| * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * AMERICAN MUSIC - August 3, 2003 * * * THE VIOLENT FEMMES Email List * * * * * * * * * * List archive online at http://www.oocities.org/violentfemmeslist ************************************************************************* TOUR DATES (*=New Dates) Thursday 8/21/03 Anaheim CA House of Blues Anaheim Friday 8/22/03 Las Vegas NV Skin Pool Lounge (Palms Hotel) Saturday 8/23/03 Del Mar CA Thoroughbred Club Sunday 8/24/03 Ventura CA Ventura Theatre *Wednesday 9/17/03 San Francisco CA Great American Music Hall *Thursday 9/18/03 San Francisco CA Great American Music Hall *Saturday 9/20/03 Devore CA Hyundai Pavilion at Glen Helen *************************************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE: AM EXCLUSIVE - Q & A with BRIAN RITCHIE 2 NEW Tourdates in SAN FRAN - ON SALE TODAY 8/3 Question for Brian from Nilton Question for Brian from Julie Question for Brian from Greg Question for Brian from friends of Nilton Be That Guy Gordon Good Point **************************************************************************** AM EXCLUSIVE - Q & A with BRIAN RITCHIE **************************************************************************** Included in this issue is the first series of Q&A with BRIAN RITCHIE. Thanks to Greg, Julie & Nilton for asking such good questions and thanks to Brian for taking the time to answer in detail! Fans... this is your chance to ask those things you've always wanted to know so keep the questions coming. The BRQA is for ONE WEEK ONLY so hurry up and send in those emails! **************************************************************************** For upcoming show tickets: 8/21 ANAHEIM $32 http://www.hob.com/tickets/eventdetail.asp?eventid=21244 8/22 LAS VEGAS $20-25 http://www.skinpoollounge.com/http_docs/skin/skin.asp 8/23 DEL MAR $Free$ http://www.dmtc.com/season/events/event.php?id=18 8/24 VENTURA $22 www.ticketmaster.com 9/17&18 SAN FRAN - ON SALE TODAY 8/3!!!! http://www.musichallsf.com/artist_pages/violent_femmes_091803.html 9/20 DEVORE http://www.hyundaipavilion.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Question for Brian from Nilton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A QUESTION TO BRIAN: Hey man, I'm writing from Brazil and I'd like to ask you a question about your bass playing. How did you learn? You've said quite a few times that you don't read music, and I was wondering how you fine tuned your skills. Just by listening and trying to play along? Good pot? Did you have a teacher at all? How did you keep evolving? See, I play the bass too, an acoustic one (yeah, I've been influenced by a disorganized band), and I feel kind of stuck creatively. I don't read music either. Don't have any patience to study in order to improve more. Please say a few words about it man! How do you approach musical instruments? Tell a story or something! Nilton Marcos Machado - niiilson@hotmail.com BR-I guess "A QUESTION" from Brazil looks like a lot of questions! But that's OK because they are all good. I'll break it down in order to give more comprehensive answers. >Hey man, I'm writing from Brazil and I'd like to ask you a question about your >bass playing. How did you learn? BR- I bought a single by the Beatles (She's a Woman/I Feel Fine) at a garage sale and was so impressed I thought, " I want to learn how to play guitar." So I talked my parents into buying me a guitar when I was 13. I started teaching myself out of a book that had chords and lyrics to songs. The first songs I learned that way were things like "House of the Rising Sun", "Blowing in the Wind" etc. Gradually I got to the point where I could listen to records and figure out how to play songs that way. One day I was jamming away in my room and someone knocked at the door. It was a kid from around the block, Melvin Howard, who asked if he could bring his bass over and jam with me. So we started getting together everyday and learned quite a few tunes and basically drove everybody crazy with the noise. Shortly after we found a drummer and formed a band called the Robots. Melvin was a musical genius and could play any instrument. By 13 he already played bass, guitar, drums, sax and cello. He wanted to play guitar on a song "Let's Get it On" by Marvin Gaye, so he taught me the bass part. That's how I started playing bass and to this day when I hear that song I turn to whomever I'm with and say, "That's the first song I played on bass." Once I knew how to play bass and guitar I just played either one depending on the situation. It wasn't until the Femmes that I really made a commitment to the bass as my main instrument. I'm glad I did because I found a lot more unexplored territory on bass than there is on guitar. >You've said quite a few times that you don't read music, and I was wondering how >you fine tuned your skills. Just by listening and trying to play along? BR - Yeah. But I did learn how to follow chord charts to play in jazz bands and I learned all the scales so that when I improvise it's not just trial and error. I know the relationship of every note I'm playing to the key the song is in. Now I am very proficient in reading Japanese music, so it's ironic that I learned that before Western music. I do a lot of composing now, so I taught myself at least how to write music notation, even if my reading skills are snail like. If I couldn't write music I would have difficulty communicating with some musicians. I certainly don't recommend doing things the way I did it. I wish I had more early training in music, but that's just not the way things happened. I started relatively late and everything since then has been ad hoc. When I need something I try to learn it. >Good pot? BR - Uh............ >Did you have a teacher at all? BR- I had a wonderful guitar teacher, John Stropes, who has co-written instruction books with Leo Kottke and Michael Hedges among others. But I was too arrogant to learn properly. Now John and I can laugh about it when we bump into each other, but I'm sure at the time he thought I was simply uncontrollable. I had a great teacher in High School named Ralph Larson. He was the band instructor and got me into the jazz band because I was the best guitarist around school even if I was bizarre . He forced me to learn how to cope with jazz notation and basically let me do my thing and tried to work around my bad attitude. Without that support I would have probably ended up in jail. Now I am really angry that the American government no longer supports musical education in the schools. It's the only reason I went to school after a certain point. Otherwise I did most of my learning by listening and watching other players. I never cared what instrument someone played, I only cared about their spirit and what was being expressed. I have many favorite bass players, but I have been more influenced by sax players for example. Technique is not important either. I have a lot of it and I developed many techniques no one had done before because I needed them to get my ideas out. But sometimes players with little technique can make profound musical statements. >How did you keep evolving? BR- I guess the most important thing is to keep an open mind. I listen to anything and everything and it's always seeping into my playing. Sometimes I have heard bad players play a long solo which is ridiculous but contains one interesting phrase which stuck with me for years. It's also important to absorb ideas from art forms other than music. I like to look at paintings for example. A lot of artistic ideas developed in painting before they ever got into the musical realm. >See, I play the bass too, an acoustic one (yeah, I've been influenced by a >disorganized band), and I feel kind of stuck creatively. I don't read music >either. BR- I was never stuck creatively for very long. Because I have always set challenges for myself. It is important to visualize goals and then try to reach them step by step. As soon as I played with Gordon and Victor I knew as a rock fan and connoisseur that we had a sound and approach which was unique and could be very influential. In my mind I thought we could be the next Beatles. Of course we fell short of that, but so has everybody else. But in striving for that we covered a vast amount of musical territory in our recordings and ended up doing more touring than the Beatles ever did! So it was good to have that kind of goal even if it was silly. >I Don't have any patience to study in order to improve more. Please say a >few words about it man! BR- I don't know how important study is. I have been studying Japanese music for the last 7 years, but that's the first time I systematically studied anything. Otherwise I just did things! Form a band. If you like the Femmes learn a few of our songs, but don't stop there. Try writing your own songs. Then try writing better songs. Find people who have similar goals and try to play some gigs and make recordings. Musicians today are very lucky because recording equipment is cheap and easy to use, so there's nothing holding you back. If you can't find a nightclub or coffeehouse to play in, play on the street. That's what the Femmes did. If you just make it fun then the work won't be too much of a burden. >How do you approach musical instruments? Tell a story or something! BR- I am a multi-instrumentalist. I have always admired people who can play a multitude of instruments. My favorite Rolling Stone was Brian Jones because besides guitar he played all those great sitar, marimba, cello, flute, mellotron parts on their recordings. According to me that was their most interesting stuff. Actually that was my inspiration for the xylophone in "Gone Daddy Gone". In the Velvet Underground I loved John Cale because he played such diverse instruments as viola, organ and bass, and he played them all very well. No matter what instrument he played it always sounded like John Cale. So that's been my goal. To be like them and to surpass them if possible. All instruments are related. When I encounter a new instrument I analyze what's familiar about it and what's new to me. For example I pick up a mandolin. Instead of being intimidated by it I say to myself, "OK it's got strings, so I can deal with that. You play it with a pick, and I know how to use one very well." I'm already halfway there. "It's tuned the opposite of a bass so I will have to think upside down." That's not easy but at least I've identified the solution. Then I rock!!!! Or if I see a xylophone, "It's a drum that's tuned like a piano, or it's a piano you hit like a drum." If you look at the evolution of musical instruments one thing always leads to another and it's the discoveries made by inquisitive musicians that push music forward. Perhaps one of the best examples is the guitar. The guitar was developed in Spain to play flamenco and classical music. But when some black musicians in the southern US got ahold of it, they started playing African rhythms on it and using a slide to mimic some of the old African string instruments and suddenly you have blues. Then guitar makers started to respond to this kind of playing by designing guitars more suitable to that kind of playing. Next, Jimi Hendrix comes along and likes that instrument but wants to push it even further. After about 100 years neither the instrument nor the music resembles the original Spanish idea of the guitar, but it its possible to see the connection. >Dude, what's this thing about not recording ever again? Shit! I hope you guys >realize that some things in life are really precious (not in the material dimension >you know), and should not be taken for granted. I seriously hope you have a >real conversation, break some furniture or something, and in the end find a >way to be friends again and a reason to keep playing together. If there are >difficulties, come to Brazil, see some beautiful women, enjoy, forget who you >are for a moment!!!! Things tend to feel new again after that. At least that's >what I do. Ok. That is my recommendation. Keep playing with your heart, bro! >The Femmes do make a difference. > Nilton BR- OK Nilton, will do! Thanks for the questions. I'm glad they were about music. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Question for Brian from Julie ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's some questions...(I might come up with more later) Julie Wilber - pish_tish@yahoo.com >What happened to Guy? BR- Basically Guy was unhappy with the Femmes on a lot of different levels. I agreed with him about some of it and some I didn't understand. Victor had been missing it for a long time and wanted to come back. So at the same time Guy was losing his enthusiasm Victor was knocking on the door with a smile on his face. Victor and I put together the reissue so we were working together anyway. Rhino decided to re-release the first album. Gordon and I thought that it might be better to promote that album with Victor since he played on it, particularly in light of Guy's dissatisfaction with the Femmes. It has no reflection on Guy's musicianship, which is incredible, or his time with the band, which was a very creative period with a lot of great shows. Gordon and I were thrilled playing with Guy. We wish him the best. >Does the fact that they only play the old stuff have something to do with Victor? BR- Not really, except insofar as Victor is unfamiliar with most of the more recent material. It's mainly because we have been promoting the first album reissue since Vic rejoined slightly more than a year ago. We'll be broadening the song selection soon. >Is Gordon hard to get along with? BR- Depends on the context. He's fun at parties. Everyone's hard to get along with. >Where were they for Summerfest this year? BR- We were talking with Summerfest this year but the offer didn't firm up before we had to accept a gig in St. Louis for the same date. We'll be back. It's always fun. >Is Sigmund Snopek insane? BR- Yes, Sigmund is insane. He would not disagree. Sigmund is an insane composer, insane multi-instrumentalist, insane performer and insane friend. When it comes to insane Sigmund is the kind of insane I like. If there were more people insane like him the world would be a beautiful place. >Will they really never record new music? BR- This is one of the most commonly asked questions I get from the fans and from interviewers. I got bored with being evasive. I answer in some more detail elsewhere in this Q&A. I don't know. Right now there are no plans to do anything. In the meantime Gordon has a recent solo album, Victor has a new one coming out, and I have two which should be out by the end of the year. Maybe if you play them all at the same time... My friend Jerry from Talking Heads used to tell the fans when asked this question, "Hey, it's better this way! Instead of a Heads album every 18 months, you get five or six solo albums a year. The more the merrier!" >Will they ever play any of the newer stuff??? BR- Yes, I will try to make that happen. A lot of fans have been talking to me about that after shows and sending comments about it to the web site. Thanks for asking. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Question for Brian from Greg ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brian I've enjoyed seeing you guys perform live for the last 15 years. I never feel cheated when I go to a Violent Femmes show. Being a fan for so many years, I have a million questions, so I will try to keep it brief. Greg Flores - SCPGAMEDIA@aol.com >1. Since Victor rejoined the band, it seems that there is a renewed energy >when you play live. Does his return pump new life into the band? BR -Whenever there is a new (or in this case new/old) person on stage there is the feeling of fresh blood, which is invigorating. When Guy joined there was also a lot of enthusiasm and creativity that was sparked. Victor's energy is contagious. His spontaneous and ridiculous stage antics entertain me and Gordon the same way they entertain the fans. When I look over at him and he has his leg draped over the tranceaphone or he acts like the drums are running away from him and he's chasing them with his brushes it cracks me up. He's also a good and unpredictable improvisor musically. He is not afraid of taking musical risks, to the extent that he frequently does the exact opposite of what 99.9% of the other drummers in the world would do. Like for example stop playing right when a guitar solo starts and dance instead. But it keeps us on our toes. Sometimes when Victor plays something bizarre I look over at Gordon and it's like someone opened up smelling salts under his nose. Then he digs into the guitar more. The thing I love the most about his return is that now the drums are in the middle of the stage again where they belong. That's how we set up from 1981 to 1986. You can see a picture of that in the booklet for Violent Femmes Deluxe Edition. I think it's balanced with a three piece, drums in the middle guitars on either side. But when we went on tour for "3" in 1988 someone had talked Gordon into the idea that he should be in the middle. With Victor on the other side of the stage from me I could barely hear him in certain venues, and this continued with Guy. It is so much better for the rhythm section to be able to hear and react to each other. I like to hear the actual drums rather than the sound through speakers. >2. This is an assumption based on what I have read, but how did Gordon tell you that >he did not want to record new music with you and Victor? Did you approach him and >he said "no mas" or did it come out of leftfield? BR- We had a meeting and Victor expressed the hope that we could work on a new album. Gordon said he doesn't want to do that. He wants to do gigs with the Femmes but that his new creativity will be expressed outside of that context. Time will tell what happens with that. Maybe he wants to make a different kind of music, or play with different kinds of musicians. I don't know what his reasons are. One thing is for sure. Good music happens when people want to make it. If all three of us are not into it the results would not be acceptable. Victor and I recorded a song recently and it turned out great. Maybe we will do more like that. >3. Will Victor ever play any of the music from the post-Victor albums? I understand >that a few of those songs were written while Victor was in the band the first go >around. If not, it would be a shame to put some of those songs to sleep forever. BR -I agree with you wholeheartedly. When Victor rejoined the band it was sparked by the reissue of the first album. The Femmes never rehearse so when we went on stage with Victor we were playing from memory. Also we thought we should focus on the CD we were touring behind. Now it's about a year after the release of the reissue so it's time to stop working that. I'm going to burn a CD of songs I like from "New Times" , "Rock!!!!!" and "Freak Magnet" for Victor and Gordon and hopefully we will start integrating them into the set soon. We have already played "Life is and Adventure" and "I Saw You in the Crowd". As far as I know Victor has no objections to playing the stuff Guy originated. I'd like to start doing more songs from the other early albums as well. >4. Has anyone ever approached the band regarding a book on the detailed >history band? I'm thinking 25th anniversary box set with a book... BR- I started writing a book about it 3 years ago, but it was so painful I quit. Some fans have asked me to resume work on it and people have given me some new ideas which might make it more fun for me. I just want it to be better than other rock books. The problem is to write something honest will obviously step on a lot of toes. I'm sorting it out. A publisher contacted one of the Horns of Dilemma to write a book about us and he said, "I wouldn't touch that subject with a ten foot pole". So I guess it's up to me. >Thanks for the all the enjoyment your music has created. My wife and I have >created our own second generation of VF fans. Our 4 year old loves the "Snow >White" song (Mirror, Mirror) and our 2 year old regularly sings "I like his shoes, >I like his hat, I like me better if I looked like that uh-huh" when he gets dressed >in the morning. Nothing makes me smile like hearing my kids sing your song lyrics. >At least some of them. They will see their first show on August 23 at Del Mar. >I haven't decided if it will be a great cultural experience for the kids or if someone >should alert child welfare. BR- Sometimes I wonder about that. Whether the music is good for young minds. I really don't know. Thanks Greg, BR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Question for Brian from Brazillian fans (friend's of Nilton) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >1)what was the weirdest place you guys ever played at? BR- Probably the weirdest place we have ever played at (or any rock band) was an aircraft hangar at the North Pole for 200 Molson Beer contest winners and a bunch of Inuits. It was a wonderful experience. Runners up include: A gay bar on the south side of Milwaukee. We played for several hours to an empty house while the bar owner promised us that a busload of gays from Chicago would arrive any minute. They never did. When we played at gay bars we would change certain lyrics like "Boy Trouble (Up the Ass)" for example. A venue in Malmo, Sweden where somebody came on stage as Victor was starting his drum solo on "Black Girls" and shouted some gibberish in Swedish. The entire audience ran out of the hall en masse. Later on we found out he announced there was a bomb in the house. A club in Virginia where upon starting "Dance Motherfucker Dance" the audience came on stage and the stage collapsed. University of San Diego where the stage started to separate. The seam was right in between Victor's snare drum and his tranceaphone, so his legs just started to spread wider as the gap increased. Those are just a few of the weird ones, I'm sure I could think of more. >2)how was the decision to bring victor back made? BR- It was just a bunch of different events which taken together created an environment where he could come back to the band. I discuss it in more detail elsewhere in this Q&A. >thanx some brazilian fans, friends of nilton's - niiilson@hotmail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Be That Guy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sorry to hear you feel that way, Aaron. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out! Seriously, though -- If you enjoy their music, you should go to their shows! Otherwise the only people who will be there will be the BITS-heads who can't appreciate the rest of their work. Eventually, that will drive Gordon and the guys into an early rock-and-roll grave. Imagine playing BITS for the umpteen-millionth time. The only thing that keeps you going is looking out into the audience and seeing some goofball enjoying the shit out of every song and singing along at the top of his lungs with every obscure lyric. Be that guy. Make it worthwhile. James Welborn welborn@mac.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gordon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've known Gordon since 10th grade. I haven't seen him much since he moved to New York, and I miss him. I loved the Femmes all these years, but not because of Brian and Victor. I've always thought the main ingredient in the band was Gordon. It seems to me Gordon is preparing to leave the band and go solo. Something he should have done years ago. Kirt Knutsen Kirt.Knutsen@med.ge.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Good point ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm not sure why, but I'm finally compelled to write to this thing. I'm 18 years old and I've only been listening to the Violent Femmes since I was probably 15. But even though I am younger than most of the "hardcore Femmes fans" I do know more songs than just "Blister in the Sun" and "Kiss Off." So, I'd appreciate it if people would refrain from the old "these younger fans don't know anything" routine. I, unfortunately, haven't seen the Violent Femmes live. Whenever they are remotely near my area (Massachusetts) I can't go for some stupid reason. I know some of you guys never want to see them again unless they start playing a better variety of songs, or release new material, etc...But I have NEVER seen them! So for me, seeing them live would be awesome, even if I was surrounded by drunk people who only wanted to hear the hits. Crappy and boring live Femmes are better than no Femmes at all. Jenna stargrl33@yahoo.com ******************************************************************* To POST, SUBSCRIBE, or UNSUBSCRIBE send any kind of an email to: violentfemmeslist@yahoo.com or violentfemmeslist@ameritech.net ******************************************************************* |
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