The Guys "From TV":
(The 5th Annual Mike Lyon Interview With Chris - September, 2001)
So Mike didn't write a little intro for the interview this year.
That means I (Q) had to do it. That's OK, cuz ML does such a great
job coming up with the good questions for Chris. I had practically
the same interview, when I saw Chris and Tad in Hoboken this month,
but didn't write anything down. doh! Anyhow, Chris introduced the
combo saying this: "Hello, we're Chris and Tad, and we're from TV".
Well, in case you didn't know it, TV and movies will be the primary
focus of Chris and Tad (and therefore Chris) for the immediate
future. Just read on...
Mike - We all know that there's a new Chris and Tad album coming
soon, but maybe you can fill us in on any details. Will it be an
Orange release? How long have you been recording it? What's it gonna
be called? Songs? Loong ago you said The Dust Brothers might be
involved...
Chris - Well, lets see now... We have been
working on it for about 3 months or so in earnest. We went to a
studio called Jupiter where I made the LAST pusa record and did the
basic tracks to Pro Tools and then took those tracks home to my new
studio and dumped them into my computer and started overdubbing and
mixing and tweaking and now we have 6 songs done enough to call it a
demo that we are using to see if anyone wants to help us put it out.
I love the results. It sounds like butter. We don't have a sure
title yet but we are considering a few possibilities. Songs include
"Holidays in Your Holster", "Calling Long Distance", "Jogger", "In
Your Mind", "Everytime I see Your Face I Feel as if the Hardest Part
is Over and I'm Free", "Drool at You from Here" [Mike's note: this
last song is a remake of "Here" from the Caspar album], and so on.
As of now the Dust brothers are not involved but I just dropped a
6-song demo off in LA with one brother and we would love to get them
in on it if we can.
Mike - Will you be touring behind the album at all, or is it too
early to ask that?
Chris - We certainly don't want to tour... That
is why we are doing film songs and TV. We will cross that bridge
when we come to it.
Mike - Will there be any songs from Zero Friction translated for the
C+T album?
Chris - There were a couple that we tried that
worked and some that didn't. Because I thought that the songs from
that record were fundamentally weak, I kinda wanted to scrap them
all and let them grow mold in the corner for a while so I could get
far enough away from them to be able to tell if there were any
redeeming qualities in them or not. BUT "Stay With Me" got a very
attractive liposuction and implant and is definitely on the new
record. We messed around with "Some Postman is Grooving" until I
wanted to kill kill kill - and it never worked.
Mike - Now, speaking of Zero Friction, everyone was very excited
about it. Can you say a little about why you decided to shelve The
Giraffes as a live act, and then the whole album itself?
Chris - I just didn't think the songs were that
good. I was kind of on auto-pilot and working for the sake of being
busy and I suddenly realized after I sent out CDs to find a manager
that I didn't believe that the stuff was the best I could do and the
experience of listening to it was nerve racking for me and that is
the WRONG feeling to have about a record if you are going to do all
the work that has to be done to release a record properly. So I set
it aside.
Mike - Will we see a third Giraffes album? Everyone is pumped to
hear more solo material from you...
Chris - YES!!! I have a whole bunch of
instrumental music that I want to pull together and release somehow.
Mostly drummless, Spacemen 3, go to sleep stuff. I have been doing
this stuff my whole life and thought that it was only useful in the
context of pulling melodies out of it for songs. Now it seems like a
fun challenge to make them stand on their own and be interesting
enough to hold someone's ears in check. So during down time I will
putt away on that. I have a LONG term goal of furthering my music
education and getting into actual scoring of actual films. By "long"
I mean 10 years down the road.
Mike - Back to C+T for a second, you were talking about involvement
in film projects, like the Scooby-Doo movie. Tell me what's up with
all that.
Chris - That is our main business and most
probable livelihood at the moment. The old PUSA manager in LA is in
charge of this part of the operation and she is seeking out films
and TV shows that we can get involved in and provide music for. I am
most excited about this business artistically too because the
challenge is to make something fun and cool-sounding that will fit
with the project at hand. We just finished and saw on the air the
bumper (in and out of commercials) music for "Next Big Star" which
is the new "Star Search" show that Ed MacMahon is doing. We wrote
songs for the "Country Bears" movie for Disney and the list goes
on... We have a long list of demos and songs to work on right now.
Mike - Although you haven't released any singles yet in your
post-PUSA endeavors, is there still the chance that we might get the
odd 7" out of you? You had talked in the spring about releasing a
C+T "summer single".
Chris - Yep, the summer single didn't
materialize because of business. No plans for any PUSA activity at
all.
Mike - So I hear that you've left home-taping behind and gone
digital. What was the motivation for the big switch? What kind of a
setup do you have now? And how is it treating you?
Chris - I LOVE COMPUTERS!!!!!!! I still use the
cassette a lot, though. I record ideas onto cassette and then dump
them into the computer and I still track drums onto cassette. I got
the Digidesign 001 Pro tools setup and a Mac G4 to go with it.
Pretty standard stuff. The big switch was motivated by LACK OF
TRACKS! Tad and I would get to the exciting part where the song
needed to have handclaps and tambourine and we were out of room. The
editing part is amazing, too. I don't use the computer to generate
music but once an idea is in there we can loop parts and cut out the
dead wood so fast that we don't have to worry as much about knowing
the arrangement of the song before we start recording. That attitude
fits our style perfectly.
Mike - The nice thing about digital is that new songs can be
Internet-ready in a matter of seconds after recording. Does this
mean that we might see a bigger Ballew online presence in the
future?
Chris - I hope so. I am learning how to e-mail
songs and I would love to be organized enough to get a web site
together that can post songs...
Mike - Let's talk about the aftermath of last year. Since our last
big talk in 2000, you put out 3 records (Freaked Out and Small, The
Days Are Filled With Years and Hand Me That Door). That's a gigantic
output for just one year of recording! So I'd like to ask what kind
of success each of those 3 albums had, and how you maintained such a
fever pitch!
Chris - They all did OK. Nothing too huge,
obviously, but that is also a result of being scattered over various
projects and running a family. Nothing got the full attention and so
it all suffered a bit in some way. I really like all of those
records as far as the music goes... No complaints there. I did pay
eventually for the fever pitch and that is why I dropped The
Giraffes as a live band and why I am doing all that I am with just
Tad at the moment. The multitasking approach got out of hand.
Mike - What are Dave [Dederer] and Jason [Finn, the other members of
PUSA] up to now, then? I hear Dave is playing with Duff in a band
called "Loaded." Is it good stuff?
Chris - I haven't heard it. He was going to go
to Japan with that band but he had a baby and isn't going anywhere
soon. He IS writing a book about the music business using PUSA as an
example and he is looking for a publisher for that. Jason in looking
for a touring band to get into and stay with for a while... At least
that was the last word from him. I haven't seen him for 6 months or
so.
Mike - Time for my favorite subject, Ballew Recordings of Times Now
Past - Gavin [Guss, formerly of The Tycoons] just recently posted an
old Tycoons song that you guys wrote called "Lady Elaine" to
MP3.com, and it's really being eaten up; everyone loves it! Is there
any chance now, 4 years down the road, that the fan community might
get to hear the old record that you guys scrapped?
Chris - Never say never. "Lady Elaine" was our
best song... The only one we all wrote together. But I doubt with
all else going on that it will ever be anything but an MP3. And that
is great! That is why this is so GREAT. We don't HAVE to coordinate
a record release, which is a lot of work. I mean a LOT of work - and
people can still hear songs. Beautiful.
Mike - And that means that Subset must be the next topic of
conversation. I know that Subset is totally dead and buried. But
will the completed record you guys cut ever see the light of day? As
a bootleg, maybe?
Chris - Top secret negotiations are underway,
that is all I can say.
Mike - I got a copy of the "Balls" LP that you did more than a
decade ago, and it's crazy stuff. I noticed that Phil Franklin
played on it, and you guys were of course in EGG together. When was
the last time you worked with Phil on a project? For that matter,
what about Dave Thiele?
Chris - I have long ago lost track of Phil but
Dave and I see each other on a regular basis and we are still
working on the Creepy Stick debut after 26 years of work.
Mike - Speaking of EGG, I know you were doing a lot of art at the
time those records came out, in kind of an art collective. A horde
of fans really dig your artwork a lot (and I certainly do - I got
that tattoo of the Caspar cover!). Have you ever thought about
putting out a small artbook? Do you still draw or is the focus
elsewhere?
Chris - I still do artwork when the music part
of my brain gets mushy and overloaded. It is the one thing I love to
do most while I listen to music - besides fall asleep. As far as a
book goes, if I were approached by someone who wanted to see the
whole batch of stuff and they thought there was enough there to work
on I would be interested in that. I did a 24 hour art marathon about
a year ago and wanted to do the same one this year but I was in LA.
It was amazing... Exhaustion and creativity mixing it up and I sold
all my work that night at an auction to benefit an arts center in
Seattle. It did make me want to do more but if I have 10 minutes
free these days MUSIC related ideas are lined up ready to go first.
Mike - When I was doing some research the other day I found an old
top ten list of your favorite albums that you compiled back in 1996!
It's a kick.
Here it is:
1. Chixdiggit (self-titled debut)
2. Fun Lovin Criminals: "Come Find Yourself"
3. Beck: "Odelay"
4. Maxwell: "Urban Hang Suite"
5. Custard: "Wisenheimer"
6. Screaming Trees: "Dust"
7. Menthol: (self-titled debut)
8. Supergrass: "I Should Coco"
9. Oasis: "What's The Story Morning Glory"
10. Alice In Chains: "Unplugged"
So what would this list look like now, 5 years later?
Chris:
1. The Creation: "How Does it Feel To Feel?"
2. Rolling Stones: "Let it Bleed"
3. Reef: "Glow"
4. Andrew Birds Bowl of Fire: "The Swimming Hour"
5. R.L.Burnside: "Come on In"
6. R.L.Burnside: "Wish I was in Heaven Sitting Down"
7. Beastie Boys: "Body Movin Fatboy Slim remix"
8. Rushmore Soundtrack
9. Beethoven 6th Symphony
10. Brian Eno: "Apollo and Atmospheres"
Mike - How are the kids? They are getting old, and that is crazy
since the first time we talked was right after Augie was born!
Chris - They are great! Augie is 4 and starting
pre-school and Josie is 1 and trying to keep up with her brother...
Mike - For the record, I STILL think you should cover The
Beatles' "Back in the USSR".
Chris - OK, I will.
Mike - Thank you!