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A Space-Bound Interview with Nebula Guitarist/Vocalist Eddie Glass

Black lines, white lines.With its release earlier this month, the full-length Heavy Psych — as opposed to the EP of the same name, artwork and most of the track list put out last year — long running and vastly influential Californian psychedelic rockers Nebula once again join forces with Tee Pee Records, the label that issued their debut, Let it Burn, back in 1997. Back then, the trio consisted of guitarist/vocalist Eddie Glass and drummer Ruben Romano (both having recently left Fu Manchu), with Mark Abshire on bass, and though it’s been Glass who’s proven to be the central figure after all this time, the sound of Heavy Psych reflects — maybe closer than anything they’ve released this decade — the original mission of the band.

Call it stoner rock and you’d be right, but Nebula could fart into a microphone and it would be stoner rock. As they’ve grown, they’ve brought the genre with them, and now, with this seemingly full circle completed, one can only wonder where they can go from here. For Heavy Psych, Glass is joined by bassist Tom Davies and drummer Rob Oswald (Karma to Burn). This being the lineup’s first recorded output, Nebula sounds reinvigorated, but like their best, most together work is yet ahead of them. Still, the album they’ve just semi-re-released is an impressive start, notably in the three newest tracks added to the back end. They bode especially well for things to come.

After much rescheduling (and a special thanks goes out to Tee Pee‘s Steve Dolcemaschio for his diligence in making this happen), Glass and I hooked up for a brief phoner to discuss the band and how his attitudes toward Nebula have changed over the years. As always, the resulting interview can be found after the jump. Enjoy.

Mr. Glass has something he'd like to share.How has it been being back with Tee Pee Records, and how did signing with them again come about?

It?s been good. Tee Pee?s doing really good right now. They?re pressing vinyl now, so the new record?s out on vinyl and CD. It?s great. Right now they have a bunch of bands that are great, a lot of bands we can tour with and a lot of bands we can work with. It?s great. One big family of cool music?

What happened with Liquor and Poker?

We signed for two records and finished the two records and they just kind of faded away (laughs), like most labels do.

Are you thinking of this version of Heavy Psych as a reissue?

Well, we?ve got the three new songs on there. We remastered it — I don?t think we actually mastered it the first time. There was one song we changed the vocals on and we switched around some songs and did an edit on one song so it flows. It?s an extra 20 minutes of music and it flows. It?s cool.

When were the new songs recorded?

We recorded those just recently ? January or February, maybe.

Were they recorded any differently?

We went to a different studio, a studio called The Pass here in L.A. It?s actually a pretty nice studio. It was a different studio, it?s cool. It?s all down on two inch tape.

The rest of the songs were digital?

Yeah, they were done in ProTools. It?s cool, you know. They both sound good, but it?s cool when you get a chance to do it on two inch tape, it sounds good to get that.

Can you really hear a difference when you listen back?

You know, you kind of could, but you have to really listen, I think. Some people think they can hear more than others. I don?t know. It?s just a little bit warmer on tape, but it?s basically the same. If you do a good job these days with ProTools, if you have it set up in the studio, you can hardly tell the difference.

It?s Rob?s first time recording on the drums. What does he bring to the band?

It?s just a whole new set of hands. Drummer hands. It?s cool. It?s like a new band, and then it?s Tom?s second record, so he?s pretty new. Basically it?s like a new band. I?m playing with two new members. It?s different. I?m still writing the songs. I wrote the songs in the past, but having different people playing makes it feel a lot different live. It looks different. It is different. It makes me play differently off of those guys. You play differently when you play with different musicians. But it?s basically still Nebula. Just with new members.

Playing with different musicians, does that account for the change in sound?

And he has a bunch of people to say it to.Yeah. That and then also I?ve grown too, writing music. Plus we produce our own records. We?ve just grown in that way and gotten better at producing records, better at writing songs. The band, the musicians are better. Better not in a number one or number two way, just better different.

How is it writing the songs now as opposed to in the beginning?

I usually write them all. I write the music and I?ll put it on an eight-track at home. I demo them, play drums and everything. I do the whole song myself, and then I bring it to the band, show them, and they listen to it and they?ll play it, take what they hear from it, and add their drum rolls or their extra bass lines or whatever. The basic structure is written. I write it all and record it. It?s kind of been the same way, but like I said, it?s two different band members. They really have different ears and hands and ways of playing it, so it?s different from what it was.

When you?re writing, do you think of them as players and what they?re going to play to it? Do you write around that?

Nah, not so much (laughs). They take it, listen to it, and then it?s up to them to take what they hear and play around that. Plus, on this record, there?s one song, ?Running of the Bulls,? it?s the last track that?s done by Rob by himself on his computer. And he has this entire thing where he types in the words and it?s computer-generated voice going, ?Fuck you, eat shit. Die? (laughs). So that was Rob?s track. Tom actually did his on his eight track, the ?Dream Submarine? instrumental. So both Rob and Tom had tracks on this record.

It?s interesting to find out you?ve been doing the writing all along because the band has undergone so many changes sound-wise. What are your goals stylistically now?

More dynamics, I guess. I?ve always been into the late ?60s, early ?70s music, anywhere from heavy stuff, 13th Floor Elevators, to Tomorrow, and then I also like Captain Beefheart, The Stooges, The MC5. I think earlier on, we were kind of still in more of the rock, Stooges, version of things. Wah pedals and Hendrix-style things. Now I think it?s a little bit more dynamic, spaced-out. We?re adding keyboards, Moog synths, using different amplifiers on different songs. Some have a Marshall, some have Twin Reverb. Some have a Vox, so it gives it more dynamics, I think.

In the two different kinds of recording, digitally and analog, do you get different opportunities to add layers to songs?

Yeah, you do, actually. But I try to keep it pretty simple. I?m actually cutting down the amounts of tracks we use. It?s usually one guitar track with an overdub here and there with melody through the song in certain parts. A keyboard track, maybe, or an acoustic rhythm track or something. But I?m keeping the guitar tracks more sparse these days. I think that?s the difference between the sound on this record and previous records. Less overdubs, guitar overdubs.

It doesn?t sound like the songs are missing anything though. Why strip it down like that?

Instead of having two guitars, you have one guitar that sounds good and put a keyboard in the left channel and an acoustic during the chorus in the right channel. Then a clean electric comes in the background in the right channel in I stole this image from my own website. What a dick.another part. Lot of stuff like that. Lot of left and right channel stereo mix.

You?re doing the big tour in August for pretty much the whole month. What?s after that?

We?re home for six days and then we go to Europe for 40 days. Then we fly back, get home like September 18 or something and go straight to CMJ in the end of October. I think on October 20 or something. Then we?re gonna do like a week with a band called Quest for Fire, another Tee Pee band. This August tour, home for a few days, home for a few days, then Europe, then home a day or two, then New York for CMJ and a week of the East Coast shows with Quest for Fire. Then we?re looking into Australia and Japan at the end of the year. Then we?re gonna start recording some new songs. It?s pretty cool to be able to play all over the place like that. I guess all these years of touring kind of got us to that point.

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One Response to “A Space-Bound Interview with Nebula Guitarist/Vocalist Eddie Glass”

  1. seedy says:

    Rad! Saw them late August ’09 here in MInneapolis/St. Paul. Unfortunately, their drummer left around that time. Their set was pretty short and i wonder if that had anything to do with it? Either way, it was a tight set and I’m looking forward to seeing them play agian in the future.

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