I admire musicians with the creativity and time to dabble in different sounds. Especially when one foot is firmly planted in the raucous energy of a full band, the other in the solitary focus of solo work. Jason Bales of The Yardarm falls into that category, though he didn’t necessarily set out to be.
His first solo EP, Watching the Pines, arrived out of circumstance as much as intention. While The Yardarm has built a following that radiates from the Durham music scene, Bales found himself with a collection of quieter songs that didn’t quite fit the band’s rock-and-roll framework. The result is something stripped bare and deliberate, with fingerpicked guitar, jazz-influenced chord structures, and the Nebraska-esque intimacy that comes only from a single voice and minimal overdubbing.
After meeting with Jason, it was clear this isn’t a side project in the traditional sense. His solo work and the band exist in conversation with each other, part of what he describes as a larger creative ecosystem. It’s a practical approach born from the realities of keeping a band together — conflicting schedules, the ebb and flow of local venues, the challenge of simply getting everyone in the same room.
What have you been listening to lately?
Jason: I’ve been all over the place recently. Todd Snider died last week, and I had never really listened to him much, so I’ve been checking out some of his work. That sort of led me to James McMurtry, also really good.
In general, I’ve been listening to solo acoustic guitarists. John Fahey is the big genesis of a lot of that, but there’s a lot of really good new music out there. England especially seems to have a lot going on. There’s a guitar player named Gwenifer Raymond who’s really good. There’s a lot of anxiety going on in the country at large, and I felt like it’s been kind of calming and focusing.
Oddly, on the other end, I’ve also been in a bit of a metal phase. Castle Rat is really good. I’ll go see them at some point, just because it looks like a ridiculous live show.
Who is the first musician that you remember discovering on your own and obsessing over?
Jason: My dad has a huge record collection, so my brother and I grew up listening to most of what he had. Bob Dylan was probably the first, back when I was in middle school. Which is an odd thing for a middle schooler to get into in the mid-90s, because he hadn’t even had his comeback album yet at that point. It was not cool again. [laughs]
The first thing that was really mine and didn’t come from his record collection was Radiohead. I got them and Phish towards the end of high school. I was more into The Bends than OK Computer, for whatever reason. I don’t know, that Britpop kind of thing.
How did you start playing music?
Jason: We had a piano at home, and I would sort of play around with that. One of my music teachers in elementary school said that if you played the black keys, it would sound good. So I started messing around with that. My parents did get me piano lessons starting in fourth grade, but I only stuck with it for a few years. They had to poke and prod at me a bit to practice.
I started playing guitar in fifth grade, and that was like a lock from the beginning. They didn’t have to tell me to practice that; I stuck with it and did it on my own. Which is what you really want when your kid picks up a hobby.
When did you make the jump from playing instruments to writing music or being in a band?
Jason: Back in freshman year of high school, my best friend since first grade started taking drum lessons. So we made a band together, and we were bad. But we got better because he played pretty consistently.
We had different iterations of that band, and in the town where I grew up, there weren’t a lot of places to play. The son of my guitar teacher had a band that was a Ben Harper jam band thing. They had gotten a decent following in the area, and we played a couple of shows with them, but they had to rent out this room in the community center.
My brother Aaron and I were in college at Michigan State and started a band called Flatfoot. I wrote songs, played guitar, and did all that, but Aaron was the one booking the shows and handling the management side.
Image credit: Ricky Garni
What led to The Yardarm coming together?
Jason: I moved down here in 2007, and I tried playing a couple of solo shows, but just got discouraged really easily. I hadn’t done booking before, and it was such a letdown from trying to play shows in a place where I knew people who would come out, versus playing shows in a place where I didn’t know anybody. I figured I’d take a break from it for a while. Over the next 10 years, I only played music with some folks I worked with, but mostly in jams rather than playing shows.
Then, in 2017, JJ [Westfield (vocals/guitars)] and I met through a local parent group our wives were part of and started jamming a bit. John Cowan and I had worked together for a few years, but I didn’t realize he was a drummer, too. He and Palmer [Smith (bass)] worked together like in the same building at Chapel Hill City Schools. When he invited me to come jam with them, I put it all together.
With your new EP [Watching the Pines], you cite Nick Drake, Townes Van Zandt, and Nebraska-era Springsteen as touchstones. What is it about that sparse, intimate sound that drew you in for this project?
Jason: I had a big burst of songwriting around 2020. Some of them worked for The Yardarm because they were more rock and roll. But these songs just didn’t seem to fit. I had a hard time picturing them in our set and playing them as a full band.
They were really born of that pandemic isolation. I was doing a lot of fingerpicking at the time, just trying to get better at that, and playing around with jazz chord structures. I think the EP is that combined with being drawn towards instrumental guitar, or artists like Doc Watson and Tony Rice, that sort of band bluegrass folk.
Also, in October 2020, our drummer, John, fell off a ladder and broke his elbow. We didn’t really play out for about two years as a full band. During that time, especially once lockdown had lifted, I was getting an itch to go back out and play more. So I was playing a lot solo and developing that style of making it interesting and not just cowboy chords with nothing behind it.
How does your songwriting process differ when you’re working solo versus writing with The Yardarm?
Jason: I rarely sit down and think, “I need to write this sort of song.” Usually I’m playing around with a guitar and something takes hold, and then I have a concept for a song or some part of one. A song on The Yardarm album, On A Tipping Sea, called “Richmond 1925” started off in a much different field. The way we do it is punk rockabilly, but it started as this back porch finger-picking thing. Once I had written the song, I thought it would be great for The Yardarm if I tweaked it a little bit to make it more driving, more rock and roll.
How do you see your solo work and The Yardarm coexisting? Are they serving different creative needs for you?
Jason: I did this project because I knew we weren’t going to start recording The Yardarm stuff quite yet. We’re working towards that. There are seasons where we are playing out a lot, like April through June and then mid-August through October. But during the winter and during that middle of the summer, we’re not going to be playing much. I can look to either be writing more or fill in with a few more solo spots, that sort of thing.
Image credit: David Prather
What was the band’s response to this solo project?
Jason: JJ did all the recording, mixing, and mastering. They’ve always been supportive of the solo side because I think they recognize that it’s not taking away from The Yardarm necessarily. If anything, it’s creating a bigger ecosystem. I’ve met people through solo shows that have ended up being contacts for booking shows with the band. It all kind of works together.
Some bands play out a lot, every chance they get. Especially the last couple years, I feel like it’s been hard for us to book shows. Just in terms of our schedules meshing and coming together. So having the solo material is another way to bring people into the fold.
What do you hope listeners ultimately take away from this EP?
Jason: That’s a pretty scary question. It is a very sparse, quiet album. Two of the songs have no overdubs; one of them, my brother plays the slide on. I hope that it doesn’t come off as just demos. This is an intentionally quiet album, not something hastily thrown together. It was a choice, and JJ’s production really makes it sound full and polished in a way that I couldn’t.
Who are some of your favorite local/North Carolina musicians?
Jason: We’ve got to shout out All Y’all Records — The Yardarm is a part of that. Dave Hedman of The Gone Ghosts and Nick Stroud of Heat Preacher started it last year. It’s really a collective more than an actual label. The way that it’s grown has been really cool to see, and we’ve got some great bands and artists on it.
The Gone Ghosts also just put out an EP that’s really good [No Voice of the Wicked]. Rebecca Porter, who’s based in Virginia, has gotten good press and attention for her album [Roll With The Punches]. She’s like going off to tour Washington and Oregon and elsewhere, so she’s really doing it. I really like her sound, she has such a powerful voice.
I’ve played with Max Lane a couple of times this year and the response that he gets from audiences is crazy. It’s like pin drop quiet and then huge applause, so he’s one to watch for sure. Charles Latham put out an album at the beginning of this year and the end of last year. I’ve always really enjoyed his songwriting
Anything else you want to include before we wrap up?
Jason: Support artists through physical merch and Bandcamp. Go to local music stores. Get out of the house every now and then to go see a show; it’s good for you go see a show. Just go do something. Touch grass.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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