Maybe the Brian Jonestown Massacre's lunacy onstage Sunday at the Bowery Ballroom can be blamed on the night's full moon? Or perhaps band founder Antone Newcombe's hostility toward band, crew and audience alike was the result of having his beloved guitar stolen the eve before? More likely, there was no reason for the chaotic sold-out spectacle other than it was just an ordinary day in the life of the band's madcap musical visionary.
During lengthy lulls blamed on tuning problems, Newcombe took the opportunity to challenge the sincerity of those in attendance. Without provocation, Newcombe called out, "I will fight all of you." He yelled, "Your love sucks" at one well-wisher and called another fan "a dark little demon," saying, "My God will fucking kill you." He also threatened to wait another 20 minutes if anyone threw anything at the stage.
Then the band's lashing came, which explains why the group has had about 60 players course through its lineup over the years. This incarnation of the band, which included returning original member Ricky Maymi (guitar), Frankie Teardrop (guitar), Collin Hegna (bass) and Dan Allaire (drums), appeared unusually tolerant -- particularly Teardrop, who was asked to leave the stage and then ordered to return.
"I don't understand why you give me the worst amp," Newcombe said to Teardrop. "Is your guitar in tune? Give me your guitar. Why don't you ask your girlfriend's dad to fly you home?"
Dysfunction finally subsided long enough for the full band to strike a song, an extended jam of "Hide and Seek," where Newcombe's disturbingly peaceful guitar style and hazy vocals reminded everyone why they were still there. Next was "Nevertheless," where the band hit its stride, with all three guitarists playing essentially the same parts cooperatively through the same amps, with reverb on 10.
The rest of the set teetered between wonderfully impulsive, twangy guitars with a futuristic spin and temperamental sanity from bare-chested circus-master Newcombe. By the third song, "Swallow Tail," Newcombe had cautioned the audience, "I had a bad day, and I don't want your bullshit." By the fourth, "Nailing Honey to the Bee," Newcombe reminded the audience that he had a hard day but declared he was ready to play again.
And by the fifth tune, "Wherever You Are," finally the first sensible words were uttered by Maymi, who leaned to tune his guitar and said to the front row, "It's like a rock concert in the Twilight Zone."
October 20, 2005
October 18, 2005
The Frames - Concert Review
The Frames
Irving Plaza, NYC
10/16/05When a band that traditionally carries headlining festival slots back home in Ireland is bottled inside a more intimate setting, such as New York's Irving Plaza, the overflowing energy is bound to spill everywhere. And it did Sunday when The Frames, soaked with gentle sorrow and gut-growling dynamics, performed for a sold-out audience.
As adept at creating ale-house chumminess as they were navigating the stage, journeymen Glen Hansard (lead vocals/guitar), Colm MacConlomaire (fiddle), Joseph Doyle (bass/backing vocals), Robert Bochnik (guitar) and Johnny Boyle (drums) opened with "Keepsake" from the new album, "Burn the Maps." During the song, MacConlomaire's electric violin sensitively colored the quiet between Hansard's stirrings, and an odd-metered musical intensity built before the band dropped back into a mellow lull, an ebb and flow of feeling that was standard for the night. The Frames kicked up the show with a one-two punch of "Dream Awake" leading into "Finally," Hansard's Irish brogue coddling his pleas of "I want this so much.
Hansard's belief that people come to gigs to experience a moment pushed him to share transcendent ones. Inviting a sing-along in "Lay Me Down," he silenced all instruments to make room for fans to take over vocals as he grinned with satisfaction. Storytelling also personalized the performance. Hansard prefaced "What Happens When the Heart Just Stops" with a monologue about heartbreak that was so long it became humorous.
During "Fake," he pulled up his collar and swiveled his hips in a classic Elvis move as he pouted the line "You were always on my mind" with a snicker midsong.
Most effective, however, was the band's instinct for what the collective room needed at any moment, and they weren't too precious about their songs to miss the cues. When the line "I want my life to make more sense" came along in "Pavement Tune," Hansard and band followed the crowd's inclination to echo chants between chilly violin wallows.
"We can't tell you what it means to us to sell out a New York gig," Hansard said. "It's really important. The idea of playing Irving Plaza a couple of years ago was just a stupid idea, but now it makes sense."
Originally published in The Hollywood Reporter 10/18/05.
October 8, 2005
Kings of Leon - Concert Review
Kings of Leon
Roseland Ballroom
NYC
10/8/05
By Tina Whelski
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Kings of Leon already have been hailed in the U.K. There, mane-tossing brothers Caleb, Jared and Nathan Followill -- lead vocalist/guitarist, bassist and drummer, respectively -- and lead guitarist cousin Matthew Followill enjoy platinum status for their current album, "Aha Shake Heartbreak," and their first release, "Youth & Young Manhood." If their show Monday at Roseland was an indicator, the U.S. will soon throw the Tennessee family a similar coronation.
Home-schooled for the lion’s share of their formative years and traveling from church to church and town to town with their preacher father, the brothers formed a tight unit that’s reflected in their musical bond. Converting idiomatic phrases of 1960s garage sounds and ’70s spirit into their own concoction of 200-proof rock, Kings of Leon barreled through some of their best songs.
In "The Bucket," Kings of Leon demonstrated how easily they navigate changes in feel and arrangement. "Soft" evoked a summertime ’70s vibe, like driving in a Nova, windows down, listening to AM radio with all your troubles miles behind you. "Milk" gave away their Southern roots and showed how well they trim parts down to work together through rhythms.
Caleb’s burned, slurry drawl and gravelly toned scowl were featured most prominently on "Pistol of Fire" and "Taper Jean Girl." The band also performed "Rememo," a waltz with a hangover; "Four Kicks," a shuffle where Caleb played chords for Matthew to answer with a boogie; and "Trani," where the band’s chord progressions hinted at their church music influences. The line, "Lord’s gonna get us back," from "Holy Roller Novocaine," one of their encores, sealed their religious sentiments with an amen to their hard-living lifestyles. Kings of Leon said goodbye with the twangy guitar intro and very Who-like instrumentation of "Slow Night, So Long."
While the band sounds a little bit like everybody, it also sounds like nobody. Kings of Leon learned their classics well, and their arrangements move out of the ordinary. Someone in the audience captured the show’s mood perfectly when he shouted out a very pleased, "Whee!"
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
September 21, 2005
Paul McCartney's Rusty Anderson - Interview
Usually you’ll find sideman extraordinaire Rusty Anderson lending his guitar strings to the albums and tours of Paul McCartney, as he has for the past four and a half years, or to Stanley Clarke and Stewart Copeland in Animal Logic, Elton John, Santana, Stevie Nicks, Jewel, the Wallflowers, Gwen Stefani, and many more, but finally Anderson steps stage-front on his first solo record, Undressing Underwater (Surfdog).“Every musician has something to try to get out and you want people to hear it,” says Anderson. “You want to connect with the outside world and I was just ready.”
From creating memorable riffs for others, like the guitar hook that drove Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca” straight to the top of the international charts, Anderson moved to assembling his own hired guns on the just-released CD. Sir Paul makes a cameo on the track “Hurt Myself,” while Police drummer Stewart Copeland performs on “Catbox Beach.” Anderson’s neighbor/producer Mudrock (Godsmack, Alice Cooper, Avenged Sevenfold) joined in on production and longtime friend, Parthenon Huxley, agreed to co-produce. The result is the ultimate guitar album for non-guitarists.
“In a way I almost put the guitar on the back burner and focused more on lyrics and melodies and making sure songs were songy as opposed to guitar jams or something,” says Anderson. “I’ve been in so many head spaces as a musician…I just like music and I don’t like to be constricted to some sort of stereotype as far as being a guitar player and doing a guitar record, although I love the guitar as an instrument and I think it’s the greatest instrument ever. It’s very expressive and it has a lot of personality and a lot of anger and tenderness.”
Anderson began writing the record in between legs of the Paul McCartney tours and plans to continue performing with the former Beatle and others, but the process of creating something has become a new lift-off point in his career.
“I’m really stoked to be playing music for a living and I feel very blessed to be playing with Paul McCartney and to have played with the great artists that I have,” says Anderson. “It’s very therapeutic to make music and I think at the core of any artist, that’s kind of what keeps driving you. It returns you to yourself and gives you a feeling of wholeness. I think making a record almost gives you an excuse to commit to your own therapy—your own self-realization or something. That’s what I’ve experienced. I think its Picasso who said, ‘Art is never finished, only abandoned.’”
Anderson performs with Paul McCartney on October 4-5 at Madison Square Garden.
Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 9/21/05.
Rusty Anderson singing "I've Got A Feeling" with Paul McCartney.
September 1, 2005
Louis XIV - Jason Hill Interview
King of the Hillby Tina Whelski
“If you want clean fun go fly a kite,” sings Louis XIV front man Jason Hill on “Paper Dolls” from The Best Little Secrets Are Kept (Atlantic). But if you prefer the band’s kind of fun, just follow their musical exploits with “Little Stacy Q” and “Dominique” at Irving Plaza on September 1.
Brian Karscig (guitar, vocals), Mark Maigaard (drums), James Armbrust (bass), and Hill (lead vocals, lead guitar) will dole out songs like “Illegal Tender,” “Finding Out True Love is Blind,” “Letter to Dominique” and “Pledge of Allegiance,” where prowling riffs and frisky beats meet decadent pleasures.
AW: Where do those lyrics come from!
AW: The album’s definitely very present.
Hill: It was quite fun. I remember after I was done I sort of listened to it a million times over and over again thinking, “Should I re-do it? No, it’s great.” There were some things that I sing a little differently now live, but there was such a moment there…I did the same sort of thing on “Finding Out True Love Is Blind,” and especially “Pledge of Allegiance”…The most unreserved things come out when you just do that ...There’s one of the best moments on the second verse. It ends with like “oka sica saca” or something like that. It’s complete gibberish because I didn’t have a rhyme.
AW: I’ll say you’re “unreserved” on the album (laughs). It seems there’s more of a “shared perversion” with gal pals throughout the songs than critics tend to point out. Like in “Pledge of Allegiance” you sing, “Little Stacy Q/When she doesn’t have a thing to do/She comes to my house/Well let’s keep that between me and you.”
Hill: I think you nailed it on the head and I’ve never heard anybody say that. There’s like a “shared perversion” (laughs). Often I’ll read in certain reviews people go as far as to call it “masochistic” and I don’t see that at all. It’s all very shared throughout the album. The girls within that are so spunky (laughs).
AW: I would think you have more female fans than females you offend.
Hill: We certainly do. It’s more packed with girls every time. But you can get somebody that totally takes it the wrong way. I mean we were picketed in Indianapolis recently, which I thought was sort of weird. It’s kind of a funny story where there was a girl in the front row, our first time playing in Indianapolis, and she was like a super fan. She knew all the words and sang along and after the show I went out and had a drink and said hello to the different people who wanted to talk and she came up and we started chatting and what not and she goes, “I’m sorry about my friends out there picketing. They just really don’t like your band.” And I said, “What?” So I walked outside and they were still picketing after the show and handing out pamphlets and it was just crazy to me. So I said, “Well invite your friends on the bus for a drink with us at least and have a little pow wow.” I was curious what it is that’s so offensive. It sounded like the most fun conversation I could have that evening was with these people…So they came on the bus and I gave them a drink and tried to talk with them but they literally didn’t say anything. They just kept looking at their friend like, “I fucking hate you. Get me out of here.”
AW: But you actually sing in “Pledge of Allegiance” “I know it ain’t correct/But politics is so much better when there’s sex.”
Hill: Exactly! You get it. I’m just having fun…“Little Asian friend,” how is that offensive? I don’t know? Somewhere [in the report] she said our cover depicted a dead, naked girl that we’d defiled and raped and “A Letter To Dominique” was about a rape and I’m like, “Are you nuts?” The best part of it is like paragraph six or something where she says she would actually “like like,” (the double “like”) this music, but she goes on to say, but she just thinks “rock n’ roll should be more responsible.” And I was thinking, “I love that you said that, because that right there sums it up for a lot of people.” They’re going to go on the other side and go, “I don’t.”(laughs).
AW: Why do you think the best little secrets kept?
Hill: There’s obviously this dangerousness to secrets. I have so many facets of myself, which I think everyone has. There’s sort of a dark, perverted side. There’s a very vulnerable sort of kind of guy that literally loves to cuddle teddy bears and soft things. Everybody has those sides to them. There’s just something about secrets and that shared bond between people. If it’s truly kept, it continues to be very special. The problem with secrets is they get out there eventually and things unravel and if it’s not a big deal then they don’t, but it’s no longer special.
Hill: Here’s the truth about it. The name means as much to us as led balloons meant to Led Zeppelin after the album. …The first tune we did was Louis XIV, so we named it Louis XIV…At the time I got really fascinated by Van Gogh [Vincent]…The story of his life was so fascinating that we sort of did the first album in many ways based around his life, but it becomes a boy that starts to lose his mind and then begins to believe that he is Louis XIV. Within that, I made a point of not knowing hardly anything about Louis XIV because to me if I’m truly going to tell the story, I wouldn’t’ really know all the facts about his life. You’re losing your mind, right? So you’re just sort of making them up. A lot of what we made up tended to actually mirror his life with our vision of the first album, oddly more by coincidence or that we were in Paris and tapped into something. I don’t know what it was. So we recorded that first record that had something to do with Louis XIV, but not really “the king Louis XIV,” but “our own person Louis XIV” and we kept the songs “Louis XIV” and “God Killed The Queen” because those were the first two songs we did. We brought them over to the new record…We wanted to make sure all the songs worked together and in some ways the sound connected it through and in some ways the production and in some ways the sexual nature and the honesty with the lyrics. But there wasn’t really a concept, like we’re trying to put the sex back in rock n’ roll or whatever.
Louis XIV perform at Irving Plaza September 1.
Louis XIV Video for "Finding Out True Love Is Blind."
“If you want clean fun go fly a kite,” sings Louis XIV front man Jason Hill on “Paper Dolls” from The Best Little Secrets Are Kept (Atlantic). But if you prefer the band’s kind of fun, just follow their musical exploits with “Little Stacy Q” and “Dominique” at Irving Plaza on September 1.
Brian Karscig (guitar, vocals), Mark Maigaard (drums), James Armbrust (bass), and Hill (lead vocals, lead guitar) will dole out songs like “Illegal Tender,” “Finding Out True Love is Blind,” “Letter to Dominique” and “Pledge of Allegiance,” where prowling riffs and frisky beats meet decadent pleasures.
Louis XIV’s Jason Hill talks to The Aquarian about the band’s “just press record” studio technique and of course, women.
AW: Where do those lyrics come from!
Jason Hill: (Laughs). Well sometimes they’re just straight me ad-libbing…For instance on “Paper Doll” I went and set up the microphone one evening and only like two microphones on the drums and went and played that beat myself…Mark’s a much better drummer than me, but quite often I’ll be the only one in there late at night, so as a sort of hack drummer, I’ll come up with a beat nobody would normally come up with. I sat down and played the beat and later had Mark re-dub a snare drum on top of it, which you hear in the final mix. But I played the initial beat and then went to the guitar and played the little riff and literally pressed record. So the riff that you hear the whole song on the guitar is basically just me making it up as I went along. I did the same thing on vocals…I think that’s one of the songs I’m most proud about because it’s completely, with the exception of a few lines I had to re-sing, all ad lib. You hear me sing something like “bang a gong get it own” because I didn’t know what else to say. I literally was just imitating my girlfriend the night before. I heard her for the first time when she got really wasted and she started speaking this gibberish and started getting a little mousy with me, like playful back and forth and it was funny. So this next night I was in the studio and I literally pressed record and sort of re-lived that conversation, although I took liberty quite a bit (laughs).
AW: The album’s definitely very present.
Hill: It was quite fun. I remember after I was done I sort of listened to it a million times over and over again thinking, “Should I re-do it? No, it’s great.” There were some things that I sing a little differently now live, but there was such a moment there…I did the same sort of thing on “Finding Out True Love Is Blind,” and especially “Pledge of Allegiance”…The most unreserved things come out when you just do that ...There’s one of the best moments on the second verse. It ends with like “oka sica saca” or something like that. It’s complete gibberish because I didn’t have a rhyme.
AW: I’ll say you’re “unreserved” on the album (laughs). It seems there’s more of a “shared perversion” with gal pals throughout the songs than critics tend to point out. Like in “Pledge of Allegiance” you sing, “Little Stacy Q/When she doesn’t have a thing to do/She comes to my house/Well let’s keep that between me and you.”
Hill: I think you nailed it on the head and I’ve never heard anybody say that. There’s like a “shared perversion” (laughs). Often I’ll read in certain reviews people go as far as to call it “masochistic” and I don’t see that at all. It’s all very shared throughout the album. The girls within that are so spunky (laughs).
AW: I would think you have more female fans than females you offend.
Hill: We certainly do. It’s more packed with girls every time. But you can get somebody that totally takes it the wrong way. I mean we were picketed in Indianapolis recently, which I thought was sort of weird. It’s kind of a funny story where there was a girl in the front row, our first time playing in Indianapolis, and she was like a super fan. She knew all the words and sang along and after the show I went out and had a drink and said hello to the different people who wanted to talk and she came up and we started chatting and what not and she goes, “I’m sorry about my friends out there picketing. They just really don’t like your band.” And I said, “What?” So I walked outside and they were still picketing after the show and handing out pamphlets and it was just crazy to me. So I said, “Well invite your friends on the bus for a drink with us at least and have a little pow wow.” I was curious what it is that’s so offensive. It sounded like the most fun conversation I could have that evening was with these people…So they came on the bus and I gave them a drink and tried to talk with them but they literally didn’t say anything. They just kept looking at their friend like, “I fucking hate you. Get me out of here.”
There have also been some great reviews, one in San Francisco in some weekly that was totally like a thesis of why we’re offensive. (laughs). She said “chocolate girl” and “little Asian friend” were racist.
AW: But you actually sing in “Pledge of Allegiance” “I know it ain’t correct/But politics is so much better when there’s sex.”
Hill: Exactly! You get it. I’m just having fun…“Little Asian friend,” how is that offensive? I don’t know? Somewhere [in the report] she said our cover depicted a dead, naked girl that we’d defiled and raped and “A Letter To Dominique” was about a rape and I’m like, “Are you nuts?” The best part of it is like paragraph six or something where she says she would actually “like like,” (the double “like”) this music, but she goes on to say, but she just thinks “rock n’ roll should be more responsible.” And I was thinking, “I love that you said that, because that right there sums it up for a lot of people.” They’re going to go on the other side and go, “I don’t.”(laughs).
AW: Why do you think the best little secrets kept?
Hill: The problem with secrets is most often they’re not kept…Somebody always knows…I have many, many secrets that I keep very close to my chest…I’m not one to go around and talk about all my adventures in life, though I do in my songs.
AW: What is it about “secrets” that you cherish?
Hill: There’s obviously this dangerousness to secrets. I have so many facets of myself, which I think everyone has. There’s sort of a dark, perverted side. There’s a very vulnerable sort of kind of guy that literally loves to cuddle teddy bears and soft things. Everybody has those sides to them. There’s just something about secrets and that shared bond between people. If it’s truly kept, it continues to be very special. The problem with secrets is they get out there eventually and things unravel and if it’s not a big deal then they don’t, but it’s no longer special.
AW: What attracted you to the figure of Louis XIV?
Hill: Here’s the truth about it. The name means as much to us as led balloons meant to Led Zeppelin after the album. …The first tune we did was Louis XIV, so we named it Louis XIV…At the time I got really fascinated by Van Gogh [Vincent]…The story of his life was so fascinating that we sort of did the first album in many ways based around his life, but it becomes a boy that starts to lose his mind and then begins to believe that he is Louis XIV. Within that, I made a point of not knowing hardly anything about Louis XIV because to me if I’m truly going to tell the story, I wouldn’t’ really know all the facts about his life. You’re losing your mind, right? So you’re just sort of making them up. A lot of what we made up tended to actually mirror his life with our vision of the first album, oddly more by coincidence or that we were in Paris and tapped into something. I don’t know what it was. So we recorded that first record that had something to do with Louis XIV, but not really “the king Louis XIV,” but “our own person Louis XIV” and we kept the songs “Louis XIV” and “God Killed The Queen” because those were the first two songs we did. We brought them over to the new record…We wanted to make sure all the songs worked together and in some ways the sound connected it through and in some ways the production and in some ways the sexual nature and the honesty with the lyrics. But there wasn’t really a concept, like we’re trying to put the sex back in rock n’ roll or whatever.
AW: Your production on the album is interesting.
Jason: I fell in love with recording the moment I first bought a little tape recorder and played a song into it and realized it sounded different when I played it back. The first time I went into a real studio I said to the engineer, “I want to get the vocals of the singer to sound like this” or “the guitar to sound like that” and “the drums to sound like this,” and it was always, “No you can’t do that, but this is how I normally do it.” Then you’d come out and be very unhappy with the recording so it sort of forced me to be like, “Well, I’ll just have to do it myself.” I do things somewhat odd though because I was very broke all the time. I would max out all my credit cards to get recording gear, but to keep it working, especially old stuff, it cost a lot of money so often half of what I had was always broken and I had to make do. In that odd process of trying to do things and not caring how other people did it, but caring how it sounds, I would do things quite a bit different and the choruses sort of developed a sound…There’s no reverb on our record which is very odd for a lot of people to hear. Everything is very dry and fuzzy and natural. It’s sort of this crisp fuzziness. I love the fact that I don’t know a lot of what I play on the record. I love that I can never do the same solo twice (laughs). And I love the fact that half the record is me or Brian just pressing record and it’s just all off the cuff.
Louis XIV perform at Irving Plaza September 1.
Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 9/1/05.
Louis XIV Video for "Finding Out True Love Is Blind."
Sarah Blasko - Interview
One morning Australian singer/songwriter Sarah Blasko woke to hear a song she had written blaring from her clock radio and thought she was dreaming. When the record labels started calling, she knew she wasn’t. Tastemaker radio station Triple J records had picked up on the Sydney native’s atmospheric pop and now she finds herself with a debut full-length, The Overture & The Underscore, released in the U.S. on Low Altitude/Universal.Blasko’s vision to blend unrefined elements with electronics to create a patchwork of different sounds on the album was aided by Hollywood producer Wally Gagel (Muse, The Eels).
“Some of the stuff on the EP [Prelusive] was a little ‘electronicy’ and I wanted to find a way of fusing those things with a really organic and natural band kind of vibe, a bit of warmth I thought it lacked before,” said Blasko. “I think more than anything I wanted it to have a real humanity to it, for the voice to sound real and nothing could be overproduced. I wanted it to have a classic image to it and for the songs to have enough space to breathe and not be too clouded.”
In addition to Gagel and bandmate Robert F. Cranny, Joey Waronker (Beck, REM) joined them on drums.
“I’ve always had an appreciation for the drums, but I really value a really good drummer now,” says Blasko about working with Waronker. “He’s very intuitive and he’s got a lot of taste in what he chooses to play.”
In songs such as “Don’t U Eva,” “All Coming Back,” and “Always Worth It,” Blasko shows her intuition for getting to the heart of a song. She admitted that imperfections were welcome in the recording process. They signal intimacy and sensitivity. Perhaps some of that awareness for honest expression comes from the source of her introduction to music.
Seated in a church pew beside her tone-deaf mother and an eighty-year-old soprano hymning the Lord’s praises, was where Blasko first realized the difference between singing with conviction and technical vocalises. Motivated by the discovery, Blasko joined her Sydney Australian church band at age sixteen and by eighteen recognized songwriting as career-worthy. When her initial try at a band failed and actually flunked out of counseling too—long, expensive story—she retreated to her bedroom to record solo demos, including a song titled, “Your Way,” that started spinning on Triple J and paved her to being heard across continents.
Blasko’s climb to airplay was not as easy as the turn of a dial though. She toiled for six years and was quite disheartened by the process before meeting a reporter from a weekly music publication who became a fan and her manager. Using his connections he arranged to have a copy of Blasko’s demo tucked into a pile of CD’s a friend was handing to radio at a meeting. Check out Sarah Blasko at www.sarahblasko.com .
Originally posted on WomanRock.com September '05.
Sarah Blasko performing "Don't You Eva."
August 31, 2005
Warped Tour - Review
by Tina WhelskiVans Warped Tour combed Randall’s Island August 13 with My Chemical Romance stealing the scorching day’s spotlight. The performance of Gerard Way (vocals), Mikey Way (bass), Ray Toro (guitar), and Bob Bryar (drums) on Saturday showed why the band’s comic book-colored emo/rock has been catapulting them to well-earned superhero status. Preparing for their first headlining tour in September the band played “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” “Helena,” and “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid” among others from Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. The band’s New Jersey brethren, Senses Fail, also offered a powered performance with singer Buddy Nielsen delivering his usual consuming rock-wrenched melodies. Other highlights from the sold-out lineup included Hawthorne Heights, Funeral For A Friend, Transplants, The Offspring, Dropkick Murphys, Atreyu, Fall Out Boy and My American Heart.
My Chemical Romance video for "I'm Not Okay."
My Chemical Romance photo by Tina Whelski.
My Chemical Romance video for "I'm Not Okay."
August 10, 2005
Lollapalooza - Review
Chicago’s Grant Park/July 23-24
Lollapalooza returned this year, transforming itself from a touring music festival to a one-site, two-day affair July 23-24 set in Chicago’s Grant Park. Showing the same tenacity he became known for when he pioneered the alternative music festival in 1991, Lollapalooza founder/organizer and former Jane’s Addiction front man Perry Farrell revised the event to adapt to the concert industry’s changing climate and to regain control over the integrity of the Lolla experience.
Over 60 acts lined up for the revived showcase, with stellar live performances by The Arcade Fire, The Bravery, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Louis XIV, Drive-By Truckers, The Killers, Weezer, Primus, and Farrell’s new project, Satellite Party, a nebulous, satisfying musical experience with former Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt and No Doubt’s Tony Kanal on bass.
In introducing The Arcade Fire, Farrell explained they were an example that it’s still possible to be original. In restoring Lollapalooza Farrell proved there are always alternate paths towards that goal.
Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 8/10/05.
Weezer photo by Tina Whelski
August 5, 2005
Tori Amos - Interview
by Tina Whelski
The breezy, sensual songs of Tori Amos’ ninth, and latest album, The Beekeeper (Epic) ride the drift of an impending storm with honey sweet vocals and a storyline that looks at mending the historical rift that divides a woman’s sexual and spiritual self. In writing the music Amos draws from both her own emotional impulses and the rhythm of the world as she sees it at this moment. Days before her Summer of Sin solo tour began Amos offered a synopsis of The Beekeeper and shared her creative process, which she also chronicles in a new book Tori Amos: Piece by Piece, co-written with music journalist Ann Powers.
WOMANROCK: On The Beekeeper you continue to satiate your worldly curiosity and desire for self-discovery through song. How has your music evolved since Little Earthquakes (13 years ago) and do you feel you approach your instruments differently on The Beekeeper?
TORI AMOS: When I can listen to something a few years later, I’m able to be more objective. When I’m in the thick of it, I’m making choices based on what is right at the time and you have to trust your instincts and you have to be clear on your vision. For instance, I was listening to Choir Girl over the last couple of days because I’ve been learning a few songs for the tour and I hear that album really differently now than when it was occurring (laughs). I’m able to step back and you have a sense of detachment, which I think is really healthy—not when you’re trying to finish it though. If you’re too detached, you’re not passionate enough.
WOMANROCK: True. As we grow we often don’t notice differences in ourselves until we look back in retrospect.
AMOS: I like to use the word “changing” because at each time that an album is created, that reflex is where you are and just because some people are more drawn to a “fiery you” and some people are more drawn to an “intellectual you,” it doesn’t’ mean that they’re both not valid. They’re both valid—all of the albums are—but they come from a different place each time and I think that’s what’s essential. I don’t think any different than a visual artist; I don’t think you can say one installation is more important than another installation. I think that it might have had more impact on the masses at a time, but they’re all responding to the changes that are occurring and you couldn’t really super-impose one ten years later if you follow me. It sometimes works because of the time at which it comes out.
WOMANROCK: Lyrically you’ve commented that you write so that people can find themselves in your music, not you? You focus on that a lot in your new book too.
AMOS: In the book I call it giving people a “backstage pass’ into the creative process. When the songs come, sometimes they come in two-bar phrases and sometimes they come more complete. What I am always trying to do is to translate them in a way that people can develop their own relationships with the songs. If you ‘re too literal sometimes you anchor a song into space and time in a way that it doesn’t allow it to take flight. I try to work more with parables and prose as a songwriter than a style of lyric writing where there’s no room for interpretation. I’ve always been drawn to songs where word association and wordplay are part of what that artist does. Sylvia Plath was always very much like that and Anne Sexton. I was inspired by their work as poets. I’m trying to translate what I call “essences.” They don’t have arms or legs, but it’s more like light filaments. They don’t look like us when they’re complete. They look more like light structures. That’s really what it’s all about.
WOMANROCK: Giving people such license for imagination in your work, are you surprised sometimes when you hear how your songs are interpreted?
AMOS: I find it pretty intriguing because it’s not as if what it means to them is wrong. It’s not. That’s their perspective and the songs have always wanted people to have their own relationships with them and I have my own relationship with them, so I’m able to have my opinion.
WOMANROCK: I would think that’s an interesting turn when you’ve created something so personal and you put it out there to witness people cling to it with a different attachment.
AMOS: This is where you really have to let the songs go. You have to let them go and make their friendships and make their enemies with people. The songs are very capable of having their own lives (laughs). They’ve made it very clear to me. It is a paradox where on one hand you’re a co-creator with them and it feels as if there are pieces of my own mosaic of life within them that I really don’t have authority over. I have to allow them to go and be. The authority that I do have is how they’re presented and I try and work with them. A lot of times that has to do with what is going on globally, what is going on in our world at this time and that means the sound of it, the melody choices, and rhythmic choices. Sometimes it’s very much about chronicling time and the music is I would say a lot more involved than people give it credit. A lot of times people talk about the lyrics because it’s more tangible but the curds are very much in the music.
WOMANROCK: Applying your process specifically to The Beekeeper, combined with the sense of “urgency” you felt for this album, could you discuss bringing it all together.
AMOS: Because the right wing movement is not covert any more, but overt, I felt that it was essential to go after certain ideologies and teachings. One major one has been that a woman was responsible for getting us all chucked out of paradise. Therefore the garden allegory that The Beekeeper contained was core, no pun intended, but I felt that we needed to create gardens that represented different emotions that weren’t presided over by the patriarchy. Therefore on the album “Tori” goes to God’s mother, Sophia and asks her how to combat the violence and destructiveness of this time and Sophia basically says, “Tori, you must eat of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, unlike my son suggested.” So Tori eats of the fruit and each song is what she begins to have to look at in her own life. Some of her relationships are very loving and some of them are laced at the root with betrayal.
She begins to create this pantheon of songs once she begins to become conscious and that’s really at the root of The Beekeeper. The marriage of sexuality and spirituality is also very much part of what’s occurring here—a marriage within the being, not a marriage between male and female outside the being. The honeybee represented sacred sexuality in the ancient feminine mysteries and because Christianity has taken such a hold, as a minister’s daughter, I felt like we needed to go after this concept.
I did a lot of research reading the Gnostic Gospels written by Elaine Pagels discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. I also read the gospel of Mary Magdalene, which was discovered in the late 19th century and I began to realize that there was another element to Christianity that was not included by some of the early fathers of the “proper” church. Women and their roles had been diminished and we had become subservient and subjugated in the new church. I was concerned because of some of the choices that were being made for leaders around the world—religious as well as political—that I felt were proponents for the ideology of the patriarchy opposed to the ideology of Jesus, which included women as equals.
If you read the Gnostic Gospels you discover that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute, but a “prophet.” Maybe that was not “profitable” to the fathers who were creating the church, because how do you get power? Well the patriarchy’s view is you divide and conquer. The greatest way to divide and conquer is within the self, so when you divide sexuality and spirituality within a woman, she is completely and absolutely divided, therefore, The Beekeeper was very much about bringing these paradoxes together into the garden, into one being. The garden’s reflective of a woman’s body. That is the back-story.
Originally posted on WomanRock.com August '05.
Tori Amos performing "The Power of Orange Knickers."
WOMANROCK: On The Beekeeper you continue to satiate your worldly curiosity and desire for self-discovery through song. How has your music evolved since Little Earthquakes (13 years ago) and do you feel you approach your instruments differently on The Beekeeper?
TORI AMOS: When I can listen to something a few years later, I’m able to be more objective. When I’m in the thick of it, I’m making choices based on what is right at the time and you have to trust your instincts and you have to be clear on your vision. For instance, I was listening to Choir Girl over the last couple of days because I’ve been learning a few songs for the tour and I hear that album really differently now than when it was occurring (laughs). I’m able to step back and you have a sense of detachment, which I think is really healthy—not when you’re trying to finish it though. If you’re too detached, you’re not passionate enough.
WOMANROCK: True. As we grow we often don’t notice differences in ourselves until we look back in retrospect.
AMOS: I like to use the word “changing” because at each time that an album is created, that reflex is where you are and just because some people are more drawn to a “fiery you” and some people are more drawn to an “intellectual you,” it doesn’t’ mean that they’re both not valid. They’re both valid—all of the albums are—but they come from a different place each time and I think that’s what’s essential. I don’t think any different than a visual artist; I don’t think you can say one installation is more important than another installation. I think that it might have had more impact on the masses at a time, but they’re all responding to the changes that are occurring and you couldn’t really super-impose one ten years later if you follow me. It sometimes works because of the time at which it comes out.
WOMANROCK: Lyrically you’ve commented that you write so that people can find themselves in your music, not you? You focus on that a lot in your new book too.
AMOS: In the book I call it giving people a “backstage pass’ into the creative process. When the songs come, sometimes they come in two-bar phrases and sometimes they come more complete. What I am always trying to do is to translate them in a way that people can develop their own relationships with the songs. If you ‘re too literal sometimes you anchor a song into space and time in a way that it doesn’t allow it to take flight. I try to work more with parables and prose as a songwriter than a style of lyric writing where there’s no room for interpretation. I’ve always been drawn to songs where word association and wordplay are part of what that artist does. Sylvia Plath was always very much like that and Anne Sexton. I was inspired by their work as poets. I’m trying to translate what I call “essences.” They don’t have arms or legs, but it’s more like light filaments. They don’t look like us when they’re complete. They look more like light structures. That’s really what it’s all about.
WOMANROCK: Giving people such license for imagination in your work, are you surprised sometimes when you hear how your songs are interpreted?
AMOS: I find it pretty intriguing because it’s not as if what it means to them is wrong. It’s not. That’s their perspective and the songs have always wanted people to have their own relationships with them and I have my own relationship with them, so I’m able to have my opinion.
WOMANROCK: I would think that’s an interesting turn when you’ve created something so personal and you put it out there to witness people cling to it with a different attachment.
AMOS: This is where you really have to let the songs go. You have to let them go and make their friendships and make their enemies with people. The songs are very capable of having their own lives (laughs). They’ve made it very clear to me. It is a paradox where on one hand you’re a co-creator with them and it feels as if there are pieces of my own mosaic of life within them that I really don’t have authority over. I have to allow them to go and be. The authority that I do have is how they’re presented and I try and work with them. A lot of times that has to do with what is going on globally, what is going on in our world at this time and that means the sound of it, the melody choices, and rhythmic choices. Sometimes it’s very much about chronicling time and the music is I would say a lot more involved than people give it credit. A lot of times people talk about the lyrics because it’s more tangible but the curds are very much in the music.
WOMANROCK: Applying your process specifically to The Beekeeper, combined with the sense of “urgency” you felt for this album, could you discuss bringing it all together.
AMOS: Because the right wing movement is not covert any more, but overt, I felt that it was essential to go after certain ideologies and teachings. One major one has been that a woman was responsible for getting us all chucked out of paradise. Therefore the garden allegory that The Beekeeper contained was core, no pun intended, but I felt that we needed to create gardens that represented different emotions that weren’t presided over by the patriarchy. Therefore on the album “Tori” goes to God’s mother, Sophia and asks her how to combat the violence and destructiveness of this time and Sophia basically says, “Tori, you must eat of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, unlike my son suggested.” So Tori eats of the fruit and each song is what she begins to have to look at in her own life. Some of her relationships are very loving and some of them are laced at the root with betrayal.
She begins to create this pantheon of songs once she begins to become conscious and that’s really at the root of The Beekeeper. The marriage of sexuality and spirituality is also very much part of what’s occurring here—a marriage within the being, not a marriage between male and female outside the being. The honeybee represented sacred sexuality in the ancient feminine mysteries and because Christianity has taken such a hold, as a minister’s daughter, I felt like we needed to go after this concept.
I did a lot of research reading the Gnostic Gospels written by Elaine Pagels discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. I also read the gospel of Mary Magdalene, which was discovered in the late 19th century and I began to realize that there was another element to Christianity that was not included by some of the early fathers of the “proper” church. Women and their roles had been diminished and we had become subservient and subjugated in the new church. I was concerned because of some of the choices that were being made for leaders around the world—religious as well as political—that I felt were proponents for the ideology of the patriarchy opposed to the ideology of Jesus, which included women as equals.
If you read the Gnostic Gospels you discover that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute, but a “prophet.” Maybe that was not “profitable” to the fathers who were creating the church, because how do you get power? Well the patriarchy’s view is you divide and conquer. The greatest way to divide and conquer is within the self, so when you divide sexuality and spirituality within a woman, she is completely and absolutely divided, therefore, The Beekeeper was very much about bringing these paradoxes together into the garden, into one being. The garden’s reflective of a woman’s body. That is the back-story.
Originally posted on WomanRock.com August '05.
Tori Amos performing "The Power of Orange Knickers."
August 3, 2005
Dave Matthews Band - Concert Review
Randall's Island, NY
7/31/05
Billed as the "Island Getaway" at Randall's Island, Sunday's Dave Matthews Band show fulfilled its promise of escapism with musical virtuosity and a selection of radio hits, live favorites and offerings from the band's latest album, "Stand Up."
The group played with the tightness of an ensemble that has jammed together for 14 years. The grass-roots-minded superstars shared and traded improvisational spaces, navigated mood-changing tempos and explored grooves with spontaneity and excitement.
The band opened with "Every Day," on which singer-guitarist Dave Matthews broke away from his acoustic guitar and gravelly voice to raise his fist and squeak his falsetto for emphasis, singing, "All you need is love."
With the tone set, the socially conscious performers reeled off a series of highlights, including "What Would You Say," which hails back to the band's 1994 debut album, "Under the Table and Dreaming."
Classically trained Boyd Tinsley ripped his bow back and forth across his violin strings, dreads flying as he swirled, absorbed in rhythm. Tinsley grabbed the spotlight again during "Ants Marching" with the distinctive riff that helped catapult the tune to commercial success. Matching Tinsley's hillbilly funkiness was the gusty saxophone playing of LeRoi Moore.
Drummer Carter Beauford, Moore's onetime neighborhood jazz cat in Durham, N.C., tiptoed busily on his kit. Beauford is not a power drummer, but he is a "powerful" drummer. His fusion background and open style offered him a range of melodic sounding beats and rhythms. Dave Matthews Band's signature jumpy, slick bop comes courtesy of Beauford's choices from the band's co-pilot seat. Beauford smiled as he divided sixteenth notes, calmly blowing bubbles with his chewing gum amid the pulses.
On "When the World Ends," Matthews clutched his frets, eyes squeezed tight as he succumbed to that musical tic he gets in his legs; pivoting on the right foot, he alternately shakes the left -- a truly enviable approach to time-keeping. During "Dream Girl," Matthews' animated style continued as he arched an eyebrow, marking select lyrics with heightened emotional importance.
The new album's title track was accompanied by steel guitarist Robert Randolph, whose Family Band performed earlier in the day. Looking for an audience ready to testify, Randolph entered into an extended version of the song and then launched into a fiery version of "All Along the Watchtower." Overpowered by sound, Randolph kneeled to play, while Matthews and bass protege Stefan Lessard surrounded their guest with complex, uplifting, percussive riffs.
Originally published in The Hollywood Reporter 8/2/05.
7/31/05
Billed as the "Island Getaway" at Randall's Island, Sunday's Dave Matthews Band show fulfilled its promise of escapism with musical virtuosity and a selection of radio hits, live favorites and offerings from the band's latest album, "Stand Up."
The group played with the tightness of an ensemble that has jammed together for 14 years. The grass-roots-minded superstars shared and traded improvisational spaces, navigated mood-changing tempos and explored grooves with spontaneity and excitement.
The band opened with "Every Day," on which singer-guitarist Dave Matthews broke away from his acoustic guitar and gravelly voice to raise his fist and squeak his falsetto for emphasis, singing, "All you need is love."
With the tone set, the socially conscious performers reeled off a series of highlights, including "What Would You Say," which hails back to the band's 1994 debut album, "Under the Table and Dreaming."
Classically trained Boyd Tinsley ripped his bow back and forth across his violin strings, dreads flying as he swirled, absorbed in rhythm. Tinsley grabbed the spotlight again during "Ants Marching" with the distinctive riff that helped catapult the tune to commercial success. Matching Tinsley's hillbilly funkiness was the gusty saxophone playing of LeRoi Moore.
Drummer Carter Beauford, Moore's onetime neighborhood jazz cat in Durham, N.C., tiptoed busily on his kit. Beauford is not a power drummer, but he is a "powerful" drummer. His fusion background and open style offered him a range of melodic sounding beats and rhythms. Dave Matthews Band's signature jumpy, slick bop comes courtesy of Beauford's choices from the band's co-pilot seat. Beauford smiled as he divided sixteenth notes, calmly blowing bubbles with his chewing gum amid the pulses.
On "When the World Ends," Matthews clutched his frets, eyes squeezed tight as he succumbed to that musical tic he gets in his legs; pivoting on the right foot, he alternately shakes the left -- a truly enviable approach to time-keeping. During "Dream Girl," Matthews' animated style continued as he arched an eyebrow, marking select lyrics with heightened emotional importance.
The new album's title track was accompanied by steel guitarist Robert Randolph, whose Family Band performed earlier in the day. Looking for an audience ready to testify, Randolph entered into an extended version of the song and then launched into a fiery version of "All Along the Watchtower." Overpowered by sound, Randolph kneeled to play, while Matthews and bass protege Stefan Lessard surrounded their guest with complex, uplifting, percussive riffs.
Originally published in The Hollywood Reporter 8/2/05.
Perry Farrell - Interview
by Tina Whelski
It's The Doors’ Ray Manzarek on organ and Robby Kreiger on guitar and you can hear the hypnotizing riff of “Touch Me” build until suddenly the song ignites. “Come on, come on, come on, come on, now touch me baby,” sings Perry Farrell. Huh? Perry Farrell? No, the former Jane’s Addiction front man is not replacing The Doors of the 21st Century’s Ian Astbury. Farrell is just joining his heroes for three tunes during Decades Rock Live, a new live concert series that’s taping to premiere on VH1 Classic in September.
Presenting legendary performers alongside today’s newest artists, the first concert will feature The Doors of the 21st Century with Robby Kreiger, Ian Astbury and Ray Manzarek. Special guests include Macy Gray, legendary rock guitarist Pat Travers, the original Vanilla Fudge, Antigone Rising, and Farrell.
AW: Decades Rock Live is a new live concert series that pairs celebrated artists who have influenced popular music over the last 50 years with acts who have been inspired by them. What do you think of the concept and how do you fit into this first episode?
FARRELL: I love the idea of different generations of musicians getting together to play music, especially important musicians. It would be like if you have a great quarterback or a great center on a team and a draftee comes in. It’s going to take him a few years to get up to that level, but he’s got at least this legendary player who can tell him the inside things and what to look for. In the world of music, there are so many pitfalls and at the same time there are so many wonderful places to go as a musician. Just to be able to get the rub from The Doors; you don’t get any more integrity than the Doors. To be able to play with them and ride on their sound is going to be an experience. You probably couldn’t put into words the benefits that I will get and the other people will get from just being around them.
AW: What will you sing?
FARRELL: “People Are Strange,” “Crystal Ship” and “Touch Me.”
AW: With Lollapalooza becoming a destination festival this year, will you comment on how your revised format strengthened it and why you picked Chicago?
AW: After last year’s cancelled show, how excited are you to have it back?
FARRELL: It was beyond my expectations. I honestly didn’t think I would ever do another Lollapalooza. As you know, the way things are with the monopolies and the corporations, once a tragedy happens to you in the business world, it’s very hard to regain your footing. I almost believed it myself.
AW: You were able to maintain the festival’s integrity and bring atmosphere back.
FARRELL: I think we have more integrity than we’ve had since probably 1994 now because we look over everything and locations are wonderful again. We’re paying for the groups that we want and I think that you feel it. It’s kind of like home cooking. You’ll taste the different.
AW: Tell us about your new project Satellite Party.
FARRELL: Satellite Party is being developed into a play that will eventually become a feature film. As I was writing this, I had the good sense to realize I needed a musical partner in this and I sat down with this amazing musician, Nuno Bettencourt, who’s just one of the great guitar players of our day. I don’t know if you’ve heard him?
FARRELL: That was his band back in the eighties and this guy is just as far as guitar, you ask guitar players about Nuno and there’s agreement that he’s just a great player…The music of Satellite Party is sounding even better than I would have expected because we have a somewhat difficult arrangement in that we work with electronics. We play with sequencers and things like that and that’s not an easy thing to pull off and really play. There are people who play with sequencers who really don’t play. Then there’s people who can’t play with sequencers. We are doing a wonderful job and it sounds powerful and I’m starting to move like I did in the day. A great sign for me…The people who have helped me to write the Satellite Party are Fergie from Black Eyed Pea who came in an sang on probably three tracks. We have Flea, who has written probably four songs with me. John Frusciante wrote one with Flea and I. The core is just Nuno and I…I’d love to see the music tour for a time, but I’d absolutely like to see within three years it become a feature…I really want to create something that will be in the future for all times sake a classic and so that’s what I’m looking for from the Satellite Party. It’s a beautiful story and the music’s beautiful too. I want it to come to fruition and be something that changes the perception of people. Maybe it even opens up a paradigm in thinking of mankind. Jim Morrison has something to do with it?
AW: How does he inspire you?
AW: I saw you speak at Pollstar’s Concert Industry Consortium last year and you talked about how “everyone is an artist at one time.” You talked about how the artist is one who “continues to believe he can self-decorate the world.” What does being an artist mean to you today and how do you balance that with being a business man?
FARRELL: The artist in a way has an edge on life in that he really sees the depth and the realities even further than most people, but the problem with that is you get to see how pathetic human beings can be at times and how cruel and how brazen and just the lack of regard human beings have for each other, so they’re blessed, but they get cursed because their lenses are so clear. Then at the same time, they are very much overlooked because people just consider that what they created should have just been there or was there. They don’t realize what it takes to get it there. It takes your imagination, your time to pull it out of your mind and either put it to paper or record it to tape or digital. So they’re not appreciated. This is what I think really kills them. It’s the guy who in school might be wearing the letter jacket (who in probably five years is going to be working for an insurance company nonetheless but has got bigger muscles).
AW: On being a business man and an artist then?
FARRELL: You have to really balance that out. What I like is I like to become clever. There’s a lot of ways you can get exposure. People may say all press is good press. I disagree with that quote. You don’t want to be known as the person who’s got something really cheesy. You don’t want to be known as the person who sold out. You want to be known as an author. You “authenticate” something. I feel that you go to your strengths and you create something that will turn peoples’ heads and that’s how you do it. You become ingenious, rather than following what’s going on and cashing in on things or stooping away from what your God-given talent is. You create something that will be a classic.
Presenting legendary performers alongside today’s newest artists, the first concert will feature The Doors of the 21st Century with Robby Kreiger, Ian Astbury and Ray Manzarek. Special guests include Macy Gray, legendary rock guitarist Pat Travers, the original Vanilla Fudge, Antigone Rising, and Farrell.
Perry Farrell talks about the upcoming show, the return of Lollapalooza and his new project Satellite Party.
AW: Decades Rock Live is a new live concert series that pairs celebrated artists who have influenced popular music over the last 50 years with acts who have been inspired by them. What do you think of the concept and how do you fit into this first episode?
FARRELL: I love the idea of different generations of musicians getting together to play music, especially important musicians. It would be like if you have a great quarterback or a great center on a team and a draftee comes in. It’s going to take him a few years to get up to that level, but he’s got at least this legendary player who can tell him the inside things and what to look for. In the world of music, there are so many pitfalls and at the same time there are so many wonderful places to go as a musician. Just to be able to get the rub from The Doors; you don’t get any more integrity than the Doors. To be able to play with them and ride on their sound is going to be an experience. You probably couldn’t put into words the benefits that I will get and the other people will get from just being around them.
AW: What will you sing?
FARRELL: “People Are Strange,” “Crystal Ship” and “Touch Me.”
AW: With Lollapalooza becoming a destination festival this year, will you comment on how your revised format strengthened it and why you picked Chicago?
FARRELL: I guess you have to go back probably seven years when certain corporations were buying promoters around the country. What they did at the same time was bought property and form-fitted tours into the property using the promoters that they pretty much owned. What this did for the concert business, for myself as an independent promoter, was rather than being able to go around the country and meet different promoters and say to them, find us a great location, we really had no options but to play in amphitheatres. These amphitheatres came with deals for vendors that were pre-cut. There wasn’t much room for us to bring in the type of food and the type of extra things that we like to present to the audience.
It also price-fixed the package. Let’s say a promoter said, "Hey you can come play in my venue and I’ll pay you so much." Because there was a monopoly around the country on the venues and the promoters, the price fix was getting lower and lower and therefore the quality of the festival was beginning to suffer. Rather than being able to say, “Hey, let’s do something crazy and build a technology gaming system,” if the overseeing corporate promoter didn’t want to pay for that, you had no money for it. It was basically just turning into like a radio show. They would pay you what they felt they wanted to pay you for the acts. You didn’t even have room to negotiate that, so a lot of times, you’d basically be doing it for free. I hate to admit it, but I have made so little money putting Lollapalooza together. It got less and less and less to where the last year we were going out, there really wasn’t a chance to make any money at all because the promoter had us by the balls.
So what I decided to do is look for our own location. I was very lucky and found a private backer, yet another independent promoter, one of the very few left in the country. There’s probably less then five…What we did was we teamed up and we looked for our own location and decided to refine Lollapalooza. Lollapalooza was in its day, the first traveling festival. In 1991 it started all the other traveling festivals. It was a wonderful concept and the country really loved it, but it was a different time. There was not the monopoly that there is today, so we changed the model and we went to a location and built it ourselves and you know what? It has proven to be a very good idea.
AW: After last year’s cancelled show, how excited are you to have it back?
FARRELL: It was beyond my expectations. I honestly didn’t think I would ever do another Lollapalooza. As you know, the way things are with the monopolies and the corporations, once a tragedy happens to you in the business world, it’s very hard to regain your footing. I almost believed it myself.
AW: You were able to maintain the festival’s integrity and bring atmosphere back.
FARRELL: I think we have more integrity than we’ve had since probably 1994 now because we look over everything and locations are wonderful again. We’re paying for the groups that we want and I think that you feel it. It’s kind of like home cooking. You’ll taste the different.
AW: Tell us about your new project Satellite Party.
FARRELL: Satellite Party is being developed into a play that will eventually become a feature film. As I was writing this, I had the good sense to realize I needed a musical partner in this and I sat down with this amazing musician, Nuno Bettencourt, who’s just one of the great guitar players of our day. I don’t know if you’ve heard him?
AW: He’s formerly from Extreme?
FARRELL: That was his band back in the eighties and this guy is just as far as guitar, you ask guitar players about Nuno and there’s agreement that he’s just a great player…The music of Satellite Party is sounding even better than I would have expected because we have a somewhat difficult arrangement in that we work with electronics. We play with sequencers and things like that and that’s not an easy thing to pull off and really play. There are people who play with sequencers who really don’t play. Then there’s people who can’t play with sequencers. We are doing a wonderful job and it sounds powerful and I’m starting to move like I did in the day. A great sign for me…The people who have helped me to write the Satellite Party are Fergie from Black Eyed Pea who came in an sang on probably three tracks. We have Flea, who has written probably four songs with me. John Frusciante wrote one with Flea and I. The core is just Nuno and I…I’d love to see the music tour for a time, but I’d absolutely like to see within three years it become a feature…I really want to create something that will be in the future for all times sake a classic and so that’s what I’m looking for from the Satellite Party. It’s a beautiful story and the music’s beautiful too. I want it to come to fruition and be something that changes the perception of people. Maybe it even opens up a paradigm in thinking of mankind. Jim Morrison has something to do with it?
AW: How does he inspire you?
FARRELL: Jim Morrison opened paradigms and was a classic. Not just Jim Morrison, but the Doors. They’re still here and as far as I’m concerned I could count on one hand the greatest modern groups and composers and on one of those fingers has got to be The Doors.
AW: I saw you speak at Pollstar’s Concert Industry Consortium last year and you talked about how “everyone is an artist at one time.” You talked about how the artist is one who “continues to believe he can self-decorate the world.” What does being an artist mean to you today and how do you balance that with being a business man?
FARRELL: The artist in a way has an edge on life in that he really sees the depth and the realities even further than most people, but the problem with that is you get to see how pathetic human beings can be at times and how cruel and how brazen and just the lack of regard human beings have for each other, so they’re blessed, but they get cursed because their lenses are so clear. Then at the same time, they are very much overlooked because people just consider that what they created should have just been there or was there. They don’t realize what it takes to get it there. It takes your imagination, your time to pull it out of your mind and either put it to paper or record it to tape or digital. So they’re not appreciated. This is what I think really kills them. It’s the guy who in school might be wearing the letter jacket (who in probably five years is going to be working for an insurance company nonetheless but has got bigger muscles).
Unfortunately, I see this in music too. That person gets all the girls if you know what I mean. Artists understand their own value and at the same time they realize that others don’t. So the artist has to kind of suffer through life.
AW: On being a business man and an artist then?
FARRELL: You have to really balance that out. What I like is I like to become clever. There’s a lot of ways you can get exposure. People may say all press is good press. I disagree with that quote. You don’t want to be known as the person who’s got something really cheesy. You don’t want to be known as the person who sold out. You want to be known as an author. You “authenticate” something. I feel that you go to your strengths and you create something that will turn peoples’ heads and that’s how you do it. You become ingenious, rather than following what’s going on and cashing in on things or stooping away from what your God-given talent is. You create something that will be a classic.
Check out Decades Rock Live @ Trump’s Taj Mahal in Atlantic City on August 5
Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 8/3/05.
August 1, 2005
Puffy AmiYumi - Interview
by Tina WhelskiYou may recognize the chart-topping Japanese pop duo Puffy AmiYumi best as cartoons but their career success beyond the two-dimensional world is anything but imaginary.
Their TV show Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m on Cartoon Network and opens with a song you can’t miss, “Hi Hi” with that ridiculously catchy chorus: “Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi show/Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi show” repeated a gazillion times. Based on the J-pop stars’ fantasized rock star lives the show follows them as they jam with aliens on an international space station, get chased by their No. 1 fan, and learn new dance moves for a Japanese dance competition.
In one episode make-believe manager Kaz even creates a pair of life-sized Puffy dolls so that the girls can be in two money-making places at once! It’s then up to the girls to stop the creepy dolls before they take over the Puffy girls’ world. Hmm. Not a bad idea Kaz, considering Puffy AmiYumi’s real lives are not so far removed from “all” of that fantasy.
Puffy AmiYumi have sold millions of records, including the first single they ever released in 1996 “Asia No Junshin” which launched Puffy-mania. Since then, they have hosted a television variety show (Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy), headlined arena-sized concerts, and inspired action-figure dolls and even a line of shoes. All of their singles has been licensed for high-profile commercials for products such as motor scooters, cosmetics, computers, and soft drinks. You also heard their song “Friends Forever” in the Scooby-Doo 2 soundtrack.
The Japanese idorus (idols) celebrate their tenth anniversary next year, impressive longevity when you realize that the girls were actually strangers to one another until brought together by a record label and a management company. In 1995 Tokyo-bred Ami Onuki and Osaka native Yumi Yoshimura had each learned about talent searches underway in Tokyo. Ami sent her demo to Sony; Yumi auditioned for a management company; the next thing they knew, the unlikely friends were blending voices, creating hit after hit and launching a cultural phenomena.
The group’s latest CD, the Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi Soundtrack, was produced by Tamio Okuda (formerly of the platinum Japanese rock band Unicorn) and Andy Sturmer (formerly of American rock band Jellyfish).
What is the plot of Puffy AmiYumi’s next real-life adventure? The duo kicks off an East Coast tour this month to perform songs like “Joining a Fan Club,” “Planet Tokyo,” “Love so Pure” and “Koregawatashino Ikirumi chi” before a crowd of screaming fans.
*Speaking through a translator the girls gave WomanRock a heads up on what they’re up to.
WOMANROCK: What differences do you find between how Japanese and American audiences receive your live performances?
AMI: In the states it’s normal to have dance parties and to express yourself in body language. The cultural differences are not so different, but we can feel more movement in the American audience.
WOMANROCK: Everyone may not be familiar with the term J-pop. How do you describe it and is that where you feel your music fits?
YUMI: J-pop is actually Japanese pop. In that category there are a lot of other categories. It’s just a big way to say Japanese music. If the audience who listens to Puffy thinks it belongs in J-pop, that’s what we feel. We want to leave it up to the audience to categorize it.
WOMANROCK: What is it like having a cartoon based on your pretend rock n’ roll adventures?
YUMI: When we watch it, we watch it as cartoon Ami and Yumi. We don’t really portray ourselves in it. It’s so exaggerated and if we were really portraying our normal lives, it wouldn’t be that interesting as a cartoon (laughs).
WOMANROCK: You’re no strangers to television. You also hosted a television variety show in Japan a while back called Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy?
AMI: That was like five years ago. It was fun and it was good for us because our music could be portrayed to a new variety of people who haven’t heard our music, so it was a good opportunity for us.
WOMANROCK: If you had to guess what makes you so relatable to your fans, what do you think it is?
AMI: Can you tell us? (laughs). We really want to know.
WOMANROCK: You were strangers to each other until you were brought together by a record label and a management company. Musically you hit it off, but personally how did you get to know each other?
AMI: In the beginning we were so different so we didn’t think we’d hit it off. Once we started to become friends we hit it off right away though.
WOMANROCK: Your debut single in 1996 “Asia No Junshin” launched Puffy-mania. Were you surprised by the sudden attention at what you had created?
YUMI: We didn’t expect it. A famous producer and musician in Japan, Tamio Okuda, was the producer for our first song and just everything that was put together for that song all came together and made it happen, but we didn’t expect it. It was luck.
WOMANROCK: You’ve had three CDs now. How did you approach this last album as artists.
AMI: We don’t write the songs ourselves. We write a lot of the lyrics. When we choose the songs, we always imagine how they will be performed at the concerts. That’s our main thing. We love to have fun doing our songs.
WOMANROCK: What do you like to write about?
YUMI: It really depends on the song and how we feel at that moment. There’s not really one thing that we’re influenced by. It’s just when we’re on the spot writing it together, we put our minds together. There’s nothing in particular we want to show or portray or anything like that.
WOMANROCK: Who are some of your favorite American bands?
AMI: Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, and of course Jellyfish because Andy Sturmer is one of our producers.
WOMANROCK: What are your plans for the future?
YUMI: In the near future is obviously the East Coast tour and actually next year is our ten year anniversary together, so we want to do something together. We’re in the process of thinking of that.
Originally posted on WomanRock.com August '05.
Their TV show Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m on Cartoon Network and opens with a song you can’t miss, “Hi Hi” with that ridiculously catchy chorus: “Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi show/Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi show” repeated a gazillion times. Based on the J-pop stars’ fantasized rock star lives the show follows them as they jam with aliens on an international space station, get chased by their No. 1 fan, and learn new dance moves for a Japanese dance competition.
In one episode make-believe manager Kaz even creates a pair of life-sized Puffy dolls so that the girls can be in two money-making places at once! It’s then up to the girls to stop the creepy dolls before they take over the Puffy girls’ world. Hmm. Not a bad idea Kaz, considering Puffy AmiYumi’s real lives are not so far removed from “all” of that fantasy.
Puffy AmiYumi have sold millions of records, including the first single they ever released in 1996 “Asia No Junshin” which launched Puffy-mania. Since then, they have hosted a television variety show (Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy), headlined arena-sized concerts, and inspired action-figure dolls and even a line of shoes. All of their singles has been licensed for high-profile commercials for products such as motor scooters, cosmetics, computers, and soft drinks. You also heard their song “Friends Forever” in the Scooby-Doo 2 soundtrack.
The Japanese idorus (idols) celebrate their tenth anniversary next year, impressive longevity when you realize that the girls were actually strangers to one another until brought together by a record label and a management company. In 1995 Tokyo-bred Ami Onuki and Osaka native Yumi Yoshimura had each learned about talent searches underway in Tokyo. Ami sent her demo to Sony; Yumi auditioned for a management company; the next thing they knew, the unlikely friends were blending voices, creating hit after hit and launching a cultural phenomena.
The group’s latest CD, the Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi Soundtrack, was produced by Tamio Okuda (formerly of the platinum Japanese rock band Unicorn) and Andy Sturmer (formerly of American rock band Jellyfish).
What is the plot of Puffy AmiYumi’s next real-life adventure? The duo kicks off an East Coast tour this month to perform songs like “Joining a Fan Club,” “Planet Tokyo,” “Love so Pure” and “Koregawatashino Ikirumi chi” before a crowd of screaming fans.
*Speaking through a translator the girls gave WomanRock a heads up on what they’re up to.
WOMANROCK: What differences do you find between how Japanese and American audiences receive your live performances?
AMI: In the states it’s normal to have dance parties and to express yourself in body language. The cultural differences are not so different, but we can feel more movement in the American audience.
WOMANROCK: Everyone may not be familiar with the term J-pop. How do you describe it and is that where you feel your music fits?
YUMI: J-pop is actually Japanese pop. In that category there are a lot of other categories. It’s just a big way to say Japanese music. If the audience who listens to Puffy thinks it belongs in J-pop, that’s what we feel. We want to leave it up to the audience to categorize it.
WOMANROCK: What is it like having a cartoon based on your pretend rock n’ roll adventures?
YUMI: When we watch it, we watch it as cartoon Ami and Yumi. We don’t really portray ourselves in it. It’s so exaggerated and if we were really portraying our normal lives, it wouldn’t be that interesting as a cartoon (laughs).
WOMANROCK: You’re no strangers to television. You also hosted a television variety show in Japan a while back called Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Puffy?
AMI: That was like five years ago. It was fun and it was good for us because our music could be portrayed to a new variety of people who haven’t heard our music, so it was a good opportunity for us.
WOMANROCK: If you had to guess what makes you so relatable to your fans, what do you think it is?
AMI: Can you tell us? (laughs). We really want to know.
WOMANROCK: You were strangers to each other until you were brought together by a record label and a management company. Musically you hit it off, but personally how did you get to know each other?
AMI: In the beginning we were so different so we didn’t think we’d hit it off. Once we started to become friends we hit it off right away though.
WOMANROCK: Your debut single in 1996 “Asia No Junshin” launched Puffy-mania. Were you surprised by the sudden attention at what you had created?
YUMI: We didn’t expect it. A famous producer and musician in Japan, Tamio Okuda, was the producer for our first song and just everything that was put together for that song all came together and made it happen, but we didn’t expect it. It was luck.
WOMANROCK: You’ve had three CDs now. How did you approach this last album as artists.
AMI: We don’t write the songs ourselves. We write a lot of the lyrics. When we choose the songs, we always imagine how they will be performed at the concerts. That’s our main thing. We love to have fun doing our songs.
WOMANROCK: What do you like to write about?
YUMI: It really depends on the song and how we feel at that moment. There’s not really one thing that we’re influenced by. It’s just when we’re on the spot writing it together, we put our minds together. There’s nothing in particular we want to show or portray or anything like that.
WOMANROCK: Who are some of your favorite American bands?
AMI: Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, and of course Jellyfish because Andy Sturmer is one of our producers.
WOMANROCK: What are your plans for the future?
YUMI: In the near future is obviously the East Coast tour and actually next year is our ten year anniversary together, so we want to do something together. We’re in the process of thinking of that.
Originally posted on WomanRock.com August '05.
Feist - Interview
by Tina Whelski
Canadian-born Leslie Feist takes her experience gained through eclectic unions with Broken Social Scene, Gonzales, By Divine Right, and others and turns it into what she calls a “cross section of reality” on her highly praised debut solo effort, Let It Die (Cherry Tree/Interscope).
Feist was originally quite content as a collaborator, four-tracking her original material only as an aside for many years. But when the moment came to share home demos with Gonzalez, her seductive voice and cinematic music premiered.
“We weren’t intending at all to make a record,” says Feist. “It wasn’t even on my radar anymore to make records for myself because I was always having such a fulfilling time playing with my friends. I love the role of supporting someone whose music you really believe in. I didn’t feel that anything was lacking…I made these songs and we realized it was a record.”
Identifying the singular moments between life’s episodes, Feist’s songs playfully skip through genres in songs such as “Mushaboom,” “Tout Doucement,” “When I Was A Young Girl,” and the record’s first single, a cover of “Secret Heart.”
“I’ve never really been a student of any particular styles or genres,” says Feist. “I’ve never had the patience to stick it through and learn all the ins and outs of particular genres…I’ll love something and I’ll love it until I love the next thing."
During production the intent was to keep all of the instrumentation very simple and maintain an uncluttered feel, which enhances the storytelling, hooks, melody and certainly the airy mood.
“With the players that I’ve really been drawn to playing with and listening to over the years, you can hear them deciding what not to play rather than showing every second what they’re capable of,” says Feist.
Let It Die accentuates Feist’s vocals and practices restraint, intensifying her expression amidst the record’s movement. Lyrically she practices the same philosophy.
“I guess when I saw that movie Lost In Translation somehow it resonated really deeply in me,” says Feist. “Afterwards, I thought, ‘Why did that hit me so deeply?’ I thought maybe that represents in a movie what, without realizing, I’ve been trying to write about, which is all the little moments between the drama. All the follow up moments where this enormous thing goes down and you’re by yourself and you’re in your bathroom sitting on the floor having one of those stark reality moments of truth?"
Originally posted to WomanRock August '05.
Feist video for "Mushaboom."
Feist was originally quite content as a collaborator, four-tracking her original material only as an aside for many years. But when the moment came to share home demos with Gonzalez, her seductive voice and cinematic music premiered.
“We weren’t intending at all to make a record,” says Feist. “It wasn’t even on my radar anymore to make records for myself because I was always having such a fulfilling time playing with my friends. I love the role of supporting someone whose music you really believe in. I didn’t feel that anything was lacking…I made these songs and we realized it was a record.”
Identifying the singular moments between life’s episodes, Feist’s songs playfully skip through genres in songs such as “Mushaboom,” “Tout Doucement,” “When I Was A Young Girl,” and the record’s first single, a cover of “Secret Heart.”
“I’ve never really been a student of any particular styles or genres,” says Feist. “I’ve never had the patience to stick it through and learn all the ins and outs of particular genres…I’ll love something and I’ll love it until I love the next thing."
During production the intent was to keep all of the instrumentation very simple and maintain an uncluttered feel, which enhances the storytelling, hooks, melody and certainly the airy mood.
“With the players that I’ve really been drawn to playing with and listening to over the years, you can hear them deciding what not to play rather than showing every second what they’re capable of,” says Feist.
Let It Die accentuates Feist’s vocals and practices restraint, intensifying her expression amidst the record’s movement. Lyrically she practices the same philosophy.
“I guess when I saw that movie Lost In Translation somehow it resonated really deeply in me,” says Feist. “Afterwards, I thought, ‘Why did that hit me so deeply?’ I thought maybe that represents in a movie what, without realizing, I’ve been trying to write about, which is all the little moments between the drama. All the follow up moments where this enormous thing goes down and you’re by yourself and you’re in your bathroom sitting on the floor having one of those stark reality moments of truth?"
Originally posted to WomanRock August '05.
Feist video for "Mushaboom."
July 27, 2005
Whitesnake Drummer Tommy Aldridge - Interview
by Tina WhelskiDrummer Tommy Aldridge admits he’s enjoyed a very blessed career. He’s performed alongside the likes of guitarist Randy Rhoades, Ozzy Osbourne, John Sykes, Yngwie Malmsteen, Pat Travers and currently Whitesnake, who he’ll appear with at the Beacon Theatre on July 28.
“I met David Coverdale [Whitesnake frontman] when I was working with Ozzy touring in Europe supporting Whitesnake when Randy Rhoades was alive—in the good old days,” says Aldridge. “...David just out of the blue one day phoned me and we’ve been kind of hooked up off and on ever since…I’ve been really really blessed to have worked with some really really great guitar players and great musicians over the years.”
Coverdale qualifies as one of those exceptional talents.
“There are just a handful of guys like that in the history of the genre,” says Aldridge about Coverdale. “…He’s the real deal. It’s not somebody out there struggling to maintain the status quo. The guy gets better every year. It’s amazing.”
While Aldridge humbly credits some of rock’s greatest vocalists and riff players as inspiration, he feels equal admiration for the drummers whose well-written parts he’s playing on tour.
“There have been some really great drummers, Ian Pace, Cozy Powell, and Aynsley Dunbar associated with Whitesnake,” says Aldridge. “Even though I don’t play things exactly the way someone else would, I try to faithfully re-produce whatever magic was created in Cozy’s parts and particularly with Aynsley Dunbars because really the incarnation of Whitesnake that really set Whitesnake up was that 1987 record with John Sykes on guitar and Aynsley Dunbar on drums. It’s just a stellar record. Those drum parts could in no shape or form be improved upon…If I can’t successfully in my mind improve upon what’s there, then I won’t touch it. It’s the same with some of that early Ozzy stuff. When you’re working with someone like Randy Rhoades and he comes in with a guitar riff, like “Over The Mountain” the drum part is like built in. I really feel in a lot of ways how Mitch Mitchell must have felt when, not to compare myself with him, but when Jimi Hendrix would come in with some of those ridiculous guitar riffs or Jimi Page would come in with some of those unearthly guitar riffs, how inspiring to a drummer that is. Again, I don’t take a lot of credit for some of the parts that I’ve come up with working with Travers [Pat] and some of those guys. They’re just inspired by the riff you know? So you just sit down behind the kit and they kind of play themselves.”
Aldridge’s personal approach to writing is akin to “separating the weed from the chaff.”
“When I’m coming up with material I always overplay,” says Aldridge. “Like most drummers I like to play more notes than really are called for. I think it’s a complex from being constantly pushed to the back. We try to compensate for it by making as much racket as we possibly can. So I try to start simplifying things…We’ll throw stuff down in Pro Tools or something and I’ll listen to it and study it at home at night and come in the next day and just try to make it as simple as possible…The bottom line is really coming up with something creative that I haven’t heard everyone else play and it becomes ever more challenging with every passing year. Being the oldest instrument on the planet, it’s a real challenge to go in the rehearsal room and come up with something that’s different. It’s kind of daunting sometimes.”
Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/27/05.
Tommy Aldridge performing "Here I Go Again" live with Whitesnake.
“I met David Coverdale [Whitesnake frontman] when I was working with Ozzy touring in Europe supporting Whitesnake when Randy Rhoades was alive—in the good old days,” says Aldridge. “...David just out of the blue one day phoned me and we’ve been kind of hooked up off and on ever since…I’ve been really really blessed to have worked with some really really great guitar players and great musicians over the years.”
Coverdale qualifies as one of those exceptional talents.
“There are just a handful of guys like that in the history of the genre,” says Aldridge about Coverdale. “…He’s the real deal. It’s not somebody out there struggling to maintain the status quo. The guy gets better every year. It’s amazing.”
While Aldridge humbly credits some of rock’s greatest vocalists and riff players as inspiration, he feels equal admiration for the drummers whose well-written parts he’s playing on tour.
“There have been some really great drummers, Ian Pace, Cozy Powell, and Aynsley Dunbar associated with Whitesnake,” says Aldridge. “Even though I don’t play things exactly the way someone else would, I try to faithfully re-produce whatever magic was created in Cozy’s parts and particularly with Aynsley Dunbars because really the incarnation of Whitesnake that really set Whitesnake up was that 1987 record with John Sykes on guitar and Aynsley Dunbar on drums. It’s just a stellar record. Those drum parts could in no shape or form be improved upon…If I can’t successfully in my mind improve upon what’s there, then I won’t touch it. It’s the same with some of that early Ozzy stuff. When you’re working with someone like Randy Rhoades and he comes in with a guitar riff, like “Over The Mountain” the drum part is like built in. I really feel in a lot of ways how Mitch Mitchell must have felt when, not to compare myself with him, but when Jimi Hendrix would come in with some of those ridiculous guitar riffs or Jimi Page would come in with some of those unearthly guitar riffs, how inspiring to a drummer that is. Again, I don’t take a lot of credit for some of the parts that I’ve come up with working with Travers [Pat] and some of those guys. They’re just inspired by the riff you know? So you just sit down behind the kit and they kind of play themselves.”
Aldridge’s personal approach to writing is akin to “separating the weed from the chaff.”
“When I’m coming up with material I always overplay,” says Aldridge. “Like most drummers I like to play more notes than really are called for. I think it’s a complex from being constantly pushed to the back. We try to compensate for it by making as much racket as we possibly can. So I try to start simplifying things…We’ll throw stuff down in Pro Tools or something and I’ll listen to it and study it at home at night and come in the next day and just try to make it as simple as possible…The bottom line is really coming up with something creative that I haven’t heard everyone else play and it becomes ever more challenging with every passing year. Being the oldest instrument on the planet, it’s a real challenge to go in the rehearsal room and come up with something that’s different. It’s kind of daunting sometimes.”
Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/27/05.
Tommy Aldridge performing "Here I Go Again" live with Whitesnake.
July 13, 2005
Judas Priest - Concert Review
Jones Beach
Wantagh, NY
June 17
“Breaking the what?” teased Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, his studded, leather glove to ear. “Breaking the what?” Then as we’ve been conditioned to expect after 30 years, all hell broke loose as “Breaking The Law” thundered from the speakers during Judas Priest’s Jones Beach show on June 17. What made the anthem more meaningful than ever however, was that it was revved by the definitive lineup of rule benders themselves, here on their first headlining U.S. tour since the release of 1990's Painkiller. With a new CD, Angel of Retribution (Epic), the band’s first collaboration in 15 years, lead guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, bass guitarist Ian Hill, drummer Scott Travis and Halford not only returned to introduce their latest sounds, but with a set list of classics tucked under Hellraiser garbed arms, its members were out to remind us that Judas Priest created heavy metal.
“Judas Priest is re-united bringing you more than thirty years of heavy ‘meh-tal,’” declared Halford with his signature exaggeration of the holy word.
Opening the show with “Electric Eye” Halford emerged mysteriously, his former serpentine moves more Godzilla-like now, but equally commanding. Stomping the stage deliberately in silver-spurred biker boots he raised tasseled arms in defiance, stretching his impressive vocal chords clear across Jones Beach. Halford’s range was particularly mesmerizing on “Diamonds and Rust,” where his wail pinched with such high pitch he seemed impressed himself. He expressed his approval afterwards. “Fucking great song, yeah? That’s going all the way back to 1976.”
Halford wasn’t the only one carrying headbangers back to their metal roots. The tones exiting Tipton’s and Downing’s guitars, although live, had that familiar, immortalized record quality. The dueling axe-men weren’t just recalling Priest riffs; the hard tones of their guitars hit you in the face flat.
Before “Living After Midnight,” Halford shouted “You know the song. Sing along.” Invitations were obviously not necessary for this affair, because everyone knew nearly all tunes during this hits show: “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin,’” “Turbo Lover,” “Metal Gods,” “Painkiller.” During the encore Halford, observing Priest tradition, emerged on his motorcycle to sing “Hell Bent For Leather.”
The double bass driven classic “Exciter” marked a turning point in the show, where the audience now fully mystified by the aura of sound, saw the band return to its youth. The players ran across stage lifted by a glimmer of the former Birmingham steel town lads they were when they began this chrome-laden musical quest.
Among Halford’s theatrics was the planting of a flag bearing Judas Priest’s crest. The former opera singer positioned it with ceremony and allegiance. Every empire needs its symbol, and it was satisfying to see Priest’s banner mark their role in heavy metal history.
Origionally published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/13/05.
Judas Priest "Breaking The Law" Video.
Wantagh, NY
June 17
“Breaking the what?” teased Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, his studded, leather glove to ear. “Breaking the what?” Then as we’ve been conditioned to expect after 30 years, all hell broke loose as “Breaking The Law” thundered from the speakers during Judas Priest’s Jones Beach show on June 17. What made the anthem more meaningful than ever however, was that it was revved by the definitive lineup of rule benders themselves, here on their first headlining U.S. tour since the release of 1990's Painkiller. With a new CD, Angel of Retribution (Epic), the band’s first collaboration in 15 years, lead guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, bass guitarist Ian Hill, drummer Scott Travis and Halford not only returned to introduce their latest sounds, but with a set list of classics tucked under Hellraiser garbed arms, its members were out to remind us that Judas Priest created heavy metal.
“Judas Priest is re-united bringing you more than thirty years of heavy ‘meh-tal,’” declared Halford with his signature exaggeration of the holy word.
Opening the show with “Electric Eye” Halford emerged mysteriously, his former serpentine moves more Godzilla-like now, but equally commanding. Stomping the stage deliberately in silver-spurred biker boots he raised tasseled arms in defiance, stretching his impressive vocal chords clear across Jones Beach. Halford’s range was particularly mesmerizing on “Diamonds and Rust,” where his wail pinched with such high pitch he seemed impressed himself. He expressed his approval afterwards. “Fucking great song, yeah? That’s going all the way back to 1976.”
Halford wasn’t the only one carrying headbangers back to their metal roots. The tones exiting Tipton’s and Downing’s guitars, although live, had that familiar, immortalized record quality. The dueling axe-men weren’t just recalling Priest riffs; the hard tones of their guitars hit you in the face flat.
Before “Living After Midnight,” Halford shouted “You know the song. Sing along.” Invitations were obviously not necessary for this affair, because everyone knew nearly all tunes during this hits show: “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin,’” “Turbo Lover,” “Metal Gods,” “Painkiller.” During the encore Halford, observing Priest tradition, emerged on his motorcycle to sing “Hell Bent For Leather.”
The double bass driven classic “Exciter” marked a turning point in the show, where the audience now fully mystified by the aura of sound, saw the band return to its youth. The players ran across stage lifted by a glimmer of the former Birmingham steel town lads they were when they began this chrome-laden musical quest.
Among Halford’s theatrics was the planting of a flag bearing Judas Priest’s crest. The former opera singer positioned it with ceremony and allegiance. Every empire needs its symbol, and it was satisfying to see Priest’s banner mark their role in heavy metal history.
Origionally published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/13/05.
Judas Priest "Breaking The Law" Video.
July 6, 2005
Breaking Benjamin - Ben Burnley Interview
BREAKING BENJAMIN’S BEN BURNLEY TALKS ABOUT BILLY CORGAN, RAT TAILS AND REALLY BAD TV
The concept of a songwriting deadline was completely new to Breaking Benjamin’s Ben Burnley as he came off of the success of the band’s debut album, Polyamorous and into their sophomore effort, We Are Not Alone (Hollywood Records). Combine that with the fact that he was not only collaborating for the first time, but that it happened to be with one of his musical influences, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, and it was in the cards that Burnley was in for a “thrill ride.” Burnley talks to The Aquarian about working with Corgan on the now nearly Platinum record, how movies and TV factor into his songwriting (and laughs at the shows that didn’t make the tracks).
AW: There was a period of time in high school where you constantly listened to Smashing Pumpkins. What was it like getting to write with Billy Corgan?
BURNLEY: Well obviously it’s an amazing thing. Billy to me is like a living legend. We wrote really well together and the songs turned out really well, so it wasn’t just to go out there [to Chicago] to meet him. It was actually productive and we actually turned out something that was worthwhile.
AW: What made you pick Billy Corgan?
BURNLEY: I think he kind of more picked me (laughs)…We were pretty much a bottom-of-the-barrel band. A mutual friend of ours at the label hooked us up.
AW: What were those first few minutes like?
BURNLEY: Well, that’s funny because when I first went to work with him the first thing he said is, “O.K. Sit down and play.” So, I did…I played him some stuff I wanted his help on and then we got to work right away from there.
AW: How did you work off of each other?
BURNLEY: Well I had a basic outline of the songs and he was just able to say, “Try this” and I’d try it and then once the music was all said and done with, we sat down with it and bashed out the lyrics. He would come up with a line or I would come up with a line that rhymed with it or didn’t rhyme with it or whatever and we just fed off of each other that way. It’s really cool to hear Billy Corgan singing your songs. One time I came up with a line, and I can’t remember what it is, but he’s like, “I wish I would have come up with that.” That was cool.
AW: You wanted to write an album that was different from the first. Factoring in that you spent years experiencing what you wrote about on the first CD, and that going into the dreaded sophomore album you had time constraints, which was new to you, it seems pretty challenging to achieve that. What did you do try to make We Are Not Alone different than Polyamorous?
BURNLEY: Well a lot of that had to do with our producer as well because the first record I pretty much produced myself. We got David Bendeth (Vertical Horizon) to do the record. He didn’t really write anything. He just says, “Why are you doing this part here and why don’t you change this and write a new section here?” and so on and so forth. So that really changed the formula of how I write songs because the first record for the most part is a lot of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, end—kind of basic stuff. That does have its place and we do have some of that on the second record, but we just looked for different ways to arrange music. With the moods and music we’re also taking ourselves a little more seriously and being less fictitious with it. The first record doesn’t really have much to do with me at all personally. They’re just stories. This one is a little more personal to me.
AW: You’ve had a lot of success with the single, “So Cold,” now “Sooner or Later,” and you’ve been working the album hard by touring relentlessly. Are you surprised by the band’s success or did you know it was just a matter of time until it would catch on?
BURNLEY: Oh, no. We were all very surprised. Of course we think what we do is good or else we wouldn’t do it. It’s a known thing, but it only takes one song to get you anywhere and “So Cold” is what did that for us. We were just glad to get our foot in the door. We got a gold record from pretty much one song and now hopefully it’s going to place platinum. It’s just a thrill ride and we’ve been enjoying it. We never put any expectations on it, so it was a definite surprise, not only to us, but to our hardcore fans.
AW: Your song “Blow Me Away” is also featured in the Halo 2 video game. What’s it like playing to your own music?
BURNLEY: …It’s towards the end where you have to fight off all the bad guys. It’s just a sequence of it, but it’s still pretty damn cool to be associated with something like that.
AW: You have to fight off the bad guys to get to your music? So people have to be skilled at the game to hear you?
BURNLEY: No. They can play on easy (laughs).
AW: There was a time growing up you used to watch music and think, “Why do people even get into music.” Are you surprised that music’s now your career?
BURNLEY: Yeah. When I was growing up I didn’t like it and did not get it at all.
AW: What kinds of stuff were you listening to, or trying not to listen to?
BURNLEY: Well, you had hair bands and stuff like that, like Motley Crue. I’m not one of those guys that liked it. I never did. You know maybe when I’d go to the skating rink when I was like eight-years-old. My brother always would put it on MTV and I’d see the videos and I always thought they looked so stupid. I never got how it could be entertaining to watch that.
AW: Oh come on. You secretly wanted that hair.
BURNLEY: No (laughs), but you know as a kid I had a rat tail. [That’s a dear friend of the mullet].
AW: You did not!
BURNLEY: I did. Then I grew up and Nirvana came along and it was something I was actually entertained by. I just loved it for some reason, so I started to get into it.
AW: You’ve commented before that many rockers outstay their welcome in the industry. When does one reach that point and what is your career plan?
BURNLEY: I’ll write probably one more record, maybe two with this band. I think three or four records is enough. I was talking about bands like Limp Bizkit and Scott Staph from Creed. Nobody likes them. They’re just so annoying to me. It’s like, “You’re rich. You’ve got your money. Go away.” For me, I love writing music. I love performing now and then. I don’t really like being out on the road for months at a time, but if it got to the point where I’ve done what I needed to do and made my money, I’d be more than happy to stop and sit on a boat somewhere for the rest of my life, you know what I mean? Go fishing? Do everything that I like to do and not have to travel and all that. There are entertainers who force themselves on you and then there are entertainers that the public actually wants. It’s like Ted Danson with Becker. You ever see that show? See Ted Danson pays to have that show on the air (laughs) because he just doesn’t want to leave. We don’t want Sam Malone. It’s like, “OK Sam Mallone get out of here already.” It’s not one of those things where it’s like, “Hey. Did you see that episode of Becker last night?” “No.” You don’t sit there and go, “Becker’s on everybody!” They’re like, “So?” Joey too. You weren’t like, “Joey’s on!” “So what?” You know? With Friends, it was great. Then Joey comes along. Poor Joey.
AW: The object then is not to be Joey?
BURNLEY: Yeah. The object is to not be Joey. Yes. I’m all about the Johnny Carson thing and getting out while you’re on top. That’s what you should do before you spoil yourself, especially if you’re as annoying as Scott Staph.
AW: I know you don’t like to talk much about what songs are about specifically, but will you talk about them generally?
BURNLEY: It’s just a typical artist thing. I don’t really like to say what a song is about. It’s kind of known that I get a lot my ideas from watching movies, so if someone asks me what a song is about I’ll say, “Watch this movie.”A
AW: O.K. So if I was listening to your new album and I wanted to get insight into what you were thinking about on a few tracks, what movies should I watch?
BURNLEY: Well “So Cold” is 28 Days Later. “Forget It” is a movie called Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind…TV and everything else fills in the rest of the gap with the record. I guess that just proves that I don’t have a life and that’s all I do (laughs).
AW: Well at least you’re not writing about Becker or Joey?
BURNLEY: Not yet (laughs). That’s for the next record! Becker. What an awful show. It’s like comedy’s throw up…I don’t have cable at my house cause I’m not going to pay a cable bill when I’m barely there, but we’ll spend a week or two home every now and then, so I have to watch Becker cause there’s nothing else on.
AW: As TV also figures so prominently in your songwriting we should find out, when you do have cable, what do you like to watch?
BURNLEY: …I stay on the bus because we have a satellite dish, so all the movie channels like HBO and stuff. If there’s nothing on I’ll see if there’s something on Comedy Central or Cartoon Network. I like Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Shit like that. That’s the one good thing about the road is I don’t have to watch Becker anymore. It’s funny because Ted Danson, when you see him apart from a show, he’s like bald and he’s really old. Then when he goes on a show, he’s like an android. He must have like twenty guys working on him. They give him hair and you know what I mean? He’s like Darth Vader, mostly machine now. It’s awesome. There’s so much garbage on TV to pick from now to rot our minds out.
AW: You know I have to watch it now. What night is it on?
BURNLEY: Unfortunately it’s on every damn night.
Originaly published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/6/05.
Breaking Benjamin performing "Sooner Or Later."
July 1, 2005
Otep Shamaya - Interview
Heavy Mental Rock Whether you love or hate Otep does not concern front-woman Otep Shamaya, so long as her music provokes something in you. What the disturbing poet does obsess about, however, is a fear of that moment when she stops being a “pilgrim for invention.” Fortunately on House of Secrets (Capitol), her newest release and second album, there are no signs of her brimming imagination waning.
In her lovely, brutal voice she confesses that she doesn’t value her self-worth on anything other than how hard she works at being creative and that to be successful at art, you have to make yourself vulnerable.
On House of Secrets Otep’s distressing imagery pushes boundaries, forcing her various influences in art, poetry, movement and music to squirm until they create a cohesive, rhythmic outpouring of emotive sounds. Otep’s dynamic passages are violent, troubling and authentically felt. Whether she’s ominously singing “I don’t feel pretty today” in the title track “House of Secrets” or whispering “Surrender is your only hope” at the end of “Requiem” (after a disturbingly violent spoken word introduction), the messages seethe. With haunted visions screaming from its walls, this House constructed by Lee Rios (guitar), Doug Pelerin (drums), eVil j (bass), guest drummer Joey Jordison (Slipknot) and Otep is not for the faint of heart. In fact the band first captured the interest of the mother of metal herself, Sharon Osbourne, who offered Otep a third stage slot at Ozzfest 2001 after she and son Jack noticed the band performing at the Roxy in Los Angeles. A record deal soon followed.
Otep took a break on her Mouth of Madness tour to talk to WomanRock.
WOMANROCK: Otep’s music has been described as ‘Heavy Mental Rock.” Does that fit?
OTEP SHAMAYA: I think it’s accurate. Our music is a synthesis of many forms of art. It attacks the brain in a way that stimulates a very sacred experience from the emotional cargo hold of the soul. The music is sometimes formulated in odd meters, composed and arranged according to the instinct of the song. It has been described as avant-garde, a dissident cabaret, a total assault on the senses in the purest sense; A tribute to Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty. I don't mean to imply the listener has to be an art snob to understand or appreciate our music, but I think those that experience what we do understand it is not the same ole formulaic claptrap that congests the airwaves these days.”
WOMANROCK: You mentioned that for art to be successful you have to make yourself vulnerable. A lot of people are afraid to be thought of as weak, but your only fear is not being creative. Can you go with that idea?
OTEP: I am obsessed with the spiritual connection I feel when creating or performing. Having a dry spell or writer’s block or becoming stagnant seems worse than death to me. I want to evolve, polish my talents, whatever they may be, and give back to the muses a fitting tribute and sacrificial offering that allows me to explore every territory of art and invention that I have yet to discover. That gives meaning and purpose to my existence.
WOMANROCK: You describe yourself as a conduit, the conductor through which everything flows. Can you talk about bringing your art, poetry, movement and music
together?
OTEP: I think all creative people are conduits, sponges of experience, and once we are soaking with life, we must squeeze every drop from our swollen souls. I am still learning, still trying to awaken pieces of me that remain trapped in slumber. The movement is the message and the message is evident in the music.
WOMANROCK: You've said that once you broke through the gates of metal it was lonely not just because of your gender, but because of the overall environment. How did you counter those negative elements?
OTEP: The odds have always been against me. I actually kind of enjoy the fight. This is nothing new. We have made many friends in the aggro community and elsewhere that proves what we are attempting to do and the music we make is important. We have mutual respect with many bands but if or when we encounter some strange opposition we just focus on what we do, our purpose and intention, and then annihilate it with our live shows.
WOMANROCK: Certainly having support helps. Sharon Osborne was so captivated by your live show she offered your band a third-stage slot on Ozzfest 2001 before you signed a record deal. You had only formed in 2000 and this was only your eighth gig! What was it like having the mother of metal take you under her wing?
OTEP: It was overwhelming and an honor and validating and empowering. She is one of
the best people I know.
WOMANROCK: Interestingly you said you never performed in your life really, but that you felt compelled to try. Why? How did you prepare yourself?
OTEP: I'm not sure really. It was just an echo in my head, an itch I needed to scratch. I never really thought much about it. I was really focused on finding the right musicians and learning everything that I could about songwriting and singing. I was basically on the verge of being homeless and this just seemed the only alternative. Either use the muse or evacuate.
WOMANROCK: So you taught yourself to sing then?
OTEP: I’ve never taken a vocal lesson in my life…The only thing I ever did was went to this opera teacher who taught me how to use diaphragmatic breathing…With the amount of touring we do you have to. On our last tour we were doing six nights a week for seven weeks solid.
WOMANROCK: Can you talk about why you include the “You Are Not Alone” page on your website?
OTEP: The most terrifying place for me to be, other than being absent of creativity, would be isolation… I wanted to give people an opportunity in the privacy, and I guess anonymity, of the internet to have a place that’s sort of an oasis for people who may be experiencing depression for the first time. Or maybe they want help with managing their cutting or suicide, or whatever. I just thought it was important that people realize that lots of people go through these things and you’re not alone and here’s proof. I think it empowers people when you don’t feel so lonely…I wanted to give people an opportunity to connect…Sort of a support group for the counterculture (laughs)…Yeah, sometimes life hurts, but its the obstacles we overcome that define who we are.
WOMANROCK: The literary figure Sappho is a favorite of yours. Why?
OTEP: Sappho has been called the 10th muse. She was one of the most revered poets in all of antiquity, but only fragments of her work remain. They were destroyed mainly due to her gender and puritan morality. She changed the way we use poetry. She made it personal and that was very appealing to me.
WOMANROCK: Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison joins you on six cuts for House of Secrets and producer Greg Wells also worked with you. What did they add to the record?
OTEP: It was an honor to work with both Joey and Greg. We had so much fun making
this album. They brought elements of creative depth that I felt were needed for House of Secrets. I learned a lot from them and they both aided my creative growth.
WOMANROCK: What are you listening to right now?
OTEP: I have been listening to a lot of Mike Patton lately, Hole (1st album), Jeff Buckley, Corey Taylor, Kurt Cobain, Wu Tang Clan, Thom York, Cannibal Oxe, Mudvayne, Bloodsimple, Blackstar and a collection of spoken poetry from the Beat Poets, which is very interesting to me now as I have performed twice on HBO'S Def
Poetry and will be on an episode in early August.
Check out the band’s website: http://www.otep.com/ and tune into HBO’s late-night series, "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry” when Otep makes a return appearance August 5 (11:30 p.m.-midnight ET/PT).
Originally posted to WomanRock.com July '05.
OTEP video "Buried Alive."
In her lovely, brutal voice she confesses that she doesn’t value her self-worth on anything other than how hard she works at being creative and that to be successful at art, you have to make yourself vulnerable.
On House of Secrets Otep’s distressing imagery pushes boundaries, forcing her various influences in art, poetry, movement and music to squirm until they create a cohesive, rhythmic outpouring of emotive sounds. Otep’s dynamic passages are violent, troubling and authentically felt. Whether she’s ominously singing “I don’t feel pretty today” in the title track “House of Secrets” or whispering “Surrender is your only hope” at the end of “Requiem” (after a disturbingly violent spoken word introduction), the messages seethe. With haunted visions screaming from its walls, this House constructed by Lee Rios (guitar), Doug Pelerin (drums), eVil j (bass), guest drummer Joey Jordison (Slipknot) and Otep is not for the faint of heart. In fact the band first captured the interest of the mother of metal herself, Sharon Osbourne, who offered Otep a third stage slot at Ozzfest 2001 after she and son Jack noticed the band performing at the Roxy in Los Angeles. A record deal soon followed.
Otep took a break on her Mouth of Madness tour to talk to WomanRock.
WOMANROCK: Otep’s music has been described as ‘Heavy Mental Rock.” Does that fit?
OTEP SHAMAYA: I think it’s accurate. Our music is a synthesis of many forms of art. It attacks the brain in a way that stimulates a very sacred experience from the emotional cargo hold of the soul. The music is sometimes formulated in odd meters, composed and arranged according to the instinct of the song. It has been described as avant-garde, a dissident cabaret, a total assault on the senses in the purest sense; A tribute to Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty. I don't mean to imply the listener has to be an art snob to understand or appreciate our music, but I think those that experience what we do understand it is not the same ole formulaic claptrap that congests the airwaves these days.”
WOMANROCK: You mentioned that for art to be successful you have to make yourself vulnerable. A lot of people are afraid to be thought of as weak, but your only fear is not being creative. Can you go with that idea?
OTEP: I am obsessed with the spiritual connection I feel when creating or performing. Having a dry spell or writer’s block or becoming stagnant seems worse than death to me. I want to evolve, polish my talents, whatever they may be, and give back to the muses a fitting tribute and sacrificial offering that allows me to explore every territory of art and invention that I have yet to discover. That gives meaning and purpose to my existence.
WOMANROCK: You describe yourself as a conduit, the conductor through which everything flows. Can you talk about bringing your art, poetry, movement and music
together?
OTEP: I think all creative people are conduits, sponges of experience, and once we are soaking with life, we must squeeze every drop from our swollen souls. I am still learning, still trying to awaken pieces of me that remain trapped in slumber. The movement is the message and the message is evident in the music.
WOMANROCK: You've said that once you broke through the gates of metal it was lonely not just because of your gender, but because of the overall environment. How did you counter those negative elements?
OTEP: The odds have always been against me. I actually kind of enjoy the fight. This is nothing new. We have made many friends in the aggro community and elsewhere that proves what we are attempting to do and the music we make is important. We have mutual respect with many bands but if or when we encounter some strange opposition we just focus on what we do, our purpose and intention, and then annihilate it with our live shows.
WOMANROCK: Certainly having support helps. Sharon Osborne was so captivated by your live show she offered your band a third-stage slot on Ozzfest 2001 before you signed a record deal. You had only formed in 2000 and this was only your eighth gig! What was it like having the mother of metal take you under her wing?
OTEP: It was overwhelming and an honor and validating and empowering. She is one of
the best people I know.
WOMANROCK: Interestingly you said you never performed in your life really, but that you felt compelled to try. Why? How did you prepare yourself?
OTEP: I'm not sure really. It was just an echo in my head, an itch I needed to scratch. I never really thought much about it. I was really focused on finding the right musicians and learning everything that I could about songwriting and singing. I was basically on the verge of being homeless and this just seemed the only alternative. Either use the muse or evacuate.
WOMANROCK: So you taught yourself to sing then?
OTEP: I’ve never taken a vocal lesson in my life…The only thing I ever did was went to this opera teacher who taught me how to use diaphragmatic breathing…With the amount of touring we do you have to. On our last tour we were doing six nights a week for seven weeks solid.
WOMANROCK: Can you talk about why you include the “You Are Not Alone” page on your website?
OTEP: The most terrifying place for me to be, other than being absent of creativity, would be isolation… I wanted to give people an opportunity in the privacy, and I guess anonymity, of the internet to have a place that’s sort of an oasis for people who may be experiencing depression for the first time. Or maybe they want help with managing their cutting or suicide, or whatever. I just thought it was important that people realize that lots of people go through these things and you’re not alone and here’s proof. I think it empowers people when you don’t feel so lonely…I wanted to give people an opportunity to connect…Sort of a support group for the counterculture (laughs)…Yeah, sometimes life hurts, but its the obstacles we overcome that define who we are.
WOMANROCK: The literary figure Sappho is a favorite of yours. Why?
OTEP: Sappho has been called the 10th muse. She was one of the most revered poets in all of antiquity, but only fragments of her work remain. They were destroyed mainly due to her gender and puritan morality. She changed the way we use poetry. She made it personal and that was very appealing to me.
WOMANROCK: Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison joins you on six cuts for House of Secrets and producer Greg Wells also worked with you. What did they add to the record?
OTEP: It was an honor to work with both Joey and Greg. We had so much fun making
this album. They brought elements of creative depth that I felt were needed for House of Secrets. I learned a lot from them and they both aided my creative growth.
WOMANROCK: What are you listening to right now?
OTEP: I have been listening to a lot of Mike Patton lately, Hole (1st album), Jeff Buckley, Corey Taylor, Kurt Cobain, Wu Tang Clan, Thom York, Cannibal Oxe, Mudvayne, Bloodsimple, Blackstar and a collection of spoken poetry from the Beat Poets, which is very interesting to me now as I have performed twice on HBO'S Def
Poetry and will be on an episode in early August.
Check out the band’s website: http://www.otep.com/ and tune into HBO’s late-night series, "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry” when Otep makes a return appearance August 5 (11:30 p.m.-midnight ET/PT).
Originally posted to WomanRock.com July '05.
OTEP video "Buried Alive."
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