Gogol Bordello - Eugene Hutz Interview

by Tina Whelski

There’s method in Eugene Hutz’s madness. And with the release of Super Taranta!, more people are noticing that.

“It’s about fucking time,” says Gogol Bordello’s eccentric band leader. “For years I’ve been reading that my strength is that I’m insane. It’s like smart people at some point have to start realizing that my main strength is not that I’m insane. It’s that I’m actually a pretty fucking good songwriter. That’s the fucking thing that holds everything together.”

But the Kiev-born visionary admits his gypsy punk trans-global rebel rock is a lot to digest.

“I’m pretty psyched that people are starting to see into the band, way past not only its wildness and rowdiness, but actually seeing the hypnotic side as well,” says Hutz. “It is truly a huge band mental-wise, physical-wise, people-wise, and message-wise. If I would be somebody who experiences Gogol Bordello as an outsider, it would probably take me a couple of years as well to wrap my head around it. Maybe I would never wrap my head around it, hopefully. Maybe I haven’t wrapped my head around it now.” (laughs)

Part of the band’s vast appeal lays in the fact that Gogol Bordello is more of a “culture” than a band, according to Hutz. As the tireless performers continue to attract higher profile gigs (like this year’s Live Earth in London’s Wembley Stadium, Coachella, Bonnaroo and Glastonbury) and witnesses its global fan base grow it is possible Hutz is right.

“International recognition and being on the road so much brought us a lot of new extended family,” say Hutz. “It’s a great thing for us because we’re the kind of artistic unit that doesn’t rely on media information about culture and doesn’t rely on DJ’s or some other source of information to hear what’s happening in the world. So it’s much more of a first-hand information kind of process. And that’s how we like it. Consequently, the friends we make and the people who influence us, or we influence, is on the level of a much more authentic bond. It’s pretty exciting to finally make friends with a lot of our heroes and then discover that a lot of them are actually your fans! And then go on to the next level of collaborating and actually in a larger sense realizing that even before meeting each other we were sharing a very similar creative wavelength.”

The unorthodox blend of musical backgrounds and nationalities between band members Sergey Rjabtzev (violin), Yuri Lemshev (accordion), Tommy Gobena (bass), Eliot Ferguson (drummer), Oren Kaplan (guitar), Pam Racine (percussion, dance), Elizabeth Sun (percussion, dance), and Hutz (vocals) is at the heart of every connection. And Hutz believes the band makes a good artistic family because everyone enjoys their own opportunity to shine.

“When the band was just being made, I had a vision for it and I had to be quite controlling about executing it,” says Hutz. “When the band developed, the need to be controlling about it actually fell off, which freed up a lot of space for musicians’ personal styles. That was actually when I think the band actually started to live its real life. Another thing is that because I, being the melodic core of the band, am from Eastern Europe, I always write songs that are instantly recognizable as Eastern European, but yet it’s the whole other line-up of musicians that makes that sound universal. It makes it Eastern European music that people can dig down in Brazil and down in Japan, you know what I mean? That is directly the work of the band. That is the bass lines of Thomas and the guitar of Oren that makes the sound universal. It’s the way that people process information within the band.”

Whether playing gypsy stomp, Flamenco rhythms, speed metal or anything in between, Gogol Bordello’s supercharged trip across musical barriers is ultimately driven by Hutz’s multiple personalities and witty lyrics.

“This album is quite a chameleon,” says Hutz about Super Taranta! “I think all the best albums are. It has a very direct, yet very abstract feeling to it. There are several characters really. The guy who sings “Super Theory of Super Everything” is a different guy than who sings “Dub the Frequencies of Love.”

You might wonder if success will cause Gogol Bordello to lose its anarchic edge. Since 2005’s Gypsy Punks Hutz has explained how reggae and gypsy music created by poor people with nothing to loose first inspired him. Will he still relate to their desperation?

“I don’t really worry about things like that because it’s just not how I think,” says Hutz. “What I write about comes off not only my own personal experience but from the experiences of that extended family. So even if I at this point got all my papers in order, I’m mostly surrounded by people who don’t have them in order (laughs) and there are many different layers and pockets in this topic. The desperation that you’re talking about is not necessarily something that was driven by one particular hardship or another. It’s more of a philosophical thing. There’s a philosophy of life that I write about that’s basically at war with most of the layers of society and culture at the present day. So I don’t see the end of the mother fucking work! The poverty is not the only issue. What about all the rich people who are fucked! (laughs). Of course the poor suffer the most. But that is only one of the layers in the picture…You have to realize that the band, no matter how big it will get, it will always play what it wants to play, how we want to play it and with who we want to play. Nobody tells this band what to do. That in itself is what inspires kids and fans. It fucking inspires me man!”

Gogol Bordello performs at Terminal 5 on November 3.

Watch Gogol Bordello perform "Wonderlust King."

Watch Gogol Bordello perform my favorite "Start Wearing Purple" at Glastonbury 2007.



and performing "Super Theory of Supereverything."



and with Madonna performing "La Isla Bonita."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly.

Drive-By Truckers - Patterson Hood Interview

by Tina Whelski

Drive-By Truckers switch gears on The Dirt Underneath Tour, sitting down for a semi-acoustic joy ride alongside legendary keyboardist and songwriter Spooner Oldham. Together they perform hushed versions of the Southern rock band’s gritty tales, spotlighting the storytelling. Because Oldham shares DBT’s Muscle Shoals, Alabama musical heritage you can expect a soulful homage.

Singer-guitarist Patterson Hood discusses the tour, the critically acclaimed A Blessing and a Curse CD, and the record he and band mates Mike Cooley, Brad Morgan, John Neff and Shonna Tucker just finished about a minute ago.

You've wanted to do a tour like The Dirt Underneath for quite a while. What makes these dates satisfying creatively?

I wanted a chance to do a "turned down" (for us that is) tour where the focus was more on the lyrics and stories as opposed to the big loud ROCKSHOW type thing. We were in the midst of writing a bunch of new songs and kind of reinventing ourselves and it made sense to strip it down to the essentials and rebuild from there. It went so great that we ended up working up 75% of what has become our new album, mostly live in front of audiences, so the new album comes already somewhat road-tested. The tour was so fun and successful that we wanted to do one more leg (next month) before packing it in and retiring it.

Can you hint a bit at what we can expect on DBT's upcoming album?

We literally finished it yesterday. It's called BRIGHTER THAN CREATION'S DARK and has nearly 20 songs. Stylistically it’s all over the map, yet it’s the most cohesive album we've ever made. It’s definitely all our favorite. Everyone was being really creative and the songs just kept coming so we kept recording them. I think it is a huge leap from anything else we've ever done. Can't wait for folks to hear it.

How do you feel when people attach themselves so closely to your music?

Blessed. Sometimes a little confused.

You’re constantly writing. What kinds of things inspire you to pick up your guitar?

I've never really understood where they come from. Sometimes it might be something I've been thinking about for a long time. Sometimes it feels like I'm being struck by lightning.

Will you discuss a song from A Blessing and a Curse lyrically?

Damn, I really haven't given that one much thought lately, as we're in a really different mode right now. I'm proud of that album, overall, I think it has some of our best moments, (and perhaps some of our weakest too), but we're all in a diametrically different place right now. I think we've only been playing 2-3 of those songs at all this year, and two of those are Cooley's songs, which are as usual my favorites. I am, however extra proud of "World of Hurt.” That was my best song on that album. It started off being about someone else and became about me. Personal as hell. Guess I’m more self centered than I want to be. (laughs).

How about a song musically?

Again, we're totally someplace else now. We're doing this semi-acoustic tour with Spooner Oldham. It was supposed to just be a 3-week thing last spring, but it kinda morphed into something else and we felt like we had to take it to a few more cities. New York has always been so great to us and has always been one of our very favorite places to play. Doing that tour really affected a lot of things about our new album (the upcoming DBT album, coming out in Feb) although it is definitely a Rock and Roll record, just in some different ways than the others.

Can you talk about the influence Muscle Shoals, Alabama has had on your sound?

Growing up around that much great music, especially the Soul albums cut there was bound to affect us a lot. The food is only gonna be as good as the ingredients (as Grandma would say) and we grew up around some really good stuff. It's a tough town to live in. The economy was really bad (still is) and the tough times sometimes bring out the best and worst in people. There is toughness, and honestly sometimes meanness, about a lot of the folks there and that was all a big part of who we became too. Some of the things inspired us, some things we loved and pursued and some things we rebelled against. Those things sat in the front seat for a long time (songs like “Buttholeville” and much of Southern Rock Opera and The Dirty South especially). Making the Bettye LaVette album this year really influenced a lot of things we're doing right now also. (It was recorded in Muscle Shoals and is coming out 9/25 on Anti Records).

Describe one of your earliest music memories.

This dates me, but I remember the album cover to Magical Mystery Tour (I was 3). Neil Young's guitar harmonics on Buffalo Springfield's “For What It's Worth” (I was 4 and didn't know what that sound was, but I was in love with it). Led Zeppelin's “Immigrant Song” when I was 5. My Dad is a musician, so I heard a lot of really cool music from a very early age.

What’s next for the band?

Our NYC shows for The Dirt Underneath will be the end of that tour. After that we'll be moving back to our fully electric tricks. The new album is being mixed as I answer this…It’s coming out in February.

Drive-By Truckers perform October 26 at Bowery Ballroom.

Watch Drive-By Truckers perform "Easy On Yourself."

and plugged in performing "Never Gonna Change."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly.

Dr. Dog - Scott McMicken Interview

by Tina Whelski

Dr. Dog has its day with We All Belong, the imaginative follow up to Easy Beat. Working with better recording equipment allowed the Philadelphia band to unleash more layered vocal harmonies and textured instrumentation, giving songs bigger bark and a more dynamic sound. But upgrades presented Dr. Dog with a unique creative challenge: Songs initially sounded “too good.”

“We got all this new stuff and it was awesome,” says Scott McMicken (woof + mud distortion guitar and voice). “I certainly realized a bit into making the album that we were in a little over our heads. I think we had taken on too much at one time. So we started removing a lot of things and just pared down to using our new tape machine and the console for it and basically one microphone. It was weird. We stepped into the situation aware that it was a whole new phase for us in recording and I think that initially I turned off too many of my reference points for how to do what we’d always done. It was sort of a lesson to learn that a lot of the ways that we used to work, even though we were trying to make improvements on what we’d done in the past, were still really valid…It was definitely an awesome, challenging experience. We have always wanted to have more substantial recording equipment to just try out ideas.”

Working with 24 tracks felt infinite to the band against the mere 8 they used on previous records.

“There’s really no reason why we should ever have 24 tracks,” says McMicken. “It’s kind of like an endless amount of tracks.”

But once Dr. Dog figured out how to avoid going overboard and restored familiar attitudes about the process, the fun flowed.

“As a band, we’ve always loved what you can do with stacking up voices and that awesome feeling you get when you hear yourself in a harmonious relationship with some other singer or even against your own voice,” says McMicken. “Just that really weird, magical thrill you get when you put your own voice on top of itself. That unrealistic scenario that’s exciting to hear back in the speaker. We could also get different tones out of instruments. Double them. Take one part and make it come out of two instruments. That’s stuff we’ve always wanted to do.”

Traditionally Frank McElroy (multi-string guitar, full-grip chords, harmonies), Juston Stens (trapset and harmonies), Toby Leaman (finger bass, vocals), Zach Miller (organ) and McMicken take songs into the studio before learning them as a band. It just ends up being a little more exciting because no one’s necessarily attached to any particular part or sound.

“You can just start from scratch and allow these accidents to occur and sort of shape a sound of a song that you could have never particularly crafted ahead of time,” says McMicken.
McMicken initially pictured an old country ballad for “The Girl,” but the song wanted something different.

“It was just me and Frank in the studio and of all of us he’s probably the one who’s least savvy with how to run things on the board,” says McMicken, “which is good because he stays pretty objective as a listener. He always has really great insights and perspective because he’s not there to think about turning things on and getting the EQ straight and stuff. But he was forced to run the board while I was on the other side of the room to do piano and he mistakenly turned the mic on with the volume completely cranked. So I hit one note on the piano and it just nearly blew the back of my skull out. It was this really distorted sound. At first I just screamed and ripped the headphones off, but then I was like, ‘Just leave it like that and we’ll just turn it down in the headphones so I can survive this.’ We wound up with that really heavy sound you hear. Like I said, from that mistake, it completely shaped the fate of that song. So that’s one of the most fun things about the studio is you can go there with really no sense of what’s going to happen and wind up with these treats. These things that just present themselves to you, as opposed to you having to feel so connected to every idea that you come up with.”

Watch Dr. Dog perform "My Old Ways."



and "The Girl."



and "Ain't It Strange."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly.

Jason Isbell - Interview

Drive-By Truckers’ Jason Isbell leaves the band after six years to hit the road with his debut solo album, Sirens Of The Ditch, but he doesn’t leave his former band mates or influences too far behind. The record was co-produced by DBT’s Patterson Hood and musicians appearing on it include Hood and his father David Hood, DBT’s Shonna Tucker (bass), Brad Morgan (drums), Spooner Oldham, John Neff and others. Recorded over the past four years at FAME Studios in Isbell’s Muscle Shoals, Alabama hometown, Sirens Of The Ditch draws on the region’s infamous soul roots and incorporates elements of rock and blues into a heartfelt mix of songs that favor piano and pedal steel over buzzing guitars. Jason Isbell talked to me about Sirens Of The Ditch.

You had been a Drive-By Truckers front man for the past six years. Can you talk about your thinking going into Sirens Of The Ditch?

It was important for me to make an album that sounded different from the Drive-By Truckers' work, but I also wanted to stay true to the spirit of what we were doing in that band. We always tried to be honest with our audience. We tried to write about the things we knew on a personal basis, and that gave our work a southern accent. I feel like I have the same job now. I just work with different people.

Will you talk about some new songs, what you're writing about lyrically?

Since this record has been finished, I've been writing songs that are a bit more introspective. I feel like "Dress Blues" dealt with the outside world about as well as anything I've written, and there's been a lot of change in my life this year, so lately I'm focusing on my personal battles. I still have room in these songs for my family, and anything that makes for a good story is fair game, but I have a lot to think about these days. I write songs primarily to show myself how I feel.

How about a song on the record musically?

Musically I'm very fond of “Chicago Promenade'.” I think the simplicity of the chord progression and the movement in the rhythm section fits very well with the lyric. Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) helped a lot on that one by suggesting that the drums be in half time when they entered the song. That really added an emotional angle that a straight 4/4 beat wouldn't have accomplished. The layered guitars on the outro also give me a really good feeling.

This record was a few years in the making and was influenced by your life growing up in Alabama and the Muscle Shoals sound. Will you describe that musical background?

I was heavily influenced by players like David Hood, Spooner Oldham, Scott Boyer, Mike Dillon, and Kelvin Holly when I was a teenager. These guys were very open to the new generation of Muscle Shoals musicians, and they told a lot of stories. To me, their presence and character were more important than even the music they'd made in the past. Obviously I love many of the recordings that came out of my hometown, but knowing these people on a personal level taught me a great deal about spending your life in this world.

Jason Isbell plays Bowery Ballroom on October 10.

Watch Jason perform "Dress Blues."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly.

Ben Jelen - Interview

by Tina Whelski

Whether he’s composing music for Tori Amos’ RAINN organization or for his latest album, Ex-Sensitive, singer/songwriter Ben Jelen writes about things that stir him up, and he records while his feelings are fresh. Jelen talks about the creative process on his follow up to Give It All Away.

How have you grown as an artist since Give It All Away and how has that influenced Ex-Sensitive?

I’d say I’ve had a natural progression as a musical artist. I’ve played more, lived more and taken the writing to a new level. During the recording of Ex-Sensitive I also had my hands untied by working with producer Linda Perry. Creative freedom was something I had to fight a lot more for during the making of Give it All Away. Since Give it All Away, I spent some time in India which influenced me musically more than I thought it would. I was only there for a month traveling, but came back with all kinds of instruments and a tanpura drone synthesizer to play along to. Following my return I spent hours on the violin discovering new scales and times of playing. It’s been exciting for me to explore. “Pulse,” the first track on Ex-Sensitive begins with that idea of a drone and Linda playing the electric Sitar. In fact, you can hear the electronic tanpura I bought mixed in there. My life was also affected from the trip which is reflected in the lyrics.

Will you talk about some songs from Ex-Sensitive?

“Pulse” had quite an interesting creation. It was one of the very first started on the record and the very last finished. Linda and I went out into the live room one evening, me on the violin and her with an electric guitar. We weren’t necessarily expecting anything, but played down a four-minute song, complete with me filling in melodies with “ahhhs” and other indecipherable words. This strange track got called “Pulse” because of the pulsing feel to her guitar playing. We got excited about it just from the feeling it gave. It was a ghostly track for a long time because we could never replicate it and every time we tried, the tones or the emotion weren’t there like in that magical track. We even tried building up other instruments around the track! We ended up having this version of “Pulse” for about a year until we sat down and had a long conversation, which we wrote lyrics from. That night when we went in and played it down with the band it finally came alive again. It felt great to feel like “Pulse” was finished because it gave the album a beginning.

“The Other Side” is a song I wrote a couple of years ago when I was asked to try writing a song for a movie. It never came to anything but I always liked it and brought it on my CD of songs to play Linda when we were starting. I used to play it on guitar, and it had an almost country feel to it. When she heard it, she turned the whole thing around, put me on the organ and played the electric guitar herself. The drummer played a driving beat and the song felt new to me. We kept one of the first takes and left the song really raw. This one ends the album.

You dedicate time to charities, which influenced your work on Ex-Sensitive. How?

The charity I feel closest too is the Natural Resources Defense Council. I see global warming and climate change as very real problem for humankind and I can’t be happy with the way we live until we’re at least headed in the right direction, away from oil and coal and towards alternate forms of energy. These themes pervade the album, coming up in songs like “Counting Down” and “Wreckage.” I’m hoping that people will see the “Pulse” video and understand how badly climate change will affect third world countries—the lack of water and food can be a main ingredient to a situation like there is now in Darfur.

Watch Ben Jelen perform "Come On."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly.

Datarock - Fredrik Saroea Interview

by Tina Whelski

Datarock will dance its way into your heart, head and memory bank with its first full-length CD, Datarock Datarock (Nettwerk Music Group). Bergen, Norways Fredrik Saroea (vocals, guitars, drums, percussion, keyboards) and Ketil Mosnes (bass, background vocals, programming, keyboards), reminisce 80's entertainment culture with electro-pop grooves as steamy as their matching red track suits. Fredrik Saroea talks about the view behind his vintage Porsche wraparound glasses.

Can you pick a track from Datarock Datarock and talk about the sounds that influenced it?

We’re both into lots of different genres and a number of periods in the history of music, but in the case of say “Fa Fa Fa” we’re deliberately paying tribute to the post-punk, punk-funk or new wave of the late seventies, early eighties and bands like Television, A Certain Ratio, ESG and Talking Heads mixed with a gentle touch of Madchester era such as Happy Mondays, Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets, Stone Roses and so on. The childlike backing vocals, however, is supposed to remind you of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall.” Just for production. The title, of course, is taken from the Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer, themselves borrowing from Otis Redding’s Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song), but musically it’s all basic songwriting growing out of a repetitive guitar riff, a simple chord structure, a pumping bass and a funked up groove.
You inject lyrics with a lot of fun and humor.

Can you talk about a track from that perspective?

Well, let's talk about “Computer Camp Love.” This insanity plays on the title “Computer Love” by Kraftwerk, but turns it around to a love of the weirdest of social scenes: the factual computer camps that came about in the eighties. A good portion of the first verse is actually directly transcribed from a dialogue in Revenge Of The Nerds, whereas the chorus is paraphrasing the all time summer fling classic “Summer Nights” of Grease. The monotone second verse, on the other hand, is supposed to resemble Green Velvet or Peaches’ spoken words. On top of that there’s the element of musical with call and respond. It just had to be done. I guess it’s just a mix of lots of different ideas with no good reason and no grand plan. It’s simply a loony tune that emerged out of nowhere.

What is your mindset when you hit the stage?

Thanks to our ego-altering tracksuits, our on-stage persona somehow projects a hell of a lot more energy than any of us ever do off-stage. I guess our approach is just trying to make the most of the ritual gathering a gig is, the weird setting of a venue, the stage apparatus (whatever the standard), the potential energy of a live performance, and the interaction with an audience. No mindset though. We move our ass, and the mind merely follows.

What makes you want to write songs?

The occasional chord structures, riffs and beats, or some cultural artifact we’ll find stupid or stupendous, being a song or a band, a film or director, a series or an actor, a book or an author, an artwork or an artist, a design or designer, a product or a brand, a stand-out event or a moment in time. I guess the process is kind off like old school post-modernism with heaps of inter-textuality. A crazed mix of form and textures and a deconstructed construct of reassembled sign and symbols.

Watch Datarock perform "Fa Fa Fa."



And "Computer Camp Love."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (May 31, 2007).

Pete Yorn - Interview

The sun finally sets on Pete Yorn’s album trilogy with Nightcrawler, the follow up to Day I Forgot (2003) and Musicforthemorningafter (2001). The catchy new installment features the singer-songwriter’s same tight song craft, only three years wiser and with a new sense of adventure.

“I was writing ‘For Us’ for a friend I was concerned about who was going through a hard time,” says Pete Yorn about the first single. “I was asking that person to take a look at their life and their ways and see if that was working out for them. I totally heard a certain kind of beat and just thought, man it would be perfect if Dave [Grohl] could play on it. So I asked him and he did it and nailed it.”

The record also welcomes collaborations with musicians like the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines and Martie Maguire on “The Man,” and Butch Walker on “Alive.”

“When I pick someone to work with it’s usually because I’m interested in their sensibility or I know that they’re going to bring something to the table that I can’t bring,” says Yorn. “So that’s the main thing I’m looking for, to add a little diversity to the production or the performances. I pretty much know what I’m going to get when I’m going to do a part. So when I pick another player I let them do their thing. Whether it’s Natalie [Maines] who just has that beautiful voice, Dave [Grohl], who’s a great drummer, Joe Kennedy, who’s an amazing piano player, or Butch Walker, who has great production ideas and is a great bass player…Working with Butch was cool because it was very quick. We hit it off very easily and he just brought in his band and we learned the song [“Alive”] in like ten minutes. We recorded the whole thing pretty much live…So that was a surprise and it was fun to work with him.”

While the players Yorn enlisted add a lot to Nightcrawler, the songs start and end with Yorn’s melodies.

“Sometimes I’ll be inspired by words that I’ve written down,” says Yorn, “but a lot of times I come up with melodies and the melodies will inspire images in my head and that will in turn make the lyrics come out. It’s almost like if you hear a classical piece that doesn’t have any lyrics. The music itself evokes a lot of imagery. So I create these musical pieces that draw emotion out of me and that will dictate where the song goes lyrically.”

But where a song goes after Yorn has created it is left to time to decide.

“Songs will take on different meanings for me depending on what I’m going through—as my songs have always done for me since I started writing them,” says Yorn. “I like to leave my work open-ended so that it can grow with me, as I grow, and it can evolve with me. In lots of ways songs have specific meanings, but in other ways they’re tools I use over time to relate to things that come up in my life.”

Watch Pete Yorn perform "Crystal Village."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (March 14, 2007).

Peter Bjorn And John - Peter Morén Interview

Peter Bjorn And John whistle their ways into your heart with “Young Folks,” the contagious single from the Swedish pop band’s latest CD, Writer’s Block. With maraca shaking, bongos, a lo-fi bass-line and a catchy whistling melody, you can’t help but join Peter Morén in his duet with guest vocalist Viktoria Bergsman of The Concretes.

“If I told you things I did before/told you how I used to be/would you go along with someone like me?” he sings in the song contemplating that time in a new relationship where you begin revealing bits about yourself. And with Bjorn Yttling (producer, bass, singing, keyboard, percussion, guitar, string arrangements), John Eriksson (drums, singing, guitar, keyboard, percussion etc.) and Morén (singing, guitars, bass, keyboard, percussion, harmonica) sharing songwriting and lead vocalist duties for the first time throughout, the rest of the record is equally catchy. Peter Morén talked to me about Writer’s Block…

“Young Folks” has everyone hooked.

“We wanted to do something a bit funky, like James Brown or E.S.G. and that’s where the bongos and everything comes from,” says Morén. “And the whistling was just an accident. It was Bjorn who didn’t have a synthesizer or something by his side and he just grabbed the microphone and tried to put down the melody with whistling. It sounded good, so we kept it. Then we tried to keep everything very sparse and not have a lot going on, which is how the whole album is…And then the lyric can be a bit of a misunderstanding because of the video with the kids and everything, but it’s not about young folks. It’s about 30-year-olds and about people having a past and having a couple of relationships. To me the song is melancholic, it’s not happy happy.”

What are major differences from PB & J’s previous records?

“We always try to do something different, moving into new things,” says Morén. “It’s maybe not always so conscious. It’s more like, ‘Let’s try this.’ And then you try things out in the studio and experiment. I think what’s different this time is that we talked it through a bit before, so we had some ideas that we wanted to try out. And one of the most important ones was that the drums were more arranged. We try to use the same drum pattern throughout the song. So it’s not so much that you play along with the song, you just kind of play. And also we didn’t use cymbals. We just used cymbals as overdub…Then we said that if you use an instrument or an overdub on one song you have to use it on at least two others to get a unity of the sound because the songs are very different. So we tried to tie it together with the sounds more than the songs. Also we wouldn’t allow any outside musicians—no brass or strings. We just wanted to keep it simple─only things that we could play ourselves.”

Will you talk about one of your favorite songs?

“I’ll pick the first one, ‘Objects of My Affection,’ because that’s one of the songs that I wrote,” says Morén. “Some of the songs we wrote together. Some of the songs we did separately. That was one that I did the whole thing. Of course a lot of the songs are very personal, but that is kind of a resume of the theme of the album. You grow older and you come to a new place and you like it. You like to mature and you feel that it’s a positive thing to move on. So it’s kind of anti-nostalgic. I think that’s how the album is. It’s about not being overtly happy in a naïve clichéd way, but just liking things as they are and taking problems as they come along and not weeping too much about them.”

Watch Peter Bjorn And John perform "Young Folks."



And "Objects of My Affection."



And "Let's Call It Off."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly.

Circus Diablo - Billy Morrison Interview

by Tina Whelski

With a who’s who line-up featuring The Cult guitarist Billy Duffy, The Almighty frontman Ricky Warwick (guitar), former FUEL frontman Brett Scallions (bass), Camp Freddy guitarist Billy Morrison (vocals), Velvet Revolver’s Matt Sorum (drums- album) and Charles Ruggiero (drums - live band), hard rock outfit Circus Diablo hit Ozzfest and the Knitting Factory this month to support it’s self-titled debut album. Billy Morrison talked to me about the record…

How did the band approach this record?

Part of the reason the record came out sounding so good is because we actually didn’t know we were making a record. We weren’t in there spending $700,000 and three months of our time tweaking stuff, you know? That’s one of the things that people do with rock n’ roll these days. Rock n’ roll is from the waist down, not the neck up. You can think your way right out of all the emotion if you do a record like that. Because we didn’t even know we were making a record, it was very much a demo process. Me and Duffy and Ricky were just writing songs together and it got to the stage where we thought it would be nice to hear what these songs sounded like with live drums. So we called Matt Sorum up. I used to be in a band with Matt Sorum called Camp Freddy, and me and Billy were both in The Cult with him, so he’s obviously part of the family. We put drums on a couple of demos and realized that we had something. It was actually sounding like a band we would be proud to make a record with.

What inspires you to write?

Musically I’m inspired by guitar tone. Steve Jones, Billy Duffy. Zakk Wylde has a very distinct tone. A great guitar player has a great tone. It doesn’t necessarily mean you play a million notes in sixteen bars. Good honest production inspires me. Lyrically, I’m inspired by anything.

Talk about a song from Circus Diablo?

“Mad Parade” is about a certain English pop star singer that was a very close friend of mine but we fell out. I found writing that a very cathartic experience. Writing that song was like Listerine for the soul. I was able to wash out the bullshit of having a friendship that let me down and move on.

How have you grown as an artist?

Obviously I’m a lead singer on this record. I’ve been waiting a long time to write this record. Though I was a lead singer in a band in England in the ’90s called Stimulator, this is the first “I-have-something-to-say-so-shut-up-and-listen-to-me-record” I’ve ever made. I’ve also grown as a performer. I mean I’m standing up there with the lead singer of Fuel and the lead singer of The Almighty on either side of me, watching me be a lead singer. That will make anyone grow real quick.

What did everyone bring to the table?

Ricky Warwick was the lead singer in The Almighty. He is our rhythm guitar player and comes up with a lot of the chunky chord riffs. He comes from the same school as me which is the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Iggy Pop, The Stooges—riff-based stuff. Billy Duffy obviously wrote all the leads and the hook lines. I don’t think you need to say much more. He’s written a few fucking hits. Having him just go, yeah, let’s put riffs over the top of your chords is just awesome. I am also a guitar player. And I came up with a bunch of riffs and all the lyrics are written by me. More recently Brett Scallions from Fuel has joined the partnership. Fuel is a great harmony band. He brings great melodic concepts and ideas to us that we haven’t thought of. I think the songwriting partnership is a really strong one.

Circus Diablo play Ozzfest at PNC on August 16 and The Knitting Factory on August 19.

Watch Circus Diablo perform "Loaded."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (August 8, 2007).

Metric - Emily Haines Interview

by Tina Whelski

“Music can’t live in a vacuum,” says Metric front woman Emily Haines. So along with guitarist Jimmy Shaw, drummer Joules Scott-Key, and bassist Joshua Winstead she looks forward to road-testing new songs before they record their fourth album, due out next year. Haines talked to me about the current tour, the bands first in over a year.

Are you just anxious to start playing the songs or will the audience reaction affect what you’ll eventually record?

Songs have a life of their own and I am interested in how they evolve over time. Sometimes I feel like rushing to record a definitive version of an idea chokes the composition.

Can you talk about one or two of the new songs you’ll be playing?

One of the new songs is called “Stadium Love.” It came out of nowhere. When I was writing the lyrics I was picturing mutiny in the natural world, all these animals turning on each other. Then I saw the cover of the new Les Savy Fav record! I guess it’s on everybody’s mind. Another new song is called “Up In Flames. It’s scrappy and it cooks.

In what ways do you find yourself grow as an artist on this album?

The four members of Metric have a serious pact. Our commitment to each other requires that we all make space inside and outside the project for each of us to keep developing beyond the identity of the band. The writing process so far has been about all of us looking forward not back and getting turned on by the unknown.

Jimmy Shaw has said that you’re going to invite fans to write the set lists among other things? Can you describe how this tour will be more interactive?

There has been a lot of discussion in the band lately about wanting to reconcile our love for live music and travel with the mind-numbing boredom of touring. It isn't natural for an artist to lock themselves in the studio putting ideas in stone and then turn off the part of them that is spontaneous in order to repeat those ideas over and over on the road. We keep looking for ways to break the old model. The way I see it it’s the people that go to concerts that are keeping music alive and frankly I value the musical opinion of an audience member over most industry experts obsessed with trying to predict the next trend. We are encouraging anyone who is thinking of coming to a show on this short U.S. run to let us know what they would like to hear in advance so we can practice it and not ruin their favorite song by fucking it up. I’m also just really curious about how requests will vary from place to place. Writing the set list is a big part of every show and if the crowd could do it for us I’ll have one less thing to think about. (laughs) We are going to be writing a lot on the road this time too so we may ask for input afterwards from people who were at the show. If we disagree with them we will ignore them all! The best thing about getting advice is knowing when it is valuable and when it isn’t.

Metric performs September 21 at Webster Hall.

Watch Metric perform "Monster Hospital."



And the acoustic version.


Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (September 12, 2007).

Camera Obscura - Tracyanne Campbell Interview

by Tina Whelski

If you missed Camera Obscura last time they played New York City, make sure you catch them this visit. After a year of performing their third album, Let’s Get Out Of This Country, the Glasgow indie rock band’s beautiful, bright melodies and snappy hooks are tighter than ever. And, soon they’ll be moving on to write a new album. Then you won’t get to hear all of these gems packed into one set list. So enjoy the big sounds of “Razzle Dazzle Rose,” the danceable “If Looks Could Kill” (the band’s “I Will Survive”) and my favorite, “Tears For Affairs,” while you can.

The band, Tracyanne Campbell (vocals, guitars), Gavin Dunbar (bass), Lee Thomson (drums), Kenny McKeeve (guitars, vocals), Nigel Baillie (trumpet, percussion), and Carey Lander (piano, organ, vocals) worked with acclaimed producer Jari Haapalainen (The Concretes, Ed Harcourt, Nicolai Dunger, International (Noise) Conspiracy) to bring out their best on this album. Front-woman Tracyanne Campbell talked to me about Let’s Get Out Of This Country.

How did the band approach the album?

We were very positive, more so than ever before. We were confidant we hadenough good songs and that we could play them well enough and that we had chosen the right producer to bring out their and our best.

What inspires you to write?

Mainly unhappiness in truth. It's a downer I know and I should maybe try to write when I'm feeling positive, but those times are few and far between these days. I've been challenged to write a love song. My friend says I haven’t written one yet. We’ll see how it goes.

Talk about a few songs from Let’s Get Out Of This Country?

“Country Mile” was written on the way home from my first ever trip to Sweden. It was an important trip for me and I guess on the way home I knew I was a changed person somehow because of the time I had there. The words and melody were written by the time I got home to Glasgow. I sung the melody into my mobile phone in the van while the others put their fingers in their ears and wrote the words in my notebook. It's kinda about falling for someone and knowing you're gonna miss them before you even get the chance to properly. I'm a pessimist.
The lyrics to “Dory Previn” were written while touring the USA the first time. I was trying to cope with the break down of a relationship. I had a bit of clarity regarding the whole thing while traveling through Montana listening to Dory Previn. I was trying to convince myself that life can be good if you only let it.Is there one that’s a favorite to play and why? I don't really have a favorite but I guess it's nice when audiences sing along to “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken” or “80's Fan.”

Bands often talk about how songs change meaning after performing them for a while. Has that happened to you?

Not really, but I am ready to put it [this record] to bed soon and start another. It’s only natural that we should feel that way. We’ve been playing these songs for over a year now.

What’s next for Camera Obscura?

We have a few more festivals to play along with a small tour of the statesand Canada, then a new album will be recorded hopefully by the end of the year. That’s the plan at least.

Camera Obscura performs August 24 at the Seaport Music Festival.

Watch Camera Obscura perform "Lloyd I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken."



and "Let's Get Out Of This Country."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (August 22, 2007).

The Frames - Glen Hansard Interview

by Tina Whelski

Bob Dylan was so taken by The Frames’ recent Coachella performance that he asked them to open his Australia and New Zealand tour dates last month. And if you check out the band’s Webster Hall show on September 10 you’ll be similarly smitten. Frontman Glen Hansard (vocals/guitar), Colm MacConlomaire (violin/keyboard/vocals), Joseph Doyle (bass/vocals), Robert Bochnik (guitar), and Johnny Boyle (drums) put on one of the best live rock shows I’ve ever seen. Hansard talked to me about The Cost and his Sundance award-winning film.

What makes The Frames such a successful live band?

The members, the history, the personalities. We're coming up on 20 years as a band soon and our existence has been built on performing. We aren't a tricky studio band who goes into the studio and comes out with Dark Side of The Moon. I mean I wish we could. That would be great. But at the end of the day we're a folk rock or a rock folk band, depending on who's asking, and we write, rehearse, perform and repeat. We also have played an insane number of shows over the years and the main reason we can still be together performing with such regularity is the fact we enjoy it. We enjoy each other and more importantly we enjoy the challenge of sparring with the audience. Whether it's a show where we take the audience on a journey or they take us on one, the beauty of that journey is getting to the destination.

The Cost was recorded completely live. What inspired that and how did you pull it off?

It was a reaction to the last two records which were longer studio affairs. We had the material, but we got into the studio and just went round and round with ourselves. We recorded at various places and with various people and while I love those two records (For the Birds, Burn the Maps), we really wanted to work in reverse this time. So we rehearsed the songs, went in and tried to capture the live aspect of our show along with doing it in two or three weeks as opposed to two or three months. Plus we found that we oftentimes came back to the first or second takes of a song. So logically it made sense to give it a try. For this record we also worked with Stephen Fitzmaurice, who helped us with Dance the Devil. He was a great foil to our instincts.

The Cost is a dark, raw record. How did you approach songwriting?

I went to a dark, raw place. But seriously a lot of the songs were written over the last year where I spent a lot of time traveling. The title track refers to the idea that we have chosen to live this life as musicians and it's come at a cost for our families, friends and ourselves. It's not a bitching and moaning thing, but ultimately it takes its toll on relationships and your personal life.

Talk about one of the songs?

“Sad Songs” is our Fleetwood Mac song and the one I'm least attached to. It's a nice song, and I think people like it cause it doesn't sound like anything else we've done up to this point. Lyrically it's about our love of sad songs and how we can listen to them over and over relating or in some cases prolonging our love of the tragic. It's kind of how the bad things will almost always be remembered before the good things which seems ridiculous, but I'm guilty of it as well.

You recently starred with Czech musician Marketa Irglova in Once, which won the World Cinema Audience Award at Sundance. You played a busker, which is actually how you started as a musician. Will you talk about the role?

The idea of the movie came from The Frames’ former bass player, John Carney. He wanted to do a movie called "Busker" and wanted me to write the songs. I was excited about this prospect and when he needed someone in the female role I suggested Mar. The male role was supposed to be Cillian Murphy. Unfortunately he dropped out and John was left with nothing days away from shooting. My initial reaction was, "No way," given that it did mirror parts of my life. Plus I didn't want it viewed as a vanity project. However John is very persuasive and I took the leap. In taking the leap Mar and I did work with John on making the scenes as real and as authentic as possible. John had asked for a handful of stories initially, but after I became the busker in the movie we really started developing certain aspects of the story. So what you see in the film are things that have either happened to me personally or I've seen happened to fellow street musicians.

Bob Dylan personally picked you to open his August tour dates. What does that feel like?

It's amazing. Bob is at the top of the mountain and the reason I wanted to be a musician so it's a real honor. I heard that we got picked cause he saw our performance at Coachella, which equally blew my mind.

Are you writing new material?

Constantly, though it's tough at the moment. There's very little down time.

What is one of your most powerful musical memories?

In my house growing up the Holy Trinity was Dylan, Van Morrison and Leonard Cohen. So I guess hearing any of those for the first time and figuring out that's all I really needed. Thankfully my mom imparted three of the greats on me. The three I keep coming back to.

The Frames perform at Webster Hall on September 10.

Watch Glen Hansard performing "Falling Slowly" from "Once."



and performing one of The Frames' beautiful classics, "Star Star."



Interview originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (September 5, 2007).