The members of The Public are a testament to the old cliché that you should never judge a book by its cover, nor judge a band by its wardrobe. “We’ve had people come up to us and tell us that we sound like Interpol and bands like that,” says guitarist Jack Champagne. “I asked them why they thought that, and they would say, ‘Oh, because you wear sport coats and have black hair.’ I mean, what have you just told us about our sound?” Though The Public certainly shares Interpol’s impeccable fashion sense and a love of dark pop songs like those recorded by The Psychedelic Furs and The Smiths, the comparisons end there. The Public draws its strength and its sound from a variety of sources that spread throughout decades. According to the band’s online biography, the members are equally inspired “by ’60s pop, ’70s glam, ’80s UK goth and postpunk, and ’90s Britpop.”

“When we started out, our goal was to form the kind of band that we wanted hear,” says Champagne. “That didn’t mean playing any particular genre, because our sound was an amalgam of all the bands that we loved, everything from Blur and The Stone Roses to David Bowie.” He and childhood friend Bryan Besse started The Public in 2003 in direct reaction to the bloodless, image-conscious music they were hearing at the time. (Champagne describes it as “Britney Spears…not just her, but it seemed all popular music was like that.”) Soon after that, they added guitarist and lead singer Travis Shuler, who had been Champagne’s bandmate during his stint in the now-defunct Goth band Falling Janus. Another longtime friend, Ryan Plattsmier, rounded out the final lineup during the recording of their first EP, We Are The Public, just in time for the first show.

“Jack and Bryan had known Ryan since they were ten years old, and he joined us just four days before we played our debut gig,” explains Shuler. “I remember he improvised these perfect bass lines onstage, and at that point I was still making up lyrics as I went along. We were very impressed. Ryan’s entry reflected the kind of chemistry we think every band should have, because he just came in there and immediately started playing with us as if he’d been with us for a while. It went by all too smoothly.”

That chemistry went a long way with the band just last year, just after the release of its full-length Saturn Missile Battery.Instead of breaking up or relocating after Hurricane Katrina hit, The Public stayed in the city, although this decision did not come easily. “The fighting came from each us trying to figure out where we were after the hurricane,” says Shuler. “Who was coming back, who wasn’t? Were we moving, or were we staying here? I even had the idea of just buying a van and having us live in it, instead of needing a hotel in every city. We could do like bands did in the ’60s.” The singer adds jokingly, “Instead of being properly booked, we could just go to clubs and beg them to let us play.”

It was three months after Katrina before the band could finally practice again, and only after one of their members gained special clearance to get into the city. “I had been working at a refinery in Plaquemines Parish,” explains Plattsmier, “and I was really working my ass off overtime after the storm as part of the rebuilding effort. The company had given me permits to reenter New Orleans, and that was the first time we were able to revisit our practice space and take back all our instruments.” The storm also turned “the nonpaying band,” as Besse’s band mates refer to themselves, into his primary musical gig. “I would also play drums with the Bradford Truby Trio at the Fairmont Hotel on a regular basis. Not only did I lose my house, but I’ve lost that paying gig until the Fairmont reopens, and who knows when that’s going to be?” But Besse and the rest of his bandmates wanted nothing more than to get back to what they loved and did best. “The Public is really keeping my sanity right now, and I think that’s the case with all of us.”

The Public recently returned from a series of gigs in New York City, a subject all four of them were enthusiastic about. “It’s just so different over there,” says Champagne. “Bands like us can’t do five shows within a two-block radius in New Orleans. But there’s such a scene for new rock in New York. I think this city is much more of a traditional town, whereas NYC has always been progressive in its tastes. They want to hear new bands and new sounds.” Shuler also notes that the notion of celebrity is almost second nature in New York when compared to New Orleans. “I remember when The Real World filmed out here, and they had to shut down production early because the cast kept getting hounded. When we were in New York, we kept bumping into celebrities and didn’t even realize who it because no one out there makes as big a deal about them. I kept running into Kate Moss not knowing it was her, and we even met Michael Imperioli from The Sopranos backstage.”

The band also saw a sense of unity in the New York bands that they feel is lost in the New Orleans rock groups these days. “I find that there’s a lot of competition between bands down here lately,” says Champagne. “New York reminded me of what rock was like down here back when I was in high school, where everyone who played an instrument would become friends, and their bands were always looking forward to putting together shows with each other.”

For now, The Public is most concerned with recording its next album, and choosing which songs to include may prove a trying task. “We have a huge amount of backlogged songs since we put out Saturn Missile Battery,” says Shuler, “and I find that our sound has gotten both darker and more melodic since then.” Champagne would just like to see The Public get back on the road and continue on their road to success. “I’d like to be signed and have a bunch of people like us, but it’s not so much a pursuit of fortune and fame. I just don’t want to have to wait tables anymore. I want to be able to make a living doing this, even if it’s just enough to stay on the road.”

Even if the road should take them back to El Paso? The whole band breaks into a litany of groans and laughs when questioned about its fateful night in that Texas town. “We’d love to go back,” says Besse, “and maybe they’ll remember to pay us this time.” “We were supposed to open for Morrissey’s guitarist Alain Whyte at this nightclub in El Paso,” recounts Champagne. “They had just passed an ordinance that banned smoking in clubs, so while we’re onstage, we’ve got 800 people standing outside so they could have a cigarette. On top of that, the promoter’s band opened for us, and after their set, he just up and left. He didn’t pay us or Alain Whyte.” The stay took a turn for the gross after that. “To top it all off, the toilet in our motel room wouldn’t flush, so we did what we had to do. They talk about Ozzy pissing on the Alamo, but The Public defiled El Paso!”

Jeremy J. Deibel can be contacted at [email protected]