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BANDS: Punk
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Interview:
THE CONNELLS 7/9/02
Remember in the movie Almost Famous, how that kid chases his favorite band around trying to get them to sit down for the elusive interview hes always wanted to do? Well I was "that kid" earlier this summer as I tried to arrange an interview with the Connells during one of their brief stints of recent touring. Unable to catch the band at their Norfolk, VA show in June, I was finally successful in arranging a meeting with a few of the Connells before their Virginia Beach show at Peabodys in July. Doug MacMillan, Steve Potak, Steve Ritter, and Mike Ayers [who has been standing in for George Huntley] stayed true to the Connells reputation of nicest rock band ever as we sat to discuss the recording of their newest album as well as the past, present, and future of the Connells. LOTD: First Ill ask about the new record and how it was recorded. I heard you say today on your interview with 93.7 the Coast that it was recorded in your practice space; so was that a new thing for you to record in that kind of different environment? Doug: Well, first of all, about
half of the songs were demos that we had just worked on, and the rest of it was
recorded there with Steve Ritter on drums.
John Wurster [Superchunk] played drums on some of those other ones.
And then Steve Potak over here has got a recording studio in his home
where we did a lot of the overdubs and mixing for it, so it was actually pretty
convenient for us to record there, because its where we spent a lot of time
anyways. You know, the problem with
recording on your own is that you dont have the record company paying for it,
but we didnt spend a lot of money as far as I know. LOTD: What about the different style, using a 4-track for recording Bust, Gladiator Heart, and Rusted Fields; was that just kind of to try something different? Doug: Well, John Heames, whos
a friend of ours and has played in bands with Steve Potak has recorded stuff
that way, and from what I can tell, it was just sort of emulating what they did
in the 60s with like, you know, some of those old Beatles recordings and Hendrix
recordings where they had 4-track machines where they would record drums and the
guitar together, and then later on youd do the vocals and the other
guitarists, and the bass would come in last.
And generally what youd do in the studio is youd record drums and
bass with the band playing along and add all that stuff later, so it was great,
but we had to know our parts. There
was no messing up allowed. I guess
a lot of the tracks that wed done with Tim Harper were on ADAT and then John
Heames hes a real purist from the old style, and he just knows how to put
the microphone in the right place and use the right compression, blah, blah,
blah. [Looks to Steve Ritter] You
probably had a few moments of Do we have to do another take of this? Steve R: It was really quick. If he liked it, he liked it. If he liked it, wed do another one for safety. And then we were done good to go. John was really good too. I mean, he would listen to it, and move the mic around because it was one on the kick and this overhead mic. And I was into the experience. He was good, fast, and hes got a lot of talent. LOTD: So the whole recording process was a lot quicker then? Doug: Wellyeah, but we would do it in spurts. Itd be a weekend here, a night there, and then wed go do some overdubs at Steves house. LOTD: The three years between the last two albums, were you guys writing that whole time? Doug: The plan was that we were writing and demo-ing for what would have been our seventh or eighth album for TVT, and we sent them the demos, and there was sort of not the most enthusiastic response, but they figured well sort it out when we record. Lou Giordano was set to produce the album, and he was actually in Raleigh, to preview production. Then the guy that runs TVT called, and at the eleventh, no at the twelfth hour, he was calling Mike Connell putting Mike on the phone with Andy Partridge from XTC, whos signed to TVT, and he wanted them to write together. And you know, great, but Mike wasnt really into it. LOTD: You mean to write songs for a Connells album? Doug: Yeah, and Ive gotta back that up a little bit. Although my quote was, if hed gotten Robert Pollard from Guided By Voices, maybe things wouldve been a little different. LOTD: Theyre not even on TVT either anymore! Doug: I know, yeahmaybe we wouldve gone to Ohio to do that, butand then there were some other things like, Record this cover song. Stuff that just came up that was out of the blue. And we just kind of shook our heads no, and then next thing we know, the week before we were supposed to go in the studio, were done, its over. LOTD: And what year was all this taking place? Doug: About two and a half years ago. LOTD: Wow, so the songs on the new album had already been written then? Steve R: Well, wed done all the demos because Lou is a little different than some of the producers wed worked with. He had worked with us before, and he kind of knew what to expect from us. And he said, lets just save some time in the studio by really getting the tracks right on the demos, tempo shifts and that sort of thing. He really wanted it mapped out, so when we got in the studio, we would just do it, which was really to our advantage when we had these demos because the rhythm tracks were all really solid and usable for our record. We can thank Lou for making our demo sessions a lot more organized than they normally would be. But that was lucky.
Doug: He produced Ring. He knew who he was dealing with. I dont think he was all that surprised by what happened. But it just sort of sucked for us, but also for the studio that was booked for five weeks, for everyone who worked there, for Lou, the people that were going to cook the food. I mean the list goes on and on of the people who got kind of screwed on that deal, but hey, man, doesnt really surprise any of us a bit. So thats what happened. LOTD: After all that happened, did you fish around for another indie label? Therere so many little indie labels in North Carolina. Or were you definitely set on recording on Black Park again, on your own? Doug: Yeah, we thought about that and then we realized we could do it on our own and sell it over the web. Also, its being distributed by Redeye, which is a great distributor. They won an award for best independent distribution company in 2000, 2001. Its not through their label, but its through their company, and so it didnt make sense to find a new label. And really, we didnt want to go through that whole nightmare. LOTD: I heard you say today on the radio that Black Park kind of turned into Mammoth Records. I never knew that how did that happen? Doug: Yeah, a guy named Jake Ferris at one point, was sharing an office with Ed [Morgan] downtown in Raleigh. He eventually I guess, just bought them out, took over Black Park and turned it into Mammoth, moved it to Chapel Hill, and the rest is history. And then it was a few years ago that Disney put inhow many million dollars? Steve P: There was a jet involved. I know that. Doug: But you know, Squirrel Nut Zippers and all those bands, they sold some records. As things go, they closed the office at some point. Steve P: How many people did they have working there? Close to 100? Doug: Yeah, they had a big operation. They still were an independent label, but all of a sudden, they had a big bag of money. And as Josh Grier put it so well, they just want more big bags of money back. Thats all they want. They give you a big bag of money, they want two back! LOTD: So, tell me a little bit about how the bands song-writing process has changed over the years. I know you have more of you participating now than just Mike and George. Doug: Basically if a song is written and people like it, we work it up. Steve P: It was different on this record though. On Still Life and the one before it, Weird Food, there was a lot of collaboration, and I think we all kind of said, Well, Mikes been doing a lot of the song-writing, and it just was easier for us to have him do the lions share of it on Old School Droupouts. And he was into doing that, and Doug and George contributed a few in there, which were great songs that are on there. But I think its just easier that way, because wed had a problem with having too many songs to choose from. LOTD: Too many? Doug: Yeah, with Weird Food and Devastation, we had a bunch. I mean there were tons of them. Steve P: So we started working a lot on a lot of songs, instead of you know, a lot on a few of them to make them sound better. Once again, doing it ourselves without a producer, it was easier to organize it, because we had thirteen songs that we were going to choose from rather than 20 songs to choose from. But I think Mike, he likes that role of the primary song-writer. LOTD: I think I heard a rumor about you guys sifting through some old material for a live album. Doug: Yeah, I heard that rumor too. [laughs] I dont know. I think weve been trying to record a couple of shows lately. I think the problem with that, at least for me, would be having to sit and listen to all those tapes. I frankly dont want to do that. Id rather have somebody else do that, someone whos more objective. Steve R: We dont have the machine either for removing the sound of ice clinking in glasses. Steve P: Over the years, Tim Harper, our sound manager would do a lot of production stuff. Hed kind of do just basic live recordings. There is good potential there for a live album, but its tough because it would be hard thing to decide which versions to use. Well see LOTD: So you think itll happen eventually maybe? Steve P: Maybe. Im thinking the box sets coming before the live album. Doug: I guess we already have a couple of thosetheres a live something, New Boy? Steve P: Yeah on some EPs, yes there are some live tracks. Doug: But I mean, I just
want to go to Budokan. [laughs] We
should go play a gig in Budokan. LOTD: Where? Doug:
You know the Cheap Trick thing?
Live at Budokan. Steve R: Its the big arena in Tokyo. LOTD: Oh yeah, thats right! Steve P: Wed have the mechanical Japanese audienceno offense to the record-buying public in Tokyo. Doug: But you can say that because you lived there. Steve P: Yeah, it lends itself well to a live recording. They are very regimented live audiences. LOTD: Yeah, you can definitely hear it. Steve P: Yeah, it works out good for live recordings. LOTD: So maybe a tour to Japan then! Steve P: I would love to. LOTD: Actually thats what I was going to ask you. I know you have a lot of European fans that are dying for you to go back there. Are you going to tour outside the US anytime soon? Doug: No. Not that we know of. I think what we should have done is written 75-76. [laughter] Steve R: Thats a prequel. Doug: Yeahwell, no. Or 73-74. Yeah, the prequel. That wouldve been good. If wed have done thatbut see, when we recorded Weird Food & Devastation, we were trying to change things a little bit. I think if we had known that that song on the previous album Ring was going to do so well, we would have [laughs] written, you know, something along those lines. Somebody would have. I know Mike probably Steve P: Yeah, there was discussion about it. Yeah, you know where people were sayingI think Mike was saying, I wrote that a long time ago. Its just hard to write another one just for commercial purposes. Now were broke. [laughter] Now we really wish wed written a song for commercial purposes! Doug: [laughs] Exactly! LOTD: So you wrote Weird Food & Devastation before the massive thing in Europe happened? Steve P: Actually while it was going on. Remember, we had to go in the studio, so we could go over there [to Europe] and come back. And we were actually getting mixes Doug: But the songs were definitely written before any of that activity started. And the recording was going on Steve
P: And they were
actually Fed-Ex-ing the mixes to us while we were in Europe so we could
listen to them and make decisions on them, which I think might have hurt that
album a little bit. It was that it
was hard to get everyone to sit together on a bus and listen to recordings of
songs, and wed be like yeah, thats fine.
So the guy made a lot of calls on his own, and you know, I like that
record, but we werent very attentive to it, because we were definitely moody. LOTD:
Because of the tour and everything? Steve
P: Yeah, having to go
overseas that whole year the same time as doing the record. LOTD:
I know you debuted a new song Dumptruck
last time I saw you play. [laughter]
Are you still writing new material? Steve
R: Thats a cover
song actually from a band in Raleigh. LOTD:
Is that so? Steve
R: Called
Mommy. Its not actually
our song. Its a cover song. LOTD:
[laughs] I thought his [Dougs] son
wrote it? Doug: Yeah, we wrote it together. Its
a long story. Steve
P:
Doug and Charlie. Doug
and son. Doug: We decided that if the Connells wanted to play it, its ok.
Yeah, hes the writing machine. That
guy man, he wont stop. Tow-truck,
Dumptruck. Mike played on
them Mike Ayers played on Tow Truck.
[To Mike] Didnt you play on Tow-truck? Mike
A:
Actually, I didnt. I
played on Roller and uh Doug: Yeah, thats right. He
played on Roller and .Front
Loader! Mike
A:
Front Loader, yeah! Doug: Thats right, you didnt play on Tow-truck. LOTD:
So these are all new songs, huh? Doug: Well these are songs Ive been writing with my son and recording with
friends. But I mean, hey man, if
the Connells want to record whoever wants to record them can record them, I
say. As long as he goes to college,
thats all I care about. But then
of course Bill Mooney reminded me, thats what Macaulay
Culkins dads first thoughts were.
[laughs] We all know what happened there! LOTD:
I guess the last thing I wanted to ask
you was what kind of stuff are you guys listening to right now? Are you still plugged into the whole Raleigh scene and the
triangle? Doug: Yes. LOTD:
Thats what I hear. Doug: And everyone should get it. Steve
P: Im real proud of our friends
Tift Merritt that we used to tour with. They
used to go out with us on tour, and theyre doing a pretty large tour right
now themselves. Doug: Really? Who are they
playing with? Steve
P: I dont know who theyre
touring with, but they left a couple weeks ago.
Thats good for her. Doug: Same label as Ryan Adams I think. LOTD:
Oh, on Lost Highway? Doug: Yep, thats it. I like
the last Sparklehorse record a lot. I
dont know if youre familiar with them or not LOTD:
Yeah, from VirginiaMark Linkous Doug: Boy thats good. That
guys great. Um, Picture Made. Mike
A: Yeah, I played with those guys all
the time. LOTD:
Last time I saw you, you mentioned the
new Paul Westerberg record, and I went ahead and bought that. Its great! Doug: Oh yeah! Isnt it?
Steve
R: Its
really good. LOTD:
I havent liked very much of his solo
stuff, but this new albums really good. Doug: I think he went and did the real slick studio stuff and then got dropped
by Capitol. And then theres a
studio in his basement LOTD:
Who has the right to drop Paul
Westerberg from their label?! I
mean, come on! Doug: [laughs] Yeah, he did the
thing where I love it do you guys know the story? Westerberg, he just sat in his basement for two years and
wrote and recorded all these songs, and of course he fired his manager and
lawyer and got his bass player to be his manger.
And said here heres the tape; go find me a record deal.
He went to Vagrant records, and apparently he got a nice, hefty advance.
Its weird because its two records that wouldve made one great
record. LOTD:
Yeah, I like both, but I think I like the
harder one better. But theyre
both good. Doug: I do like Let the Bad Times Roll.
Thats a good song. A
great line.
The Connells' music can be purchased at Amazon, CDNow and CD Universe LOTD Review of Old School Dropouts About LOTD Contact/Staff Advertise Home All content © LEFT OFF THE DIAL 2001-2005. All rights reserved. |
