If you ask any fan of Clutch what they are to him, he'll probably respond that Clutch are the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world and it's just a fact, not bigotry. The four guys have been together for exactly a quarter century. 25 years the same four people who play for fun, just because this is what they can, and walk on Earth for. They love to play together so much that they have a side project - The Bakerton Group. Again the four of them, just without singing. Just to make sure they won't miss each other while resting from Clutch. Ah, vocals we say? Neil Fallon, the singer of Clutch is one of the most charismatic frontmen in rock'n'roll today. He started with hardcore and punk attitude before rediscovering blues and grow his beard almost 20 years ago, he now lays down fantastic urban masses with solid bluesy voice, gesturing and lurking off the stage like a possessed preacher of rock'n'roll. And because we too belong in his congregation and in Clutch we trust, in late summer we caught them in Zagreb, Croatia. And of course, we sat with Neil for a bottle of beer before the concert to tell us about rock'n'roll life, touring and the road, inspiration, music, artwork, their own record label and the things that build up the iconic image of Clutch. And for the next album that they will sit down to record next year. Oh, and to ask him to call for the birthday of our good friend Ivan, which he did simply because he is a hell of a dude. Read Neil Fallon's first interview for Bulgarian media (and listen to audio stream of the conversation at the bottom of the page).
Hey Neil! How are you and how you like it here?
It's nice. We had a day off yesterday, so I walked around a bit.
Is this fancy nightliner your vehicle?
Yes. But it doesn't smell so fancy when you are stuck in there with ten people.
How do you see online streaming and music sharing towards record sales and music industry?
I think Clutch has sort of a special position. Through the nineties we were signed to major labels, we had tour support but we didn't sell a whole lot of records. Once the record sales started going down, they dropped a bunch of bands like us. But then for some reason our sales started getting bigger in the United States and in Europe. And the only thing I can attribute to it is the Internet because it wasn't like albums getting pressed out and put into new place. It was people discovering our band online. And that translates into someone getting to our show and buying a T-shirt and telling his friends about us. And that's great, I've got no problem with it at all. I think the idea of making money through selling music kind of came and went very quickly. As much as I want to make living doing this, I also understand music's been free for thousands of years. And making money from music is something that emerged in 1930's.
So, it's okay with you if people are downloading your music but then they pay to see you live and buy merchandise at the show?
You know, we still sell records and people still wanna buy records but the idea of millions of records sales is just an exception from the rule. Hey, if I can travel around in the tour bus and come to places for the very first time - that's awesome.
Is it still fun for you and aren't you getting tired of being on the road all this time?
Uhm, it is fun. Sure, you get tired like anything else in life - we've being doing this for 25 years, but compared to other things I could be doing, this is a lot of fun - I get to travel the world. I only actually have to work - like today our set is probably gonna be an hour and a half long. It's work for 90 minutes. Who in the right mind would complain about that? That's very lucky position to be in.
Photography Mark Millman
Clutch is one of the most intensively touring bands today - it's like you are on the road for 150-200 days per year. Don't you miss your family?
Of course! That's the shitty part about it. When I was 20, 21, 22, I could stay on the road for 365 days a year - it didn't matter. Now I have son who's six and a wife and I miss them terribly. But the flip side of when I am at home is that I don't have to do anything else. I am a parent and a husband 24/7. Thankfully, we are living in the age of the cell phone and we can talk every day, so it is far more easier when I am away.
Have you taken your family with you on tour?
Locally with my son, because with a six years old it is too much of distraction. But he has seen our band bunch of times. He's actually going to see Black Sabbath tonight and I haven't ever seen Black Sabbath and my six years old son is going to see them and that really upsets me (laughs).
Even though they are not in their original line up entirely.
Yes, but if this is definitely their last tour, he would be able to say "I saw them" when he's forty.
Talking about music release - you now run your own label Weathermaker Music. Isn't it too distracting taking care about label and having the band? Or you have people working in the label for you?
It's us who make all the decisions. We have a label manager who comes to us day to day, cause that would be distracting. It has been a learning process, because in a perfect world, all we'd have to do is worry about music and art. If we are managers ourselves, we'd have to think about business. But really, after we learned how to do it, it became easier. Now we can decide when do we want to do a record. Where and with whom we would want to go on tour. If you are signed to a major label, or any label for that matter, these decisions get made for you.
Do you think it's better for Clutch this way?
Yeah. It's more work, like anything else in life, yet the reward is better. If there's a mistake made, we'd know who to talk to - it's ourselves. That can be confusing at times but we work it out. And it's not like we want the label to become big and sign bands. There is a certain amount of people who like Clutch, we get to these people and give them our records and then we're on our way.
How did you choose the name Weathermaker?
There is this instrumental track on Blast Tyrant called "Weathermaker". And we were going back and forth through the song titles and that one seemed to sound right.
And about your merchandise - you have really beautiful artworks, especially on T-Shirts. Who makes those?
Talking about albums artwork and video - for Psychic Warfare we worked with Dan Winters. He also did the self-titled record (1995) and the Transnational Speedway League (1993). And our friend Nick Lakiotes did the Robot HIve/Exodus (2005) and Strange Cousins from the West (2009). We've always struggled with art and it's just a matter of finding people. You have to find the artist and then the layout guy, because usually the artist doesn't do the layout. It can be the most difficult part of the process - finding something that looks cool. You have to be able to get those images on T-Shirt.
But you have so many different T-Shirts that don't have the albums designs.
We tour so much, that we have to always have new designs. When the artowrk for the album is done we can always have it on different aspect and use it for the merch or come up with something brand new. Album artwork is sometimes problematic because it has to fit the T-Shirt, so it stays cool.
Now you've been touring for Psychic Warfare for more than a year, so what's next?
We have the US tour with Zakk Sabbath and then we have some European dates in December. Then again in the States in Christmas time. And in the beginning of 2017 we're gonna start thinking of another record. We’ll start writing. We are not going to commit to a release date until we know we are ahead of recording it. Psychic Warfare hasn’t been out for a year yet but we’ve toured on it very intensively and we are eager to learn new songs.
You have released many albums, Psychic Warfare being the 11th one and all of them are great. How do you keep releasing great rock and roll albums without having a single weak one out?
It’s the same four people and that’s a big part of the formula. We can change our playing style and learn how to do different things but it’s still the same dude with the same accent in his playing. We know our strengths and we are not going to abandon that - we’re not going to go “now we’re gonna do a folk record”. But at the same time we all try to learn new things. I take guitar lessons and Jean-Paul takes drums lessons and we are trying to become better players. And these things are showing in the new material.
Do you still learn new things about how to write and play music?
Absolutely! When we did the first record I didn’t think of things like melody and harmony but now it is totally different. And when you grow up, you have bigger vocabulary and you use different language. Sure, in the creative process we could get frustrated and run out of ideas, but usually after that you come up with fresh ideas.
What do you do when you get stuck like this? Does traveling around help?
I think so. But sometimes the harder you try, the worse it gets. The best ideas always come the easiest. They usually come in very inopportune moments like sitting in the car or in airplane. When you sit down to write a song, usually nothing happens. And when the idea strikes, I try to write it down immediately because my memory is terrible. Trying to remember idea for a song is like trying to remember the dream from the last night - in an hour it’s gone. In the nineties I used to carry a notepad but now I have a cell phone and I always mumble into it. Sometimes I can’t tell what I said but it’s better than nothing.
Especially in the 90’s you have a very typical style of singing - almost like MC, which is not very typical for a rock and roll band. How did you incorporate that type of singing in Clutch?
In the early nineties the things I listened to the most were hardcore and hip hop. I listened to Minor Threat and Public Enemy. I was very adverse to the idea of pitch and melody ‘cause for me that was too commercial. So I realized that when you do something rhythmic, that is way more natural for me. Now through the years I’ve learned that melody and pitch are not necessarily a bad thing. I am listening to those old records and I sound almost like a different person. You’ve changed than the person you’ve been on 20 years when you are 40.
You have this hardcore background and then again how did you find the blues?
I think it’s always there and we just haven’t realized. When we were kids - I am talking about the 70’s and 80’s, we were listening to ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughn and all those electrified blues bands. And then as teenagers we’ve found our own thing with bands like Minor Threat, Venom or Black Sabbath (who were a blues band as well, yet a lot darker). Then we got older and kind of saw the longer history of things and turned back to early, early blues and it is very informative to see how during time the music have progressed. It was in early 2000’s when we started thinking about it and trying these ideas.
And do you still listen to old blues music?
Oh, yes, mostly.
Talking of early days, in your first album you have used the word “fuck” and then it never appeared in any other Clutch album.
Yeah. In that particular instance I wrote the lyrics the night before we tracked it. I was really stressed out, I didn’t know what to do and I locked myself in the bathroom while the band was sharing one hotel room - you can imagine four guys in one room. And I stayed in the bathroom, drinking and smoking cigarettes and I said “Okay, this is it!”. But after singing this song night after night for years, I realized it was not really me. I am not an angry person - I can get angry but it’s not me. It seemed like acting, expressing an emotion that’s really not there and I later found that trying to tell a story even if it doesn’t make much sense, is easier for me to do night after night, after night. It is more fun for the listener - their version is different than the writer’s version but it’s not necessarily wrong. Sometimes is important to have emotion in the song but anger can be very meaningless. It’s easy to be aggressive and say “Fuck!” - that’s the easiest thing in the world but that is not satisfying for me.
Being honest, I had a period in my life when I was fascinated of shocking - when I heard punk rock from the 70's and 80's, I was shocked that these guys were cursing like sailors. Doing this for 20 or 30 years it is not shocking and this can become boring. There are people coming and saying "How come you don't play 'Binge & Purge'?" And I just don't want to sing those lyrics. I can do a pony show and act angry for you but that's not musicianship - that's theater.
You sing with so many bands outside of Clutch - do you enjoy doing it?
Yeah, I think it's a good exercise. I've been in Clutch for 25 years and it can be very familiar. And then working with three or four other people could be really strange and challenging. That's the main reason I like doing it. And it is also really flattering.
There are your side projects The Company Band and now there's Dunsmuir. And also The Bakerton Group with the guys from Clutch. Is there anything new coming out with The Bakerton Group?
No. And that's the short answer because we are so busy with Clutch that there's honestly no time for that right now. I am not saying it's gone away.
And Dunsmuir is almost the same guys from The Company Band but you have Vinny Appice in drums. How did you get together?
Dave and Brad live in California and they wanted to jam regularly with a drummer, while Jess is on the East Coast. And they wanted to do something more metal. And I was just passing and said: "Well, if you want me to sing on it, just give me call". I wasn't expecting them to do it and that they'd find someone else. Yet, they asked me to do it and I said: "Sure". The album has been done for almost a year and a half now. It has certainly been a fun thing to do.
Is there going to be more of this project or it is only one album thing?
I'm pretty sure there's going to be another record, it's just a matter of time. Because Brad's got Fu Manchu, I've got Clutch and it's a matter of time when all three or four of us have the opportunity to record.
Having watched your last video for “A Quick Death in Texas”, I could not notice that most of your videoclips are not exactly serious but more a fun thing. Is that intentionally?
I think so. Clutch has never been comfortable in front of a video camera - as soon as one has one of these at us, we just zip and feel a bit goofy, so it's more natural for us to be goofy in front of the camera. I know that for some bands having a video is part of the package but we are not one of them. And videos are also expensive. Nowadays people watch live videos as much as they'd watch a film video.
Talking about live videos, you already have two official live DVDs and plenty of live albums and official bootlegs. Will you keep releasing live records?
I think so. It's a good thing to do in between records sometimes - like a fill in when the next record is not coming out for three years. And a lot of times songs change - you record them in the studio and then you play it night after night and it becomes a different beast, so a live record is good for that.
You change the setlist for the show ever night, so you are not comfortable with playing the same set of songs at every show?
No. That is quite boring. And I have started aging. If you know the next song and the next song, and the next song, that's when the mistakes would happen - you start thinking about something else. By changing the setlist for every show it keeps it interesting for us and it would get us a little bit scared - "I don't know that song very well", so you do have to think about it. And some bands are forced to get stuck to the same songs because of the production, you know - this happens at this part of the show, the light do this and you run to that ramp and do this. I'm too lazy for that. I don't even know what we are going to play tonight - that's the other part of it. Dan's doing the setlist. I know there's gonna be "Escape from the Prison Planet".
More than 6 years ago I did an interview with Tim Sult and asked him who are the strange cousins from the West. He told me: "You have to ask Neil". So, now I am asking you - who are the strange cousins from the West?
There's American horror writer called Thomas Ligotti and he had a short story about people coming to a town and they were all strangers from the East. And that was a cool story, almost like something from Clive Barker. I live on the East coast and I don't have any cousins from the East, they are all from the West. So, that was really the only reason, I was thinking only about myself, I guess.
How did you come up with the name Clutch? Do you have deeper interest in cars?
That was our thinking at the time. We were huge fans of the band Prong back in the day. And we thought that Clutch has this automotive sense. And the bands had been doing these one syllable names. And we honestly have been planning of changing it. But we had many shows and there were people coming to the shows and here we are 25 years later. So, I guess it's a bit late for changing the name.
But you change your logo for the albums between the two ones you have. How do you choose which one to use for the current record?
It depends on the aesthetics of the artwork. Psychic Warfare was very graphic and flat and the logo there is like a stamp, a block. And there's stuff like Strange Cousins from the West which is more painted and a little bit looser and we had to use the other logo. We've tried to come up with a third one but we left it behind.
And what car are you driving right now?
I drive a Jeep. And my wife drives a Volkswagen. I wish a drove a hot-rod.
Yeah, I've imagined you in a muscle car.
Yeah, some day I'll be the bolding guy in his sixties who's driving the car that he wanted when he was twenty.
Thank you and have a great show tonight!
Thank you! Let's hope we will meet in Bulgaria one day.
Text and photos Ivaylo Alexandrov
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