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Finding Counterculture: Interview with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
[by Ryan Gray]
Morphizm: I know your time is valuable so let's jump right into it.
Peter Hayes: (Laughter) It's not that valuable.
Morphizm: It struck me after Hurricane Katrina how timely this album is given your take on gospel and rhythm and blues. You guys been thinking about New Orleans a lot?
PH: I'm just trying to figure out ways to lend our help especially the place I'm coming from you know what I mean. We're trying to hopefully sort out the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. They'll be coming to our shows and you know have clothes donations and food and money they can pick up after every show, just try to lend our help.
Morphizm: If Howl was a soundtrack, what would the plot be? I know you've been through a lot of shit in the past year that culminated with Nick leaving the band before returning.
PH: I guess it would have to be soul-searching of some sort. It would be a movie about trying to find the right battle and fight there instead of everywhere, you know?
Morphizm: What would that battle be?
PH: For me right now, it's the battle of trying to find counterculture and trying to revise it, if for nothing more than myself. Not getting in line with the power of money. Feed into that as much as possible.
Morphizm: It sounds like you guys are pretty grounded. Your taking fame pretty well.
PH: We've always been there, that's where we've always been coming from. It hasn't been talked about a whole lot. We like to talk about impressions people have when they want to talk about music. But this stuff affects music. You see a problem in our culture, so we bring that up in our music and ourselves. We can't blame anyone but ourselves; we just have to do our part.
Morphizm: Let's talk about the music. It's not so much a departure from your earlier stuff, but rather a continuation of your take on rock styles, in this instance with gospel and R&B. But these are songs you've been singing for years?
PH: Yeah. I should explain it a little bit. “Love Burns,” “Spread Your Love,” “Salvation,” “Rifles” -- a lot of the songs off the first album were acoustic and so it made sense going electric. More complicated. But on “Shuffle Your Feet,” ”Complicated Situation” and also “Weight of the World," have been around since the first album and didn't make sense going electric. They just didn't work. I spent a lot of time with acoustic guitar, hanging out on the streets playing for money. Things like that, so it's a pretty strong place I've come from.
Morphizm: Where are you from?
PH: I grew up in Minnesota and went to high school in Lafayette, Calif. That's where we all met. It's an important part of this band, this backstory that's never really been talked about. We never really talked about it. (Laughs) We really didn't have a whole lot to say about it, but as soon as people kind of assume you don't have a backstory it's, "Well, I guess we better talk about it." The area wasn't all that; guys like me, Rob and Nick stuck out like sore thumbs. It's pretty easy to bump into each other when you have a group of maybe 15 people that you know were acquainted but didn't know about each other at the same time. Nick knew about me through other people and I knew about him through other people. It was a traveling circus thing, I guess.
Morphizm: Being more artsy -- I don't know if that's the right term -- it's really coming to the point where you simply accept standing out like a sore thumb. Did you ever go through that growing up?
PH: What I don't understand is what you said right there. I'm of the same opinion. I don't like to call myself artsy or whatever, but it's considered that. And it's, “Oh that ain't cool,” you know? There's something wrong with, I don't know what it is, hip, cool, whatever you want to call it. It's like, "Well what the fuck are you talking about?" There's a point where I'd rather be artsy-fartsy than not give a shit and try to be too cool for school. Anybody and everybody is invited when it's for music. At the same time, it's also good to have an “Us and Them” mentality, so at least you can fight about things a little. It's cool to have a counterculture. Fucking beatnik. If you call me that, fine.
Morphizm: So what is your musical background? There's something raw about your music.
PH: I grew up on a farm, and thisalbum was the first time I actually went back and actually thought about that. I let the writing come from there a bit. I can't really get into an argument about how poor I was compared to anybody else. It's not about that. It's just about trying to draw from that experience. And back then it was basically Kasey Kasem's Top 40 country countdown. That's kinda where I was coming from. Real simple. (Laughs) I didn't have a record collection until I was 20. I didn't have any CDs until I was 20. Because I didn't have money for them. So I just turned around and got food. (Laughs)
Morphizm: You gotta eat.
PH: Yeah, basically. So it was more drawing from that, drawing from the ideas and feelingd you got from the Beatles, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones. Those guys were having fun making records. I don't know if it was the atmosphere, but they didn't seem to care if someone said, "Now you sound like a psychedelic band. Are you copying Pink Floyd?"
Morphizm: Basically flying by the seat of your pants.
PH: Yeah. A lot of that.
Morphizm: How do you guys work these songs out?
PH: A lot of it was written on acoustic guitar. We helped each other with words now and again. The songs that stayed acoustic were the ones that really seemed to not want anything done to them. We tried, but it didn't work. On songs like “Howl,” Robert laid down an acoustic guitar track and vocals, I played an organ and it worked. And then we went out and laid down a timpani. There was not much thinking involved. It was, “Let's try this.” It made sense, to us anyway.
Morphizm: You gotta do it for yourself and the guys you play with.
PH: Absolutely. I agree with that 100 percent. You can go for a certain sound that the radio wants, and you can get a guy who mixes it for radio because that's what he can do. And there you are: You can be on the radio. But there's more to it than that. There's just more to it.
Morphizm: It's art.
PH: It's good to hear somebody say that besides me.
Morphizm: How is the band doing? Did the disagreements with Nick affect this album?
PH: No, it was something that Nick was 100 percent into. We were coming at it from a different place in the beginning, before we took a break and spilt for a while. With the other album, we'd have him put a drum track down and we'd play and sing to that. This time, we went in a completely different way: We started with the acoustic guitars and had the drums play to that. That's the feel we wanted, like sitting on the back porch and stomping feet to the guitar. But it was good to take a moment and step back from it all and make sure we kept our heads together and came from the same place. Nick's known we've had these types of songs from the beginning.
Morphizm: The harmonies are nicely textured. How did they come about?
PH: It was a spur-of-the-moment thing that happened in the studio. I just sat there singing one track after another. I'd told them not to stop: “Go back and give me another one, give me another one.” Then I sat back and sorted it out. It sounded like a fucking mess for a long time, but then we blended them in and it worked. It was as surprising to me as anybody else.
Morphizm: So who takes the writing credits? Or is it a family affair?
PH: We don't look at it that way. It's something we've always tried to dodge too. The band is about these three guys -- well, actually a fourth guy now with Michael “Spike” Keating on second guitar. But it's basically about the three of us. We've been shunning the lone rock star thing. It's been done. A bunch of bands have done it. (Laughs)
26 October 05
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NEW ORDER
From: Item
WATCH:
"Bizarre Love Triangle"
QT WMA REAL
WATCH:
"True Faith"
QT WMA REAL
WATCH:
"Fine Time"
QT WMA REAL
THE BAND
From: A Musical History
Listen: "The Weight"
WMA
WOLF PARADE
From: Apologies to the Queen Mary
LISTEN: "Shine a Light"
MP3
ELVIS COSTELLO
From: The Right Spectacle
WATCH:
"Radio Radio"
QT WMA REAL
WATCH:
"High Fidelity"
QT WMA REAL
WATCH:
"Veronica"
QT WMA REAL
ANTHRAX
"I Am the Law"
From: Alive 2
See Also:
Public Enemy
QT WMA
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE:
"Soul Meets Body"
From: Plans
AUDIO: WMA REAL
See Also: Transatlanticism
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