The title of J. Roddy Walston’s
latest album is a mystery even to him.
Even to J. Roddy Walston, the title of his latest album, “Destroyers of the Soft Life,” is a mystery. “I haven’t really nailed it down as one thing,” the songwriter said by phone from New Orleans. “Maybe people making a lifestyle based on the path of least resistance.”
The Tennessee native and his band the Business released the record in September. The tour for the album is bringing the roots rockers to The Social in downtown Orlando on Tuesday. (Show starts at 7 p.m. with opening act Sleepwalkers. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the event. Details: thesocial.org.)
“Soft Life” draws its name from the last line of the track “Burn Black” on the album. In the song, it comes from a character with “that extreme, youthful desire to buck the system and just blow the whole thing up,” said Walston, 36. He said that on its own, the phrase has come to mean something beyond its origin. “I keep discovering more. It’s a title and a line that keeps opening itself up to me, even though I created it.”
That sort of ambiguity in his lyrics is something Walston strives for. “I try to leave that space in songs and generally not pin things down too much,” he said.
“I write to accomplish what I want to accomplish and hear what I want to hear,” he said. “As a band, it’s more about satisfying ourselves.”
While he doesn’t set rules for the songs he wants to create, Walston does favor certain components showing up. “I like building a big catchy chorus,” he said. “I like it to be a thing that people can latch on to.”
That’s not surprising, given his band’s reputation for rowdy, interactive live shows. Walston is looking forward to fans getting to know the material on the new album better so they can join in the ruckus at performances. “There is that point where the record has been around like five or six months, everyone’s digested and now we have this whole new arsenal of songs to play and interact with people live,” he said.
Walston’s sound fits into the ’90s alternative tradition he grew up listening to. Since its 2007 debut album “Hail Mega Boys,” the band has made a mash of Southern rock and grunge. Walston acknowledges those elements and more. “I’m listening to classical and jazz and country and gospel and all of it is influencing me,” he said. “There are bands who are very specific in who they’re referencing … I don’t have one particular thing that influences me.”
But Walston also notes that the Southern part of his music doesn’t just come from his upbringing. “I love rock and roll … Rock and roll is from the South.”