mona. Did he have some bass credits on Interrobang or were they re-recorded with you?
I believe that Zach did all of the bass cuts on Interrobang, as well as most of the final cuts of Celebrasion. When SA went in with Jay Joyce the first time Tony still had plans to maintain Downtown Handshake as well as SA, and at the time felt strongly about there being no “cross-banding” between the two. I found out only a few months (maybe even weeks) into my time with Downtown that Zach was leaving Sleeper Agent for Mona (although he agreed to play on the album as a favor), and I actually pushed Tony on several occasions to let me take over, but he wasn’t having it. Then somewhere in the span of those first ten days in the studio he realized that he wasn’t going to be able to give Downtown the attention it deserved, at least for a little while, so he decided to ask the members of Downtown to fill out SA’s lineup. Scott and I took him up on it. As far as my contribution for Celebrasion, we went back in the studio with Jay for an extra three days after Scott and I joined, in which time we recorded “Bottomed Out”, “Far and Wide”, and “All Wave and No Goodbye”. I added backup vocals to a few of the original tracks, as well.
In your Mom+Pop bio, Justin described you as a fanboy. You also aren’t much older than Alex – was their some amount of hazing involved when you joined? What stood out for you about this band than the others you heard locally that made you pursue membership?
Well, when SA was just getting started I was barely old enough to drive, so my experience, especially with music, was much more slight than it is today. At the time all of those older kids in the music scene seemed just as valid as any other musicians I listened to. I didn’t differentiate between “local” and “professional.” To me there were only people who were doing it and people who weren’t, and those guys were doing it. I was always into it, but when they dropped Interrobang I was blown away. It was exactly the kind of music I wanted to be playing at the time I first heard it, and thankfully it still is now. As far as hazing, most of mine got out of the way during the process of joining Downtown Handshake, and even then it was all light-hearted. I think they made me shotgun a Keystone with them in the alley behind Scott’s house. Justin still gives me a hard time when he can, though. Hahaha.
You had also come in on the end of Downtown Handshake. What other bands had you been in, with how, what years and what type of music did they play?
Like I said, it was just exactly the kind of music I wanted to be making. I was coming out of a several year endeavor with punk and hardcore music, rediscovering garage rock and finding myself more and more interested in pop melodies, but without wanting to give up the abrasiveness and the volume of the punk music I had been playing. I felt like SA really captured that.
I did, and as I said above that was my entry point into SA. It’s hard to count all of the short lived bands I played in between the time I bought my first bass and joining Downtown/SA. There are dozens, I’m sure. A (very) shortened list of those would be The Victory Sound, a pop-punk band with Aaron Senters (of The Decade of Experts and Assassins and Man Oh Man), Hand Over Machinery, a math-rock band with Cody Huffine (of Smallhouse), and Bears! a post-hardcore/screamo band featuring Rory Willis and also, briefly, Cody Huffine.
If I’m not mistaken you were in the scream band Bears! with Rory Willis? It was on his label Mayday Mayday correct? Can you comment about those times and Rory’s work with recording both the Bears! & if I’m not mistaken early Sleeper Agent?
Yes, Bears! was the flagship Mayday! Mayday! Records band, a label founded by Rory and Bears! guitarist/vocalist Matt Barnes. Bears! was actually the band that got me into punk and hardcore music. Prior to seeing that band live for the first time I was listening to a lot of the garage rock that was making its big break (The Strokes, The Hives, etc.) and a ton of Modest Mouse. Through Bears! I found a widespread scene of DIY punk bands from all over the country (La Dispute, Native, Young Widows, Sohns, etc.) and was fascinated with both the music and the aesthetic of the scene. I had never seen so much passion put into performance and I totally got off on the eardrum breaking volume. Besides, I was sixteen and filled with angst, so it worked. Bears! asked me to join after their first bass player quit and the second bass player decided he wanted to play guitar. Just a few months later we set out on my first tour, which is definitely something I’ll never forget.
You also seemed to be the primary marketing member, at least regarding their MySpace. Is that one of your focuses for Sleeper Agent too?
I think that because I was this younger kid joining a band that I already loved, made up of mostly older guys, I felt a lot of self-inflicted pressure to pull my weight. But also Bears! was a part of a scene that thrived on that word of mouth and self-promotion. They’re there now, but at the time there weren’t many blogs covering that crowd of bands, so it was really all up to you, the artist. I think there was probably a lot of that same self-induced pressure for me in the early days of SA, still being younger and again joining a band that I already loved, but in different ways. I had started to shy away from opening my mouth too much by that point. Mostly I took on a lot of the responsibilities of tour managing, a job that, miraculously, our friend Nick handles now.
Alex named you as the other most technically trained member – What do you think that brings to the band?
I would say, if you really had to pin it down, that I am third behind Scott and Josh. I took a few months of lessons on guitar and then a few on bass, but am primarily self-taught. I applied and was accepted to Belmont in Nashville for a performance major on bass, but ended up deferring enrollment to focus on SA, so I wasn’t able to really benefit from it. Honestly, at least in communication between band members, very little of that technical knowledge is applied. Tony is the primary songwriter, but he isn’t technically trained at all, so he doesn’t use the technical terms when explaining to us how he wants something to go. In a lot of ways I think it works just as well. He might not be able to tell me what chord he wants me to outline, but he can tell me how he wants it to feel, which gives me (and all of us) a lot of freedom, and I think that comes across in the music.
You seem to be more private than some of the other members, judging from how long it took me to discover your personal Facebook & MySpace pages because you don’t identify your full name. In 2008 you answered one of those question posts in part with this “This makes me an oversensitive, narcissistic music elitist who can’t decide whether I love or hate myself.” Have you decided?
Hahaha. Oh god, that Myspace page. You know, I’ve tried several times to have that thing pulled, but the process they’ve created to delete old pages is, intentionally I think, pretty much impossible to navigate. You are right in that I am a pretty private person now. I think I was fifteen the last time I updated that Myspace, and at the time I had no perspective on the consequences of opening my mouth and letting whatever fall out. I generally prefer to not say much now, outside of interviews where I am directly prompted, like this. I just don’t really feel compelled to share my every thought and opinion with every person possible like I used to. Nothing about that quote resonates with me now, and asking myself that question just seems irrelevant now that I actually feel like I know myself. Hate it or love it, I am myself, you know?
I’m told you were involved in musical theater since kindergarten. Would you like to explore that some more in the future? Do you sing?
Growing up and being in school musical theatre was one of the only provided musical outlets for me. I didn’t really have any idea about being in a rock band in the fifth grade, but I knew that I loved music and singing and that was seemingly the only way to do it. I don’t regret doing it now, but it certainly isn’t something that I ever plan on pursuing again. I do still sing a little, though, and am excited by the prospect of doing more backup vocals for SA on this upcoming album.
Your brother Jason is also a bass player, with the popular local group Canago, who I’m told has also generated interest from the music business. Were you ever in projects together? Were there other relatives that taught or inspired you musically growing up?
Unfortunately, no, we haven’t ever pursued a serious project together. Not yet anyway. For most of the time that I’ve been playing Jason lived in either Colorado or California. By the time that he was back here living in BG we were both busy with other projects and have stayed that way since. But I am more than certain that there will eventually be a collaboration between the Williams brothers.
Your mother says you began piano at 9, guitar at 11 and bass by 13 or 14. Are there other instruments you play? Do you have aspirations to use any of those talents either within Sleeper Agent or side projects in the future?
I think at some point I would like to explore those possibilities, but it’s not a thought that I take very seriously right now. The truth is that I just feel at home on the bass. I understand enough about guitar and piano, as well as music in general, that when I sit down with either I can make at least non-offensive sound come out, but I’m still very timid about it. Conversely, I’m the type of bass player that cranks my amp and that likes to feel the sound in my feet when I play. I feel powerful with that in my hands. Not so much with everything else.
You also were encouraged by your English teachers and had considered a career in journalism when you opted to go to Belmont’s commercial music program. Do you foresee wanting to pursue your formal education in the future? Do you have interest for the future in the business side of music?
Yeah. In high school you don’t receive a lot of support for the idea of leaving the education system for something as unsure as a career with a rock band. I was a good English student, and writing was the only thing outside of music that I felt I had any real passion for. Music Journalism seemed like a great way to earn a paycheck doing one thing that I loved while being surrounded by the other thing I loved. But right at the point that I was going to turn down acceptance to Belmont for the journalism program at Western my brother pulled me aside and asked me whether, if I was locked in a room for 10 hours a day, I would rather play music or write, and I said play music. That was the moment that I realized that I shouldn’t go with something, even something I loved almost as much, based on financial stability. That decision was one of the first that started the chain-reaction which led me here, so I guess I have Jason to thank. I would like to see myself back in school one day, but hopefully for training in music engineering. I feel like with all this time performing a degree in music performance would be a little redundant. But recording other bands is something that I am really interested in doing in the future but currently know little to nothing about, so it seems to make sense.
You shared a short story online several years ago. Do you continue to write as a creative outlet and is that something you consider pursuing at some point in the future?
Hahaha. That story is actually the only thing on that MySpace page that I’m not ashamed of. Hahaha. Honestly I’m still a little surprised by it. Despite what a radically different person I am now, I think there are bits of my future self that shone through in that. I do still write from time to time, but it isn’t something I pursue as seriously now. It’s mostly just for myself. For now music keeps me quite busy.
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Holly Williams, Lee Williams mother, also shared some insights regarding his early musical development.
Were there signs growing up that your son would choose a career in rock n roll and have the dedication to make it happen? The band says that all the parents are very supportive; in what ways have you tried to nurture their talent and facilitate their efforts towards a career in music?
Lee has always been musically inclined. From the time he was in kindergarten, all the way through high school, he was in every musical production/play offered by his schools. His older brother, (Jason, bass player from Canago) was also very musical, so there were frequently instruments around the house.
Lee began piano/keyboard lessons at around age 9, guitar lessons at around 11 and bass lessons by 13 or 14.
While he was very drawn to music, we actually thought that he would lean more toward a career in journalism, because he was always a very proficient writer, (and was frequently told this by his English teachers). But when the time came to make a decision about college, he decided on Belmont in Nashville. He was accepted in the Commercial Music program and started there in the fall of 2010. At this point he had been in the band Downtown Handshake for several months, and they had just begun the new line up for Sleeper Agent.
His very first weekend home from Belmont was probably the hardest of his life, because he came home to tell us that the band was getting “serious attention” from labels and he just could not give 100% to school and to the band. So after a lot of discussion over that weekend, we went to Belmont on the following Monday so that he could talk to the Dean of his college about a deferment. She wished him the best and asked that he not “wait too long to come back”. That was 2 years ago, and here we are now. Lee has traveled (literally) around the country 3 times and learned so much about the ins and outs of the music business. Maybe more than he would have learned in the classroom at this point!
These are all descriptive of how we support and want Lee and Sleeper Agent to flourish. One thing I frequently tell people is, there is no greater sense of pride than watching your children do what they love to do, and do it well!
