John Booker is tired. Sitting on his back porch with bags under his eyes, he forces a half smile that fails to cover the tumult beneath.
To his left is his ex-girlfriend, clasping her hands and cagily surveying the scene. To his right are two of his good friends, awkwardly attempting jokes to lighten the mood.
It’s the first weekend in October, and I Was Totally Destroying It has survived a year that would have killed most other bands.
“It’s been like the s--ttiest summer ever,” Booker said of the months spent recovering from his breakup with co-singer/songwriter Rachel Hirsh. “It’s been a bad year.”
Indeed it has. Besides the rift caused by the ended relationship, the band has also endured a failed record deal with local startup label Neckbeard Records, creating bitter feelings among what were previously good friends.
Add to that the transition from former bassist Martin Anderson to the new Joe Mazzitelli, and you arrive at the kind of tension that rips apart groups like well-sharpened shears.
But IWTDI endures, turning tensions and fractures into emotionally rich, hard-hitting pop rock on its sophomore effort Horror Vacui, which will be celebrated with a show at Cat’s Cradle Friday.
“It’s a break up album in retrospect,” he said. “Only one song, the first track, was written after we broke up. But most of the other songs are written in bad moments.”
But the odd thing for Hirsh and Booker is that these songs were written in collaboration, meaning that each of them helped fill out the other’s insults.
“There’s these songs on there where it’s a really scathing song where Rachel’s scathing at me,” Booker said. “She’ll have this verse where she’s like, ‘You suck, John,’ and I’ll come up with a chorus line that’s also indicating that I suck.”
And though visceral pain is what makes Horror Vacui what it is, the band’s experiences together have actually made it grow closer.
“We’re at a point now where we’re all the closest people in each other’s lives,” said Hirsh, pointing out how unlikely this is in a group with a 17-year age gap between herself and drummer James Hepler. “I don’t think any of us ever expected that. Like I never expected to have a 35-year-old guy friend.”
It’s this bond that IWTDI believes will allow it to continue.
“It’s not unreasonable to think that you can have a relationship breakup during a band’s tenure and have it work out,” Hepler said, as his band cited Superchunk and Fleetwood Mac as bands who survived such a fallout.
“We’re not on the other side of everything yet,” said Hirsh. “But we’re all trucking along and trying to keep our chins up.”
And while the band knows that it will continue to have problems, Hirsh was quick to point out that it could be a lot worse.
“I don’t know if we’re ever going to be at the place where I’m going to go, ‘Hey John, I wrote this verse about me slitting your throat and peeing in it because I hate you so much.’ I don’t think we’re at that place.”
TOTALLY DESTROY IT
Time: 8:30 p.m. Saturday
Location: Cat’s Cradle
300 E. Main St.
Info: www.catscradle.com
Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.
