‘Livin’ through ‘Hard Times’ with Armchair Boogie
March to a new beat with Armchair Boogie, as spring has sprung and the band breaks winter with their new 10-song album, Hard Times & Deadlines, out on all streaming platforms on March 15, 2024.
John, ‘Augie’ Dougherty, banjo-ist and one of the lead vocalists of Armchair Boogie took time out of his busy afternoon of promoting and recording to chat about their time as a band, playing for their favorite crowds, and their new album!
It’s an armchair boogie kind of day
Though Augie Dougherty is the only member of the band with the time available for a chat, other members in the band include guitarist and other lead vocalist Ben Majeska, Denzel Connor playing drums and singing backup vocals, and Eli Frieders playing electric bass and singing backup vocals as well.
Dougherty’s been playing banjo since he was 15 years old, lending his time and talent to a few different bands in high school and college, but once finding the sound and people of Armchair Boogie he knew he found his new home.
“I started taking banjo lessons in high school, but then I’d be playing electric bass and guitar in my friend’s garage, practicing Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and other classic rock artists. There wasn’t anybody to play or practice banjo with, in a bluegrass way, until I moved to Stevens Point,” Dougherty explained. “I felt the urge to get back to my roots and play banjo, I think I'm just better at banjo than I am at guitar. It's something that comes more naturally to me -- doing country and bluegrass stuff.”
“I’m 31 years old now, so I’ve been playing banjo for over half of my life,” he laughed. “We’ve been Armchair Boogie specifically since 2015 when we came together at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. We had all played in bands before playing together, but seeing another Stevens Point-based band, Horseshoes and Handgrenades, make it big around this time gave us the drive and encouragement to pursue this collective dream of ours.”
Augie and Ben were the first two members of the band, landing on their name Armchair Boogie due to a friend’s suggestion after they asked around for inspiration. Their friend woke one morning to see the sun shining perfectly onto an old leather armchair draped in an American flag, and thought to himself, before immediately texting Augie and Ben, “It’s an armchair boogie kind of day…”, and the two felt the name truly embodied the feeling of their music. Eli and Denzel joined not long after the band was named.
Though they may have started as a college band, funnily enough, Augie wasn’t even studying music, nor were any of his bandmates, when they came together for Armchair Boogie.
“I studied forestry management and ecological restoration. The rest of the guys were studying arts and communication and things like that, but nobody was studying music.”
Music as an outlet in each member’s life was enough to keep everyone dedicated to forming a successful band – if one Stevens Point band could make it, why not another?
Hard Times & Deadlines
While this is the band's fourth collective project together, it is only their third full-length album, but Dougherty confesses this is the album that all the band members truly felt sounded like a professional, flushed-out band.
“This album is a big maturing point for us,” Dougherty said. “We truly sound collected and professionally tuned as a whole with Hard Times & Deadlines, and we’re stoked for listeners to hear and see the effort we’ve poured into this album, not only in music but also in its promotion. We have four singles coming out that lead to the release of the album, and in my opinion, the four songs we’ve chosen as singles represent how the album sounds as a whole.”
The album is released onto all music platforms on March 15, 2024, and has been in the works since 2021. Armchair Boogie has proven popular for outdoor shows and festivals, and when they’re not performing as a band, they’re typically finding gigs with other bands and artists. As expected, gathering time over the last few years to record Hard Times & Deadlines has proven difficult, though they made sure to record each song in Lunar Lava Studios of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.
“We’ve just been slowly but surely chipping away at the album, since we’re not a full-time touring band we all book other gigs and have shows lined up. For Hard Times & Deadlines, we would record a few songs, then take a few months off, write a few more songs, and then schedule when we could all come together again to record.”
“It was very sporadic, whenever we collectively had time off, we made sure recording was a top priority. It’s been five years since we’ve put out our last full-length album, so that really shows you right there how hard it is to get us all together when we’re not touring or performing,” Dougherty laughed.
“Hard Times” was the first single from the new album and is, in fact, where the title of their album is drawn from.
“The album is called Hard Times & Deadlines after our first single off the album, ‘Hard Times’,” said Dougherty. “One of the lyrics within the song includes the phrase, ‘Hard times and deadlines,’ and it had been so long since we had released a full-length album, that we were simply just experiencing how challenging it is to navigate being serious musicians, while also maintaining other jobs for financial reasons. We were feeling the hard times at points during the creation of this album, and also feeling the pressure of continuing the creation, but if you don't keep putting stuff out, you come close to fading away. So, ‘hard times and deadlines’ is our literal way of putting how we're feeling.”
Dougherty explained that while everyone in the band contributes to songwriting and perfecting, he and guitarist and other lead vocalist, Ben Majeska, are the two primary sources of Armchair Boogie’s original music.
“Ben and I will come to the band with a song that’s maybe 75% finished, and we’ll pass it around the band to see how we collectively finish it off. This method has been really working for us lately, and one of my favorite singles of the album, ‘Livin’’, is actually the result of this method,” Dougherty smiled. “I looked for a bit more collaboration than I normally do for ‘Livin’’ because we were already sitting and tinkering with it together as a band, so the syncopated jam session that emerged from it was too good to toss out.”
Tinkering and playing off of one another’s music and ideas has shaped many songs in Armchair Boogie’s repertoire, and often the memories that come from these days feed into what their favorite songs to perform together are.
“‘Livin’’ is one of my favorites to perform because it’s just so fun and I always remember that impromptu jam session,” Dougherty chuckled. “I think it's a good example of the genre that we’re in and the sound that we produce. It's my favorite because it’s hard to be perfect at it. It’s technical enough to be challenging, and I like that I screw it up every once in a while, I have a drive to play better because of that song.”
Though it sounds like a fun madhouse in these jam sessions, Dougherty’s note of this method and his bandmates driving him to improve his playing abilities rings true and can be heard in the songs filling out their new album. Similar to how jazz musicians play, learning how and being able to play with improvisation keeps the brain active, and creates entirely unique sounds, such as with their new song “Skippin’ Town”.
“When we were recording ‘Skippin’ Town’, we sat down together and hashed out this whole improvised jam session together. We essentially created the song in the studio, which is not normally the case,” Dougherty reminisced. “One could look at that as procrastination of not having it figured out before we showed up, or you could look at it as an opportunity to collaborate with your talented friends.”
Singing in the sunshine
While the sun continues to thaw us for the summer, Armchair Boogie works to keep their music playing in the colder months, moving from their beloved festival stages to taking gigs as individual players and building up their base for the outdoor festival season once more.
“You simply can't beat the energy in the vibe of an outdoor music festival, and as a bluegrass stage band, that's kind of our bread and butter,” Augie Dougherty smiled.
The band books nearly 50 festivals in a single year, ranging from late spring to mid-fall, with a show nearly every weekend and some weekday shows in the summer. They even happily return to some of these music festivals every year.
“We play so many festivals in the summertime, it's a staple for us,” he said. “Playing those shows throughout the winter is just something to get us by until the summertime because that's when everything seems worth it. It's all so beautiful and amazing because you get to see the whole community there. People are just there to vibe, and the vibe is unbreakable.”
Some of the band’s favorite stages to perform across the country are for festivals such as Blue Ox Music Festival, Jackpine Jamboree, Northwest String Summit, Summer Camp, Live on King Street, John Hartford Memorial Festival, and Bourbon and Beyond. Dougherty actually revealed playing Blue Ox Music Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is one he looks forward to every year.
“Playing Blue Ox Music Festival for the first time was really special,” Dougherty reminisced. “I've been to that festival every year, I just went for my 10th time, but the first four years I attended only as a patron. My fifth year there, they invited Armchair Boogie to play, and I remember playing for this awesome, huge, late-night crowd out in the woods.”
“It's been so amazing to watch that festival grow and to also be invited to be a part of it makes us feel like such a huge part of the community,” he said gratefully. “Feeling connected to this community of people is where I've personally felt the most welcome in my life. There's nothing better than the feeling of playing not only your home state, but in front of people who are genuinely having fun to your music. Music truly brings people together.”
Aside from performing around the Midwest and Wisconsin, Armchair Boogie has now ventured to more than states, making their way out to the East Coast for the first time in 2023. Though Dougherty is certain Wisconsin is his favorite to return to because it is his home, he also found great comfort in another state.
“Another of our favorite places, for sure, is Colorado,” he smiled. “Performing for a Colorado audience feels like performing for a Wisconsin audience because they both have this wide appreciation and love for bluegrass. We’ve done a lot of festivals in Colorado and it feels like home every time.”
As the band’s audience continues to grow and take them further across the country, it’s only a matter of time before we see Armchair Boogie selling out shows in Ireland (also big bluegrass fans), Spain, or even Japan! Until then, no matter what country you’re from and reside in, you can listen to Armchair Boogie’s new full-length album, Hard Times & Deadlines, everywhere March 15, 2024.
“Listen along as life's realities press down on four goofball, bluegrass pickers from Wisconsin, in our new album, Hard Times & Deadlines, learning what it's like to actually become adults and continue to try and take this music thing seriously,” grinned Dougherty.
