ROCK YOUR
DARK SIDE
In the course of your
career, where do you feel
was the biggest musical
growth for the band?
JOEY: I would probably say that the
biggest musical growth would be at the
beginning when we discovered the style
that we bumped into. From there on we just
took it on and it just grew. I would say the
initial album, probably Surfer Rosa. It’s
not to say that we didn’t grow any. It was
just that was something that we discovered
and it was unique enough that we could
massage it for a while.
Were you guys searching
for a certain sound or
did everything just develop
organically?
JOEY: No we were not searching. We were
unique. Speaking for myself, when you hear
other musicians that you admire you want
to leave them alone, you know? So you
don’t sound like another Hendricks, an-
other Richards. That was it, we were just
leaving people alone and eventually you
just paint yourself in a corner.
What were some of those people that you
were tuning into and you were listening to at
that time when you guys were recording that
record, which could have influenced how
you approached things?
JOEY: I Was listening to a lot of surf music. Surf music was kind of
funny to me. It’s just very descriptive. It’s the title and then the music.
It’s great. You just don’t know what came first, the title or the song. It’s
an instrumental and it describes what it is. Hawaii 5-0 , Run Chicken
Run, Jackknife. All this stuff is very descriptive. I like that.
With the influx of the digital age, so many
songs have lost the raw edge to it. Is that
something you feel is going on as well?
JOEY: It certainly would be harder because of the tools involved. When
we recorded Surfer Rosa, we had 16 tracks. I don’t know, we wanted to
sound raw. I guess now a days with pro tools and stuff, you can stack a
lot of tracks and all that. You can make your decisions later. That could
have an impact. But it’s really up to the band to decide if they ever want
it to become raw.
What was the attitude like in the studio
during Surfer Rosa? Tense? Relaxed?
JOEY: Oh totally laissez faire, totally. It was like.. is that good? Yes!
Do you want to do it again? No! I’m serious though. It was like once a
take was done. “ Do you want to do it again” and I was like “Why”?
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Photo Credit: Travis Shinn
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