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Clutch Interview with Neil Fallon: Got to Know Your History

clutch neil fallon

This weekend, Maryland heavy rock institution Clutch launch their latest US tour. That would be business as usual for the stalwart four-piece, but it also coincides with their new album, Psychic Warfare, arriving a short two years behind 2013’s landmark Earth Rocker (review here). It is their 11th full-length overall, and it I seem to link it immediately to its predecessor, that’s not entirely an accident.

To record Psychic Warfare, Clutch — as ever, vocalist Neil Fallon, guitarist Tim Sult, bassist Dan Maines and drummer Jean-Paul Gaster — returned to producer Machine, who also helmed the last outing, and they continue to meld their jam-blues approach with faster, heavier push on cuts like the leadoff single “X-Ray Visions” and “Noble Savage,” which seems a direct sequel to “Earth Rocker” in both its declarative theme and the uptempo manner in which it states and stakes its claim. That’s not to say Psychic Warfare doesn’t have its own personality. It’s not the first Clutch to draw a narrative thread between its tracks — 2004’s Blast Tyrant, which was the band’s first collaboration with Machine, touched on doing so — but it is the first to make that connection explicit, which it does in the intro “The Affidavit” and the final moments of blues-laden closer “Son of Virginia,” which continues a thread of its own of up-jumpers like “Electric Worry” off 2007’s From Beale Street to Oblivion and the Mississippi Fred McDowell lyric cover “Gravel Road” from 2005’s Robot Hive/Exodus, both of which have become signature pieces in live shows.

And as to live shows, Fallon gets right to the heart of it when he says in the interview that follows here, “We put out records to support our tours, not the other way around.” Here are Clutch‘s upcoming tour dates:

Clutch live:
Sat/Oct-03 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Revolution**
Sun/Oct-04 St. Petersburg , FL Jannus Live**
Tue/Oct-06 Nashville, TN Marathon Music Works**
Wed/Oct-07 Charlotte, NC Amos’ Southend**
Fri/Oct-09 Hampton Beach, NH Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom**
Sat/Oct-10 Clifton Park, NY Upstate Concert Hall**
Sun/Oct-11 New Haven, CT Toad’s Place**
Tue/Oct-13 Indianapolis, IN The Vogue**
Wed/Oct-14 Chicago, IL House Of Blues**
Thu/Oct-15 Grand Rapids, MI Orbit Room**
Fri/Oct-16 Sauget, IL Pop’s Nightclub**
Sat/Oct-17 Lincoln, NE Bourbon Theatre**
Sun/Oct-18 Fargo, ND Scheels Arena** – “Roughrider Ink & Iron”
Tue/Oct-20 Billings, MT Shrine Auditorium**
Thu/Oct-22 Spokane, WA Knitting Factory Concert House**
Fri/Oct-23 Boise, ID Knitting Factory Concert House**
Sat/Oct-24 Elverta, CA Gibson Ranch Park* – Aftershock Festival
Sun/Oct-25 San Bernardino, CA San Manuel Amphitheater* – Knotfest
Mon/Oct-26 Tucson, AZ Rialto Theatre*** w Mastodon (Clutch closes show)
Wed/Oct-28 Austin, TX Austin Music Hall*** w Mastodon (Mastodon closes show)
Thu/Oct-29 Dallas, TX Gas Monkey Live*** w Mastodon (Clutch closes show)
Fri/Oct-30 Houston, TX Bayou Music Center*** w Mastodon (Mastodon closes show)
Sat/Oct-31 New Orleans, LA Voodoo Experience*
* = Festival date
** = Clutch headline show, support: COC / The Shrine
*** = Clutch co-headline show w/ Mastodon, special guest: COC

2015 Europe Dates:
November 20 Dublin, Ireland
November 21 Belfast , N.Ireland(SOLD OUT)
November 23 Glasgow, Scotland
November 24 Nottingham, England
November 25 Bristol, England
November 27 Paris, France(SOLD OUT)
November 28 Cologne, Germany
November 29 Hamburg, Germany
December 01 Aarhus, Denmark
December 02 Goteborg, Sweden
December 03 Stockholm, Sweden
December 04 Copenhagen, Denmark
December 05 Berlin, Germany
December 06 Frankfurt, Germany
December 08 Amsterdam, Netherlands
December 10 Manchester, England
December 11 Wolverhampton, England
December 12 London, England

Psychic Warfare Australian Tour 2016
Thursday 3rd March 2016 The Triffid QLD
Friday 4th March 2016 The Metro NSW
Saturday 5th March 2016 The Forum Theatre VIC

They’ve yet to announce the lineup for their annual holiday run, but one assumes they’ll sneak a few East Coast dates in upon returning from the UK at the end of their European tour in December. That too is business as usual for Clutch, who’ve earned so much respect over their 20-plus years not just because they preach a classic rock-and-roll-as-a-way-of-life gospel, but because they’ve been so willing to get out and actually live by such tenets. If the list of dates above wasn’t enough of a clue, they’ll continue to do so for the foreseeable future, and much to the benefit of everyone who gets off their ass and shows up to see them.

In the interview here — actually it’s his third (see here and here), not counting an Obelisk QuestionnaireFallon talks about making the record and preparing to hit the road behind it, as well as doubling as a partner in a record label for the third time with the band’s Weathermaker Music handling the release, capturing the recording process with a video documentary series and much more.

Full Q&A follows after the jump. Please enjoy:

clutch-psychic-warfare-logo

When did these songs start to come together?

It was a long process. The way I look at the start-date, it was February of last year. Actually no. February of ‘13, we did a 7″ for Record Store Day, but the song I kind of considered the “beginning” of the writing process so it’s been, a year and a half, over a year and a half ago.

So pretty soon after Earth Rocker.

Yeah, very quick by Clutch standards.

With the time between Strange Cousins from the West and Earth Rocker, was it something you guys really wanted to jump on?

Yeah, I think it was not only that we realized that it was too long and touring for four years on one record can make you go a little bit batty. The analogy that comes to mind, if you’re running – not that I run – but if you are, it’s easier to keep running to get somewhere as opposed to stopping, it’s a pain to get going again. We had a lot of momentum with Earth Rocker and it just seemed easier to roll with it.

When were the lyrics done?

The lyrics with one exception were all done before we recorded, which is a first for me. They were done about a year ago, not quite maybe nine months over the New Year going into this year, except for “A Quick Death in Texas,” which was written as we were in the studio, lyrically at least.

That’s more the norm, right?

Yeah, I’ve found that sometimes the best lyrics either happen right when I first hear a song, or right before we record it. It’s the middle ground, there’s too much opportunity to overthink stuff. But, I’m glad that the lyrics were written ahead of time because Jean-Paul — he wrote the beats to these songs and then he heard the lyrics and kind of recalculated clutch 1 (Photo by Dan Winters)everything and recalibrated it and put ghost notes around the rhythm of the words, which was pretty big.

Is that the first time he’s done that?

Yeah, he micromanaged his performances to a degree that I had not seen before. He had notations for everything and that’s a testament to his work ethic and paying attention to detail. I can’t say that I do the same.

How was Machine’s new studio?

It’s great. He had recorded some stuff prior to us, but I think we were one of the first larger projects that he did. The concrete was still drying on his barn there, more or less. But it’s pretty much the exact opposite of Weehawken, NJ.

Is that an endorsement?

(Laughs) Nah, I like the stimulus of a city but there is something to be said about being able to see the horizon line and having windows in a studio. I think for maybe writing purposes, a city is great inspiration but for recording it’s good to be relaxed. He’s out in the country and it was very relaxing, maybe too much at points.

How so?

I’ve realized that I was definitely more of an urban guy and probably suffer from some kind of agoraphobia, listening to sounds that were coming from a mile or two away as opposed to helicopters and sirens I’m used to even in my own neighborhood.

Different noises, sightline.

I think that’s good. It’s good to get out of your comfort zone because then you’re base instincts put you on guard, and that’s more mentally stimulating. I write in my basement but I’m too comfortable down there. I get better ideas when I’m more alert to my surroundings.

So I guess ups and downs, right?

I could enjoy it knowing that it was a temporary situation. That’s more like a paid vacation, of sorts.

He’s outside of Austin?

Yeah, he’s an hour west in a town called Dripping Springs.

How soon did you know that you wanted to go back to him?

I think we knew immediately. We wrung our hands about what to do after Earth Rocker because it was met with very positive – it had a very positive reception. But, for Clutch, even to this day we’re very introverted as a whole and I know it’s hard for anyone to pierce our veil and get in with us. With Machine we’ve known him for so long, he has a free pass to be very very honest with us and that’s half the clutch 5battle with any producer. The relationship between the producer and the band.

So worth the trip to have that relationship then?

Oh for sure. He flew out several times out to us in Frederick, in pre-production going over these songs. He could tell us what was good, what was not good, so by the time we actually go to Texas, we more or less knew exactly what we were going to do.

The narrative thread to the songs, was that something you were thinking of as you were putting lyrics together at the time, or did it come after?

It kind of came afterwards. I think, for me, both the fun part and the frustrating part of writing is discovering what the whole thing is about. I have a love/hate relationship with concept records. I love them when they’re done right but sometimes when it’s too heavy handed it can kind of suck the life out of it. I think the perfect example is, Dark Side of the Moon is a very loose concept record and I think that’s its strength. Whereas the opposite of what doesn’t work is Roger WatersRadio K.AO.S., if you remember that, it was like listening to a Broadway play.

You’re getting into rock opera territory.

Yeah. At the end of the day, it’s a rock and roll record and should be fun and shouldn’t be so heavy-handed with some kind of plot arc. So, I wrote these lyrics and then I realized looking back after five to six songs and there was some kind of common theme, which probably has more to do with unconscious than conscious.

You’re no stranger to telling a story with a song. So, I guess it kind of makes sense that you’d be able to draw those together. So it’s not like you went into writing the lyrics saying, “This is chapter one, this is chapter two…”

Also, with Clutch it’s a democracy. There’s no telling until the last minute what the running order of the album is going to be or was. We didn’t know what songs would make it, which would not. It would be very easy to paint oneself into a corner if you said, “Well, this has to be the first song because it introduces the players,” and so forth until the end. It has be kind of malleable.

How was that process of picking what was going to stay and what was going to go?

I’m terrible at that part of the process and I kind of wash my hands of it. I become too biased and emotionally attached to certain lyrics and I don’t hear the music as much as the other guys do. For example, there was one of the first songs we wrote called “Sidewinder,” we had been playing live and I just assumed that was going to be on the record. I forget, I think it was maybe John Paul, suggested it shouldn’t. Are you crazy? But then I listened to it in the larger context and said, you know what? That song in particular sounded a lot like some of the songs from Earth Rocker, probably because it was one of the first we wrote for this one. Other songs accomplished the same thing in a better manner and I defer to other people’s better judgment when it comes to that.

Who takes the lead on those decisions?

In this particular process of writing Psychic Warfare we did something we’ve never done before. Before we recorded it, the weeks leading up we took turns in much of the same way we take turns writing set lists and we picked 10 songs a day and Jean-Paul said, “Okay, we’re going to play these songs as a running order,” and then Dan and Tim and myself, we were able to listen to them in their whole and then as playlists in our iTunes library. I think after a few weeks of that, we reached a consensus. There was no one defining moment, I think. People conceded their playlists and I think it was kind of a summary of the best ones, I guess.

That’s, as you say, very democratic. It sounds like a lot of back and forth. Obviously, you wouldn’t be together and this point if you couldn’t communicate, but wow, that sounds complicated.

It probably is complicated for anyone who’s not in the band but we’ve been doing it so long that it’s second nature. That’s one of the reasons we need someone like Machine because we are a democracy and even in true-life democracies, things take forever to get done. We need someone to crack the whip and that’s what Machine does in a lot of ways. We grow deaf to ourselves after 25 years. We can write the most awesome riff in the world and not be aware of it or be convinced that we’ve written the most awesome riff in the world and it’s not the case. We need third party verification.

You said before, kind of an introverted band. Was it weird for you to have a video crew part of the process and letting people into the making of the record?

Yes is the short answer. I’ve known Dave [Brodsky] at first was probably thinking we were a bunch of weirdos and probably because we thought he was a weirdo. There’s one surefire way to get Clutch to shut up, and it’s to put a video camera in front of us. It’s like a producer, the key is establishing a relationship and understating his dry sense of humor. He came to understand our sense of humor, then we start letting our guard down and that’s when it becomes much easier. It’s not so much about forgetting about the camera, it’s about forgetting who’s operating the camera. We’ve never been friends with that. It was and will probably always will be an uphill battle for us.

How did you feel about the end result of that series?

I’m stoked that it was documented. At the time, he had a very small footprint and a lot of times I forgot he was there and that’s a testament to his skill. I wish there were those kind of things for Elephant Riders or the self-titled. One, because my memory is terrible, and two, it’s good to have those kind of details that enriches the process and thus the fans see clutch psychic warfarehow things happen outside of the end product.

Would you ever do that for a tour?

That would be painful. We tried that once and it didn’t work out well. I think we all, on tour, really, really cherish the rare moments of privacy because everybody’s in everybody’s grill all the time. Plus we’re pretty boring. It would probably end up — usually, let me say, when people come into a Clutch dressing room, they immediately feel uncomfortable because all they see are a bunch of dudes staring at their shoes listening to Jimi Hendrix. There’s no hot action backstage, believe me.

You guys have never really come off the road. It’s not like you took a break after Earth Rocker. Do you even think of this tour coming up as the start of a new album cycle?

I think as a label owner I do. We all own Weathermaker. We see that, for example this interview, that are created because there is an album cycle, so to speak. But as far as a band member, we put out records to support our tours, not the other way around.

Are there things, as a label owner, you learned doing Earth Rocker that you kind of bring forward into this record? You’re on your third record as a label owner. What have you learned from the last two?

I’ve learned, and I’m still in the process of learning that as an artist it’s emotionally driven. Business cannot be emotionally driven and to learn to divorce those two aspects have been challenging. A lot of the arguments we used to have as labels, it was seen as kind of they were the adversary. Now, those arguments are internal and it’s a bit schizophrenic at times. We’ve become a lot better at it, or at least I have, kind of recognizing both sides of that coin. Particularly in this day and age, where with the internet and Spotify selling music is like selling water to the drowning. You have to really think about it and all the things I wish didn’t exist, like social media tidbits that are necessary evils. I’ve learned to accept are part of the program.

Clutch, “Sidewinder” Live in Sweden 2014

Clutch, “X-Ray Visions” official video

Clutch on Thee Facebooks

Clutch on Twitter

Clutch’s website

Weathermaker Music

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One Response to “Clutch Interview with Neil Fallon: Got to Know Your History”

  1. goAt says:

    “Selling music is like selling water to the drowning.”

    I must have gills.

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