Georgia’s Turf War Tonight @ Little Bar.

Georgia rockers Turf War will hit the stage tonight at Little Bar, which over the past year has become a destination for great music. The show is free, and there will be free rum served.

Turf War’s catchy melodies and power chords create nostalgia for a time when rock and roll was a magical thing. Our Jake Mattera spoke with lead singer John Robinson.

How did Turf War start?

I’ve been playing in bands since I was 15-years old but I stopped playing music for a while and went to school. That didn’t work out very well so I decided to start writing music. I was just doing it solo for a few months. Then I decided to get a full band because I thought it would be fun for live shows. We played around Augusta for about 2 ½ years as a four piece and then decided to move to Atlanta. That way, we could get a bigger following and move to an industry city. That’s pretty much how we started. We live in Atlanta now, got a van and just been touring around.

Do you do all the songwriting?

Yeah, I write all the songs.

Where do you get your inspiration?

Um … just the trials and tribulations I’ve been through in my life and things I’ve seen my friends go through. Other music that I listened to that helped me out when I was a teenager not being accepted by my teachers or other kids I wasn’t as cool with because I dressed different and acted different. I guess a lot of angsty stuff. But I’m a lot older now and it’s a little less angsty and just more about life, ya know?

What are some of the bands that inspired you?

I think Nirvana was the first band that I remember definitely that made me want to play music. I started playing guitar when I was 11, which was a few years after my dad and brother introduced my to Nirvana. One of the first songs I learned how to play was “Come as you are.”  They were my first influence

I had an older brother who would get me into a lot of the cool punk rock and indie rock bands as I was growing up. When I was fifteen, he gave me Let it Be by The Replacements and that was really the thing that changed my life. Let it Be, by The Replacements is probably the most influential album to this band I would say. We also take influence from Credence Clearwater Revival, The Clash and all kinds of other punk bands.

What was it like recording “Years of Living Dangerously?”

It was awesome. We actually had recorded that whole album completely in Augusta like minus two songs but added two new songs for the rerecording of it when we moved to Atlanta. When we moved to Atlanta, we recorded with a young guy we met – Ian MacDonald – and he recorded it with us. It was an awesome experience inside of his house in Cabbagetown. Then we met Ian Saint Pe from the Black Lips. We had played a show with them and he really liked our music, so he wanted to come in and help us mix it and produce it. He came in during a crazy ice storm in Atlanta, which we never get in the South really. We were kind of blocked in and couldn’t work so we would drive down to where we were mixing and would drink wine and mix the record for like 16 hours straight for a week or so. It was an awesome experience. Ian Saint Pe brought in a lot of awesome input to help us out, he kind of managed us for a little while when we were going out to SXSW.

What’s been the funniest or most fun thing that has happened while being out of the road?

We were in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yesterday with that band Staind yesterday that was pretty hilarious. I’m trying to think …

We did mushrooms last year at Austin in the middle of a field.

OHH!  Actually, no!  I know the funniest experience – one of our members was in a tiny bathroom with a girl one time while we were partying and all of a sudden they came barreling out of the door and broke the door down. That was a pretty hilarious experience.

What is your goal for the band? Where do you want to take it from here?

Well, we want to keep working hard and definitely want to be really successful. I just want to be a well-respected musician rather than be famous. But if fame comes with it, that would be awesome too. Mainly we want to be able to tour and support ourselves off it and not have to go home and work our crappy jobs. But we’ll keep doing that until we get where we need to go.

Click here for show details.