Artist, Community Builder, Teacher Spotlight: Jerome Villarreal (Them Damn Dogs)
Meet Jerome Villarreal Jr.
If you’re involved with music in Huntsville, you’ve probably encountered Jerome Villarreal Jr. From 13 years as the frontman for Them Damn Dogs, a stint as Dweeby with Huntsville legend The Wanda Band, hosting open mic nights at Lipz Lounge, and seven years of teaching at Musicology and The Fret Shop, Villarreal keeps community in mind while making music that blends genres and light cinephilia. Them Damn Dogs’ new single, “Every Now and Then,” is planned for release this spring.
Q&A
NAA: What was your first experience with music?
Jerome: I’ve always liked listening to music and to the radio in general. When it comes to playing music, I was around 15, and my buddies were playing guitar, and I said, “that looks cool.” They taught me a simple four chord Nirvana song. I bought a guitar off them for $50 which was terrible, cheap, and really hard to play. I would practice that song…go on YouTube and learn other songs…bring my guitar to school, being the annoying kid who would play guitar in the hallways. I started doing busking, and not long after that I started writing songs. Some were silly, some more meaningful. I had a high school band called “Acquired Aftertaste.” That kind of fizzled out as most high school bands tend to do, but I kept writing music.
NAA: How did Them Damn Dogs come to be?
Jerome: We met in college, at [The University of Alabama in Huntsville]. I met our drummer, Brandon [Holmes], he was in a few classes of mine…We would play at the Voodoo Lounge open mic. We played there one time, and Chiris Salib noticed we didn't have a bassist and came up and said, “do you guys have a bassist? I'm your bassist.” Our old guitarist ended up moving away. We were a threepiece for a while, and we ended up finding this guy, Rus Savage, an amazing guitarist at an open jam at the Lumberyard. I’ve actually met so many musicians just being out and about in town. It really blows my mind.
North Alabama Arts: How would you describe your sound?
Jerome: We’d be more in the rock category. When we first started I thought, what would it sound like if 50’s, 60’s doo-wop stuff came out today…with a little bit of 70’s punk wrapped up in there and a little bit of 90’s grunge. That influenced a lot of the first album, which is really raw. We recorded it in someone’s basement. It’s okay. It’s a decent mix, decent sound…Our second album had surfy, new wave stuff, a lot more synthy stuff, and we have a couple of weird songs in each album. Right now, some of the songs we’ve written have kind of softened the edges.
NAA: What’s influenced that change?
Jerome: A lot of the songs we’re writing are kind of ballady. Songs about losing the part of life that we used to belong to, losing certain aspects of faith. Whether it's spiritually or losing faith in certain constructs that you used to hold onto, you feel like over time things are deteriorating. A song that we released [in 2025] called “Shipwreck” is about how the media shields us from things that we should know and be looking into, and how we shouldn’t focus on how they are defining us with the super culture war when all we want to do is live peaceful lives with people we love and care about. That was also inspired by a movie, Triangle of Sadness, and the documentary This Place Rules.
NAA: Where else do you draw inspiration?
Jerome: I’m a bit of a cinephile. We have a song called “Jack” that was inspired by Jack Torrance from The Shining…Our latest song that we came out with a music video for is called “Leave it Alone.” It’s inspired by a movie that came out a few years ago called Past Lives, a beautiful movie about two people who had a childhood romance then meet up again…I love that movie; it makes me cry every time. That movie inspired this song, about having that connection and unfortunately life has its way of making you a different person. The other song we released [in 2025], called “Weirdo,” is a song more about me and how I can be kind of socially awkward or spaced out. Just the band overall we’re just kind of weirdos. I even feel like the people who come out to our shows are a bunch of little weirdos.
NAA: Or maybe that’s just Huntsville. After 13 years in town, is there anywhere you haven’t played? And one that stands out?
Jerome: I'd love to play at The Orion. We have played some community events there, but not on the big stage. The big stage is the place I'd love to play one day. There was a place called The Foyer in town. It was a small coffee shop on the corner of Holmes and Jordan, a great spot for students to hang out. They would do acoustic shows there. I met so many people there. We played at Mars [Music Hall] one time, but The Foyer has my heart.
NAA: What’s your ultimate goal with music?
Jerome: I think hopefully one day I'll write something that will get a lot of interaction. But it's all about creating a community with your music, something I've been working on a lot, and just trying to get the community to grow and flourish.
NAA: What do you think the Huntsville music community needs to grow?
Jerome: A lot of people don’t know there’s a scene. I’ve been to so many shows where there’s not a lot of people, but the bands are amazing. And I hear people talk about, “I wish Huntsville had a scene; I wish there was music here.” People want it. I just wish people would open themselves up more to events that are opening up around town. And maybe the bands aren't promoting enough and need to think of some fun creative ways to get people involved. I host an open mic at Lipz Lounge once a month. It’s been great, I’ve been meeting so many people who have been coming out and singing the songs that they’ve written.
NAA: That seems like a great platform to expose people to local talent. What’s been your favorite part of that experience?
Jerome: It’s really cool to see people come out of their shell. A lot of times when you’re about to play, you get riddled with all these nerves or this anxiety. But seeing people going up there, letting it rip has been really cool. There’s this one guy who only plays guitar, he doesn’t sing or anything, but then [one] week he said he was going to sing a Frank Sinatra song. I thank Lipz Lounge for letting me do that there.
NAA: And finally, what are you working on right now?
Jerome: I’m working on a solo EP at the moment. We are [also] writing a new album, but it’s currently on the backburner. We’ve got 4 or 5 songs that are written, molding. The goal is to get 45 minutes worth of new material. Whether its short songs or long songs, just to get a new album of some of our best work. From there, release singles and music videos. I’d love to do something like a movie companion piece with the music videos. We went on a tour a couple years ago with Camacho and a few other local bands; it was awesome. So play some more out of town shows, go on a tour, and build the fanbase.
This interview was recorded on 11/18/2025.
Listen, Connect
Instagram: @themdamndogs
Spotify/Apple Music: Them Damn Dogs
Website: themdamndogs.com
YouTube: Them Damn Dogs
BandCamp: Them Damn Dogs
