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You have worked a lot with a bunch of people - Adam Schmitt, John Richardson, Brad Quinn, Jay Bennett of Wilco - in the last 7 or 8 years. Tell us about working with them. When and how did you get to know them? How is it like working with them? Could they be considered the new TK group?
- After the original TK band split I needed to put together a band to tour behind Based On Happy Times. I'd met Adam Schmitt when he was in a band called Pop The Balloon with Ric Menck when they opened for us in Champaign IIllinois.Through Adam I found John Richardson who also lived in Champaign.
- I'd met Brad Quinn in Birmingham Al. when we played there and I ended up producing his band's album Carnival Season, so I got him in to play bass. Jay Bennett I also met through John and Adam, he's also from Champaign. I don't know if they can be considered the TK group beacause everyone plays with different people. Jay is very busy and Wilco is his main band.
Tell us about your relation with Adam Schmitt (as he is one of the most interesting “new” names in the pop scene) - you have collaborated with his “Illiterature” album (haven't heard the first one though).
- When Adam went out on tour after his first album came out, John and Brad and I toured with him. John has played on all of his records and is on the new one as well. I got Adam to engineer Ten Years After because, well he's good at it. I also ended up playing on one song on his second album Illiterature because it was one we had done live.
Your album “Ten Years After” was your first LP of new material in 7 years. What happened in between? Any special reason for calling it “10 Years After”?
- Actually it wasn't. There was an EP called Sleeping On A Roller Coaster that came out on Matador in 1992. Then The Real Underground mostly a compilation came out on Alias in 93. It had 5 new songs on it. The delay between 89 and 92 was because we had interest from several major labels that fell through for one reason or another.
- I named it TYA because it was an in joke because the first Geffen album Songs From The Film had been released 10 years before on the same day. I also liked the band TYA and thought it was a cool title having to do with longevity. A lot of people don't put out records for a period of ten years much less sixteen.
How do you plan your albums? Do you have any predetermined ideas? I mean, are they just a collection of different songs?
- I would say they are mostly collections of different songs written during certain time periods. But I have been known to pluck a song from the past as in “The World Outside” from Isolation Party which was written for Based On Happy Times. Thematically Songs From The Film had a lot of movie references and Based On... had a lot of book or literature references.
Let's talk about your latest album. What about the title “Isolation Party”? Isn't it a bit of a paradox? Is there any special message that you want to transmit with your songs?
- Jay Bennett came up with that title. It's when you solo a particular track during mixing, it can be a guita, back-up vocal, tom tom or whatever. It can sound hilarious isolated by itself. That's when Jay said listen, Tommy's having an Isolation party. It also seemed to fit the mood of the record. Yes it is a paradox, sort of having a wonderful time being miserable.
It has been recorded partly in Short Order studios. Tell us about working with Jeff Murphy. (The Shoes are one of my all time favourite pop bands).
- Jeff Murphy did a great job and I liked the fact that he is a guitarist and got great guitar sounds.
For me the album follows the path traced in “10 Years After”. Do you agree?
- Maybe because they were only 2 years apart, but they sound different to me. Isolation Party has a lot more keyboards and different people playing and singing on it. TYA is mainly Brad John and I. Also remember that a lot of the songs on TYA were older because I had only put out an ep with 5 songs and 5 more on the compilation in 7 years.
Connected with the previous question, in the “POPsided” review of the album it comes to say that for the people that have known your music for a long time there isn't much new in “Isolation Party”...
- Well I haven't read that review. That seems funny to me, coming from a publication called “Popsided”, what would they think if I made a techno record?
Why haven't you credited any producers on your last two albums?
- Because I produced those records and didn't see the point in crediting myself.
You always include a cover version on your albums. What was special about the Mission of Burma's song? You always seem to like great songwriters (Pete Townsend, Brian Wilson, Lou Reed, Jagger/Richards, Roxy Music, Jordan/Wilson...)...
- I loved that band. I must have seen them 6 or 7 times in the early eighties. They were a very noisy outfit but had this very melodic side to them. I always knew that one day I was going to cover that song. I pick cover songs that deviate a bit from my usual songwriting style.
Have you toured to promote the record? Do you have a permanent live line-up?
- We toured in May hitting most of the major markets in the states where we knew people would probably show up. We then went back in July and played Washington D.C. and Chicago again which are my best 2 markets.
- We played for 2 weeks in Paris in November. We had a London show which fell through and we were thinking of touring Spain which we might do sometime in the future.
In the past you have written songs with the great Jules Shear. What are your recollections? Have you worked the same way with other people?
- Jules was very fun to work with and we hit it off right away. He's written songs with a lot of different people and he's very good at it.
- On the other hand I've tried to write a song twice with Paul Westerberg and nothing has come out of it. One day maybe we'll come up with something.
Kim Williams of The Summer Suns named your “The Real Underground“ one of his favourite pop records of all time. Tell us about that record...
- It's mainly a collection of early tracks that at the time were only available on vinyl, the 2 Dolphin ep's from 84/85 and unreleased songs from that period. Since CDs can hold 75 minutes of music I decided to include mostly demos of songs that never made their way on to a record and as I said earlier I threw 5 new songs on as well.
Let's go back to the Geffen days. What are your recollections of that time?
- Finally getting to put out a major label record only to see almost everything possible go wrong with it, very frustrating.
“Songs From The Film” is for a lot of people your best album. Now that it has been re-released by Geffen (with the “Run Now” EP) how do you view this album?
- Honestly I haven't listened to it that much but I will say that the re-mastering sounds great, 100% better than what originally came out. That record while I think it has some of my best songs ever on it, is the hardest to listen to now because none of us, including the record company were very happy with how it sounded. I much prefer Based On Happy Times.
For that album you worked with G. Emerick, tell us about that experience...
- OK now we get to the problem area. Geoff was a very nice guy but we didn't agree on how the album should be mixed. We wanted a very loud rock record and he I guess wanted more of a singer-songwriter's record.
The song “Run Now” was featured in the “Out Of Bonds” movie soundtrack. What can you tell us about it?
- Just that Geffen was originally going to do the soundtrack and the director of the film heard that song and thought it fit in with the plot which was about a young kid getting chased around by bad guys in Los Angeles. We were also in the movie playing ourselves playing the song in a nightclub.
Then came “Based On Happy Times”. How do you view this one? There were some important collaboration (Peter Buck, Jules Shear...)...
- I like this album a lot more than Songs. I was trying to go in a few different directions and it sounds a little more interesting and diverse to me. Plus I had a blast making it at Ardent in Memphis with John Hampton and Joe Hardy who played bass and drums on it. Peter was down the hall with REM making “Green” so he played on a couple of songs.
Now that you're in “indie-land” (recording for Matador), do you feel more comfortable in an indie than in a major? What 'd be the main differences?
- The good thing about Matador is that they don't meddle with you and they let you do what you want, down to the artwork. The unfortunate side is that they don't have a lot of money to spend, so you end up not being able to tour that much or go overseas unless something starts to happen with press or radio which hasn't happened to me yet.
Going further back in time, which was your first band? Was it Razz? When did you started playing music?
- I started playing piano when I was 6 and then drums and guitar when I was 8. I 've played in bands since the age of 12. The first band I was in that did mostly original songs was called The Rage. The main songwriter was Richard X Heyman who has put out a lot of record in the states. We opened for the big group at the time in Washington D.C. called Razz. When one of their guitar players left they asked me to join.
Tell us about the Strange Alliance days. The album that you put out with them is very much talked about but rarely heard, are you planning to re-release it?
- Geffen actually owns the rights to Strange Alliance. I have a hard time even listening to this record, the vocals make me cringe. Basically I was still trying to find a songwriting and vocal style. I doubt it will ever come out unless I sell a million records and then I won't care.
Let's come back to the present time. You told me that you've been playing with Velvet Crush, how did it come up? Have you recorded anything with them? Do you plan to keep collaborating with them?
- I toured with Velvet Crush in 94/95. At this time they were still a 3 piece and would get various guitarists to tour with them. I have no plans to play with them at the present time but I enjoyed playing with them and wouldn't rule out some sort of collaboration in the future.
I've also read that you have played with Paul Westerberg...
- I played guitar with Paul on his last tour in 96. The Tommy Keene group also opened for the Replacements on a leg of their “Don't Tell A Soul tour” when Based O Happy Times came out in 89.
I've always thought that your guitar playing is one of your distinctive trademarks. Do you agree?
- Yes, I do and I think it's the blueprint for my songwriting style, very rhythmic and chordal in a George Harrison sort of way.
I'm always touched by your songs; I'd say that there's a melancholy kind of feeling to them that gets you...
- Well, I've mined that territory quite a bit.
You have contributed with songs to some pop compilations (Yellow Pills, Bucketfull Of Brains...), what's your opinion of the ever growing pop scene (all the new groups, 'zines, record companies...)?
- In a way I think it's great, but I also think sometimes that there are too many bands and too many record companies and the like.
- There's too much competition from the internet and other media sources and it takes people away from sitting down and listening to music. Instead they're staring at their computer or whatever.
Is there any group or artist that you particularly like nowadays?
- I really like You Am I from Australia.
You seem to be very interested in photography. Tell us about it.
- Well I really just point and shoot and instead of getting other people to take pictures for the record covers I've started to use my own. I like to take shots in low lighting situations with high speed film, at night usually.
In closing, you have remained active in the music business for a long time now. What'd be the ups and downs of it? Which things you have enjoyed most and which hated most?
- I guess I really enjoy all of it, but there's times when I feel like I could walk away and not miss it, but I know I would so I guess that's what keeps me going on.
What are your future plans?
- Right now I'm writing songs for another record and am thinking of releasing a live record from the last tour. I don't know if it will come out on Matador if I decide to put it out at all.
IÑAKI ORBEZUA
originally published in Otoño Cheyenne #2
