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JP Gaster:
Hello.
JP Gaster:
Randy Beach:
I'm doing real good man, it's Randy from Doomed and Stoned.
JP Gaster:
Awesome.
Randy Beach:
JP Gaster:
Randy Beach:
Let's start with the new album that's coming out October 2nd,
Psychic Warfare! What's the process to keep things fresh at
this point, going into your 11th studio album?
JP Gaster:
The process itself is not really all that different than it's ever
been. Really it just the four of us, we get into a room and we
start jamming, making ideas. Early on in the process we don't
really try to make the songs so much as just come up with
couple of parts that we think work together maybe one could
be a verse or maybe one's a chorus. We're definitely thinking
about that stuff early on. The thing is, at that point we're just
sort of shaping ideas and as we get closer to album, we start
diving into these things and some of them we kind of marry
together or you might call it cannibalize, one might eat the
other. It's a pretty fluid process and there's not just one way
the song comes together.
Speaking about trying to keep things fresh, that's a completely
different challenge all together. We come up with a lot ideas
and a lot of those ideas end up not being on the record and
that's just because we're trying to find new things, find new
sounds. It's a difficult thing to do but we do our best to do it.
We don't want to be a band that releases the same record
over and over again.
Randy Beach:
Yeah, I would say after 10 albums, it's usually never what I'm
expecting. It always Clutch, but you can always tell youve
Randy Beach:
JP Gaster:
Randy Beach:
JP Gaster:
I'm not sure that Neil ever really sets out to write a concept
album. I think the idea of trying to do that is pretty grand, it's
pretty huge. For me anyway, the danger of that is you might
focus too much on trying to tell the story and not enough about
the music. We stay away from those kinds of things but having
said that though, I think there is somewhat of a storyline that
happens throughout the album and I'm not sure that that's
really something that was intentional on Neil's part. I think
there's a character that sort of seems to resurface in these
songs.
Sometimes I feel like this story is told by the character himself
and then the way we put the bookends on the record. There's
the intro with the lobby music and the outro too, it gives it a
feeling of having a common theme to it. I think that's the cool
part about it because although it's not something that was
done intentionally, it sort of works out that way. There's
enough holes there in the story that the listener can sort of
draw his own conclusions and sort of fill in the blanks. That's
what I like about music, I don't necessarily like having a guy
that's shouting at me and telling me about how fucked up his
childhood was or how bad he feels or what a girl did to him. To
me these aren't interesting things. I'd much rather hear stories
about Gorgons and crazy people in hotels.
Randy Beach:
Right, exactly! Neil has always added great imagery with his
lyrics, I love that. I definitely feel the new album has the same
vibe as Earth Rocker, but youve put the pedal to the metal a
little bit more and kicked it up a notch! Would you agree?
JP Gaster:
I think some songs especially are like that. From the fact that
we wrote the record so clearly on the heels of Earth Rocker.
Prior to Earth Rocker, we did Strange Cousins from the West
and there was a four year break in between those two tours.
On this one, we pretty much started getting in there and
banging our rifts almost immediately after Earth Rocker was
released. I think you'll hear some of that sort of Earth Rocker
kind of energy. I think further for that too, there's a specific
kind of feel that we captured on Earth Rocker that I think we
haven't really done that extensively before. For me, speaking
as a drummer it's an upbeat thing, there's a 16th thing on the
Hi-Hat. It's not totally straight and it's not totally wonky, it's kind
of in between there. It's almost like a shuffle and so a lot of the
songs on there have that kind of vibe. For us to be able to go
on tour and play in that style for so long, I think weve gotten
better at that. I think it's just because that's a vocabulary and I
think you feel you're more comfortable with now, we've sort of
mastered it and it's fun to play like that.
Randy Beach:
Those always are the good songs for the live show too. Is it
true that every day a different band member picks the set list
for each show?
JP Gaster:
Randy Beach:
JP Gaster:
Over the years, times, they've got tough here and there, but I
think the thing that has sort of been our North Star in way, is
that, look at the end of the day we're trying to make good
music, play good shows and that really keeps things focused.
That really eliminates a lot of outside bullshit. Sure, times can
be hard and when you're on tour you're living in close quarters
with your band members and your crew guys. It can get tough
but you have to respect one another. We just try to stay
focused on the music and really that's what's made this thing
continue to just do what it does.
Randy Beach:
JP Gaster:
I would say we're going to go out and we're going to tour but
that wouldn't really be very special would it because that's
what we've been doing for the last 25 years?
Randy Beach:
Exactly!
JP Gaster:
Randy Beach:
JP Gaster:
Oh, yeah. We're booked all for the rest of the year and now
we're looking at next year and booking all next year as well.
We enjoy doing what we do, certainly being on the road can
be tedious and it can be exhausting. The real truth is, I have a
better time out there now, than I did 20 years ago. I appreciate
it more now. I think the band is playing better, I'm playing
better, that's for sure. It's great, it's the best job in the world
and we don't take it for granted.
Randy Beach:
At this point in your career, what are you most thankful for? Is
that was it is, the longevity?
JP Gaster:
Randy Beach:
The reverse of that then, is there anything that you miss from
the early part of your career, anything that at this point in your
career that just doesn't happen any more that you miss from
back in the day?
JP Gaster:
I don't miss any of that shit. No, man I don't miss driving
around in a van. I don't miss driving across the US or Canada
at 4:30 AM. I don't miss any of that. I don't miss playing bars
where there's no toilet for the bands. The thing is, when you're
doing that stuff, it's not so bad because you're in it and you're
doing the gig. Looking back on it, you think to yourself, man
that's not really something I want to do again.
Randy Beach:
Right! I'm glad you stuck through it and kept it going, I'll tell
you that. Heres a couple of silly questions. Who would you
consider to be the class clown of Clutch?
JP Gaster:
Randy Beach:
JP Gaster:
Randy Beach:
Opposite to that, which band member would you say has the
shortest fuse?
JP Gaster:
Randy Beach:
Nice, okay! I was chatting with the drummer of the band Zed,
Rich Harris, and I told him about this interview, he said to ask
if you have a pre-show routine or warm-up? If so, do you
mind sharing what that involves?
JP Gaster:
Randy Beach:
When you are ready to rock and get out on stage do you still
get nervous at all about it or is it basically second nature now?
JP Gaster:
Are there any bands out there right now that you guys or you
specifically are really listening to or digging that fans of Clutch
may be into?
JP Gaster:
I'll tell you, that the tour that we just wrapped up with
Mastodon and Graveyard was probably one of the best tours
that I think we've be on in a long time. All three bands were
different, they all had a unique sound, but I think we shared a
lot of things too, a lot of musical concepts. To be able to share
a stage with those guys, such great players in Mastodon and
Graveyard, that was a real treat. I was glad to be a part of
something like that.
Randy Beach:
You may have just answered my next question also. Which is,
what have been some of your favourite bands to tour with?
JP Gaster:
Sure, over the years we've had the opportunity to play with
some of our favorite bands. I can remember the very earliest
days being asked to support Sepultura and that was on the
Chaos A.D tour and we were huge fans of Sepultura to begin
with and then to be asked to do that was pretty mind blowing!
Then it turns out that they were really great guys, really fun to
hang out with. We were really young, we didn't know anything,
we didn't know shit from shit. We learned a lot touring with
Sepultura and then we got to tour with other great bands too.
Not too long ago we did the US tour with Motorhead, easily
one of my favorite bands. We did a tour with Thin Lizzy in the
UK another amazing experience. You get out there and you
get to play music but then once in a while you get to see some
JP Gaster:
Randy Beach:
I would say you definitely have and we thank you for it! I hear
a lot of great bands coming out and then Ill hear someone
say, "These guys sound too much like (this or that), I'm like
well, "If they sound like Clutch, that's not a bad thing to me."
I'm all for it. Its the same when people say that about bands
sounding like Black Sabbath. Well, "Do you like Black
Sabbath?" I sure as hell do!
JP Gaster:
Yeah, I'm with you, I don't think that's ever a bad thing. I love
it. If somebody says, these guys sound like Black Sabbath,
well, then I'm probably going to go and check it out.
Randy Beach:
JP Gaster:
We change the list every night. I think because of that you sort
of develop a relationship with every song. It's hard to say if
there's a favorite or not. In a lot of ways too, it's because these
songs sort of develop themselves. There might be something
about the song that you weren't particularly a fan of when you
recorded it. For me, personally I try to breathe life into that
song. When the music starts to feel a little stale or a little
played out, that's when you have to dig deep and you got to
find what's in that song, how are you going to make that song
translate to the audience. If you're not feeling good about what
you're playing, you cant expect an audience to get excited
about it. You play all the songs with equal intensity and equal
passion and if something's not working the way you need it to
it's your job to figure out how to make it happen.
Randy Beach:
Okay. Are there any songs then, that if the guys put on the
setlist that you'd be like, no no Im not playing that song?
JP Gaster:
No, that's part of the rotating set list thing. You got to at least
try it, you got to at least try it for sound check. There has been
times when we tried to bring something old back and we tried
it for sound check and it's like, that's just not working, that's
not really a live song, but you've got to put it on the set list and
you've got to at least do it for sound check and give it a shot.
That's part of the fun of it, that's kind of why we developed that
way of doing it, that whole system in the beginning anyway, it
was really to give each song sort of it's equal do and to keep
things fresh.
Randy Beach:
Makes sense. The fans of Clutch really love you guys, do you
have any pet peeves that you wish fans didn't do, or any
stories of fans that went to far?
JP Gaster:
No, we're lucky to have all of the fans that we have. Some of
them are more enthusiastic than others, some fans are more
likely to interrupt you when you're eating dinner. The
alternative to that is, no one interrupting you when you're
eating dinner. If that's the worst thing I have to deal with, I'm
okay with it. Like I say, this is the best job in the world and we
don't take anything for granted.
Randy Beach:
readers. I can't wait to see you guys play live again, it's always
a treat!
JP Gaster:
Randy Beach:
JP Gaster: