The Liabilities

The Liabilities are a Leeds-based group active from 2022. They work across punk rock, rock, hardcore punk, punk core and related punk and roots sounds, drawing on rockabilly, country, Southern rock and garage rock influences.

Background and formation

The band forms around Aaron Irons, who grows up in West Virginia before moving to Georgia as a child. He is raised in a working-class family, listens early to 1950s rock and roll, and starts playing guitar as a teenager. He first plays rockabilly in a college town, then moves into punk after meeting a pair of surf-influenced punk players. He later performs as a guitarist in the Macon, Georgia alt-country group Hank Vegas, which opens for Billy Joe Shaver and the Drive-By Truckers.

Hank Vegas begins as a studio project, then shifts into a live band before eventually returning to a solo-act format. When that happens, Irons, Justin Smith and Josh Smith look for a new outlet. The Smith brothers already know Brandon Fickler, a guitarist from their hometown who works in engineering, and the four musicians form a band built around rockabilly, punk, country and Southern roots.

Style and sound

The Liabilities describe a sound that moves between country, punk, rockabilly, surf reverb and 1960s garage rock. Their writing combines straightforward punk energy with more detailed country storytelling, and their songs often focus on working-class themes and everyday experience. The group’s material includes barbed-wire country, hard-edged punk and blue-collar rock and roll.

Recording history

The band records its first demo in spring 2006 with engineer Drew LeClaire in Columbia, South Carolina. Early songs include “Great Big Highway,” which sits between country and vintage garage rock and follows a small-town character hoping for something bigger on the road. “My Mechanic” is a country ballad with a waltz feel and deals with family pain, while “One Battle” is an anti-establishment punk song. Brandon Fickler’s guitar work is a notable part of the band’s sound, with the other members describing it as a central feature in performance.

Line-up

The Liabilities feature Aaron Irons, Justin Smith, Josh Smith and Brandon Fickler. Irons fronts the group and writes songs, while the Smith brothers and Fickler help shape the band’s blend of punk, country and rockabilly.