Son of William explains ‘What Hides Inside’

The band Sons of William takes pride in its traditional rock roots, citing influences like U2, Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac and most importantly their father, William “Wild Bill” Stark, from whom the band takes its name.

Joe Stark (guitar/vocals), David Stark (drums/vocals) and newcomer Jen Janet (bass/vocals) form the band. And their new album, “What Hides Inside,” will be released Sept. 4 on Red Lick Records.

Joe Stark of Sons of William was kind enough to be interviewed while the band was crossing the Mississippi-Louisiana state line, returning home after three months of performing for a short vacation.

Joe explained the band had previously released two abbreviated albums, the “Red” and “White” albums, but “What Hides Inside” would be the band’s first full length EP.

For those not familiar with the bands history, Joe explained the “Red EP” came first.

The band toured behind it for a “long time,” but their fans were starving for something new from the band. So, Joe and David decided to compile a bunch of B-sides to put out the “White EP.”

But, as the “White EP” was little more than a snack for the band’s fans, “What Hides Inside” will be a feast.

The album marks a cleaner, tighter and more-focused direction for the band. The cover art reflects this maturation. It features a black and white photo of a little boy with eyes and an expression that make one realize the boy may have been standing there, but he was clearly somewhere else.

The album cover is actually an old photo of Joe and David’s middle brother, Evan. Joe said they wanted to do something like U2’s album “War,” which also featured a boy on the cover.

“We knew we wanted the title to be ‘What Hides Inside,’ which is the title of the record and is a lyric from one of our songs. And then we kind of brainstormed and conjured up some ideas of what would be a cool thing to do. We thought of doing a cocoon. We thought of everything from a pregnant woman’s belly to a cocoon to all kinds of crazy left ideas,” said Joe. “We really settled on having like a great picture of a kid having that stare on his face that just makes you know he’s somewhere else and thinking something.”

Evan was 7 years old when the color picture was taken. He currently attends LSU. The photo was altered to look black and white.

Joe and Evan’s mom actually suggested Evan often had that kind of look and helped them find it.

While Joe said they wanted the album cover to have a vibe like Pearl Jam’s video “Jeremy,” the photo doesn’t have to imply anything sinister. They just wanted to convey the kid was “somewhere else.”

“I wasn’t so sure about it, but David, the youngest, just knew that was going to work. So, he went about sending it up to our management and they kind of took it from there. Sure enough, it really did work out well,” said Joe.

While the band is named the “Sons” of William, it does retain a daughter of sorts in the form of Jen Janet.

“There’s really no explanation. We decided to call it that when it was basically just us two and we were rotating bass players,” said Joe. “So, we just call her the adopted daughter, I guess, the adopted daughter who is stuck with the name son. You can just write it off as being like a southern thing, too, if you want to. That always seems just to be an excuse for stuff.”

Joe and David met Jen during an auditioning phase. The two knew they wanted to add a female voice to their band and had been seeking a female bassist who could sing.

Originally, they toured with another female bassist, Annie Clements. Clements had other opportunities come up that she wanted to pursue and left Sons of William.

Jen had heard, through family members, Joe and David were looking for a bass player. They took her to a farm their uncle owns in Dularge to audition.

“She was like, ‘Wow, this is going to be an experience.’ I think she thought we might have been taking her out there to dump her body or something,” said Joe. “The second she played the bass and opened her mouth we knew that we wanted to do what it would take to keep her around. She came in to fill some shoes and she’s become the shoes, I guess.”

Joe said he and David thought it would be a cool thing to have a girl in the band.

“It’s cooler to have Jen than a guy just standing up there playing bass. I feel like it kind of sets us apart,” said Joe.

Jen came into the band about the time Joe and David had completed half the new album, so her participation in the songwriting on the new album is pretty limited. Joe said they want to change this.

“That hasn’t happened, yet, but we talk about it all the time. And I’m sure this fall, while we’re out touring and hanging out, that’ll definitely come up and she’ll be a part of that next time around.”

Jen, who has been with the band now for almost a year, is featured on the last three songs of the new album. Annie was featured on the rest of the tracks.

Joe also talked about the change in the band’s sound since its early Red and White albums.

“As far as the writing and the playing and how the record sounds, we used a different producer, but I think most of it kind of just came naturally from touring those 2 1/2 years – just getting things really tight and figuring out what we do best and making those transitions in a real natural way,” said Joe.

The band worked with producer Justin Tocket, known for his work with Marc Broussard, Toby Lightman and Rex Moroux, for the new album.

Also, Joe said the band had been working on the new record for two years.

“This is… our ’70s Los Angeles-style, two-year long recording,” joked Joe.

Joe and David can both play drums and guitar and they do rotate around when writing songs. But when they play live, Joe sticks to guitar and David stays on drums.

The brothers can both play multiple instruments. Joe said David is pretty good at playing guitar, piano and drums and he can play guitar, bass and drums. Joe said he also used to play the violin pretty well, but has drifted from it.

“As long as we’ve been listening to music and caring about it as much as we do, we’ve always been into things in the past,” said Joe. “I think one of the biggest problems in music today is that kids that are learning how to play and learning to write songs are not necessarily being influenced by these classic great things like the Peoples or Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers or ELO or these really cool great things.”

He said the problem is the influences just range back about three years. Kids are learning to write music influenced by Fall Out Boy, instead of the great musicians of the past.

“We really pride ourselves on doing a lot of search and research when listening to finding out ways to reinvent. It’s just a taste thing, I guess, what our dad kind of turned us onto, what our ears gravitated towards,” said Joe.

Sons of William will play at the Balcony in Houma for its CD-release party on Sept. 1.

The band also has two other CD release parties planned: Aug. 30 in Baton Rouge at Chelsea’s and Aug. 31 in Lafayette at Blue Moon.

Son of William explains ‘What Hides Inside’