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Twothirtyeight reunites after a decade for DeLuna Fest

6:41 PM, Aug. 5, 2012

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Ten years after splittling, Twothirtyeight will reunite to play DeLuna Fest. / Special to GoPensacola.com

Written by

Michael Smith

GoPensacola.com

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“I’m really excited about the Twothirtyeight Sunday show. Those guys in a lot of ways shaped the sound of Pensacola. (They) just influenced us locally on a good independent level. I’m definitely excited to see what those guys are going to put out as far as a set.” – Gio Lugo of Paloma

In 2003, one of the most acclaimed Pensacola rock groups of the past twenty years called it quits. Closing the doors on a band that began in the mid-’90s, Twothirtyeight ended a history that included collaborations with Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional) as well as the group's inclusion on the Tooth & Nail Records roster.

On April 17, Founding member Chris Staples posted this announcement on his Facebook page: “Twothirtyeight (my old band) broke up 10 years ago. We are reuniting in September to play DeLuna Fest in Pensacola. Come hang on the beach for a few days!”

As Twothirtyeight prepares to play again, Staples talked about the reunion, DeLuna Fest and why this could be your last chance to see the power that is Twothirtyeight.

Q: Before last year's DeLuna Fest, I asked the members of Paloma to name their all-time favorite Pensacola band and pretty much all of them said Twothirtyeight. How did the reunion come about?

A: Tim (Very), who is playing drums for the Twothirtyeight reunion -- he’s a good friend of mine, I do solo music and stuff and Tim plays with me -- he tried talking to Clint Aull, he’s one of the bookers for DeLuna Fest, and Tim sort of had the idea we should do a reunion. It was so hard to get a reunion because a couple of the guys -- one of the guys lives in Seattle and one lives in St. Louis -- so it takes money and none of us could really have afforded to take off work and do it, but basically DeLuna Fest is making it possible for this to actually happen. It was only a couple months ago that we started talking about it and we called Clint and came together really fast.

Listen to some of our favorite Twothirtyeight tracks

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Q: With your solo work and Discover America, you’re very busy. Is there any pressure to live up to those high expectations from your past with Twothirtyeight?

A: I don’t feel like I’m getting a lot of pressure from people, but I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself. It’s a whole lot of material to learn. (It’s music) that I haven’t played in more than 10 years, and a lot of it is kind of complex guitar stuff and we don’t have a lot of time to pull it together. I’m working really hard to try to get really tight with it. So, yeah, there is a little bit of like, “We want to pull it off and it be good.” There is some degree of pressure involved.

Q: What can the DeLuna Fest crowd look forward to when Twothirtyeight hits that stage?

A: One thing we wanted to do was play songs from all throughout the band’s history, because we were a band for 7 years and we put out a lot of stuff. We wanted to play music from the early days all the way up to the very last record we put out. A variety of stuff.

Q: Is there a chance that you could record another album with Twothirtyeight or tour after DeLuna Fest?

A: We’ve definitely talked about how fun it would be to get back together and make a record. It would be really fun. That actually sounds really exciting to me. But the reality of it is, we’re all grown up and then Kevin (Woerner) our guitar player has a family and he lives in Seattle and he has a career and Ben May lives in St. Louis and has a family. It really is hard to make that kind of time you need to do that. So I would say, probably, most likely, no, we’re never going to record or write again. We’re playing Atlanta and DeLuna Fest and those are our last, those two reunion shows are our only shows and that will be it.

Q: What bands are you’re excited about seeing at DeLuna Fest?

A: I really wanted to see Pearl Jam. I was a big fan when I was a kid and stuff, but I’m actually going to miss them. I’ll be busy. I won’t be able to see them. I was kind of bummed about that. And Foo Fighters, I’m kind of excited about seeing them obviously. But mostly, Dwight Yoakam. I’m really excited to see him. It’s going to be a good show. It’s going to be cool. I’ve never been to a music festival on the beach before. I think it’s a cool setting for a live festival setting. I love the beach.

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Q: What would the Chris Staples of today tell a young Chris who was just starting out?

A: I would say ... I was really super eager and driven to the point of burning, of just burning myself out. I would probably say to just like, “Take it easy, take it as it comes. Chill out. Slow and steady wins the race.” I was really, really eager. I just basically burned myself out and I’m not really like that anymore. I’m way more persistent, but in a calm way.

Q: In return, what would the young Chris say to Chris now?

A: Probably get off your ass more (laughs).