Nearly 20 years since their inception, roots rockin' stoner metal outfit Clutch may have grown, but they have never wavered. Beginning in 1991 with groove-oriented funk 'n' roll, fast-forwarding to 2009's blues-based ninth album Strange Cousins from the West, Neil Fallon and co. have run the gamut between rock and metal, but have always done exactly what they wanted to do. Explains Fallon, "This is a band that ... made music for music's sake and wasn't interested in anything else other than improving itself and being sincere while doing it." As a further testament to that, Clutch have even formed their own label imprint as a vehicle for exercising their creativity, which -- in addition to Clutch's most recent releases -- has also spawned an instrumental project called the Bakerton Group. To learn about Fallon's philosophical take on his musical output and humble fascination with rock history, plus the inner workings of Clutch's latest record, stay tuned right here.
With nearly two decades under your belt, you've seen so many things come and go, but Clutch have never really compromised. What focuses you to walk that straight line?
I think it's easy for us because we keep it simple. It's always just been about making music with friends -- writing and performing that music, and everything else just follows through after that. We never really bothered having a conversation about what the band could or could not be. It just is. There's a lot of "understoods" that we don't have to talk about, which makes it easy. If you truly enjoy just making music for music's sake, you could do it for as long as you like as opposed to if you want to make music to become wealthy or famous. [When] that doesn't pan out, then you quit music, and I think that's why a lot of things come and go so quickly.
From when you first formed to now putting out your ninth album, what has changed in the way you approach your music?
I think we're just learning more about music, and rock 'n' roll in particular. When we first started out, I don't think we were much different than any other band. We were just guys out of high school wanting to play loud music, but then meeting other bands and learning about bands and kind of realizing that this can also be a bit of an education as well is good inspiration. And I think the minute you just start resting on your laurels and thinking that you've mastered it is when you start slowly dying [chuckles] -- not to sound too dramatic... but I think that you should always try to challenge yourself and always exercise humility in what you're doing.
Clutch have always had a blues influence, but in later years and especially on this record, it's really coming through. How important is the blues to that education you're speaking of?
I think it's pretty crucial; I always knew it was there, but there was sort of an epiphany that occurred. The bands that we grew up listening to as kids, like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and ZZ Top -- we always knew they were fans of the blues and we just kind of took it at face value. But then we started getting into the bands that those bands were into, like Elmore James, or Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and in learning more about the blues we kind of said, "Oh wow, this is what they were doing -- they were electrifying the blues." I think when you go to that, [it's] sort of like the source or a spring, whereas sometimes when you listen to the sixth, seventh or eighth generation of something it's been corrupted. So I think it's pretty crucial, and fortunately the blues occurred at a time when recording was just invented, so we still have those early recordings and we can listen to them.
How have the blues affected you lyrically?
Not so much. I never see the music or lyrics going in a creative straight line; it kind of goes back and forth. Usually it's a reaction to what we just did, but sometimes the music kind of dictates a style or attitude of lyrics that is more appropriate. I don't think it'll turn into a classic blues template -- I don't think anyone really wants that -- but I think it's just another ingredient for the pot.
In having so many components in that pot, I see you guys classified as a stoner rock band or a Southern metal band or an alternative metal band, but how do you define the sound that Clutch is?
It's always hard for me to talk about because I'm so close to it. I always say rock 'n' roll, but I know when talking about music you need to use some words and adjectives. Other than rock 'n' roll I don't know; it's hard because anything else sounds so contrived. I would have to stick with rock 'n' roll.
I think that kind of suits it anyway. Going back to the history of rock 'n' roll in its humble beginnings in the '50s -- a lot of what that was is exactly what you guys do now.
Oh thank you -- I take that as a great compliment. It's not something that we really think about. What it boils down to is, we just want to make music that we can listen to and say, "Ok. I'm not embarrassed by that, I'm proud of that." Other than that there's not a whole lot else to it.
How do you approach recording, being known as a live band?
Ideally -- and I guess this doesn't always work out -- we write the songs and play them live and then record them. I've found that the songs that get worked through onstage are a lot more resilient than the songs that are created and recorded in the studio and then played onstage. We did that for Beale Street -- we played everything live and then recorded it. Strange Cousins, about half and half. It was written pretty quickly. Sometimes that spontaneity can be a great thing. Sometimes it can be incredibly stressful. I still think that it's a better place to be, to be able to say the shows are more powerful than the record because the other way around would be kind of shameful. When I see a band that's basically trying to karaoke their own record onstage, it's pretty depressing and static, and to me that's not music -- that's kind of like a dog-and-pony show. I'd rather see bands take risks and fail miserably because you know that was unique to that night as opposed to, "Oh, this is the exact same thing they're gonna do tomorrow."
Right, and anyone can fake it in a studio ...
Yeah, especially in this day and age; there's so many tricks that can be done. I mean, all you have to listen to is pop music: they can take anything and make it sound pro. Live music's been going on for tens of thousands of years, and records, videos -- this is all brand new. If the power goes off tomorrow there won't be any records or videos, but people will still be playing live music.
How do you split yourselves creatively between Clutch and the Bakerton Group?
It's a bit of a gray area. Musically we write way more music than I could ever possibly write lyrics to, and I'm pretty slow at writing lyrics. I think sometimes when a riff occurs and you try to jam it into the first chorus, first ridge chorus, various scenarios -- sometimes the music suffers. So if you say we're gonna get rid of lyrics, suddenly you can do whatever you want because you don't have to use that template anymore. I think the more rhythmic riffs tend to lend themselves to lyrics, whereas the more melodic things lend themselves to Bakerton world. It's still something I think we all try to figure out. There's no black or white with that. We can always second-guess ourselves. I mean I could hear a riff like, "Oh well, if we had done it this way, maybe we could have had lyrics for it." But it's not like we're gonna get in trouble; It's just another outlet to do more music.
And then in forming the Weathermaker imprint, does that have a lot to do with you having more of a place to exercise your creativity and maybe form more projects in the future?
I think so. We've never actually felt pressure by a label to do one thing creatively or not -- we always did whatever we damn pleased -- but I think if anything it allows us to do it at the rate we feel most comfortable with. If something goes wrong, we know who's to blame, we can fix it. The fingers get pointed back at ourselves. Weathermaker's not so much of a label in that I don't foresee [being] interested in signing bands and developing them, because all the good intentions are great, but sometimes things go pear-shaped and we don't want to be the bad dudes. It's more a vehicle for us to get our music out to our fans and exclude the middleman, and I think both the listener and the musician can benefit from that.
So tell me a little more about Strange Cousins from the West.
Well, that line comes from the song "Minotaur." Coming up with a record title is always really difficult, and you know it's not a concept record, but I think it's always a good idea to have a title that's kind of indicative of the mood of the record. To me this record is ... I don't want to say "dark" in a negative way, but it's kind of cryptic. The "strange cousins" is maybe referential to the songs and an unexpected arrival of -- you don't know exactly what's gonna happen, but you know it's out of the norm.
Does the cover art add any further meaning to that?
You know, I'm still trying to figure that out myself. Which is a good thing, right? Being able to look at what's on the album and trying to decipher it. Nick Lakiotes, who has done Beale Street and he did Robot Hive/Exodus, I think really went nuts with this.
In your nearly 20 years as a band, what would you say is the most important thing that you guys have accomplished?
Other than sticking together that long, I think being able to go to other countries that you've never been to before and see people dancing to the music and singing to the lyrics -- it's a pretty natural high, and I feel pretty fortunate that we can be afforded the opportunity to fly off to the other side of the globe and do this. It's a combination of luck and a lot of hard work, and I think that's still the biggest thrill when that happens.
In having a great understanding of music history, what do you want Clutch's historical legacy to be?
I think it's hard to talk about when you're in the middle of it. But I think the fact that this is a band that from beginning, middle, and end -- whatever happens -- it was a band that evolved and made music for music's sake and wasn't interested in anything else other than improving itself and being sincere while doing it. You're not gonna get a lot of visuals from this band; it's music. Like I said before, we just go in and do it, and I think that's one of the reasons it's difficult to talk about because we're never ever thinking about it. It's just us getting together in the same manner we did in 1989, which is in a garage or basement and playing music. There's no real secret.
I think it's easy for us because we keep it simple. It's always just been about making music with friends -- writing and performing that music, and everything else just follows through after that. We never really bothered having a conversation about what the band could or could not be. It just is. There's a lot of "understoods" that we don't have to talk about, which makes it easy. If you truly enjoy just making music for music's sake, you could do it for as long as you like as opposed to if you want to make music to become wealthy or famous. [When] that doesn't pan out, then you quit music, and I think that's why a lot of things come and go so quickly.
From when you first formed to now putting out your ninth album, what has changed in the way you approach your music?
I think we're just learning more about music, and rock 'n' roll in particular. When we first started out, I don't think we were much different than any other band. We were just guys out of high school wanting to play loud music, but then meeting other bands and learning about bands and kind of realizing that this can also be a bit of an education as well is good inspiration. And I think the minute you just start resting on your laurels and thinking that you've mastered it is when you start slowly dying [chuckles] -- not to sound too dramatic... but I think that you should always try to challenge yourself and always exercise humility in what you're doing.
Clutch have always had a blues influence, but in later years and especially on this record, it's really coming through. How important is the blues to that education you're speaking of?
I think it's pretty crucial; I always knew it was there, but there was sort of an epiphany that occurred. The bands that we grew up listening to as kids, like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and ZZ Top -- we always knew they were fans of the blues and we just kind of took it at face value. But then we started getting into the bands that those bands were into, like Elmore James, or Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and in learning more about the blues we kind of said, "Oh wow, this is what they were doing -- they were electrifying the blues." I think when you go to that, [it's] sort of like the source or a spring, whereas sometimes when you listen to the sixth, seventh or eighth generation of something it's been corrupted. So I think it's pretty crucial, and fortunately the blues occurred at a time when recording was just invented, so we still have those early recordings and we can listen to them.
How have the blues affected you lyrically?
Not so much. I never see the music or lyrics going in a creative straight line; it kind of goes back and forth. Usually it's a reaction to what we just did, but sometimes the music kind of dictates a style or attitude of lyrics that is more appropriate. I don't think it'll turn into a classic blues template -- I don't think anyone really wants that -- but I think it's just another ingredient for the pot.
In having so many components in that pot, I see you guys classified as a stoner rock band or a Southern metal band or an alternative metal band, but how do you define the sound that Clutch is?
It's always hard for me to talk about because I'm so close to it. I always say rock 'n' roll, but I know when talking about music you need to use some words and adjectives. Other than rock 'n' roll I don't know; it's hard because anything else sounds so contrived. I would have to stick with rock 'n' roll.
I think that kind of suits it anyway. Going back to the history of rock 'n' roll in its humble beginnings in the '50s -- a lot of what that was is exactly what you guys do now.
Oh thank you -- I take that as a great compliment. It's not something that we really think about. What it boils down to is, we just want to make music that we can listen to and say, "Ok. I'm not embarrassed by that, I'm proud of that." Other than that there's not a whole lot else to it.
How do you approach recording, being known as a live band?
Ideally -- and I guess this doesn't always work out -- we write the songs and play them live and then record them. I've found that the songs that get worked through onstage are a lot more resilient than the songs that are created and recorded in the studio and then played onstage. We did that for Beale Street -- we played everything live and then recorded it. Strange Cousins, about half and half. It was written pretty quickly. Sometimes that spontaneity can be a great thing. Sometimes it can be incredibly stressful. I still think that it's a better place to be, to be able to say the shows are more powerful than the record because the other way around would be kind of shameful. When I see a band that's basically trying to karaoke their own record onstage, it's pretty depressing and static, and to me that's not music -- that's kind of like a dog-and-pony show. I'd rather see bands take risks and fail miserably because you know that was unique to that night as opposed to, "Oh, this is the exact same thing they're gonna do tomorrow."
Right, and anyone can fake it in a studio ...
Yeah, especially in this day and age; there's so many tricks that can be done. I mean, all you have to listen to is pop music: they can take anything and make it sound pro. Live music's been going on for tens of thousands of years, and records, videos -- this is all brand new. If the power goes off tomorrow there won't be any records or videos, but people will still be playing live music.
How do you split yourselves creatively between Clutch and the Bakerton Group?
It's a bit of a gray area. Musically we write way more music than I could ever possibly write lyrics to, and I'm pretty slow at writing lyrics. I think sometimes when a riff occurs and you try to jam it into the first chorus, first ridge chorus, various scenarios -- sometimes the music suffers. So if you say we're gonna get rid of lyrics, suddenly you can do whatever you want because you don't have to use that template anymore. I think the more rhythmic riffs tend to lend themselves to lyrics, whereas the more melodic things lend themselves to Bakerton world. It's still something I think we all try to figure out. There's no black or white with that. We can always second-guess ourselves. I mean I could hear a riff like, "Oh well, if we had done it this way, maybe we could have had lyrics for it." But it's not like we're gonna get in trouble; It's just another outlet to do more music.
And then in forming the Weathermaker imprint, does that have a lot to do with you having more of a place to exercise your creativity and maybe form more projects in the future?
I think so. We've never actually felt pressure by a label to do one thing creatively or not -- we always did whatever we damn pleased -- but I think if anything it allows us to do it at the rate we feel most comfortable with. If something goes wrong, we know who's to blame, we can fix it. The fingers get pointed back at ourselves. Weathermaker's not so much of a label in that I don't foresee [being] interested in signing bands and developing them, because all the good intentions are great, but sometimes things go pear-shaped and we don't want to be the bad dudes. It's more a vehicle for us to get our music out to our fans and exclude the middleman, and I think both the listener and the musician can benefit from that.
So tell me a little more about Strange Cousins from the West.
Well, that line comes from the song "Minotaur." Coming up with a record title is always really difficult, and you know it's not a concept record, but I think it's always a good idea to have a title that's kind of indicative of the mood of the record. To me this record is ... I don't want to say "dark" in a negative way, but it's kind of cryptic. The "strange cousins" is maybe referential to the songs and an unexpected arrival of -- you don't know exactly what's gonna happen, but you know it's out of the norm.
Does the cover art add any further meaning to that?
You know, I'm still trying to figure that out myself. Which is a good thing, right? Being able to look at what's on the album and trying to decipher it. Nick Lakiotes, who has done Beale Street and he did Robot Hive/Exodus, I think really went nuts with this.
In your nearly 20 years as a band, what would you say is the most important thing that you guys have accomplished?
Other than sticking together that long, I think being able to go to other countries that you've never been to before and see people dancing to the music and singing to the lyrics -- it's a pretty natural high, and I feel pretty fortunate that we can be afforded the opportunity to fly off to the other side of the globe and do this. It's a combination of luck and a lot of hard work, and I think that's still the biggest thrill when that happens.
In having a great understanding of music history, what do you want Clutch's historical legacy to be?
I think it's hard to talk about when you're in the middle of it. But I think the fact that this is a band that from beginning, middle, and end -- whatever happens -- it was a band that evolved and made music for music's sake and wasn't interested in anything else other than improving itself and being sincere while doing it. You're not gonna get a lot of visuals from this band; it's music. Like I said before, we just go in and do it, and I think that's one of the reasons it's difficult to talk about because we're never ever thinking about it. It's just us getting together in the same manner we did in 1989, which is in a garage or basement and playing music. There's no real secret.
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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