Leatherbag (Randy Reynolds) - Photo: Mary Sledd

It’s dangerous when you get two music nerds into a room at once. And mind you, I mean nerds, not snobs. The difference? Well, it’s slim, but a music snob probably wouldn’t admit the influence Tom Petty’s had on his latest album Love & Harm. Leatherbag (aka Randy Reynolds) is by every definition a music nerd. Between all the nerding-out over Wilco demos and Sonic Youth interviews, he and I managed to chat for a bit about his new album, his production credits on Graham Weber’s latest album, Door to the Morning, and, true to our nerdom, books.

Big Diction: There are a lot of obvious influences on the album that you’ve talked openly about, how do you see them fitting with you own songwriting on the album?

Leatherbag: Well its hard, its really hard. I mean this past week I’m obsessed with two things: Dwight Twilley… and Tom Petty. And people laugh every time I fuckin’ say it, there’s something about Tom Petty. I can’t explain it, but he knew when he had really good songs, ’cause the songs are really well taken care of. Every part works exactly the way it’s supposed to. And I’m only listening to stuff from ‘76 to ‘81 where they’re still trying to figure out what they’re doing, nothing that went platinum yet except Damn the Torpedoes which is awesome, awesome. But dude, when you listen to “Refugee,” you can walk down the street and play that, and people know exactly what it is. It doesn’t matter if they know who’s singing it, but they know the song. Part of me at least, wants to get to the place where you can do that one time at least, and say that’s my thing. His song “Listen to Her Heart,” it’s awesome. It sounds like them and nothing else.

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Randy Reynolds - Photo: Jessica Attie

After last year’s chart-topping smash hit* Nowhere Left To Run, Randy Reynolds (under the moniker Leatherbag) moves beyond the confines of the “singer/songwriter” with his new album Love & Harm, challenging himself and his listeners with songs culled from a wide spectrum of influence.

In a recent interview on Austin Sound, Reynolds said, “I decided I was going to write every kind of song that I know how to write.” There’s no better explanation of Love & Harm; every track is different from the next, each an exploration into different styles and genres. But while the tracks are distinct from one another, they never feel like tangents or digressions, instead serving more as limbs that function together to the benefit of the body as a whole.

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Randy Reynolds - Photo: Jessica Attie

Nothing calls for caps-lock like the word FREE, except maybe BOOBS, TITS, VIAGRA and MALE ENHANCEMENT, at least according to the junk folder of my inbox. And that’s why local folk-rock maestro Leatherbag is capitalizing on FREE this Thursday night by not only playing a FREE show, but also by giving away his new album Love & Harm for FREE as a download at this show only, which is going down at The Cactus Cafe (in the UT Student Union) at 8pm.

The temptation to make jokes about Leatherbag having nowhere left to run after last year’s debut album Nowhere Left To Run is almost as strong as the urge to open some of those MALE ENHANCEMENT emails, but I’ll resist, and state simply that having solidified his place in the Austin music scene, we’re all excited to see what Leatherbag can pump out when he settles down to catch his breath. Look for a complete review of the album later this week on Big Diction.

Once again, the show is FREE, the album is FREE, and the whiskey is FREE if you own a hip-flask. I challenge anyone to come up with a better deal than this, barring Ten Cent Beer Night of course.

Goodie bags after the jump.

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Leatherbag - Photo: Jessica Attie

The good folks over at Austin Sound brought us something special today in the form of an interview with one my favorite local artists, Leatherbag, a moniker for Randy Reynolds. He talks about everything from the new album, Love and Harm, to the books he’s been reading…which brings me to my favorite part of the interview:

Austin Sound: You mentioned earlier that you have an odd work schedule. How do you fit in practicing or composing music?

Leatherbag: Well, I have a lot of time on my own in between programs; I work on the top floor. That’s where my writing really helps. I’ve been reading a lot of short stories and fiction; I steal a lot of lines from short stories.

AS: Any books or authors in particular?

L: Yeah. Russell Banks is a huge influence. Raymond Carver is probably the largest influence. Joyce Carol Oates. Flannery O’Conner. There’s a new writer I like a lot named Michael Chabon; he wrote The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. He uses words that are totally modern, and you don’t know what they mean. He’s a great writer.

I’ve stopped reading novels, so I do a lot short fiction up there. The main thing I do at work is I usually write a bunch of nonsense ideas I have, but then I edit them for months. Raymond Carver said, “You write like the chair’s about to be pulled out from under you.” That’s the way I do it. You have a window of opportunity, and just run with it. A lot of it is garbage, but over time you can develop it. And there’s a guitar up there. I really take a lot of time with words because words are really central to what we do. I work really hard on it.

I also play Castlevania 2 and Super Mario 3.

You really can’t go wrong with Raymond Carver.

Read the full interview, by Abhinav Kumar, here.

Leatherbag joins Abhinav on his radio show Tons of Fun (on KVRX 91.7FM) this Thursday, the 10th, at 8pm.