The13th AÑO: 4
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NÚMERO 39
UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA
THE BLACK WATCH WE ARE GOOD FOR YOU!
[ Interview With John Andrew Fredrick From The Black Watch by BenjamÃn York ]
WE ARE GOOD FOR YOU!
The thirty years of existence of this band makes me sit in the chair to start the interview in another way. I cannot stop thinking about what may have happened in so many years and get to the release of his 15th studio album. The Black Watch has as many years of life as albums. And the stories should be many for a simple interview where most of this will be dedicated to "The Gospel According to John", released a few days ago. Hi John, thanks for answering our questions. And let's start with the beginning. How and when is the band born? The Black Watch came to be when I had finished my Ph.D. at UCSB and had a student who was a drummer who was into early REM and The Smiths and we started talking about music and he turned me on to all these alternative bands and I told him I had written ten songs (nine, actually) and we could maybe jam because my stuff was, when he heard me play it, "very like the Cure meets American Music Club." I had no idea who AMC was but had heard one or two songs by the Cure. We would practice in the classroom at South Hall the guy, Jeff, was my student in, on Saturdays! Then we recruited a Native American guy to play bass, and a reconstituted heavy metal surfer guy on lead guitar, and the black watch was born--first gig: opening for Toad the Wet Sprocket, in kilts! Us, not them. I broke a string the very first note. Had to change strings right on stage. So embarrasing! Why the name of the band? Is it because of the Scottish army? Yes the name is modeled after the bagpipe-playing regiment: I'm mostly Scots and English and Irish. I had a martial/military name in mind, and then put it in lower case as I loved e.e. cummings, as all writers should! Love him still, though not as much as when I was in my 20s. This year marks the thirty years of the band. How would you describe these decades in front of the band? The past few decades have been a blur of non-stop musical production. Many new songs excitedly rehearsed and recorded, scads of live shows (good and bad), great people writing to us to say they're new converts
to the cult of TBW, and nice people saying nice things in the press about our work. Very grateful. What difficult moments did the band have to spend? Every band has difficult moments. There's just a sort of set of problems money sorts out and money creates! Plus psychology. And ego. And creative control. I could go on and on. In fact, I do! In both of my indie rock novels, The King of Good Intentions and The King of Good Intentions II, I rail/rage against the machine. With my tongue deep in my cheek, of course, because for the most part for all of our hardships we've had the best time making albums and making friends. What were the greatest satisfactions in these thirty years? The greatest satisfaction--this is going to sound weird-is that I met the love of my life through my band. Indirectly, really. And it just happened not too very long ago! Rob Campanella, producer of our last two albums and the new one we are in the middle of, has a cousin named Christina Campanella and he introduced me to her when she was visiting and while we were recording the follow-up to The Gospel According to Johnand I fell madly in love with her, just madly. She's a wonderfully talented composer who lives in New York and she's of course stunningly beautiful and smart and kind--an amazing person. I am so lucky, really, to know her. I was on tour for a few east coast gigs-some great, some horrible--and something, a voice, an omen, told me to go home and be with my two loves. Now I knew that one of my loves was this new LP. What I didn't know was that my other and of course greater love would be Christina. Isn't life strange and beautiful? Her stuff is very beautiful and strange and you can hear it at: https://soundcloud.com/xtinasworld. I am so thrilled by her music. I had only listened to classical and The Beatles for a couple of years and then, wow, here comes Christina. Brilliant. All my friends are blown away by her too--they're so jaded, but they think she's super cool! The band had a continuity that persists until today. Every three years or so a new album. It would seem that the source of inspiration is not going to end. What is the formula?
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The Black Watch isn't formulaic. I seem to write one song that begets a second song. There we might have a single. But singles are silly, these days--or not. I don't know. Works of art beget works of art, W.H. Auden said. I believe him. We mostly have great producers with great studios that will record us for shockingly cheap blocks of time. We are friends with way way more engineers and producers than musicians!!! Hahaha. e don't like many L.A. musicians! Shhhhh. Don't tell, though! We would like to continue with the story, but we claim the present. Tell us about the new album. The new album came about mainly on account of what I just referred to above. Plus meeting Andy Creighton, our other lead guitarist aside from Tyson Cornell (they rotate). Andy is the most inventive and melodic and challenging guitarist and songwriter (check out his band, The World Record) I know. Tyson is really melodic and instantly riffy, but Andy is otherworldly. So they balance each other out--with my rudimentary rhythm guitar and stuff. They worked with Rob Campanella of The Brian Jonestown Massacre. How was it working with him?
What's it like working with Rob? Hmm. He's really in-the-know about the sort of Vox-ish and Epiphone Casino Beatles sounds we like and try to twist, if you know what I mean. He's very musical and meticulous. He fights hard for his ideas. Too hard, sometimes! Maybe because I fight hard as well. He's a joy. What he doesn't know about music--from The Association to The Zombies--isn't worth knowing! I did a solo gig recently in Buffalo, NY and this guy came up to me, before I'd even unpacked my guitar, and he goes: "Where's Rob Campanella? Why didn't you bring Rob Campanella? He makes the best sounding records in indie rock!" True story. I love Rob. He might say I'm difficult. But that's because I am! Plus I really really hate the Brian Jonestown Nonsense. Well, Anton--I despise that guy. Yet I have all his music! Hahaha. Hi, Anton! I have read many comparisons about how you sing, names like Robert Smith, Ian McCulloch, Colin Newman, and others... Aren't you tired of comparisons? I am not tired of being compared to Robert Smith or Ian McCulloch. I love both the Cure and the Bunnymen. I have never been compared to Colin Newman!!! That's you doing that, isn't it, BenjamĂn! Haha. I love Wire. Incredible band. But nobody's noticed the similarities.
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Their new work is wonderful. If you had to tell us why it is The Black Watch's best record, why do you think it is? Well my son Chandler says we peaked with The King of Good Intentions LP in 1999. And all the press says The Gospel, the new one, is the best yet. And our old label would say The End of When. And Trouser Press said Amphetamines was our "failed bid for indie stardom." Rob swears by Highs and Lows, and I sort of have a soft spot for Led Zeppelin Five and Lime Green Girl. What do you think? I would never say. I am too busy going on to plot out the next record!! What plans does the band have in 2017? As an author I have some promoting to do of my most recent books, a satire of Imperialism and modern pa-
renting, set in ancient Rome, called Your Caius Aquilla; and my new book on Wes Anderson. Where can we find The Black Watch? Why should people discovery the black watch? Because we're good for them! I don't know. If you like very catchy, very literary songs that are fuzzy and dreamy and mid-period Beatleseque well then--I can't stop you from going to: https://theblackwatch.bandcamp.com We thank you for the possibility of the interview and I leave this space for you to say what you want to our readers. Nothing more to add than thanks, BenjamĂn. Nice cyber-chatting with you.
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The13th U NA R EVISTA IMA GINA RIA