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"Weird Al" Yankovic, Essentially Yours

2009-10-22T15:26:45Z

When all is said and done, "Weird Al" Yankovic may well go down in history as the most insightful popular music critic of the past two or three decades. He certainly had the most honest reaction to Nirvana if nothing else, and Kurt Cobain himself considered him a genius for it ("What is this song all about/ Can't figure any lyrics out ... We're so loud and incoherent/ Boy this oughtta bug your parents.") And now, a newly compiled double-disc retrospective called The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic is making a definitive case for the legacy of his satires. Rhapsody recently talked with Al about the compilation, pop and rock in the '00s, how the music biz neglects nerds, and why R. Kelly is more parody-worthy than Radiohead.]]>

On How Hit Music Has Changed Since He Was Growing Up: Back then, Top 40 was great because it was really eclectic. It's part of my job description to have my proverbial finger on the pulse … I still listen to Top 40 radio. But pop culture's gotten so much more fragmented; MTV's not playing videos anymore. In the '80s, everybody watched MTV, and they knew every subtle nuance of the videos. Now everybody watches videos online, on YouTube and other Internet portals. And there are so many subgenres, and because of the fragmentation, there's also not as many bona fide musical superstars as there were in the '80s. It's hard for songs to attain that level of ubiquity. It's even hard to tell what is a popular hit.

On Coming of Age During New Wave, and What He Listens to Now: I really liked a lot of the bands then -- the B-52s, Devo, Oingo Boingo. Now it's stuff that would now be considered alternative, but would have been popular in the '90s, like Barenaked Ladies.

On What Makes a Song Worthy of Parody: When I do my parodies, I don't necessarily do songs that are my favorites, or songs I don't like -- even though people assume that. They'll say "you really killed that song." Actually, I try to pick songs that I like, because I'm going to have hear them for months, and I don't want to spend a big chunk of my life playing a song I don't like. There are several things that make a song a good candidate for a parody: a great hook that makes it immediately identifiable, and it has to have enough words to make for a kind of variation on the theme.

On Whether His Typical Fan Is a Precociously Nerdy 11-Year-Old Boy: I'd say that's not a bad guess …that's who a lot of letters come from. I do want to stress that my audience is one of the more diverse and multigenerational audiences out there. If you go to my show, you'll see people of all ages. But there's probably something about my kind of humor that appeals to that age group. That was the age that I was really into Mad magazine.

On What Other Hit Music Precociously Nerdy 11-Year-Old Boys Can Listen to Now: Maybe They Might Be Giants, or Ben Folds? But not a lot of hit music is nerd-friendly. A lot of songs in the '90s, out of alternative and grunge, had more of a sense of humor. I think we're moving away from it. Most of the hits driving radio don't seem to have a sense of humor.

On What Else He Disliked About Pop Music in the '00s: It seems to be going back to being more synth-driven instead of guitar-driven. And for some odd reason they won't stop using that stupid AutoTune. I liked it when Cher did it, years ago, but … though actually, I did do a T-Pain parody, of his song "I'm N Luv (Wit A Stripper)," called "I'm in Love With a Skipper," about Gilligan's Island. But I haven't released it. I wasn't sure if all my audience would be comfortable with the homoerotic content!

On Why He Hasn't Done a Radiohead Parody: They're like a huge group in one particular niche -- a critics' darling, enormously popular. But most people couldn't name three songs by them.

On R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet," Which He Parodies with the 11-Minute "Trapped in the Drive-Thru": Sometimes a song comes out that is already so ridiculous that a parody is redundant. Where do you go from there? So you make it about the most boring thing you can think of.

On the Purpose of Polka Medleys, and the Elimination of Polka Grammys: There's nothing that can skim the angst out of a song as much as a polka … I'm actually sad that's no longer a Grammy category. But I don't know why Jimmy Sturr won every year. I felt bad for everybody else -- poor Walter Ostanek and Eddie Blazonczyk.

On How the Internet Has Made Life Easier for Song Satires: I no longer have to wait 'til I have songs for a physical CD, which is especially nice for me since my parodies are sometimes topical. It allows me to put them out when what I'm parodying is still hot -- I did that when T.I. had "Whatever You Like," and I got my parody out when he was still No. 1, instead of having to wait two or three months.

On The Essential Set: This is the stuff I'm proudest of. I thought of it as a time capsule; I wanted it to be the best stuff that I've done. It's split evenly between originals and parodies, with one polka medley. And it has more of my recent songs, because I think my songs have gotten better. You'll notice that some important songs aren't there -- like "My Bologna." That's out there if somebody wants it, but if I put it out today, people wouldn't think it was one of my best songs. The album's a great value -- over 2 � hours of music, retailing for 14 bucks. A darn good Christmas gift.

On Hopes for the Future: One thing I can be sure of when it comes to pop music is that it's always changing. So I'm just waiting for it to get better.

Q&A and a Celebrity Playlist: Nelly Furtado

2009-09-14T23:28:31Z

She's been "Like a Bird," Folklore-ic and a "Promiscuous" girl to Timbaland's promiscuous beats. Yes, Nelly Furtado sure likes to keep us guessing. With album No. 4, she's upped the experimental ante, expanding her already-significant advances into the Latin world with the entirely Spanish-language Mi Plan, out today. The divine Ms. F is almost as famous for her diverse collaborations and influences as she is for her own musical promiscuity -- or, perhaps more accurately, the two are overlapping for this gregarious artist/music-lover. In other words, she has great taste. So we're super-excited that she put together a fabulous playlist of her current favorite songs, many of them by artists she duets with on Mi Plan. While in New York doing press for the release of the album, she sat down with Rhapsody to discuss what it was like to work with everyone from Latin alt-rocker Julieta Venegas to bachata king Juan Luis Guerra, as well as Mi Plan and her future plans (hint: you'll never guess who she wants to work with next!).
]]> right here as well as listen to, collect and share all of your favorite high quality audio with your free trial Rhapsody membership.

So I saw you on the VMAs last night. You looked great, and it was super-cool that you did part of your presentation in Spanish.
Aw, thanks. Yeah, that was really fun. It was nice to be able to speak Spanish, you know, when appropriate.

So let's talk about your new album. I think to some people this move maybe seems kind of wild -- to go from an album that was so successful in mainstream pop markets to something that is still kind of a niche market, even though the Latin pop world is huge.
Yeah! I'm a very global girl, you know? I've been raised with a real cultural immersion. I grew up in Canada, speaking Portuguese as a kid and then learning Spanish at age 14, and then really always incorporating those multicultural elements into my music from the beginning. And, you know, I've also always dabbled in the Latin languages on each record. It's a shift of the focus, you know? Not having my album be 20 percent Latin, but 100 percent. And it was fun! I'm so excited. It's like being a new artist again -- a real, true reinvention. And I like to be different, you know? I like to move forward and meet new people and broaden my musical prospects. That's how I learn, that's how I grow in my career and as an artist. I can't tell you how exciting it is to reach new people at this point in my career. Really a lot of fun.

How do you think this album will appeal to all the fans of Loose? Or were you aiming more toward different audiences?
Yeah, you know, it's funny with my fans. I've always had a really diverse fan base from day one. I've had ages 8 through 60 years old like different things I've done over the years, whether it's my own stuff or different collaborations with everyone from Missy Elliott to Michael Buble. So I kind of have the faceless fan, you know? [Laughs] But I think overall my fans are music-lovers. And this is definitely an album for music-lovers, so ...

Do you think the charts are ever going to get integrated? People have been talking for years about how Spanish-language pop is going to be a big presence on the Top 40. Do you see your album as a step in that direction?
Uh, I don't know. I think those things kind of come in waves, and it's just half coincidence and half timing. I mean, who knows? We'll see. The language is definitely huge, obviously. I mean, it's almost an official second language, just like French is in Canada, you know? Doesn't mean everyone speaks it, but [big laugh] most people do.

So you mentioned a few of this range of artists you've collaborated with, and I know you collaborated with a lot of great new artists on Mi Plan. You also put tracks by a lot of those artists on this playlist you put together for us, so I wanted to ask you to tell us a little bit about some of them.

Julieta Venegas: "Eres Para Tu"
and
La Mala Rodriguez: "La Ni�a"

So you have a great collaboration with these two on the new album called "Baja Otra Luz." What was it like working with them? Were you all in the studio together?
Oh, of course! All of my collaborations were homemade right in the studio together. It was such a fun night! Julieta flew in from Mexico, and La Mala flew in from Spain, and I flew into Miami. And we had a blast. Julieta wrote the song -- for me! And she sent it to me. And I loved it. Because it's so rhythmic. She's got a like pop-alternative style. She's very rhythmic. We both treat our music like our babies! Like they're precious. And we both take a lot of time making records. We have a lot of things in common. And then we also invited La Mala Rodriguez, who is an amazing Spanish rapper, who -- her voice, she just has her own unique flow and cadence. She's very special. And it's kinda funny because the song is about, you know, when you fall in love or maybe when you meet somebody new and you feel like your whole life's under another light. You know, you're shining in a different way. But having three women singing it together in the way we do, like in a quite fun way, gives you the sense that you're actually witnessing a conversation between three girls at a coffee shop -- gossiping, talking about love, like that. It's very girly! It's amazing! I love it.

Concha Buika: "Nina de Fuego"

She's amazing. I discovered her on the internet. I read her name and an article, and then I Googled her and went to her to her MySpace and fell in love with all her stuff. It's beautiful. Her voice is classic. She's so powerful. I think she's gonna be one of the legends, up there with, you know, like Aretha Franklin. I think she's that good. I saw her live in Miami, and she had the whole theatre in tears with the power of her voice, her delivery, her ability to bring the character of a song to life through subtleties, facial expressions, obviously her vocal range, delivery. It was masterful. And she sang this song that night.

Juan Luis Guerra: "Que Me Des Tu Carino"

I do listen to some bachata. More of Juan Luis, just because I've actually just been introduced to bachata in the last couple years. I've been to the Dominican Republic a few times, and we have friends there who also love bachata. And we try to listen to like the local radio stations when we're there. It's just such a part of the fabric of the culture there. It's something else. And I would say Juan Luis Guerra is a staple, you know? He's a living legend. He popularized bachata music. And working with him was a learning experience. He's so poised and subtle and, you know, humble. Really keeps the focus on his music and his family, which is what I try to do. So it gave me inspiration for the future.

Mariza: "Rosa Branca"

Oh, Mariza! She's beautiful! She's carrying the torch of fado around the world. Every country I go to, I always meet somebody who's familiar and in love with Mariza's music. And that's great for fado, which is Portugal's national, signature style and most popular style of music. Our national musical format. She's brought it to a whole new audience and a whole new generation. I have a lot of respect for her. Her voice is just incredibly powerful. And it was no surprise to me when I learned that her and Concha [Buika] are actually really good friends! [laughs] They actually have a duet together. These are some of those legends out there that not everyone gets to hear about everyday, but they're actually so great when you discover them, you know?

It's great that you have all these artists on your album. You're gonna be introducing a lot of new people to them.
Thank you!
So who's your dream collaboration?
You know, it's funny, I saw him last night at the MTVs and I screamed like a little girl! I so want to work with Eminem! I didn't meet him -- he was far away, but he probably heard me yelling. But I really would like to work with him! You know what I look for in a collaboration? I look for a learning experience. And I think I would learn so much from watching him work in the studio -- the way he crafts his lyrics and rhymes, and a lot of the brilliance that goes into it. I think he's very unique. And I'm a vocalist, and I have a lot to learn! So that would be fun.

Thanks so much, Nelly! It was great to talk to you.
You're so welcome! Thanks for the interview. Take care!

Check out the rest of Nelly's playlist of picks and plans here, and see what she has to say about each track below:
Fritz Helder and the Phantoms: "Sex Robot"
Another one of of my faves from the album "greatest hits".
Feist: "1,2,3,4"
A good song for driving
Maxwell: "Pretty Wings"
Maxwell is a true artist that consistently delivers quality music, and classic songs.
Josh Groban: "February Song"
Josh has a very elegant yet strong style to his singing. This song has mystery and drama. I love it.
K'Naan: "Abc's"
K'naan is back with album # 2 and it's full of life.
Alejandro Sanz and Shakira: "Te Lo Agradezco Pero No"
These two sound great together. This song is so effortlessly amazing, and the harmonies are infectious.
Shakira: "No"
This song's lyrics break my heart in two.
Jennifer Lopez: "Toma De Mi"
I co-wrote this song with Julio Reyes. Jennifer recorded this for the El Cantante soundtrack. She sounds beautiful.

Q&A: Demi Lovato

2009-08-22T15:14:38Z

When your peers have last names like Cyrus and Jonas, pulling ahead of the pack might seem frustrating, if not impossible. But Demi Lovato seems poised to do just that. The young star scored quite an introduction with last year's Camp Rock and hasn't slowed her roll yet, following that mega-hit with more movies, her own Disney show (Sonny with a Chance) and a Jonas-helmed debut album. For her second album, Lovato upped the ante, working with idol John Mayer to create a record that really shows off her wide range and mature pop-rock vocals -- but still appeals to her young fans. Serious, driven and with just a hint of bad girl (or at least passionate artist) about her, the star discusses future plans (hint: Camp Rock 2!!!), musical goals and, of course, a few of her famous friends. Check out an exclusive playlist at the end of the interview that features Lovato, the Jonas Brothers, Mayer and more, and click here to join Rhapsody and have unlimited access to high-quality versions of the newest tracks from all today’s top pop stars. ]]> The new album is great! Tell me a little about what you're going for with it.
Well, thank you. I just wanted to make an album I think the parents would enjoy listening to while their kids are playing it.

You were inspired by John Mayer and worked with him some on this album. What was that like?
It was really cool. I was definitely star-struck at first. But he's such a regular, normal, down-to-earth dude that, like, when we started writing, you know, I just kind of forgot who he was and just really appreciated his music the whole time. At first, I was intimidated. I didn't want to say the wrong thing or give him the wrong chord to play or something while we were writing. But he made it really comfortable, and he's really, really nice.

That's great! How was it different from working with the Jonas Brothers, whom you worked with on your first album?
To be honest, it wasn't very different working with John Mayer and Nick Jonas! Nick is almost as intelligent, maybe not as the same level that John Mayer is, but like a very, very intelligent dude when it comes to music and stuff. So I think obviously I know Nick a little more than I do John Mayer, so I was more comfortable. And I worked with the rest of the brothers, too, on the last one, and it was fun. It was a lot of fun. They are just really cool dudes. And instead of writing in a studio, we were sometimes writing on a tour bus at like three in the morning.

Anything off-limits for you? Any kind of music you just can't stand or wouldn't want to explore?
Um, no! Not really. I mean, I don't think I'll ever stop rapping [laughs].

Who is your dream collaboration?
Um, Kelly Clarkson, definitely.

So are you going to shoot for doing something with her in the future?
Yeah, hopefully. That'd be so cool!

Who was your biggest musical inspiration growing up?
Kelly Clarkson! [laughs] Yeah!

Have you always been involved in music your whole life?
Pretty much. Ever since I can remember, I was singing in my bathroom and, you know, around the house. Like, we had a keyboard in the house, but I didn't know how to play so I'd try to learn by ear and stuff. I was just always very musically driven.

Is your family musical?
Yeah. My mom is a singer. She sings -- she used to sing while I was growing up a lot, around the house and stuff.

You have a successful acting career, too. Is acting or music more your passion?
I think I'm a singer that acts. Definitely. I think singing is my main thing.

Camp Rock was kind of your big introduction to the world. Are you looking forward to coming back to that?
Definitely. I think it'll be a lot of fun.

Do you think it's going to be different now? It hasn't been very long, but you're in a totally different place in your career now. Will it be different coming into it now as somebody people recognize on the street?
No, I don't think it'll be that different. I mean, obviously, it'll be different in some parts. But I think for the most part, the only difference is, you know, Camp Rock was my first movie and now I've kind of, you know, I did another movie and I've been working on a set of a TV show for the past however long, so I'll be more used to working than I was back then.

Do you guys have a lot of fun on that set? Is there time to hang out and have fun and do crazy stuff with all these young casts on these movies and shows?
Yeah, totally. I mean, for the most part, we're just a bunch of teenagers and we're getting to live our dreams, so, like, you know, we always have a lot of fun together, every set that I'm on.

So is it still weird to have people recognize you? Or are you kind of getting used to it in the last couple years since you've kind of become a big star?
Um, I don't know. I think it's really cool -- I'm really thankful for everything. It never really changed my life or me or anything like that. I don't know ... I just think it's really cool.

What's the best and worst part of getting to this stage? Is there a worst part?
Yeah, I mean, I wish I had more time at home and more time off or whatever. But you gotta work hard to get to where you want to be. And I think the best part is when it all pays off. You get to, you know, like meet a fan or you get to work with who you've always idolized.

What do you like to do when you're not making music or acting -- in your down time?
I lay in hotel beds and watch movies all day!

It seems like a lot of kid stars -- and especially Disney stars -- reach a point where they have to try to distance themselves from that background, and it seems kind of hard to do. Is that something you're thinking about at all yet?
I think that it's a work in progress. You know, you don't just up and say one day, oh, I don't want to be a child star anymore, or I don't want to be a teen star anymore -- I want to be respected as an adult. You can't do that overnight. I think it's definitely something you either know that you're gonna want to do someday so you start working at it at an early age, or you just don't do it. And for me, I think, because I do want to have a long-lasting career, I'd want my fans to grow with me. So the projects that I take on and the roles that I take, I definitely ask myself, well, are they appropriate for younger audiences, and is it something that is a little more mature but not too much to scare my fans away.

Q&A: Gallows

2009-08-06T23:59:56Z

To discuss their latest effort Grey Britain, we caught up with Laurent Barnard and Lee Barratt, the noble guitarist and drummer of the U.K.'s fiery hardcore/ punk exports Gallows.

Q&A: Alexisonfire

2009-08-05T22:27:12Z

Alexisonfire’s latest release Old Crows, Young Cardinals, is a hardcore fan’s wet dream. The songwriting demonstrates exactly what this Canadian quintet has to bring to the table and is Alexisonfire’s most thought out and impressive release to date. Featuring 43 minutes of non-stop, explosive, rock ecstasy, Old Crows may very well be the all-around best release to come out of the hardcore genre this year. Combined with string-bending hammer-ons, backed by raucous drum fills, Dallas Green and George Pettit’s mixture of angelic and demonic vocal styles create an almost perfect collection of tracks that when performed live, will assuredly be fueling circle-pits around the globe. Alexisonfire might possibly be the best band you’ve never heard of. With four full-length releases behind them, two of which went Platinum in Canada, one of which went Gold and Old Crows, Young Cardinals, which peaked at #2 on the Canadian charts, it’s a mystery as to what has kept them from climbing to the top of US rock charts, until now. The guys recently sat down with Rhapsody to discuss the death of punk rock, how Nickelback has influenced their band and exactly what has kept them from exploding onto US rock radio.

]]> Tomorrow marks one month until Warped is over. How has it been going thus far?

Dallas Green: Thanks man.

Wade MacNeil: Seriously?

Jordan “Ratbeard” Hastings: Yeah. Twist that knife man.

George Pettit: My grandmother died a few years ago, you want to bring that up too?

That was my next question actually

George: [Laughs]

But seriously, how has it been going?

Dallas: It’s been great.

Ratbeard: It’s just a long one, you know?

Dallas: Playing in a parking lot every day of the summer, the shows are really good, but then it’s just like….

I feel like a lot of bands gauge their success and by whether or not they play Warped, but once they actually play it, reality strikes about how brutal it really is.

Dallas: It’s tough man. Thankfully we’re on a bus so we don’t have to worry about long drives.

Wade: It’s really weird to play before noon and then have breakfast after you play.

With power pop and neon rock taking over the scene, you guys have managed to do well for yourselves and keep your heads above water in a fading hardcore scene.

George: Woah! That’s a new one. Neon rock?

Wade: That’s what it is though.

Ratbeard: Did you coin that?

Someone else has probably already said that. I’m not clever enough to come up with things like that. But yeah, it’s called ‘neon rock’.

Dallas: What about ‘new found hardcore’? That’s what I like to call it. It’s bands that really love New Found Glory, but they also really love breakdowns. That’s new found hardcore.

Well those bands have begun to take over Warped Tour. How has it been going from playing with bands like NOFX and Bad Religion on past Warped Tours to playing with bands like Brokencyde and Millionaires who are met with so much criticism on this tour?

Wade: I don’t want to compare us to some of the bands you just mentioned…the sh*tty ones. But we were a new, ‘whack’ band when we got started and I think we are figuring it out a little more year-by-year. Everyone’s gotta get started somewhere. Maybe one of those ‘neon’ bands will eventually start wearing blue jeans and putting out some records that are a little bit more personal. I don’t want to right everyone off but…

Dallas: Oh I do, and I have.

Wade: Watch out!

Dallas: I don’t see how the Warped Tour can have bands that aren’t bands first of all and second of all a band that doesn’t even sing. It’s just a band that sings about not having talent, a band that sings about getting paid and getting laid to 14-year-old girls I just don’t see that as the Warped Tour. I realize the Warped Tour is a business just like anything else and it has to sell tickets but that doesn’t mean that I have to agree with it.

Well maybe that’s what it has come to after 15 years.

George: I’m sure every year there’s been a band that all the other bands said “f*ck that band!” about.

Ratbeard: This is my fifth time doing this tour and I can’t remember one year where there weren’t more bad bands than good ones…in my opinion.

So can you guys tell me about the new record? I love it.

Wade: Thanks man.

There’s been a bit of a sound change. It’s a little more melodic with a sort of new vocal style to it with Dallas singing a lot more. What was the thought process behind Old Crows, Young Cardinals?

Dallas: I don’t know. I think we just really want to do what we did before you know what I mean? It’s not like we go into making a record and say “let’s change everything!” We just do it. I don’t write guitar riffs that sound like guitar riffs I’ve already written and we don’t finish the song like we did before. As far as the singing goes, we’ve all been singing in the band for eight years now so we’ve all kind of gotten better at doing it and we figured out new ways to do it and new ways to sing together.

Can you tell me about “The Biker Song”? You recorded part of it and then decided it wasn’t very good at all?

Dallas: [Laughs] Yeah. Certain songs just don’t make it. We wrote a ton of songs for this record, which we had never really done before and we had a couple that just didn’t sound like us. There were a couple songs we wrote and then had to re-write because they didn’t sound like us. They were good songs but they weren’t us. When we first wrote Young Cardinals I just wanted to write a song that sounded like Kyuss so I did that. Then we said, “Yeah, this is Kyuss, so let’s re-write it and make it sound like Alexisonfire.” So we re-wrote it completely and now it sounds like us. So some things like that happened, but there are songs we just can’t make sound like us.

Wade: However there are songs like “The Biker Song” that just flat out suck.

Ratbeard: Hey, the riff was good though. It was neat. Maybe you’ll hear it some day.

Hopefully I can hear it some day.

Ratbeard: I’ll get drunk and do my impression of the song for you.

You guys have been around for about 7 years now.

George: 8 years in September. Creepy right?

Your first release went gold in your home country Canada, and the 2^nd and 3^rd went platinum. Can you guys explain why you haven’t quite managed to catch a break in the US yet?

George: It has something to do with the amount of time we all want to put in down here. We are an international band. There are a lot of bands from America that tour America constantly and spend all of their time focusing on it to try and make a dent in America and we’re just not that band. We would rather go to England and Europe and Australia and focus our time there. For us that’s just a little more interesting. We’re still going to come down here and work at it and still play all the shows we can but I don’t necessarily ever see us getting massive in America.

Ratbeard: No one has ever talked about us either though. We’ve never had an article written in a major magazine about us, we’ve never had our videos played, we’ve never been played on the radio. We get that everywhere else so a lot of people here don’t know who we are.

Wade: It’s kind of neat though. It’s humbling when we come to America and I kind of like it. I don’t mind playing in a smaller room.

Dallas: Our headlining shows in America are so fun.

Wade: They aren’t poor by any means, they’re just smaller.

Dallas, I heard that you are learning to play slide guitar.

Dallas: Yeah. I’ve played guitar for a very long time and I always told myself that I’d learn how to play slide guitar and I figure what better way to do it than on a tour where there are 60 bands that I don’t want to watch.

Is this something we can expect to hear on the next Alexisonfire record? Perhaps a new City and Colour record?

Dallas: No, I just like learning how to play lots of stuff.

Would you guys say you are fully or only partially influenced by fellow Canadian rockers Nickelback?

Wade: [Laughs] Fully!

George: Yeah 100%!

Wade: And by the way, it’s pronounced Nick-LeBack. It’s one guy, Nick-LeBack.

Ratbeard: You know they’re more popular in America than they are in Canada right?

George: Everyone always says, “Hey Nickelback is from Canada” and we say, “Yeah. But you guys bought all the records!” 80% of their fans are from America, so yeah.

Ratbeard: Way to go…

George: Chad Kroeger is on our five-dollar bill too, I don’t know if you know that.

So do you guys have only music celebrities on your money? Celine Dion and Shania Twain?

George: Actually its mostly ex-hockey players.

So what do you guys have planned for after Warped?

Chris Steele: Reading and Leeds immediately after this and then Europe for six weeks in October and November.

Are you going to do a US headlining tour?

Ratbeard: Hopefully we will be coming back to The States in the spring around April.

Dallas: Yeah. We’ll be back.

Q&A: All Time Low

2009-08-05T02:41:09Z

From left: Alex Gaskarth, Zack Merrick, Jack Barakat, Rian Dawson

Pop punk lady-killers All Time Low have been breaking hearts and selling out venues for the better part of the past four years. They’ve released three critically acclaimed records, toured in support of Fall Out Boy and registered almost 70 million plays on their MySpace page. However, it wasn’t until last month that they blindsided the mainstream with a new record that debuted at No. 4 in its first week of sales. Touting an impressive pedigree of some of the industry’s most respected producers (Matt Squire, the Dream, Butch Walker), Nothing Personal created quite a buzz on blogs and social networks around the Web, leading to massive amounts of hype and high expectations before the recording of the album had even been completed. Rhapsody caught up with frontman Alex Gaskarth and guitarist Jack Barakat during the band’s fourth Warped stint to discuss writing and recording Nothing Personal, touring with blink-182 and what it means to have their own clothing line.

]]> So during fall and spring, you tour with a lot of bands that are on Warped and then reunite every summer for Warped.
Gaskarth: Yeah, that’s what makes Warped Tour awesome. A lot of the bands we’ve toured with previously are here on the Warped Tour, and also a lot of bands that we generally wouldn’t have the chance to tour with are also here, so we get to hang out with them, too, which is really cool.

I feel like a lot of bands gauge their success by whether or not they play Warped, but once they actually play it, reality strikes about how brutal it really is.
Gaskarth: Yeah. It’s definitely not a walk in the park, but we love it, dude. There’s a reason we come back four times in a row. We just really enjoy it.

There’s been a lot of controversy with bands like Millionaires, Brokencyde and Jeffree Star thrown into the mix this year. How do you guys feel about it?
Gaskarth: It’s a new day, man. I think whether you like the music or not, you have to accept the fact that they are around; you have to accept the fact that there is a group of people out there who do listen to that music. I’m not going to jump on the bandwagon and hate on all of those bands. I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of those people now, and you realize that they are just trying to do the same thing that we are. Whether you support the way they are doing it or not, it’s whatever. I probably wouldn’t choose to listen to the music but I actually really, really like Jeffree Star and the girls in Millionaires. I haven’t really met Brokencyde, but as people everyone else is really rad.

You guys just released a new record a few weeks ago. What do you have to say about Nothing Personal?
Gaskarth: Um … please go buy it. [Laughs] It’s the most fun we’ve ever had making a record; it’s the best record we’ve ever made to date, in my opinion. I hope people continue to receive it as well as they have so far.

There was a lot of hype leading up to Nothing Personal's release. Did you feel like you had to live up to people’s expectations as you were writing and recording?
Gaskarth: It’s kind of a seesaw effect, where you definitely want to get it right and you don’t want to step too far outside of your box, where people can’t appreciate you for the band that you have been, but there’s also a level of having to grow. We have to mature with our fans and also mature in a way that more people can come onboard and embrace it. It’s a delicate balance, but I think the fact that we brought on five different producers for this record kind of helped us expand our horizons. We knew how we wanted to sound and where we wanted to be at the end of the record, but working with five separate producers really helped us to kind of, with each set of songs, go off in a slightly different direction. At the end of the day, we ended up with a product that was very varied but also still sounds like All Time Low, no matter who produced a song. You can go from song to song and a lot of people can’t figure out who did what, which is really cool.

With Put Up or Shut Up, your sound was harder and more punk-influenced. Then you released So Wrong, It’s Right, which had a drastically different, pop-influenced vocal style to it that has carried over to Nothing Personal.
Gaskarth: [Laughs] Definitely. I learned how to sing. A lot of people say my voice doesn’t sound as deep or as low as it used to, and there are people who back it and some who don’t, but it’s really just the fact that I used to lose my voice all the time. That’s how my voice sounded back then, and it was the sound of me singing incorrectly. Since then, I learned how I should sound and how I am supposed to sing, and I don’t lose my voice very often anymore.

Did you get a vocal coach or just watch YouTube videos to learn how to sing?
Gaskarth: I’ve had the opportunity to talk to coaches. I would spend like an hour here and there with people, but I’ve never had formal lessons. Everyone is different, and it takes a little while for you to find your sound.

So blink-182 are back together.
Barakat: They are?

Yeah, dude. I can’t believe I just told you that.
Gaskarth: [Laughs] Wow. I’ve been hanging out with Bear Grylls.

So what was that like for you guys to hear when they got back together a few months ago? I know you recorded a song with Mark Hoppus.
Gaskarth: We didn’t record it with him, we wrote it with him.

Why isn't it on Nothing Personal?
Gaskarth: It was written so far in advance that by the time we got around to doing the rest of the album, it just didn’t really sonically make sense.

Do you think it will ever come out?
Gaskarth: I don’t know … I don’t know.

After working with Mark and staying in touch with him, I sort of assumed you guys would be on the blink tour. Is there a reason you aren’t?
Gaskarth: [Laughs] Maybe because we never put the song out.
Barakat: Yeah. "F*ck you kids." [Laughs] I think honestly it’s because of us doing Warped Tour. Warped is booked by the same person that books blink.
Gaskarth: I think the biggest thing is that they have been gone for five years, and everyone wants to tour with them.
Barakat: It’s a long line.
Gaskarth: They owe a lot of bands favors. It’s a long list of people they promised they would take out with them.
Barakat: Some 21-year-old kids who love their band probably aren’t on the top of blink's list. Gaskarth: We just kind of came into the picture, so if we continue to tour, hopefully one day it will happen.

Jack, you have your own Glamour Kills clothing line. Usually these sorts of things are reserved for frontmen. Alex, where is your clothing line?
Gaskarth: Dude, I don’t have the time or the patience to f*ck with that.

So Jack, you design the clothes yourself?
Barakat: Not really.
Gaskarth: Jack doesn’t really do sh*t. He just kind of threw his name onto it. I named the company, for chrissake. I’m sure down the line, we are talking about all joining forces to do something even bigger. We’ve done stuff with Hurley, and we're even talking to Nike about doing some things.

What are your plans for after Warped?
Gaskarth: Tour, tour, tour, tour, tour.

Do you guys have any crazy fan-girl stories?
Gaskarth: Well, Jack had a five-some.
Barakat: What?!

With five guys or five girls?
Gaskarth: Five dudes.

Well, who hasn’t done that?
Barakat: [Laughs] Yeah …

Lacuna Coil's Playlist

2009-07-31T07:04:00Z

Right before they departed for Wacken, we caught up with Italian goth metal outfit Lacuna Coil's leading lady Cristina Scabbia to find out what she listens to when she's not controlling crowds or giving advice in her Revolver magazine column. Says Scabbia, "It's definitely a question I'm sure every musician hates -- if you love music, just 10 songs are nothing!" But she happily obliged us nonetheless, and goes on to express her love of Faith No More, Muse, Alter Bridge and more. Check it out right here. ]]> Disturbed, "The Night"
Not only is it a little homage to a band we love because we toured together a few months ago, but they're friends of ours and we love this song.

Alter Bridge, "Watch Over You"
It's a band I absolutely love because not only are they great musicians, but Myles [Kennedy] is a friend of ours. I sung a song with them for a special duet that was "Watch Over You," and I think he has one of the best voices I ever heard in my whole life.

Faith No More, "Evidence"
One of my favorite bands. Any song would be good, but I picked "Evidence" just 'cause it's relaxing; you know, if you're driving on the road and you can sing along with it. [Faith No More are] one of the bands that got me into this kind of music and one of the bands I absolutely love. I've seen a couple of their [reunion] shows and we played one with them, and it's been a great experience. I had a chance to talk with Mike Patton and Mike Bordin, and they're great people.

Rob Zombie, "Superbeast"
We toured with them a couple years ago. Rob is a great guy, a great director, a great musician, and I love his style.

Type O Negative, "Black No. 1"
This is one of the bands that inspired Lacuna Coil at the beginning of our career. Now on the road we have Johnny [Kelly] and Kenny [Hickey] of Type O with Seventh Void, and we're really happy to have them onboard. "Black No. 1" is one of our favorite songs -- I'm sure everyone in the band would agree with that.

Stone Sour, "30/30-150"
I love the guys, and I love their songs. I've heard that now they're working on a new album, and I can't wait to hear it. [Corey Taylor is] another good singer; he can do whatever he wants [with his] voice.

Muse, "Supermassive Black Hole"
I just love it, I just love the changes in the song. I find his voice a little bit annoying sometimes because you pick up every little breath he takes, which I understand is his distinctive sound, but I love Muse so it doesn't really matter! I think they're really modern, which is cool.

The Police, "Synchronicity II"
It's probably an unusual song to pick up because most people will pick "Roxanne" or the big classics, but I just love "Synchronicity" because I think it would be perfect for the soundtrack of a weird movie, so I always liked this song.

Queens of the Stone Age, "3's and 7's"
Another band that I like that I think is unfortunately underrated; they're not really popular in Europe the way they are popular here. I love the way he sings and I love their music -- whatever song -- they're all fine with me.

Three Days Grace, "Never Too Late"
I don't usually warm up, but I like to sing along with quiet songs so I don't stress my voice. So sometimes before the show I'll warm up, and there is a song I put on most of the time because it starts in a low key and then goes high, and it's called "Never Too Late."

Q&A: 3OH!3

2009-07-31T06:33:39Z

From left: Nathaniel Motte, Sean Foreman

Colorado krunk superstars 3OH!3 have been on a collision course for success since an unforgettable performance on the Denver stop of 2007’s Vans Warped Tour inked them a spot playing every date of the tour in 2008. The same year, they signed to Photo Finish Records and released their debut album, Want. In the past two months, they’ve headlined the entire Warped Tour, and most recently, their debut single, "Don’t Trust Me," has gone platinum, becoming the No. 1 single in the U.S. Behind the aggression of heavy bass drops and Lil’ John-influenced beats, 3OH!3 bring humor to the rap game with line after line of infectious, tongue-in-cheek rhymes that have people hooked from coast to coast. The band took a break from the chaos that is Warped Tour and sat down with Rhapsody to discuss rumors about touring with Barack Obama and what it is like to have a No. 1 single. ]]> So Warped Tour has been going on for about a month. How has it been going so far?
Nathaniel Motte: It’s been great. Big crowds, main stage, fun time. The shows get bigger and bigger, and there’s so many kids. It's great. Warped Tour is a very communal, fun tour to be on.

How many times have you guys been on Warped?
Sean Foreman: This is our second full summer on it. We did one date on the 2007 one.

I feel like Warped Tour is the sort of tour that bands love to play, but at the same time hate so much because of the sweltering heat, lack of shade and no air conditioning. How do you guys feel about it?
Foreman: It is a brutal tour in the sense that the weather is so hot and you never know what time you are going to play, so you always have to leave early. And if you are a smaller band, you have to do it in a van, which I can’t even imagine how hard that is. Other than that, the perks of it are definitely unlike any other tour, too. The camaraderie you build with the other bands -- it’s such a summer vibe. It's like a summer camp for bands.
Motte: It's such a springboard for bands, too. So many bands have come up through the Warped Tour. For us it was everything. It was our first tour last year; it really helped us out and it still is obviously helping us out.

I think you are one of the first acts to bring the genre you’ve created to the punk scene. Can you comment on how you’ve sort of rebranded a niche for yourselves, where people come to Warped to see hip-hop- and pop-influenced bands like yourselves instead of punk bands like NOFX and Bad Religion?
Motte: It's crazy. I don't know how conscious it is. I think we just try to make music that sounds cool to us and definitely do what's comfortable and do what sounds good and feels good and is fun -- but seriously, it’s crazy to think that. It's very flattering.

Was it ever a thought to start a band with instruments and a drummer and stuff, or have you always been into making beats and doing hop-hop songs?
Motte: We both play instruments, and we actually just recently recorded a live session for iTunes.
Foreman: Our show here has a band, so we play with live music and stuff.
Motte: We're trying to meld the organic and the computerized.

So did you guys get started by doing remixes and mashups, or did you jump right into writing originals?
Motte: We jumped right into doing our own stuff. We didn't really start as DJs, so it was just kind of getting together and making fun music.

So the past few months have been pretty good to you. You guys exploded onto the scene and now have the No. 1 single in the country.
Motte: It's pretty crazy, especially since that song has been out for more than a year. It’s been a long, pretty cool climb.

Do you remember where you were when you heard you had the No. 1 single in the U.S.? Foreman: We were just starting this tour.
Motte: It was right at the beginning. I remember we were in L.A. doing a radio thing. It was edging up and up and up. So it was pretty amazing.

Since it happened, have you been getting a lot more publicity from people like me trying to get interviews?
Motte: Tons of chicks man. When you’re No. 2, there’s no chicks. But when you're No. 1, you're swimming in chicks.
Foreman: My parents have been calling me a lot.
Motte: I think our friends and family share very closely in what we are experiencing, so it's cool, too, but honestly, not that much changes. We keep playing shows and keep trying to slam out as much as we can and keep trying to make our shows as fun as we can.

You guys wrote an anthem for the Colorado Rockies. What is that about?
Foreman: Fox Sports Net approached us asking if we would do kind of an anthem thing. We grew up fans of Colorado sports like the Rockies, even though they sucked forever. We would go to games and it was always fun, so we just made a small little anthem for it that was kind of in the vein of what we do.
Motte: Yeah, it's like stadium techno.

Where can we hear it?
Sean: Online, maybe? I don't know if you can even find it online. We just got a copy of the video.
Motte: I know they air it on Fox Sports Net when the Rockies play, but I don’t know where else it's out. So you have to be a Rockies fan to hear it.

I heard you guys toured with Barack Obama during his campaign.
Motte: Yeah. We were his backing band.
Foreman: Haha. The only thing I can think of that would make that true is that we did this "trick or vote" thing at a show during Halloween, where anyone who went and canvassed to get people to register to vote would get into the concert for free. Oh yeah, and we played for Barack Obama. He rapped over one of our songs. He remixed it.

Does Barack bring the freshest rhymes?
Motte: He brings only the hardest raps ever. Haha. No, but seriously, I think we were both pretty vocal in trying to motivate as much as we could and support his campaign as much as we could, but we never actually toured with him. We did write some political stuff for some magazines and stuff, but that’s it. It would be sweet to do that, though.

You guys should call Kal Penn from Harold & Kumar; he works in the Obama Administration.
Motte: Really?

Yeah. Really.
Foreman: Wow.

So Want has been out for a year and recently has been really successful. Have you considered writing a new record, or are you going to put out more singles from this one?
Motte: I think the prolonged, crazy life of our first single extends our record cycle. We've been writing songs and are working on stuff, but we are honestly lining up a couple more singles off our first record. We remixed "Starstrukk" with Katy Perry recently and kind of made it a funner, better, bigger song. That will be our follow-up single as far as radio and T.V. and stuff is concerned. That should come out in a few weeks or so. I think we'll keep working on stuff, but I think it probably won't be until next year that we see anything new, though.

Have you ever considered doing remixes of your songs with artists like Lil Wayne and Kanye?
Motte: We were actually just in the studio a couple of weeks ago with Lil’ John, which was rad. We got hooked up through a producer friend of ours. It's amazing for me because he is kind of a musical idol for me and made me want to make beats in the first place. We got in the studio with him and worked on a track for his new record, and it was awesome. He was actually on the Warped Tour in New York and came out and sang "Chokechain" with us. It was awesome. Foreman: We did a remix of "Don't Trust Me" with KiD Cudi. He rapped on it.

You recently gave Ryan Seacrest a call.
Motte: I called him and left him a message.

Are you guys friends with Ryan?
Foreman: Uhhh ... yes.
Motte: Well, he was on the Barack Obama tour with us.
Foreman: Yeah. He played bass.

His birthday is coming up. You should play his birthday party.
Motte: Where is it?

Probably in New York or L.A. or something.
Motte: I’ll call up my man Barack and he’ll hook me up.

Q&A: Job for a Cowboy

2009-07-31T02:45:43Z

Moving from the center of the deathcore scene through the history of American death metal, Job for a Cowboy have embarked on an expansive journey in their so-far short career. With their top-100-charting 2007 debut, Genesis, and a celebrated, self-released 2005 EP in tow, they got the metal underground's attention. Now with their sophomore effort, Ruination, featuring new guitarist Al Glassman and new drummer Jon Rice, as well as the band's coveted slot in this year's Mayhem Festival, J.F.A.C. are expanding on their sturdy foundation and conquering new territory. We caught up with guitarist Bobby Thompson to find out more about their transition into death metal. ]]> Tell us about Ruination.
It's just kind of about the downfall and destruction of the world. Jonny [Davy, vocalist] is more the lyrics guy, the concept dude; to me, it’s about rock 'n' roll and playing some metal riffs.

You’ve been making a gradual transformation from deathcore into more of an American death metal aesthetic. Was that a conscious decision?
Yeah, you know, we're growing up and maturing as young men [chuckles], so our music tastes are changing and we’ve kind of made a conscious decision to stray away from the ‘core scene, and try to just become more of a death metal band because that’s the music we like to write. We just kind of grew up and we just totally kind of transitioned and the sound matured and we got better [laughs], or at least tried to get better.

Was there anything specific behind that?
It was just our personal thing. We don’t have anything against that scene or anything like that. It was just -- we really liked the new stuff we were writing, and we weren’t trying to make any decisions, like “no breakdowns” -- we didn’t make any rules, really, it was just whatever we wrote, let’s just do it. That’s how it happened -- it wasn’t like, "We cannot be a deathcore band"; we weren’t thinking about the genre situation, we just wanted to write awesome heavy stuff. But it’s cool, I’ve been really happy with the transition, and it’s been cool 'cause we’ve been getting a pretty good reaction to it, so that’s always awesome.

Who were your influences this time around?
For me, the long-running influences are always Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse -- the classic stuff. But you know for this record, Decapitated has been a huge influence of mine. I really like his guitar playing -- he’s an incredible guitar player, and I love the songs that he writes, so that’s always been a huge influence. And I don’t know -- I draw influences from a lot of stuff, not just metal. I always try to keep my mind open and listen to a lot of stuff while we’re writing, and I think it definitely came out pretty cool.

Lyrically, you're talking about what's going on in the world -- what brought that out this time?
Well Jonny, he’s always been into that kind of stuff, like current affairs, problems, like keeping up with things and researching and I think he just wanted to talk about some things. I wouldn’t consider ourselves a political activist band or anything like that, but he definitely had some really cool ideas about what’s going on right now. It’s pretty dark and grim, a lot of the things that are happening, so it’s cool; it made for cool subject matter. It’s a different mood for us lyrically, and it’s not the standard gore lyrics you would associate, so I think it’s cool. We like it.

you mentioned a lot of Florida death metal bands being a main influence, but what about Death?
Yeah, we definitely were listening to a lot of that sh*t, you know? The older-school stuff has always been where we draw more inspiration from -- other than Decapitated, really … and Hate Eternal actually, but Erik Rutan in general is a huge influence -- he’s a legend. We definitely did try to incorporate a lot of the older-school vibe with a modern approach still. I think a lot of it is, I haven’t really been stoked on a lot of new metal, really. There hasn’t been a new band coming out that I’ve been excited about in awhile. So it’s been, I don’t know -- I always go back to the old stuff 'cause I know it’s good.

In having a young fan base, what do you want J.F.A.C. fans to know about your affinity for metal’s history?
The younger fan base thing is weird when someone's like, "Oh, you’re the first metal band I’ve ever gotten into," I’m like "WHAT?! That’s crazy!" You expect it to be like Cannibal Corpse or Morbid Angel or Pantera -- you know, like the f*cking legends, the huge bands! But it’s pretty awesome when someone says that; I think that's cool because then they just discovered a whole new world, you know. I always kind of liked that. I think we’re really lucky to have a younger audience, because we can try to -- if it's a new generation of fans that didn’t really discover metal but heard about us because we're young guys, then I think that's cool because we’re opening the door to all the bands that are happening now and then all the past bands that are the reason why all the bands are happening now. It‘s cool, and it makes me excited, because back in the day the same thing happened to me when I first started getting into metal; it was a whole world I didn't even know about.

In being the vehicle for that, where should fans finding Job for a Cowboy first go from there?
From us I think that going to the roots is really important. I definitely did draw a lot of influence from Morbid Angel on this record -- in certain chords or shapes of riffs and things like that, so I think Morbid Angel would be a f*cking awesome band to check out. If a kid hears us for the first time and says, "Oh, I'm kind of into this, but I don’t really know anything about metal," and then they checked out Morbid Angel, I think their mind would probably be blown, like, "This is the heaviest thing I ever heard!" You know what I mean, 'cause you listen to a lot of bands coming out now that are super-heavy, and their main thing is, "We are the heaviest band on the planet," but then you listen to the old sh*t, and it's like there is nothing that will be heavier than this. It's like, this is it, this is what started it. That Morbid Angel song "Where the Slime Live" is the heaviest thing on the planet. You can’t f*ck with that.

How did working with a new guitarist and drummer affect songwriting?
It was definitely awesome. Having a really, really talented, phenomenal drummer is the coolest thing ever. You can write anything you want 'cause you know that he can play it. Our songwriting was only limited by our abilities, so it was really cool. It pushes you to get harder, and it's always fun to work with new people in the studio. Working with Al has been good -- he’s a really great guitar player and he’s good at a lot of things I'm not good at, so it forces me to try harder and become a better player, so it's been fun. And there's a period of [time] when you're new playing together, trying to figure out what works, trying to figure out the process, and once we got in the groove it went really well.

They seemed to bring a more technical aspect ...
Yeah, definitely. I mean, we’ve never been that technical of a band, and with this record we definitely incorporated some more sh*t and it's just 'cause the abilities in the band are different now [with] two new members. Our drummer is insanely good -- it's awesome, we’re really lucky, but they spiced it up a little bit, I guess, and now we’ve gotta play the songs live, so it's kind of stressful. I'm not that great of a guitar player, so it's kind of a pain in the ass. On this tour, we’ve gotta really play these songs live.

What are your expectations for this record?
It definitely won't do as well as our last one did -- less people are buying records, the economy’s shot, blah blah blah. I don't know, I’m not really too worried about it. I just want people to hear it; I'm not really worried about the record sales -- I want it to be heard. But it's been getting really good reviews lately, so we’ve been really lucky on that end, so hopefully it keeps up. I just want people to hear it -- I don’t care if they like it or not. Good or negative feedback is always interesting to me; I’m into it!

Q&A: Sa-Ra Creative Partners

2009-07-24T06:27:17Z

The sound of L.A. group Sa-Ra Creative Partners is hard to pin down. Their brand of psych urban music straddles the line between funk, soul and hip-hop. It references Funkadelic, Prince, Sly & the Family Stone and J Dilla, but ultimately the music manages to sound like nothing you've ever heard. It's jerky electro, ethereal hip-hop and secular gospel. It's beautiful music that is, at times, difficult to listen to. Consisting of (from left, in photo at left) Om'Mas Keith, Taz Arnold, and Shafiq Husayn, the group became darlings of the underground in 2005 with a series of 12-inches and remixes. They released their debut album, The Hollywood Recordings, in 2007, and followed up this year with Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love. In that time, an entire echo-system of psychedelic soul acts sprang up, but Sa-Ra remain at the forefront. Even if you haven't heard of the group, it's likely that your favorite artist has. The trio has worked with Erykah Badu, Kanye West, Dr. Dre and John Legend, among many others. In fact, Keith is currently serving as Diddy's musical director.

We recently caught up with Om'Mas Keith. By chance, we spoke with him on the afternoon of June 25, just when the news of Michael Jackson's death was reported. We discussed Jackson's influence on the group, as well as a wide range of subjects including Thelonious Monk's funeral, Keith's father, the group's future, and the influence of Sly and the Family Stone. ]]> Keith: Michael Jackson dead at 50, breaking news. It's officially 3:24 Pacific Standard Time. Wow. I just don't even understand -- I just left a meeting with a power player over at Paradigm Agency in Beverly Hills, and was just informed that Michael Jackson is looking for tracks. I'm looking at a piece of paper written by a f*cking mega agent at an agency right now. Two days ago she wrote Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson is looking for music, and the go-to is Peter Lopez. It's like … wow!

Rhapsody: I don't think anybody saw this coming. Maybe his family did or something, but I don't think anyone in the music industry saw this coming.
Well, we all know what cardiac arrest means for people in their 50s. It means an unhealthy lifestyle -- or whatever it means, there was something going on that Michael wasn't telling nobody about. Whatever; we're gonna find out. But all I know is that his work with Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton changed the entire world.

Yeah, yeah it did.
Three of my heroes. Three of the Sa-Ra's heroes: Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton. Three people that are all visionary. Those are the people we follow. We follow in the line of our ancestors who know about process, procedure, strategy, politics, manipulation, war, pact.

As far as process, as far as actually building music, what can you say about what you took from the people you mentioned?
What you learn from the masters is that there is really no way to go about making music other than the path of least resistance. So what that typically has meant for people who are really successful is they just do it without anyone bothering them or without anyone getting in the way -- unresisted creative flow. For some people, that may mean not allowing people into your cipher when you create, so that you can work as efficiently as you may need to. For other people, that may require allowing many, many people around you, so that you may work as efficiently as you may need to. And then of course you have everything in between, which also includes having no one around and then having someone around within the same day. Knowing when to pull the trigger, knowing when you need to be alone, and knowing when you gotta call m*th*r f*ck*rs in to get the sh*t done. That's what Quincy knew. Quincy knew how to sit there, at his piano with a cigarette, maybe a shot of Jack Daniels, and score the damn film. And then take a break, and make the phone call and call in Hubert Laws and call in Ron Carter and call in Eddie Van Halen and cut the record, and get it popping. It's stages, so that's process, procedure. You have to know the task at hand. Ok, we're gonna make a record, what do we have to do? Whatever we have to do we know in the end we have to have vocals, we have to have instruments, we have to have songs, chords and ideas.

You come from a musical pedigree; your parents are jazz musicians, right?
Yeah, absolutely -- not only my parents, but my grandparents. My great-grandfather was f*ckin' George Gershwin's copyist.

Were you introduced to jazz when you were a kid? Was that always the atmosphere?
Oh yeah; well, my parents were traditional jazz musicians in every sense of the word. In the womb … Thelonious was playing in the womb. I was at Thelonious' funeral. I was there with my father. I was in Straight, No Chaser. I was born in 1976. Thelonious died in the '80s. I have a very fond memory -- I have a very unusual memory, a kind of macabre. That was my first experience of death! It was seeing Thelonious lying in St. Peter's church in Manhattan.

How old were you? Did you appreciate what you were seeing?
I was probably five. All I know is that I was a drummer, and Max Roach was in the house band at the funeral. So I remember specifically Max being my hero at that very young age; because I was a drummer by the time I was three, I remember Max Roach! Sitting in the pews, man. I was very conscious. I remember I was a little weirded out, even now I'm recalling the feeling -- it was weird. Because my dad was so a part of the New York jazz scne. My dad was one of Miles [Davis'] great friends, my dad was one of Thelonious Jr.'s greatest friends. My dad knew f*ckin' John Coltrane. My father made his career as an avant-gardist. Playing with cats like Lester Bowie and Sun Ra. My father was in Sun Ra's band.

Who was your father?
His name was Michael Keith. You can do some research. You know he was just one of those cats that was on the scene. He was savvy. Truth be told my dad was a dope dealer, too; don't get it twisted. That was the order of the day.

Yeah, avant-garde jazz musicians probably don't make that much money.
I mean come on, man. Especially avant-garde ones who are playing f*cking sh*t that no one gets anyway, in that era. So my parents were hippies, man. They got it. They knew it was about peace, love and having fun.

Do you carry over those sensibilities into your life and music?
Hell yeah. All of us do. As the Sa-Ra we are channelers of truth and channelers of the majesty of our ancestors. We channel the majesty of our ancestors. That's one of our main goals of life is to do that.

You can hear that. You can hear so many different threads of modern music within your music.
It's part of the repertoire; I was just talking about that today. Listen, people don't even use the word anymore, because they're so far detached from what that encompasses. For us, it's a nonstop quest to upload information.

I love that you guys did that "Just Like A Baby" on the new album.
Oh!

It was funny -- when I got this promo and put it in I didn't really look at the track listing, and I was kinda listening through it and I was like, I can hear some Sly & the Family Stone here, definitely.
And there it was, right there. That's so funny that you mention that because Questlove hit me and he was like, "Man, I know y'all got the original masters to do that." And it was like, "Nah. We just went in and did that." See, "Just Like a Baby" was a science experiment. "Just Like a Baby" could be parallel to a college-level master project, so to speak. We said we are going to go here and use what we know, to have then the technology embodied on the original recording, and go ahead here and do a cover of it. Do a rendition. But in our rendition we're going to try and go verbatim, sonically. And I think we achieved that because our approach was probably just like Sly, and because our equipment was probably just what he had.

But were y'all driving around L.A. in an ice cream truck with a bunch of cocaine? Isn't that how Sly recorded "There's a Riot Goin' On"?
He had the truck outside. He would often just have the truck parked outside the mansion and would rather be in the truck recording than be up in the house. Yes. We wasn't in an ice cream truck, but we're students of music, man. We speak to people, we know cats that were around, we saw the pictures. We know, "Oh, he's using this? Oh this was the mike placement? Oh you mean to tell me it was an Omni microphone, there was only one overhead? Oh!" I mean you know what I mean? All that type of sh*t. "You mean they didn't use 16 microphones on the f*cking drums like they do now? And make that sh*t sound so crisp that you can't even take it?" No, it's just one. Get back to basics. Don't make it so hard on yourself.

You guys working on any new music?
We're making new music every day. I'm working on a solo record. I have a joint-venture deal with a company called Plug Research. Shafiq has a joint-venture deal with a company called Plug Research. Taz is currently working on his solo album, and we're finishing his solo album up. So before the end of the year, you will see the release of yet another Sa-Ra record and three individual and unique solo records for the members of the group. So five releases in one year, if we can even pull out four -- but I'm gonna make sure that we deliver five releases by the end of the year.

What label are they all gonna be on?
Well right now this one's on Babygrande, both mine and Shafiq's are gonna be on Plug Research, Taz is closing his deal so we can't speak on that right now, that's private information. And the Black Fuzz album, which is probably what we're going to release at the end of the year, is in negotiation right now with all the major labels in the game. So right now we're in a position where all the four majors are bidding on us, and it's gonna be funny because the very same label that we severed our ties with is in fact indirectly the same label that may in fact put this album back out again -- after they paid for it and let it go, they 'bout to pay for it again! Ain't that a b*tch?

Are you guys working on the new Erykah Badu album?
Yeah. In fact I just received my first bit of paperwork from the label today; that's funny you mentioned that, because right before I got on the phone with you I got on the phone with my lawyer confirming the producer declarations and all the agreements coming in for the work on the new record.

Yeah, I know your work on that album blew a lot of people's minds. Is your work on the new one going to be a continuation of that?
I would like to hope so. For anyone who doesn't know, the Associated Press listed her album as one of the best f*cking albums of last year.

Q&A: A-Trak

2009-07-22T22:14:36Z

Not too many 27-year-old DJs can boast a career as long and influential as A-Track. The Montreal-based turntablist first rose to prominence in 1997 when he captured the DMC championship (the Super Bowl for DJs) at the age of 15. He spent the rest of that decade wracking up titles and accolades. When turntabalism begin to fade in the first half of this decade, he switched gears, experimenting with everything from ITalo disco to Baltimore Club Music. Somewhere along the way, he also became the tour DJ for one Kanye West. Many site him as a primary influence on West, who would soon began adopting a more electronic-friendly sound. Recently, A-Track formed the Fool’s Gold label along with NY scenester Nick Catchdubs, and has continued to play to sold out crowds around the globe. In this exclusive Rhapsody interview, A-Track discussed the Fool's Gold philosophy, his approach to live performance and his latest mixtape, Infinity +1.

Part II of the interview after the jump. ]]> -->

Q&A: Jordin Sparks

2009-07-18T05:18:23Z

Jordin Sparks is, in many ways, the epitome of the American Idol dream. In the two short years since winning, she's released a successful debut that spawned two Top 10 hits (including "No Air," her smash duet with Chris Brown), toured with big-name acts like Alicia Keys and the Jonas Brothers (with whom she's currently on the road) and even performed for two presidents! Now she's releasing her sophomore album, Battlefield, which premiered on Rhapsody last Tuesday and drops everywhere else next week. When she recently sat down with us to talk about how far she's come, we discovered that, despite her success, Sparks is still very much the sweet Arizona girl she was before she became a household name.

]]> So where are you today?
I'm actually in D.C. on the tour bus, getting ready -- actually, we're driving to the Verizon Center, where we're performing.

How's the tour been so far?
It's been really good, actually. I've been having a lot of fun. And it's always really cool to travel with somebody that you admire and that you're friends with. And so it's been amazing! We've had like these like Silly String fights, and all these different things, and it's been really awesome!

At the risk of maybe alienating your tourmates, what's the one thing about the Jonas Brothers that maybe their fans don't realize?
Um ... oh, gosh. The Jonas Brothers fans know everything about them, so I don't think there's anything they don't know! Which is crazy! But for me, collectively, I've kind of gotten to know them as a group. So to be on this tour, it's really cool to see the different personalities. Like Joe is definitely, I think, the most outgoing, and he's a prankster. And Kevin is, you know, the one who oversees everything and makes sure everything is OK. And Nick is very serious for being 16, but he's very smart and he's a musical genius! So it's really cool to be able to see all that.

So tell us about the new album, Battlefield, which premiered on Rhapsody.
Well, I think the biggest thing for this album is just the growth and maturity in my voice -- that's kind of just what I wanted to show. It's been about two years since I put out my first album, so I've gone through a little bit. Not too much, but I have grown up a little bit and gone through some experiences. I got to write a lot more on this album. So I've been really excited and very lucky to have as many songs as I got on this record. I got about four. And it's gonna be really cool. I think there's a little bit of everything for everybody on this album. And in terms of production, there's a few songs that are kind of reminiscent and just as big as how "Battlefield" is and how "No Air" was. So there's a couple more songs like that, as well.

You mentioned that you co-wrote four of the songs. Did you enjoy the writing process?
[Gasps] I did! I've always wanted to write. I've always loved language arts -- anything to do with words, ever since I was little. And I wrote poetry -- I think I started in the fourth grade. And it wasn't until I was a little bit older that I realized that poetry can be turned into a song. You just have to add music. And so I got lucky enough to be able to write on my first album: I wrote "Freeze" and then two of the bonus tracks on the album. And I had a lot more time this time around to record and took my time, and we ended up probably writing about 12 or 13 songs and we picked the four best that we really, really loved. And so I was very, very excited! But I'm excited for my fans to hear my heart this time around!

Right. Do you feel more connected singing the songs that you wrote?
Exactly! Maybe it's just me, but I feel that for me, sometimes when I'm singing a song that I've written, I go to the place where I was writing from, and it just becomes such a different feeling when I'm performing the song and I'm so much more into it. And I think it gives the audience member a different experience as well. I think that for anybody with songs that they haven't written, they try to interpret it as best as they can, but they won't be able to interpret it the way that the person who wrote it did, you know what I mean? We can try as best as we can! I definitely love the songs that are on my album that I didn't write. But to write a song and to sing it is definitely an amazing feeling.

Do you have any mentors or anyone that you look to as a model for songwriting?
You know, I actually have been a huge fan of Alicia Keys. And I went on tour with her, and it even made me a bigger fan of hers -- and more confident in my own writing abilities, listening to all the songs that she wrote and how passionate she is when she's up there performing. As well as I've always been a huge fan of John Mayer, and the way he writes his songs, and his lyrics are just so deep and meaningful. And I think those are the two that I think I kind of mirror myself after -- or try to, at least! I don't even know if I'd ever be able to get to their caliber!

I notice that you've sung for Obama and you met with George Bush. Which meeting was more nerve-wracking?
Oh, my gosh! [Laughs] I don't know if there is -- if either one of them was higher than the other. I mean, they were both nerve-wracking in their own rights. With President Bush, we were going to Africa and he was doing this big speech and all these different things. And I was just like, "This is incredible! I can't believe I'm here right now!" I was so nervous singing the national anthem in front of him! And then for Obama's inauguration, it was one of those things where it was history! It was a piece of history, and nobody can take that away from me. And it was just an amazing thing! So I don't know which one was more nerve-wracking. They were both were, actually.

You know, the first single and several of your other songs, like "No Air," for example, you talk a lot about love and relationships. Did a lot of that come from experience?
You know, I've always loved being able to interpret a song how I think I would feel, even though I haven't gone through a lot of things. Because you're right: I am young! I'm only 19, and I haven't gone through the devastating breakups and different things like that. And hopefully that won't happen for a very long time! But I have friends that have, I have family members that have gone through a ton of stuff -- have gone through pain and heartache and love and loss. And I see what they feel, and I feel their pain. Because I kind of take on other people's pain. I don't try to -- it just happens! [Laughs] And so I imagine what they would feel like. So for me, I just kind of interpret songs the way I think I would feel if they happened. So I guess there are a couple of things where it's like, you know, she has no idea! But at the same time, it's the only thing I can sing about it! It's something that's universal that everybody can relate to on one level or another, whether it's a romantic relationship or just a platonic relationship between friends -- you can have love there, as well. So I kind of go through different kinds. But sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll -- I can't sing about that! [Laughs] So, this is what I have left.

Do you feel like the hectic schedule of a budding superstar such as yourself gets in the way of a young girl's love life?
It definitely can. I definitely see how, you know, relationships start and you think they're gonna -- at least for things that I've been reading, it's that they start and then all of a sudden, they're over. It's just because all the traveling is really crazy, and you have to have a special kind of bond and trust issue with that. So I can definitely understand. I am talking with somebody and it's been crazy. You know, I was focused on music and focused on traveling a lot, and I still am, and I'm still traveling, so it's kind of one of those things where I'm like, "I hope you can deal with my schedule!" 'Cause we're definitely gonna have to see. But I can see it -- it's definitely crazy!

So who was your favorite artist as a kid? As a 10-year-old?
Oh, goodness. Well, besides the stuff that my parents were listening to that I also listened to -- you know, like '80s bands and then Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey and Whitney [Houston] and all that -- around 9 or 10 years old was when the whole pop phenomenon came about, like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and 'NSYNC and all that. And I was obsessed with Christina Aguilera. I loved her. I wanted to be her! I have all of her music, and I definitely -- she was one of my influences on the way I sing and just music in general. I think Christina Aguilera was the one that I loved the most. And then I loved Celine Dion, as well.

Did you get swept up at all in this whole Michael Jackson mania? Maybe mania's the wrong word for it, but you know what I mean.
Yeah, no, I completely understand. I was devastated. And still am. It was crazy. I didn't realize how much of an impact he had had on my life, just from when I was little till now. I used to watch Moonwalker every single chance I got. I was obsessed, had a crush on him, thought I was going to marry him -- all that good stuff. And I listened to his music a lot, as well, and began dissecting it I think maybe in the seventh or eighth grade. And I just really, really appreciated him for his art and what he did for music. And when he passed away, tears just started falling. It was just one of those things where you're like, he's gone? That's not -- no! That's not happening right now. But he was. And then the memorial came on, and I was glued to the TV. I didn't even care if I was late, I was just like, I'm watching this whole thing. And I was also bawling, so it was crazy. But I hope he has the peace and rest he was yearning for, you know?

American Idol gave you your big break, but do you think it changed you as an artist at all?
You know what a funny thing is? I still would be the same person, but before American Idol, I was actually pursuing country music! A lot of people don't know that I was pursuing that. I kind of wanted to be Taylor Swift before Taylor Swift came around! [Laughs] If I could have been that one person, it probably would have been what she's doing now. And I was pursuing that and this company that I was talking to, this management company, was like, "Well, what do you want to do?" And I was like, "I wanna try out for American Idol!" And they were like, "OK, go get it out of your system, try out, and then come back," and all that good stuff. And then I tried out and won, and here I am! [Laughs]

So have you met Taylor Swift? Did you tell her this?
I have! I have definitely met her and she is so sweet, and I am just amazed at everything she's accomplished. And it's so awesome. So we kind of keep in contact here and there. I'll send an occasional text and just tell her hello. So ... she's very, very sweet, though. And it's cool because we're both in the music industry and we're both the same age, so it's cool to have that kind of camaraderie there.

So what was your highlight of the year so far?
Oh, goodness gracious. Highlight of the year ... um, I think from the top of my head, we opened the tour at the Dallas Cowboys' new football stadium, which was humongous! And I'm a huge football fan, I love football. So to be at the stadium before the players even get to play on it was amazing. So I think that was one of my biggest highlights. And then also performing "Battlefield" on Idol -- being able to go back and have the smoke and the lights and my name back behind me was really awesome!

Q&A: Deer Tick

2009-07-17T18:51:16Z

We're pretty sweet on Deer Tick's new album around the Rhapsody compound, which Justin Farrar recently shared some thoughts on. Additionally, we caught up with lead singer John Joseph McMcauley III back in March at the South By Southwest music festival down in Austin. He gave us some insight on how Deer Tick came to be and talked about a few songs from the band's debut War Elephant. Then he told us what kind of beer he enjoys. Give it a viewing right here, then mosey on over to Born on Flag Day and give those ears of yours a treat.

Q&A: Clutch

2009-07-16T06:25:58Z

From left: Tim Sult, Dan Maines, Neil Fallon and Jean-Paul Gaster

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.

Q&A: Death By Stereo

2009-07-10T04:18:00Z

Dan Palmer (left), Efrem Schulz

For California skate punk outfit Death by Stereo, it's been a tough journey through the darkness, but they've found their way back. Formed in 1997, D.B.S. took hardcore mentality, punk ethics and metallic tones; injected their outspoken swagger; and made a name for themselves with incredible live shows all across the country. As they gained momentum and their sound turned more aggressive, the band found themselves stricken by tragedy and at the center of some unwanted controversy in 2003 when a fan was killed at one of their shows -- a memory that frontman Efrem Schulz recalls as "one of the most awful things I will probably ever see in my lifetime."

Bouncing back from the misfortune was not easy, but Death By Stereo persevered and continued writing and releasing music. Then, after parting ways with Epitaph Records, Schulz explains, "the planets were aligned to end our band." But in trying to do it on their own, D.B.S. found an ally in System of a Down's Serj Tankian, who took the band in under his Serjical Strike imprint to release their Jason Freese-produced fifth album, Death Is My Only Friend. To learn more about the new record and how far Death by Stereo have come since 2005's Death for Life, read what else Schulz had to say in our interview (click below). ]]> Death by Stereo started as a hardcore band, and over the course of your career, you guys were getting heavier and more metal, but with this record you completely changed directions. How did that come about?
We just wanted to do something completely different. We really wanted to make a conscious effort not to repeat ourselves, so I think that explains why the shift in sound. We tried to push our limits on the heavy end on the last record, so we wanted to see if we could push our limits on the opposite end on this record -- and just try and get better at playing. We just want to keep moving forward and not look to the past, you know?

Does current music and the way scenes are changing have any influence on your output?
I don't know; we always wanted to be separate from everyone else's band, and we are just kind of ignoring what everyone else is doing. I don't know if it was so much a reaction to everyone else, or if it was a reaction to ourselves, but we are like, "How can we progress and get better at just playing our instruments and just challenging ourselves to do something new?" I think that's just part of growing and just being a musician, you know?

I read that you guys worked on this record for two years. Can you tell me a little bit about the process?
We kind of worked on it on and off. When we started doing it, we left Epitaph, and we wanted to do our own thing and do it on our own. We started recording it by ourselves, and then as time went on, you know, doing a record by yourself is kind of expensive, so we had to tour in between and just do things to be able to pay for it. And then halfway through the process Jason Freese approached me about doing a record for us, and I was like, "Wow -- well, here's our songs!" And then we started all over again with him. The process kind of doubled our time. It ended up opening all these new doors; he put us on this whole new train of thought about writing. He comes from such an extensive songwriter's background, and he's such an amazing jazz player -- he knows so much about theory and stuff, and it was just so bitchin' to hang with him and just write songs every day. And we just kept writing and filling stuff out and writing and filling stuff out until we found something we were all happy with.

And you also had a couple new members as well as some old members coming in and out over that time, so how did that affect songwriting?
Well me and Dan [Palmer, guitarist] still wrote everything [laughs]. Our friends just come in and out when they can and just play with us and kind of come along for the ride, and me and Dan have been holding it down. We just did all the writing and basically wrote everything with Jason Freese, and then everyone just learns the songs and interprets them their way live.

How did you guys end up signing with Serjical Strike Records?
George [Tonikian], who is an old friend of ours who runs Serjical Strike, is actually Dan's landlord. He owns Dan's house. We were friends with George for years, and he hooked me up with Serj, [who] produces Buckethead's records. I sang a song on the Buckethead record, and that's how I met Serj. I discovered that Serj was actually aware of us and aware of what we were doing and into our band, and he was just really cool. I was like, "You know who we are?!" And he just kind of kept tabs on us, so when we were freed up and we had this finished record, we were talking to George about it and I guess he mentioned it to Serj, and Serj was like, "F*ck, let's do it!" So we created a partnership with them. It's pretty cool. The record's ours; we own it, we control everything and it's completely a 50/50 partnership with Serj.

You guys have always been a band that's had something to say, what are your lyrical messages this time around?
We're being a lot more positive than we were last time around. It's definitely more issue-based. We're just trying to get back to the issues that are affecting the world and us in general, and I mean there's still personal stuff on there, but I think right now in music we're in desperate need of people who actually talk about the things going on in the world. People aren't doing that, so it's definitely the time. Fortunately there's a couple bands still holding it down. Rise Against is doing an incredible job, and they're keeping it real, and we're just trying to keep that torch lit and keep people thinking. I think there's a place for all kinds of music in the world, but right now though? I think we definitely have a lot of people singing about how they hate their parents and their girlfriend dumping them and that's cool; dude, I was bummed when my girlfriend dumped me, too -- I was super-bummed! But I think we need to say some other things. If you have an audience and a voice, no matter how small or big it is, you should at least use part of your time to say something positive, to fight back against this world that would destroy us.

What are some of the specific things that you guys are talking about?
There's a song on the record that my good friend Phil Phantom sings with me on. It's called "Fear of a Brown Planet"; it's a little play on the Public Enemy title and it's about all the issues that are going on at the border here, because we live in California and we're three hours away from the border and my parents are from Mexico. And there's a desperate need for immigration reform, and it just seems like our government's trying to ignore the problems at the border by building a gigantic wall. Like, if we build up this giant wall we can just keep them out and they won't bother us. So I'm trying to shed some light on that issue, and also, we all know somebody's palms are getting greased and drugs are still getting across the border and money's being made. I just hope that people become more aware of what's really going on. And other issues we were talking about -- this never-ending war that we've been in, we're still talking about personal issues. We redid "Forever and a Day," [which] was on the last record with piano and vocals only. That song's about a good friend of mine, my friend Steve, who I lost for a minute there. He died, but he actually came back to life. It's about second chances and everybody devaluing their friends -- I mean it's kind of across the board. Overall I'd say the whole message of the record is, you have to be the voice of the voiceless sometimes. There's a lot of people that can't stand up for themselves so you have to scream really loud.

Is that what has come from growing and maturing as a band?
I think that in the past, it was just like I had the "f*ck you" gun cocked, and it was just like "F*ck you! F*ck you! F*ck you! F*ck you! F*ck you!" But that came with being younger and just being loud and obnoxious -- like you need someone to listen. But now I'm starting to learn that maybe if I pick my battles and learn a better way to express myself, more people will listen. So it's not just "f*ck you," it's like, "Hey, f*ck you -- but this is why."

You've experienced some serious hardships over the last few years. How much of that has come into where you're at as a band now?
A lot of it. When we made the last record, we came off of two of the f*cking sh*ttiest years of our lives. We got sued, someone died, it was so much craziness and we had so many forces in the universe -- the planets were aligned to end our band, to stop us. Our last record was just like f*ck everyone, you can't stop us, we're so f*cking pissed, f*ck the world, f*ck everything, everything's doomed. That was a little rough patch we were going through; but it was honest, and I think we got it out of our system and that's what brought us to here now. Like, okay, we got through it -- let's get posi again, man.

What does Death Is My Only Friend mean?
Well, through thick and thin, no matter what's happened, what's failed us -- whether it be certain corporations or people or girlfriends or lawyers or life, through it all, when the rug was pulled out from under us, this band was our only friend, and it was the last thing that was there when everything was gone.