The boys are back in town folks. The “boys" in reference here are the boys of White Reaper. Sam Wilkerson, Nick Wilkerson, Tony Eposito, and Ryan Hater have returned home after several tours over the months of April, May, and June. While they may be a bit worn down and eager to return to the road, the band's homecoming is no small event. Twins Nick and Sam celebrated their 21st birthday last Tuesday; their debut album, “White Reaper Does it Again“ releases July 17th (with a release party at Guestroom Records on July 16th); and shows at both Forecastle’s WFPK stage and Forecastle Late-Night show at Headliners. We caught up with the band to talk everything from turning 21 to touring to being a part of Forecastle for the first time.
Louisville.com: So, Nick and Sam, you just turned 21. What did you do to celebrate the legal drinking age?
Sam: The night of, we all went to Nachbar and got trashed.
Tony: Not really.
Sam: I got trashed.
Louisville.com: What about [Nick]?
Sam: Nick also got trashed.
Nick: No I didn’t. I did not “get trashed”. Don’t laugh at me like that, it’s your fault.
Tony: We had a pretty good time.
Louisville.com: Did you guys do any gross b-day shots?
Nick: Any gross ones?
Louisville.com: Birthday shots. You know how people buy you crazy shots.
Sam: Oh, a lot of them I didn’t know what they were, but I know each of them were different.
Nick: I had one that was—
Tony: Cynar. [ED: CHEE-nar]
Sam: We had Cynar.
Tony: CYNAR
Sam: I’d never heard of it. I hear it’s some kind of fig extract?
Louisville.com: Fig extract? That sounds disgusting.
Sam: If somebody reads this and it’s quoted, I’m going to sound like an idiot if I’m wrong, but you can put it in there if you like. [ED: Cynar is in fact actually derived from the artichoke.]
Tony: It’s just Cynar.
Louisville.com: You guys just got home from touring. What was your favorite part about being on the road?
Tony: Not being home.
Sam: Yeah, not being home. We can live for free on the road.
Ryan: When we’re on the road everything is free. Which is tight.
Sam: We live like kings actually, but when we’re here—
Tony: We don’t have any money.
Ryan: If we had some money we’d have beers all over this table. I tell you what. [ED: Collectively the guys have to two beers and one peach margarita on the table.]
Tony: If we were in another city right now everybody would have an appetizer and I’d be three beers deep already.
Sam: We’d be staying at the Meridien with 20-foot high ceilings and chocolates on the bed, but right now I live in a basement.
Tony: When we’re home, no money.
Louisville.com: Is there anything you don’t like about touring? Perhaps laundry?
Nick: We don’t do laundry.
Sam: We’ve never done laundry on tour. We go on tour for weeks at a time and never do laundry.
Tony: Yep, never done laundry.
Sam: The worst part about tour, a few days ago at least, was being 20 years old being escorted out of venues because I wasn’t 21 and having my f*cking hands “X” out every time I played a show.
Nick: At some venues we were only allowed in the venue before and after we played. Like right before and right after. We couldn’t be there unless we were playing.
Tony: When you’re not 21 some venues don’t let you in. They let you in 5 minutes before you play and then 5 minutes after to get all your shit off stage.
Sam: When it happens it’s the worst feeling. You feel like you’re not even playing in the band that night. I don’t know, I feel like an asshole, but now that’s never going to happen again.
Tony: For me, the worst part of touring is trying to park. Cause you never know.
Louisville.com: What’s the weirdest show you had on tour?
Sam: On this last one we played in Salt Lake City one night. It was f*cking weird.
Tony: It was weird, but it was awesome.
Ryan: That’s true. That’s probably the weirdest one and also my favorite one.
Tony: We got f*ucked up. There was this bar called Area 51 and during our set apparently the stage lighting crashed.
Sam: It was constant strobe lights and we couldn’t really see what we were playing.
Tony: When it first started I was like “shit” I’m going to f*ck up so bad cause I can’t see what I’m doing, but it ended up being fine. It must have been a crazy show for people to watch.
Sam: The strobes were going off the whole time and there was so much fog.
Louisville.com: I’ve heard similar stories about too much fog.
Tony: We love fog.
Sam: Sometimes we ask for more.
Tony: I mean, we never get enough fog. I’ll say one thing: as a band we’ve never had enough fog.
Sam: And there was a shit ton at Area 51. When you have the fog and the strobes that’s when you’re really struggling.
Tony: That’s when you know you’re in Area 51.
Louisville.com: What do you do in your down time on tour?
Together: We go to malls.
Louisville.com: Do you shop or do you just go to them?
Ryan: We hardly ever shop. Sometimes if we all need pants, we will buy pants.
Nick: We know so much about malls. We’ve been to so many.
Sam: We go to malls in mostly every city we go.
Louisville.com: What’s your favorite mall?
Ryan: Well that’s easy, Mall of America.
Nick: It wasn’t that good, but it was the best.
Sam: It was our first time there this year.
Ryan: They have no sales tax and they have roller coasters.
Sam: But their roller coasters cost a lot.
Louisville.com: I don’t think I’m fully understanding the mall thing.
Ryan: It’s a free place you can walk around.
Louisville.com: So are parks?
Ryan: I’m not really into parks.
Nick: Yeah, I don’t think we like the idea of the outdoors.
Sam: We just get drunk and go to malls.
Louisville.com: Is there a store that’s in every mall you go to?
Sam: Hot Topic.
Nick: They all have the same things.
Tony: And we all do the same thing in them. We walk in and then we walk out.
Sam: We walk in, don’t buy anything, and walk out at most stores.
