SHELLAC have proven to be pillars of integrity within the underground music community over the past 14 plus years, releasing records on their own terms and touring whenever it fits their schedule, be it Iceland, Italy, or your own backyard. Excellent Italian Greyhound, their first full-length LP since 2000's 1000 Hurts, is quite possibly the best of their career so far. Never for a lack of words or rapier wit, I spoke with guitarist/vocalist Steve Albini over the phone at his studio, Electrical Audio in Chicago, having recently gotten back from the Tape Op conference held here in Tucson, Ariz.
(photo courtesy of Ryan Russell)
In your own words, how would you describe Shellac's music?
It sorta depends on who's asking the question. When I'm talking to my Mom, I would say, well you know, rock music. Kinda like that. If I'm talking to somebody who's involved in the music scene in some way, I would say, if they aren't familiar [with our music] we're kinda a minimal band, a minimalist band. If it's, you know, someone from another planet, I would say that we're trying to express, through sound, ideas lodged in our consciousness--sometimes pleasant, sometimes unpleasant, but we're...for reasons that we can't articulate, we feel compelled to express them.
Has it been easier or harder to operate in the method that Shellac operates over the years?
Easier than what? Harder than what? It's all we do, it's all we know, so I'm assuming that it's incredibly easy, because I'm lazy and I wouldn't do anything difficult.
So really, how you guys have decided to operate hasn't affected touring, or...
Oh, sure it has, but I think it's affected it in ways that are positive. I think it's given us a very low burden of responsibility, it's given us a maximum window of freedom of expression and experience and it's given us a pretty strong foundation in what we do and don't like.
We're in a musical climate now where albums are constantly being reissued/repackaged or bands release albums every two years, whereas you guys tend to release albums whenever the hell you feel like it.
Exactly. When we have an album worth releasing, we'll release it, and if we don't, we're not gonna press the issue and try to come up with something.
Do you feel that's allowed for more creativity?
Well, we work on songs individually until they become performable, and then we'll start playing them in the set, and then over time other things come to mind that we want to try and we'll try building up a vocabulary of new songs. Almost all the songs that make their way to records are songs that we play live. Sometimes we don't play them live as a significant part of the set, like we'll only play them a few times and realize that we're not that fond of them in a live setting but still be worthwhile for recording, and sometimes they'll work great live but when we try to record them, they'll be lame.
Was that the case with [unreleased song] "Hang On"?
Yeah, we had a song called "Hang On" that we were doing for a couple of years, actually, and it seemed to work well live, but whenever we tried to record it seemed like the missing element, that is the live sensation of being there with an audience, that kept it from being any good. Just doing a recording of it seemed like it wasn't doing the idea justice. We tried recording it several times, and it just sucked every time so we blew it off.
I'm not gonna ask the question that everyone else seems to be asking, which is: why the hell it took you guys so long to release the album...
Well the short version for why it takes us a long time is that we work very slowly. The long version is that there are institutional delays as well. The record came out this year in June, we had it finished the previous May, it's just that it takes a very long time for the record company [Touch & Go] to get all the parts together. The packaging was relatively complex, there were multiple parts, we had to source all the parts, we had to get everything printed and assembled and shipped. All the stuff other than making a record that goes into making a record can make it hang on for like a year, and that's what happened with this record.
With everything that's happened politically since your last album came out (2000's 1000 Hurts), how do you feel about the current state of affairs in the U.S.?
Well, clearly we've lived through the worst presidential administration of my lifetime. I mean, I lived through Nixon, I saw how ugly it can get, but there are things you can say about Nixon and foreign policy that are not embarrassing. There aren't that many, but there are some, like for example, he began the process of normalizing relations with China. Whatever happens there, that was a necessary step. I can't think of a single fucking thing, say, in George Bush's defense. When people come back to us in 50 years and say, "Why did you let this go on?" there won't even be that much of a caveat to say, well, you know, there was a little something there that was a valuable element of his administration. There's nothing. So our political persuasion is probably the same as anybody else that lived through this. If you're a bajillionaire, then you probably think it's awesome. If you're not a bajillionaire, then you probably think it's the worst thing you've ever seen.
What are some records you've been excited about in the past few years?
Let's see....very, very fond of [Chicago band] the Bitter Tears. I like every Dead Meadow record. They seem to be meandering a little away from their original archetype, which I think is healthy, but I still buy their records and I still like them. Um...what else is good? That's about it. [laughs]
From a recording point of view, how hard has it been to remain in the analog domain now that everyone has done digital wild?
I mean, it's super easy, it's totally normal for me. It gets difficult when things like the supply of tape tightens up or when you need to buy spare parts for tape machines. Those sorts of things cause consternation, but actual recording? Easy as pie. Running the recording sessions on analog tape? Super easy. Super duper easy for me.
Do you feel a bit exhausted having to defend recording analog, since it seems like everyone and their Mom who's an engineer is using [digital recording software] ProTools? Do you feel like a lot of people are trying to put it on you to do it?
No, in fact it virtually never comes up. When a band shows up, they're happy to get a record made, they don't particularly care whether I'm doing it on tape or not. Occasionally, they'll be surprised how much easier things are than they thought they'd be if they were recording on tape. In fact, people have crazy notions for what recording on tape means, like you don't get take two, for example, or you can't edit things, or you can't do punch-ins. They have crazy notions like that, and it's all based on ignorance of the history of the medium. I mean, that's where all that stuff was invented.
You've been recording for awhile, you just did the latest album for your longtime heroes The Stooges (The Weirdness). What are some albums you wish you had worked on or, if you had the opportunity, what are some bands you'd like to work with?
I don't really think in terms of "Boy, I wish I had done that record..." with the exception of historical situations where it would've been cool to have...like there are a few audio recordings of people like H.L. Mencken, Mark Twain, and that sorta thing, it would be nice to have hung around with those guys. I don't really think sort of wistfully about what records it would've been nice to have worked on. If it comes up, I would love to do a Crazy Horse record, or an AC/DC record or a ZZ Top record. Any of those bands that I think--whose aesthetic I think suits the way I do things. I would love to do a Willie Nelson record someday. Dolly Parton. Any of those people I think I could do justice to them working in their natural idiom.
Do you think it's possible that any of those people would call you up someday?
Oh no. I think that's crazy thinking. Yeah. I would've said the same thing about the Stooges, except the Stooges with Mike Watt involved are actually sort of moving into some of the same circles that I travel into, and so that seems less crazy.
Listening to Excellent Italian Greyhound, I was struck by "Genuine Lulabelle," because it really isn't like any other Shellac song we've heard so far. Could you give a little background on the song and the decision to have the voice-overs in the middle?
Well, we're actually being kind of coy about who it is that's on the record, but not for legal reasons. Mainly because the function of those voices is that they're supposed to trigger memories--you're supposed to hear those voices, and they're supposed to jar your memory and they're supposed to be identifiable. That song is about the different perspectives of memory on incidents of extreme behavior and how culturally, women are not encouraged to embrace their reckless past to the degree that men are, and specifically, how a lot of men, when they're eulogized, their misadventures are remembered fondly, almost as sort of capstones of their existence on the planet. Whereas women's indiscretions are generally never mentioned, or if they are mentioned, they're always mentioned in sort of a disparaging fashion.
The whole song is basically about the place of memory and what memories of an incident, or a series of incidents--what use they can be to other people. The reason we wanted to get professional voice-over people involved is partly because they have voices that are instantly recognizable and are likely to stir memory, and also because that facet of their voice--that it stirs memory--is a commodity to them, and that's yet another use of memory. That memory then becomes something that is valuable in a literal sense and you can charge money for it, you know? Those are all parts of the conversation that came into play when we were coming up with that song. I mean, there's more to it, but I would be boring you and there's very little likelihood that it would enrich your appreciation of the song.
Well, I had no idea that Shellac were feminists.
Well, it's a notion that's come up in the past. There are other songs that we have that have sort of feminist agenda lyrics or perspective, but if I go through the effort of explaining them I'll feel like an idiot.
No, I think it's cool, it gives a different perspective to the song. Some of the songs on the new album have been around awhile, like "Spoke." How much were the older songs reworked when you went into the studio?
Well, every time you play a song that's capable of being interpreted differently, you wanna try to make it fun to play on that evening, and so you're likely to do some things differently than you did the evening before. There's also the sort of drift that the song undergoes where it started out being kinda happy and its worked its way into sad and then we get fed up with it being sad and then you'll work it around back into happy again and that kinda thing. So I can't quantify it for you, I can't say that these songs are different by a value of 4 or anything [laughter]--but every time we play we make a conscious effort to move along so that the songs don't stagnate and petrify.
Is the songwriting pretty much still a collaborative effort?
Yeah, absolutely.
With this record and 1000 Hurts, you've added in different elements, and the band seems to be shifting ever so slightly into another direction...
I kinda think that our records are fairly consistent, like if you appreciate our band, then anybody who's a fan or knows our records will probably feel like this record fits in with the other records and anybody who's not familiar with our music...after the amount of time that we've been around and the degree of dissemination that our records have had, anybody that's not familiar with us by now is probably not gonna like it if they're exposed to it at this point. I kinda feel like we've found our natural audience, and we're perfectly comfortable with that natural audience. We're not trying to talk anybody else into liking us.
So it's pretty much just a natural progression?
Yeah, we still just play what amuses us. We literally have no agenda for what we're doing other than that we want to continue enjoying it.
As witnessed at Shellac's live shows, [drummer] Todd Trainer has proven himself to be a bona fide rock star and a sex symbol for our times...
I'm down with that idea. I mean, I'm certainly not gonna do it, so more power to him.
Has this created any clashing of egos within the band?
Oh, hell no! We're as amused by that as anyone else could be. All of us are really into the idea of Todd becoming super famous and being, like, a complete chick magnet, I think that's a fantastic idea.
Will Todd continue to contribute songs on Shellac albums?
God, I hope so. I think he's a genius.
I thought it was great that he did the "New Number Order" song [on 1000 Hurts].
Yeah, I'm very fond of that song. I mean, it's a bit of a novelty, and it's fairly slight, but I think there's a place for that sort of thing on all our records. We've had things like that on all our records, like songs that are not necessarily meant to be career-defining things, but they have serious intent to them. Like songs like that and "Boche's Dick" [off At Action Park] and on the new record there's a song called "Kittypants," which is fairly light, but I think they all have a place.
That's actually a song I wanted to ask about. Kittypants is the name of one of the cats at Electrical Audio, is that right?
Yep.
Is it sort of a tribute to the cat or was it just the first name that popped up?
I was talking to my girlfriend and she said it would be nice if I wrote a song for Kittypants, and I had this little instrumental bit, this little guitar part that I'd been goofing around with and I decided that the next song that I wrote, we would dedicate it to Kittypants, and turns out, that was it.
Great! Well, thanks a lot for taking the time to do this. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
No! My time is worth money! Gotta go!
1 comment:
Meow.....great interview sweetie! Te amo
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