As Tolkien famously wrote, “Not all who wander are lost.”
At the age of 17, Rosco Wuestewald made the decision to leave his sleepy hometown of Yankton, S.D., and head west for Alaska in an old van he bought. Wuestewald’s first adventure was spurred by a desire to shed conventionality and avoid a path toward college or a 9-to-5 job. He hasn’t looked back since.
It takes guts to just pick up and leave, uncertain of a final destination or end goal, and the search for the unfamiliar is what keeps Wuestewald and his fellow bandmates in punk folk group Onward, etc. constantly on the move.
Wuestewald formed Onward, etc. after meeting violinist KC Olsen during his travels in Hawaii in 2009, and later added percussionist Tom Pearson into the mix after playing together on a tour in 2011.
Depending on where they’re playing, the band also features a rotating cast of musicians in addition to its permanent members. In that respect, Onward etc. is an ever-evolving musical project with honorary members that span the U.S.
The band is now prepping for a U.S. tour before its first album on DC-Jam Records is released in February.
See Onward, etc. play with the Bolzen Beer Band and Bud Heavy & The High Lifes at the Manticave on Thursday, September 19. But first, Hear Nebraska spoke with Wuestewald about the generosity of DIY show hosts, spontaneous bandmates and which band is so close that they have a tattoo of Onward, etc.
Hear Nebraska: It seems like a popular theme in your music is wanderlust and the desire to be nomadic. How does that influence your writing?
Rosco Wuestewald: I think wanderlust is probably the biggest topic when it comes to my writing. I have to convince myself to write about something else every once in awhile. Traveling definitely influences me. I write mainly about experiences and memories and other things of that nature. Getting out and being nomadic and seeing the world, having traveled as much as we have, it’s just our way of life.
HN: So when you guys want to go on tour — it seems like you’re a big part of the DIY scene and play a lot of DIY venues — do you ever use Kickstarter? How do you fund your tours?
RW: The tour just kind of funds itself. (Laughs.) We learned early on that if we work hard, we’re going to break even. When we’re not touring, that’s when we’re worried about being able to afford life because we don’t know what the hell to do. So it’s kind of like touring’s our job. It’s like clocking in and making money off of the road.
We’ve gotten to the point where we have guarantees at shows now, so we know what we’re going to get paid. We’re weathered when it comes to touring. On our first tour, we were scraping by and eating out of garbage cans and wondering if we could actually do it, and I think that we’ve gotten to the point where we’re comfortable — we can afford to eat a restaurant now.
HN: I think one of the best parts of the DIY scene is how hospitable everyone is. I think DIY culture really cultivates a sense of community. I know that, for example, most of the bands that play at the Manticave are almost always welcome to crash there if they need to. Has that been your experience?
RW: Yeah, we see that more and more every tour. We’ve gotten to the point where we can kind of pick a place to stay now rather than searching for one. Most of the time, it’s people that we’ve never even met, who don’t know us personally, and we’re getting emails and having people reach out who want to do something like throw a barbecue.
(Laughs.) We’ve had people that made us a tray of lasagna and then brought it to our show. It’s just so awesome that people are willing to let you step into their lives for a day, and they all have open arms. They take us in like we’re family even though we just met that night.
HN: That being said, do you prefer to play DIY venues like house shows, or do you prefer playing in more traditional venues like bars?
RW: You know, it’s kind of hard to say. We’ve come to a point where we’re starting to play more traditional music venues, like bars and places like that, but I think one of my favorite things to do is play an old-fashioned house party or a broken-down set for some people in a living room. I think we find excitement in absolutely every venue that we find ourselves in, but for me, I love playing house shows.
We’ve done some really, really cool shows. We’ve played a living room full of elderly people before who were just kind of hanging out. (Laughs.) Stuff like that — we love it, man. Shows like that are so much more personal. It’s hard sometimes when you play at bars where people go just to get drunk.
HN: I think you’ll experience a fun crowd when you play on Thursday with Bolzen Beer Band.
RW: Yeah. I love those guys, man.
HN: Have you played with them before?
RW: Yeah. Actually, I do a music festival every year and I had the Bolzen Beer Band come and play it last year. I met them at South by Southwest. I was on tour with a band called Skinny Lister from the U.K., and we went down there and I was just doing some solo stuff and I saw Orion Walsh. I saw him and the Bolzen Beer Band because they played before me, and then I got up after them and by the end of the show all of the Bolzen Beer Band was playing with me. (Laughs.) It was fucking awesome, and we just hit it off really well. I’ve just stayed in touch with them.
That’s actually how this show ended up happening, because of Brian from the Bolzen Beer Band. I reached out to him and asked him about Lincoln and he told me about the Manticave and I was like, “Fuck yeah, dude. That sounds awesome. Let’s totally do it.”
HN: On your Facebook bio, you refer to the band as a project, which seems appropriate given that you do a lot of improvisation with other musicians. It says, “The project connects musicians located throughout the country, enabling each tour and show to be completely unique based on the different band members and the location of the stage.”
When you go to a new city, do you rely on networking to find people that will play with you? Say, for example, you were playing with another band that had a harpist. Would you invite the harpist onto the stage with you, or how does that work?
RW: We’ve done it that way before, where we haven’t known the musician personally and before the show, we sit down and run through a couple of songs, and then we’ll invite them up to play with us during the show.
How it usually works out is that I’ve done so much traveling and touring that I know people in almost every state. So, if I’m touring in Portland I’ll call up my buddy Mark and be like, “Hey, dude. You want to learn some tracks and come play with us on the 26th of September?” And he’ll learn them and jump up and play at the show with us.
Our new album actually has a bunch of really cool guest musicians. Matt Hensley from Flogging Molly is going to play accordion with us. Jesse Marshall from Larry and His Flask is playing bass for the whole album. We’ve got a really great cast of characters coming out for the album.
We know so many people now. I’m sure we’ll have Bolzen Beer Band jump up with us at some point during our set on Thursday.
HN: Speaking of big names like Flogging Molly and Larry and His Flask or the Reverend Horton Heat, how did you network with bands like that? Was it through traveling?
RW: Pretty much, it’s all one massive spider web that’s just been getting bigger. Last night we got to play with Murder by Death and just hang out with those guys all night.
Or, there’s another band called Kentucky Knife Fight, have you heard of them?
HN: No, I haven’t.
RW: They’re. Fucking. Awesome. One of the best shows I’ve seen in awhile. They’re a St. Louis band. I really love those guys. They actually stayed at my house last night and we got really, really drunk, but yeah. I think every show we play opens up a door to something else.
I did a tour our in Hawaii with Larry and His Flask, and that’s how I met them, and that was just kind of a love-at-first-sight thing — we just kind of became brothers. They invited me out on tour for three months with Reverend Horton Heat, and I jumped on that boat and pretty much just became a member of The Flask. I toured with them all over the country, and we’ve just been doing that since.
Half of our current U.S. tour is with Larry and His Flask. We played at the Bourbon Theatre, I think it was last year, with Larry. Those guys are my brothers. They’ve got our band tattooed on them, and we’ve got theirs. We’re family.
HN: You guys were recently signed to DC-Jam Records. Now that you are officially on a label, how do you think your music will evolve? How are you going to continue to cultivate a DIY attitude? Is your label pretty open to that?
RW: This label is so fucking cool. This is probably the most DIY label that is actually a major label, one that has people like Richie Ramone from The Ramones, Fishbone, Slightly Stoopid, really fuckin’ major bands, you know?
Darron (Hemann), the owner of the record label, when he called us, just from the minute we started talking you could tell that he was in it to work together. It’s almost like we’re still just DIY, but we’ve just got this dude that’s badass and majorly backing us up and helping us with so much stuff.
Now we’ve got an entire team of people working for us. It’s kind of strange to have, but at the same time it’s just so nice to be able to have help — people that know the industry and know the business of music, opening doors that we could never open ourselves. They’ve been great, man. I’m really stoked about being on that label.
HN: When does your new record come out?
RW: I think we’re planning to release it in February 2014. Derek O’Brien, the drummer from Social Distortion, is producing the whole album. We just got a new manager, too. Her name is Doreen Sanchez and she’s Richie Ramone’s manager as well, so we’ve got a really good crew of people and a new booking agency on our side.
HN: You tie so many different genres into your music. You’re punk, but you’re also folk. What would you say influences you in that sense?
RW: Man, pretty much just everything. That’s the hardest question for me, I think, is what our sound is. It’s so hard to decipher. As long as people are enjoying it, that’s what we’re doing it for. We don’t know what to call it. When you come up with a name, let me know. (Laughs.)
HN: What’s your goal with a project and band like Onward, etc.? Where do you see yourself with this in the future?
RW: I really don’t know. This year’s been such a mind-fuck already. It’s crazy how quickly things can change and how quickly things can take off or slow down. I think as long as we’re still making music and playing shows, and having fun while being able to live, that’s pretty much all we want to do. We don’t really care about getting on the top ten Billboard or anything like that.
I think we’re known for the amount of passion we have for our music and the amount of passion we put out at a live show, and without it there’s no point. As long as we’re still having a good time, and making music, while being able to feed the family, then I think we’re in good hands.
Madison Hager is a Hear Nebraska contributor. She wants to go on an adventure, too. Reach her at madison.hager@gmail.com.