Songwriter has catchy way of addressing serious issues
Steven Higginbotham has found a formula that works. He writes particularly pointed lyrics — mostly about various injustices — and delivers them with his band, the Wheel Workers, in a joyous, hopeful manner. A high school English teacher by day, Higginbotham turns his attention to music at night, when he and multi-instrumentalists Allison McPhail, Craig Wilkins and Tyson Sheth create a spirited synthy mixture of folk and pop.
The band’s roots are in the Wheel Works, a group Higginbotham fronted in Austin. That lineup split, he returned to Houston and, in 2011, started the Wheel Workers, which have released three albums, including the new “Citizens.”
Higginbotham talked about bad policies, bad love and good melodies.
Q: Was it always your intention to put prickly content in hooky songs?
A: (Laughs.) Yeah, that’s really our thing, I guess. “Wait, what is this song about again?” I don’t know, that’s just what I’ve always been drawn to as a listener. I always liked bands like the Clash or Bad Religion. Bob Dylan or something where you have this appealing catchy music that’s interesting in its own right but also a vehicle for discussing serious issues.
Q: The title seems to pull all the songs together.
A: Well, it felt like the songs are sometimes like my children. So they’re different but united at the same time. In the same sort of way, I guess, that citizens in society are. There’s a lot of diversity there. It’s a way of exploring different subjects
while still having common themes in the background. And, of course, there are a few personal songs, too. The “citizens” in the title is partially about political consciousness, but it’s about our private lives as well.
Q: Which brings up my favorite line, at the end of “Burglar.” “I hate your favorite band/They’re (expletive) terrible.”
A: (Laughs.) I know, I know. I don’t know how applicable that is to this article, but basically there was a breakup, and this girl used some lyrics from one of her favorite bands to attack me. I thought that was over the top. It had this refrain in the song, “I hate this, I hate that.” I guess I was in a dark moment, and I turned it around. I debated those lines on that one. There was an alternate version ready to go, but everybody believed the original had a raw honesty that made it work.
Q: I can’t imagine it went over well with that person.
A: Yeah, it’s not really like my other lyrics. Obviously, it was from a heartbroken place, and it’s a twisted romantic concept. But it’s interesting, after a year and a half of complete silence, she heard the song and contacted me just last week. She was really high-minded about it. She understood music was my way of processing things.
Q: There are some similarities between that sense of disconnect in the personal sphere and the head-insand approach to national and international problems addressed on the album.
A: Yeah, I can see that. People live their lives, and there are all sorts of personal concerns that can be overwhelming at times. So in a lot of ways, it’s easier not to know what’s going on. And unfortunately, if you try to engage people in discussion about certain things going on in the world, there’s a tendency for their eyes to glass over. “I don’t want to hear this.” With music, you have circumstances that let you go down an avenue that’s a little unorthodox. You’re not a politician or an activist on the street. You can hum a song over and over. A lot of people ignore the lyrics. Speaking for myself, the lyrics by the bands I mentioned earlier very much informed my political views. I was more likely to listen to the lyrics, even as a teenager.
Q: You close with “Citizen Incorporated,” one of the most pointed songs and also the loudest. Was that put at the end for cathartic closure?
A: Not really, we were just working on a series of songs, and it felt good at the end. The very last note of the song, that crazy rooster screaming thing, I kept that in because it was so perfect. It felt right to keep it in there. In terms of the lyrics, they were basically inspired by the idea of corporate personhood. It’s kind of like corporations singing a song because they’re people now. What would that song sound like? It was an attempt to personify corporations and think of their darker side when it comes to the modern world.
Q: Yet the songs remain upbeat.
A: I’m generally hopeful. I’m a history teacher, so when it comes to the possibility of change, I believe in that. Think about the success of the gay rights movement: Ten years ago, there was one state, now there’s 30. That’s astonishing. The songs would lose something if there wasn’t a sense of hope.