Water Liars: Justin Kinkel-Schuster, GR Robinson and Andrew Bryant (left to right).
It was on 2001’s Southern Rock Opera that Drive-By Truckers bandleader Patterson Hood first sang about “the duality of the Southern thing,” a pride of place tempered by the ugly side of history, including a tradition of slavery.
And though 14 years have passed since that particular album was released, the conversation is still just as relevant for musicians like Water Liars’ Justin Kinkel-Schuster, whose band plays Aug. 7 at the Majestic Theatre’s Live on King Street series.
Originally from Arkansas and currently based in Mississippi, Kinkel-Schuster has spent the past decade as singer and guitarist for genre-defying Water Liars, a trio that touches on elements of folk, punk and country without ever falling neatly into any one category. And he credits his heritage for helping him find that balance.
“I think what we are doing and hoping to do — and I think what a lot of contemporary Southern artists are trying to do — is [to] have a sense of pride in where you come from and show that just because you’re from the South doesn’t mean you’re not intelligent and forward thinking and aware of the larger world and what’s going on. To me, that’s what it means to be a Southerner. To balance the complexity of history with now.”
And that history includes a long, varied artistic legacy, from Faulkner to Lynyrd Skynyrd, which Kinkel-Schuster has tried to utilize in Water Liars. “I’m the type of person who believes that all of what you’re into or that you care about is influencing you in one way or another,” he says.
Water Liars’ almost cinematic albums, packed with emotional chaos, reflect the influence of literature and film on the band members. That said, it is still Water Liars’ Southern roots that serve as their biggest influence. And it’s as much a blessing as it a curse, says Kinkel-Schuster.
“There is a tendency to pigeonhole,” he says, referring to the unconscious grouping of Southern artists regardless of genre. “And more than avoid it, we’re just trying to prove by how we are and what we do that there’s more to being Southern and having Southern influences in your art.”
