There’s a Lot More To Common People Than Their Name May Suggest

They may be fresh faces in the music industry, but the spirit and showmanship of Common People is something you’ll want to familiarize. It’s been an eventful year for the band, who took their alternative rock anthems to new heights as an opener for the concluding leg of Cage the Elephant’s Neon Pill tour. In conversation with Pleaser, they share lessons learned from a prominent mentor, reflect on pinch-me moments, and reveal how they’re shaping up to be a “kick*ss live band.” 

PHOTOS BY OLIVE JOLLEY

Rarely do I write an interview introduction from the first-person point of view, but with a band as personable as Common People, it would be a misdeed to detach myself from presenting their character. 

Pleaser photographer Olive Jolley and I met the band — Nicky Winegardner (vocals, guitar), Sam Belzer (guitar), Asher Thomson (guitar), Konrad Ulich (bass, vocals) and Cormac Cadden (drums) — in Port Chester, New York before their show at The Capital. Nestled near the Connecticut border, Port Chester is about forty-five minutes north of Manhattan. Although a city bureaucratically, it feels too quaint to be called such, under the giant shadows of neighboring NYC. Still, Common People arrived at our shoot, stirring with enthusiasm, the kind you’d see from someone about to take the stage at Madison Square Garden. 

I can feel that energy echoing through their vibrant and timeless singles, “Thank You” and “Propoganda.” The band tends to play with layers of groovy guitar and resonant hooks that implant themselves in the folds of your brain. It’s astounding that they’ve only released two songs, considering the strong command they have over their sound and stage presence. 

I’m not the only one who’s been won over by Common People’s comfortable charm. After getting his hands on their earlier demos, Cage the Elephant co-founder Brad Shultz has been a driving force behind the band’s come-up — an origin story in true rockstar fashion. Aside from producing their recent projects under his label Parallel Vision, Shultz pulled the band on the road to open for four nights of the Neon Pill theater tour, joined by direct support from hey, nothing.

Amidst it all, Common People remains grateful and grounded, insistent on being simply a group of friends sharing a love for live music. They’re still excited about the little things often lost on jaded musicians, like publicity shoots and venue catering. They carry a rather nonchalant perspective compared to the rigor of their well-rehearsed live show. Cage the Elephant’s animated and exhilarating powers of performance have elevated them in incredible new ways .

PLEASER: I noticed that you cite The Grateful Dead as one of your many influences, which was funny considering we met you in Port Chester which is considered to be a “Dead Town” because of their ties to The Capital. It made me wonder, now that you’ve moved out of a bar scene to some more notorious stages, does performing feel like it has higher stakes?

Sam Belzar: We’ve been really trying not to change how we play, no matter where we are, who’s in the audience, whatever’s happening. That being said, playing some of these venues, we do really take into account how amazing it is, and we appreciate the room so much. We try not to add the pressure to ourselves, like, “Jerry played here!”

Nicky Winegardner: It’ll eat you. It’ll eat you alive. 

Konrad Ulich: We played The Cap [The Capital] in May, and it swallowed us. It swallowed us the first time, but we leaned into it the second time, like maybe we’re here for some reason now. 

NW: It’s not like we don’t care who we’re playing in front of…we just want to stay true to ourselves and how we play our music. There’s nothing better than seeing a kick*ss live band. We definitely want to be a kick*ss live band. And I think that’s what resonates, when we’re just grooving together and enjoying the moment as the five of us. The crowd feeds into that because it's genuine and authentic. We don’t want to be performative just for the sake of being performative. We want people to feel it the way we do. 

Tell me about the vision or goal you had for Common People when you were first starting out.

KU: It evolved naturally. We started out, and we didn’t think we’d be here. We were a bunch of dudes who were good friends and loved playing music together, then it kinda just happened. 

Cormac Cadden: It was really organic. There wasn’t really a “first day” of us being a band.

SB: We did a ton of college shows, super fun stuff, just playing random covers. I do think we have a shared goal now of wanting to be a really bad*ss live band…from playing a lot of sh*tty bar gigs, we wanted to hone it in and get better at that.

NW: The live element, one thousand percent. As we grew together from being best friends and as we got more familiar with what we like musically, there is a real inherent desire — which I love about our band — to make stuff that we are passionate about and push to make something new.

And you’ve had a great opportunity to evolve the live component on your past run supporting Cage The Elephant. Could you tell me a little bit about your relationship with them?

NW: It’s a long story. One of our demos, Brad [Shultz] got a hold of through a long history of people in the industry. When he started producing younger artists and heard our demo, he said, “You should come down to Nashville.” We started organically working on music with him, and he and Cage [the Elephant] collectively have become a mentor to us. Now with Brad producing us and playing shows with those guys, obviously, they have such an impact on us and our career. Being able to tour with them has been so huge. Through working together, our world has opened up and he’s pushed us to get better and better. He’s become a big brother to us, and we’re so grateful for his effort and his love…believing in us early. 

Is there anything in particular you’ve learned from Shultz that stands out?

KU: For me, it was the power of a hook in songwriting and how to cater something to be singable. Cage, they’re legends at that. 

NW: The songwriting mixed with the energy. When you work with him in the studio, he’ll come in 1600mg of caffeine deep and be bouncing off the walls, but it’s a focused energy. He’s a master of focused energy. It is that hook. He talks all about it. That’s why those songs stick and have that staying power, that nostalgia, that timelessness. You can sing those songs forever and never get tired of it. That’s what it is. Channeling that energy into a phrase that people can resonate with. 

And on your run of shows supporting Cage The Elephant, what have you guys learned yourselves as a band?

SB: I think we’ve learned that we want to do this for as long as possible. We learned that we really do enjoy every aspect of being on the road. We love meeting the new photographers and being backstage, talking to people, and meeting people. And then we love playing the show.

KU: The catering, don’t forget the food.

SB: We’ve seen that if you can do this for a long time successfully, you can have a really cool life filled with amazing people — that’s something we really want to do. 

NW: Great answer right there.

KU: That nails it, Sam. 

SB: BOOM! Quote it!

NW: Oh! There’s one story from this tour that really sticks with me, and I think it’ll stick with the band too. During our show at The Cap, somebody in the front row put up their phone, and it said, “This is My First Show.” Moments like that make me feel like what we’re doing means something more…I remember my first concert. I feel like everyone can remember when music affected them at the right time for the first time, and any chance we get to be a part of moments like that, how could you not want to keep chasing it?

Something else that intrigued me about hopping on this tour was that you did so with only two singles out: “Propoganda” and “Thank You.” What else were you including in your setlist?

KU: The album, baby! It’s coming.

SB: We have a good number of selections for songs coming out…we’ve been playing those songs live now for over a year, so we’re really excited to put them all out and let people hear. 

One of them is coming out Nov. 14: “Ready or Not.” Tell me a little bit about that track. 

NW: The start of that song, I had this chord progression that just felt so good playing. I sat on it, because I couldn’t really write more to it. It would always be something I would come back and play…We were recording “Thank You,” actually, and I remember playing it in the studio for the rest of the band and Asher saying, “What is that? Where has that been?” We ended up recording it a month later. It was one we all gravitated towards pretty quickly. Especially live, Asher’s been doing some really cool stuff on the slide guitar now. It’s brought the song to new places. 

I know you just hinted at new songs on the horizon, but in between this run and a tour with Rainbow Kitten Surprise in the new year, you have a pretty big gap of time. Any other plans for that period?

All: Studio!

SB: These next couple weeks are going to be heavy writing and recording, and the third part of the job that nobody talks about, which is content. We’re super excited. We like playing shows with people, and so I wouldn’t be surprised if we do a couple of shows between now and then. 

AT: There’s no way we’re playing no shows between now and February. 

NW: We got the itch too bad.

AT: I’ve had the post-show blues. I feel like I’m on the comedown from a festival. 

To close out our interview, on the heels of such a big year for you guys, do you have a fondest memory or an “I made it” moment?

NW: We don’t have an “I made it” moment yet! I will say, when we played The Salt Shed in Chicago, opening up for Cage for the first time, it was the first time we played a show of that size where we walked off the stage and we felt like, “Yeah, this is it. This is why we want to do it.” I’ll never forget seeing everyone’s faces after that show. Our eyes were huge.

AT: I kinda blacked out from that one.

NW: Also, our first single came out that weekend, so just the energy of that weekend was pretty special. 

KU: And something from this past weekend — I don’t know if Asher remembers this, but at the end of the Boston show…I was going up to him throughout just yapping nonsense in his ear, and right before we started the last song, I said something to him, and he was just like, “Take it in man.” I remember looking at the crowd and being like, “Damn this is so sick.” 

CC: For me, it might have been when we were in the studio, and Brad came in and surprised us with the announcement we booked with Cage. He gave us this big goal to work towards on our first weekend in Nashville.

NW: I think us living together in Nashville for the first time…That really felt like the moment we became a band, like, “Let’s really do this sh*t.” We just all got so close, and now more than anything, it’s the best part of it. 

SB: I would jump on that and say for me, it was the same thing. I was scared sh*tless graduating college. Me and Nicky just graduated this past Spring. All my friends were trying to get jobs, and everyone was doing all this sh*t, and I was thinking, “I don’t know what’s happening I’m just doing this band I don’t know what’s going on.” When we just took that leap, which was hard for sure, once we did that and settled in… I was like, “Yeah, you’re good.” It was nice not to get caught up. That was probably my favorite moment of the whole thing so far. 

A beautiful reflection to mic drop on, but the mic won’t stay down for long. Common People will be taking back to the stage (officially) in February, as they join Rainbow Kitten Surprise for sixteen dates across the US and Canada. Nicky, Sam, Asher, Konrad, and Cormac may have taken more of an old-school route to the spotlight, but they’re bringing with them a new and refreshed energy, growing into their own, right before our eyes. You’re not going to want to be the last one to witness it. 

Presave “Ready or Not” here.