Interview & photo by Rachel Jablonski
I caught up with Neil, the down to earth vocalist of the long running band called Clutch, at the Sounds of the Underground Tour in Chicago, IL. On tour in support of the band’s latest release, Robot Hive: Exodus – a bluesy, rhythmic, riff-based, rock oriented display, Clutch is currently immersed in a line-up of bands more of the metal/hardcore persuasion. In discussing the tour, the album, and an upcoming video with Neil and then seeing their performance on this tour, Clutch is a band that can and will hold their own in any setting as the diehard fans continue to grow in number.
Rachel: How does it feel to be included on such a monumental tour as the Sounds of the Underground?
Neil: It’s cool. We were very skeptical at first because we’ve never done anything like this. We’re probably a bit of an anomaly compared to the other bands and we thought that may not work in our favor, but at this point I can say that it’s been a good decision.
Rachel: How do you feel your sound stands out or fits into the mix?
Neil: I guess if you had to compare it we’re more blues based in a classic rock sense. More of a riff band as opposed to speed. In the vocal circuit we’re mellow. I think at the time of day that we play it’s kind of a welcomed change at least for the half hour that we play. So I think it works out well.
Rachel: Have you had a good response? I mean there’s die hard Clutch fans out there, but what about those who haven’t heard you before?
Neil: There are diehard Clutch fans out there and Clutch fans for the most part are older compared to your younger kids that are here. And those are the people that we’re looking to play for, the people who have not heard us before.
Rachel: Have they been pretty receptive?
Neil: So far, so good. I mean it’s hard to tell sometimes with 6,000 people. If you get through to 500 you’ve done a great thing. You know these festivals… it’s hard because when you play later on in the day these people have been out in the sun for 8 hours and you kind of have to give it a little bit extra.
Rachel: Have there been any surprises or amusing things happen on or off stage?
Neil: Thus far it’s been really low key and routine. Everybody on the tour is just real mellow. It’s such a huge endeavor to have 200 people on tour. Everyone has to do their little part. So no news is good news in this kind of a festival. [laugh] But hey we’ve got another month of it so…
Rachel: Oh, you know what wondered? Ticket prices are relatively low. Since there is so many people on the tour how does that work?
Neil: Well I don’t think any of the bands entered into this with the idea that they were going to be making lots of money. The whole idea is to just gain new exposure. You’re basically playing for peanuts in exchange for that. The ticket prices are low to entice people to come to the show because there are a lot of other festivals out there. So I think it works out in everybody’s best interest. So when band X who maybe gained a lot of fans does their headlining run, they can be that much bigger hopefully.
Rachel: Right, that’s cool. What kind of set are you playing with a new album out and a vast array of prior music to choose from?
Neil: It’s tough I mean we’ve got 100 songs or so. We play 40 minutes and that gives us about nine songs which I think is just long enough that we can kind of try to show an honest cross section of all the things that we do whether they be the old faster stuff, the funkier stuff, or the more kind of bluesy or country stuff. For every band that’s a challenge. We have the luxury of 40 minutes. Some of the other bands are playing maybe 25.
Rachel: Since you’re targeting more of a younger, newer audience do you focus on stuff from the new album then?
Neil: No, the first day we did this tour we decided we were going to play our fastest and loudest stuff. As soon as we were done we decided that was a mistake and we decided to play what we would play if this were just a headlining show and just be completely honest about what we do. I think that keeps us happy and it keeps the Clutch fans that are here happy and it doesn’t deceive anybody.
Rachel: Your title for this album is kind of interesting. Where does the title come from and what did you have in mind in writing this album?
Neil: Well this is the first record that we’ve worked on with Mick who plays a Hammond B3 and because of that sound I think there are some almost gospel elements to it. Not obvious, but to my ear it was a little bit of that so we wanted to hint on that in the title and as typical to other Clutch records it kind of has a Sci-Fi vibe to it. We couldn’t decide if there was a word to do both so we decided to go with Robot Hive: Exodus to kind of touch on the Sci-Fi and gospel element of it.
Rachel: Cool and then you just went in and laid it out?
Neil: Well we decided after Blast Tyrant we did not want to wait three years in between records now that we have the luxury of doing what we want to do when we want to do it. And we wanted to do it locally so we hooked up with Jay Robbins who was in Jawbox and Burning Airlines. He’s a real mellow, easy going guy and he just made it a pleasure to do this record. We write best with a deadline. If we don’t have a deadline there is little enticement to get something done. As a writer I’m sure you’re familiar with this phenomenon.
Rachel: Yes. [laugh]
Neil: So we’ll do a couple months of pretty intense writing and rehearsal and then two weeks of like really scrutinizing everything and then just lay it down. This is not as technical of a record as Blast Tyrant; it’s a little more odd. The arrangements aren’t as predictable and I think we needed to do that. I think that every album that we do is a reaction to the proceeding record. The things that we don’t like about it or wish we could have done with it we’ll explore the next record.
Rachel: It turned out good. Well I’m an Engineer and I may be a geek, but is the song “10001110101” binary?
Neil: It is binary, but that’s all there is to it. I’ve gotten some flack from some real geeky people that are upset that it is not actually binary for a word. But if that were the case it would have to be really long. It would take up quite a bit… I’ve heard someone say it does represent some kind of bizarre geometric shape…
Rachel: Well if you put it in decimal numbers it equals 1141. [laugh]
Neil: 1141…
Rachel: Like in regular numbers you know?
Neil: Oh I see, I see. Huh, that’s interesting. To be honest it’s kind of a funny example of people looking for things because those numbers were completely random. I was just on the mic and we were rehearsing and I had to choose one way to do it otherwise I wouldn’t be able to remember it. Then people have asked what is it? What does it mean? There’s really not a whole lot to it. I wish I could say it represented something really creepy, but no.
Rachel: There’s good rhythm to it. I love that song.
Neil: Thank you.
Rachel: How do you feel your artwork adds to the entire experience of the album?
Neil: There are two things that come to mind in regard to that. One is we were kind of bemoaning the fact that when we were growing up you’d buy an LP, you’d go home, you’d stop everything, you’d dedicate the next hour to listening to it on your headphones and looking at the album art. And before videos that was the visual way of losing yourself in the music whether it be to Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd or a lot of metal bands. They added really detailed rich art and now because of the CDs actual size you lose that. And the second thing is that CDs are so disposable that half the time, and I’m guilty of it myself, I’ll take it, I’ll put it in my computer, and then the CD and jewel case are busted in a matter of weeks. We wanted to make something that was at least visually valuable to just kind of want to hold onto it, make it cool. Cause CDs I think are kind of going the way of LPs at this point. It’s all going to be like a Multimedia addition and I like the tangible thing that you can smell and feel and look at. This guy Nick, who I just happened to meet behind this night club in Brooklyn, gave me his card and he’s an animator and that’s the first album art he’s ever worked on.
Rachel: Oh wow.
Neil: Yeah, and I think he did a really bang up job. The label’s going to submit it for a Grammy which is even more amazing. Whether or not anything will happen, who knows, but it’s cool to say.
Rachel: Yeah! So it sounds like you don’t have too high of an opinion on videos then?
Neil: Um, I like them in theory. A great video is amazing, but I lack the patience to watch a lot of those channels because so much of it is derivative and base and everyone goes for the easiest denominator. We just did a video for “Burning Beard” and hooked up with a guy by the name of Jeremy Hunt who did a film called The 405. If you see it, it is about a jetliner that lands on a highway in California; it’s all CGI. So he’s going to have this really elaborate kind of Sci-Fi Baptist Church thing that we filmed a couple weeks back. Hopefully that will be out in the next couple of weeks. Problem with making a cool video is that it takes a lot of money and fortunately this guy was a fan of the band and basically did it for free.
Rachel: Wow. Is his movie out?
Neil: Yeah, you can check it out online it’s called 405themovie.com. Yeah it’s amusing, it’s really funny.
Rachel: Ok, well what can we expect from you in coming months now?
Neil: Well this thing wraps up the first week of August and then we’ll take a little bit of time off because we’ll have been out for 6 weeks. And we’re basically going to tour until the New Year headlining both here in the States and in Europe and in the meantime try to work on a DVD and get that out next year.
Rachel: You haven’t started on that yet?
Neil: We’ve been filming for quite some time. I guess there’s two ways of doing a DVD. You can do a compilation or you can hire someone to film for a week. We did try to do the compilation thing; it’s just not working out. So we’re regrouping and I think we’re going to hire a director to film for a couple weeks and get some live footage and interviews and do it right instead of piecing it together. So that will delay it until next year.
Rachel: On this upcoming headlining tour they’ll film?
Neil: Most likely.
Rachel: Alright how about we get a lot of dates in the Midwest.
Neil: We probably will. Usually the way we tour is that we’ll do three or four weeks in the Northeast, three or four weeks in the Southeast, three to four weeks west of the Mississippi. No doubt we’ll… are you from here?
Rachel: No, I drove up from Iowa.
Neil: Oh, well I know we’re playing in Iowa City…
Abrupt end to the interview due to the fact that Neil began searching for the Iowa City show date and after that the conversation turned to Iowa and other irrelevant things like that. I appreciate Neil’s time and look forward to seeing Clutch again very soon!