Young Widows Day Jobs Are All Ink and Pills

There is a bit of luck involved in being a touring band; there will be times when touring will just not be in the cards -- times to write, times to not sleep on floors. And in those times, it's good to be lucky enough to score a job that allows the touring time to take place without getting fired. For Evan Patterson and Nick Thieneman of Young Widows, they've both been returning to the same jobs Louisville, Ky. for almost 10 years.

Patterson's down time from the van and stage is one still very connected to music, managing the T-shirt side of Monkey Drive Screen Printing, which has done work for bands like Norma Jean and the Blood Brothers. "It's exhausting," Patterson told Noisecreep. "I'm over it."

But though the sometimes-tedious work of printing can wear down on a person like any job, it does keep Patterson close to artwork, which has helped him and the rest of the band with imagery for their albums. The straightforward, less busy art is what he's drawn to. "I feel like we're gonna stick with the classic cover," says Patterson. "Keep it real simple and bold. I think it's timeless. There's something about having a bold image on black. It's memorable and keeps you entertained."

Sadly bassist and occasional vocalist Nick Thieneman punches his time card as a pharmacy technician, which he described as "a lot of counting pills and dealing with elderly people that don't like you 'cause you're younger than they are," he lamented laughing with a defeated stare. "I hate it. It's a boring job. There's nothing creative about it." But the job has that key factor of the ability to jump in a van when the time comes. "My boss is very lenient about me leaving and doesn't give a s---, so that's why I've stuck it out there.

"It's a small independent pharmacy," Thieneman explains. "It's pretty country. Whenever I leave and come back, I realize how country it is. My boss looks like Kenny Rodgers, people that work there use words that don't exist and use them regularly."

Since Young Widows inception in 2006, the band has toured months at a time every year. "We tour a lot compared to most bands," Patterson says. But even so, the band that Thieneman and Patterson played in before, Breather Resist, toured unapologetically with little breaks, not caring about the hurt it put on the band. And that was probably a factor in the hardcore outfit breaking up. "[Breather Resist] toured too much," Patterson says. "We toured all the time," Thieneman added with a nod.

"But we were young, excited and didn't give a s--- about money or responsibility. At the time, it was like, 'Let's play 200 shows this year. It's no big deal,'" Patterson recalled of his salad days. "Now two, three months seems a lot, and it is a lot for a lot of bands. Most bands won't even do that."