"Bigmouth Strikes Again" by The Smiths/Johnny Marr

ARTIST: Johnny Marr of The Smiths
SONG: "Bigmouth Strikes Again"
WRITERS: Johnny Marr, Morrissey
ALBUM: The Queen Is Dead on Rough Trade Records
YEAR: 1986
SITES: Johhny Marr, The Smiths, Rough Trade Records
BUY: The Queen Is Dead (Remastered By Johnny Marr) - The Smiths

When I was sixteen years old, I invited my mother into my bedroom to listen to a band that I was nothing short of obsessed with at the time. She'd certainly seen their name plenty of times - it was broadcast across my wall on a poster that was roughly the same size as my bed, and was the focal point of a t-shirt that I wore far too often. It seemed that I had finally found something that would not only impress her with all of its technical and musical merits, but that also held the secret to my becoming as individual as I felt back then. I had carefully selected a song that I thought she might appreciate above the rest. 

She stood in my doorway, and leaned against the frame as I nervously pressed "play" on my tape deck. About twenty seconds into the song, she simply remarked, "Wow . . . listen to that guitar player."

The song was "Bigmouth Strikes Again," and the guitar player was Johnny Marr.

BA: Hi Johnny, I can’t thank you enough for doing this interview. I know you’re in the studio right now, and that your time is precious. How did "Bigmouth Strikes Again" begin and evolve as a song? Did it all start with that driving rhythm guitar, or with something else?

JM: I had an idea, then the guitar part. Then I brought it to the band and we recorded it at a soundcheck as I recall. We then went into RAK studios in London and made the record.  Kirsty MacColl came down in the evening and sang the "oohs."

BA: Your lead guitar part after the first verse and pre-chorus is almost like a second lead vocal. The tone and placement in the mix command the listener’s attention as soon as Morrissey’s voice ends. Was that your intention, to sing with your guitar?

JM: My intention was to make a burst of intense guitar notes.

BA: Whose idea were the lyrics about Joan of Arc? They provide such a comical visual against the murderous words of the verse.

JM: The lyrics were Morrissey's.

BA: I know that you and Morrissey shared the responsibilities of producing this track. My question is: did you produce one another, or were you each left to your own devices with your respective contributions?

JM: I produced it.

BA: What, if anything, would you change about the existing recording?

JM: I wouldn't change anything. I'm glad I restored the mastering of it and all the the other songs too a couple of years ago, but I wouldn't change the recording. I like it.

BA: (I like it too.) Where were you in the writing of the record when this song was born?

JM: I think I had the ideas for about half the record when we did "Bigmouth."

BA: This was the first single released off of The Smiths’ third album, The Queen Is Dead. Did you know that the song was special right away, or was the decision to make it a single made after the whole album had come together?

JM: Everyone wanted to put out "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" as the first single but I insisted that "Bigmouth" should be the first new thing people heard from The Queen Is Dead. I'm glad I did.

BA: When was the last time you played it, in any capacity?

JM: I can't remember. Not that long ago.

BA: What were you personally listening to and drawing inspiration from at the time?

JM: I always listened to the Girl Groups; Ronettes, Crystals, Shangri-Las etc. I liked the Velvet Underground, Stooges and 60's Rolling Stones too. 

BA: What’s your favorite song right this minute?

JM: Roxy Music, "The Thrill Of It All."

BA:  I’ll let you get back to making the music we all love so well. Thanks again.

JM: You are welcome. 

"Static" by Jawbox/J. Robbins

ARTIST: J. Robbins of Jawbox
SONG: "Static"
WRITERS: Jawbox: J. Robbins, Bill Barbot, Kim Coletta, Adam Wade
ALBUM: Novelty on Dischord Records 
YEAR: 1992
SITES: J. Robbins, Dischord Records, DeSoto Records
BUY: Novelty - Jawbox

So far, I'm two-for-two in the Interviews With Awesome People category. J. Robbins is known for many things. The names Government Issue, Burning Airlines, Channels and Office of Future Plans will all lead you back to him, and his name can be found in the liner notes of countless albums, as producer and/or engineer. He currently holds court at his own studio, The Magpie Cage in Baltimore, Maryland. One might safely say that he's been busy for thirty years or so. 

Today, we get to focus in on a chapter of his musical story that influenced an entire generation of rock: Jawbox. "Static," from the band's second album, is a personal favorite of mine and I'm thrilled to share J.'s words about it with you all. 

BA: J.! It’s been a long time since you and I have had a proper chat about music. Glad to have the opportunity to do so. Thanks for agreeing to this.

JR: Thank YOU.

BA: How does it feel to have written a song that all parts are sung along to – including the guitar riffs?

JR: If that is really true of "Static," or of anything else I’ve written, then it feels great!

BA: Thinking about this song within the context of the Jawbox catalog, it’s on Novelty, the first album that you guys made as a four-piece. Did the addition of Bill Barbot (on second guitar and vocals) change your sense of freedom when it came to writing and/or performing? Did it inform the way this song took shape?

JR: Becoming a 2-guitar band was a great opportunity to stretch out musically, especially since I always hear harmonies and counterpoint in my head when I write. Ultimately it also gave me a chance to play less and sing more, because Bill tended to always write really foreground-type guitar parts and with two people doing that all the time, things got claustrophobic pretty quick. After Zach Barocas joined the band, we started to really focus on dynamics, and I tended to be the first to scale back my guitar parts to make breathing room . . . but when we wrote "Static," we tended to just all be bashing away full-bore all the time. When it was written, "Static" was probably the most dynamic song we had. But it’s so straightforward, it’s one of the few Jawbox songs that doesn’t rely on the quirks of the individual players for its core identity. Unlike a lot of other Jawbox stuff, I can comfortably say, “I wrote that song.”

BA: Lyrically, the song has a message that seems personal in nature. Would you mind talking about what the jump-off feelings or ideas were? I’d also like to know if you arrived at the chorus through the writing of the verse, etc, or if you started with that and built around it.

JR: The song was written just after my half-sister “divorced” my family, for reasons that were not 100% clear at the time. I had always been very close to her, in fact I would say she raised me, as much as or more than my parents did. But in the wake of this decision, at her insistence, we didn’t speak again for about 10 years. It was a very strange moment, incredibly sad, but I also trusted her to be doing the right thing for the right reasons. It really put me at odds with my parents because I was really on her side of it. I didn’t know what else to do with the feelings around this event, so they went into a song. The song also references TV sort of obliquely, because it was such a force in my childhood, as a kid I was really shaped by TV, and funnily enough my sister went on to work in TV throughout my adolescence and early adulthood. So that’s the part about her teaching me how to see it.

BA: I know I’m not alone in my curiosity about the (vocal?) noise behind the first verse. What/who is that? If it is a voice, what’s it saying?

JR: That’s Bill, shouting into a megaphone. I think he’s saying, “I’m sunk . . . In static!” over and over again. We felt like the intro seemed flat when it was just bass and vocals, and maybe some random noise would make it more engaging.

BA: What did Iain Burgess bring to this song that it might not have had before? Was his production instrumental in rendering the version we have all come to know and love, or was the song more or less complete by the time you went into the studio?

JR: The song was totally written at that point, except for the megaphone bit, which came up in the studio. Although I know I left a lot of specifics, especially about the vocal, to the last minute. Iain was really just a great engineer and a great, funny guy to be around. His influence was enormous, but it had more to do with the fact that we couldn’t believe the same guy who recorded Naked Raygun and Big Black was here in DC recording our band. That was hugely energizing. We were now just one degree of separation from music that literally changed our lives! And Iain seemed to be a genuine fan.

BA: Who were you listening to around the time that you wrote "Static"?

JR: Naked Raygun, Buzzcocks, Helmet, Moving Targets and Bullet La Volta, lots of Chicago bands, Fugazi of course . . . all the usual suspects, exactly who you might guess from listening! But the song was directly inspired by the first Lemonheads single, "Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners." Up to this time I just couldn’t bring myself to write a simple song with simple changes, driven by a vocal melody. I always wrote around guitar parts, trying quite consciously to outsmart myself at every turn. But I heard that single and I thought it was incredible: “Wait a minute, I don’t have to torture myself to write something good, I just have to get in there and DO IT.” Of course I loved loads of simple songs before this - can’t get simpler than "Pink Flag" by Wire, right?  But Wire has this cool factor, this je ne sais quoi . . . whereas there was nothing even remotely cool about that Lemonheads 7”! But those songs reached out and grabbed me before I could put my thinking cap on. Which is now, to me, the ultimate. That’s what I think you should always be going for.

BA: Having lived with the album’s recording of the song for this many years, is there anything you would have done differently? For instance, I’ve noticed that in live performances, the phrasing of the chorus is less drawn out. Is that merely a product of on-stage spontaneity, or do you prefer that way of singing it and possibly wish that you had sung it that way on the record?

JR: I think "Static" got to be a way better song after we played it out, and that’s one of the results. That was a sort of ass-backward thing about Jawbox (as it is with a lot of bands). We tended to record songs before they were ever played live, and then they got a lot better once they’d been out in the world. All our records have a lot of half-assed ideas on them (I am only speaking for my contributions of course).

BA: I know that you’ve recently played some solo shows where you performed "Static." How does it feel to sing it today without the band? Does it become a different song for you?

JR: Yes, I think it’s a better song now than it was then. It sounds better with a cello for one thing. And with some actual dynamics, not that I can execute them too well . . . I have been thinking of doing an acoustic record, and when I think of re-recording "Static," I am tempted to rewrite the lyrics too. I have a much better understanding of where I am coming from these days, and a lot of those old lyrics seem really awful to me. At least I know "Static" was actually about something! So it might become an even better song sometime. : ) But on the other hand, I haven’t really got into it, because tweaking and revising a 20-year old song . . . you know, that’s just weird.

BA: What’s your favorite song right this minute?

JR: "Paris 1919" by John Cale. Almost anything by John Cale, really. Or Randy Newman. Or the Cheap Trick version of "I’m Losing You," by John Lennon. Or maybe "Total Eclipse of the Sun," by Einsturzende Neubauten.

BA: My long time friend and collaborator, Levi Fuller, sends this along (in the spirit of Chris Farley): “You know that one part, where after the big instrumental bridge, it drops down to a quiet reprise of the first verse with bass, guitar feedback and drums? And then it goes back into the flailing instrumental guitar rock-out to the end? That’s awesome.”

JR: Thanks Levi!

BA: Thanks for taking the time for this, friend. It’s always a pleasure.

JR: Thanks Buick!

"Weakness" by McRad/Chuck Treece

ARTIST: Chuck Treece of McRad
SONG: "Weakness"
WRITERS: Chuck Treece, John Wagner
ALBUM: Absence of Sanity on Beware Records
YEAR: 1987 
SITES: McRad, Chuck Treece
BUY: Absence of Sanity - McRad

This is my very first interview for this new project of mine. I figured there was no better place to start than with an artist for whom I have tremendous admiration and respect, Chuck Treece. Treece is one of the most recognizable faces and voices of the early crew that made skateboarding a worldwide phenomenon. His band McRad's song, "Weakness," was the unofficial anthem of a generation of skaters and fans, appearing in the legendary skate videos that Powell Peralta was producing at the time. One of my musical projects, They Rule, has recently finished recording a cover of this treasured piece of punk rock/hardcore history, adding our own booty-shaking spin on its existing radness. We are honored to have some guitar tracks on our version by the man himself.

Chuck and I did this interview via email, during his last of eight weeks out on the road as the drummer for The Lemonheads. Just when you think he can't get any cooler, he does.

BA: First of all, thanks so much for taking the time to do this. I know you’re a busy man, on all fronts. This is very cool to be able to ask you these questions about your work.

CT: BA, thank you. Without music I would be a bit lost for words. I like poems when I am in the proper mood, but I like music 24/7. Poems come out of great music and that's what "Weakness" is all about. John Wagner co-wrote the lyrics with me. I still believe in a good message and this interview will be about my message back to music. Glad people can pick up on a good message . . . music.
  
BA: "Weakness" is such a beloved song among your fans, myself included. Do you feel like this song has been a constant presence in your music career, since you released it?

CT: From the first time that I played the guitar riff, I felt like I needed to give this song the best energy I could. I started writing the song in '85 after I moved back from San Francisco. I was in a band called the M-80's. I remember telling the lead singer, "Keith" that I had this song and it was real close to me. I wouldn't play it for anyone. Then I started McRad back up again after the original line-up had went its separate ways. I started getting the songs ready to fit around "Weakness." So, I had all of my dreams in this body of music that was to be Absence of Sanity, and I knew "Weakness" had a pulse. All it needed was the lift. Then comes Stacy Peralta, Beware Records and Ray Stevens. Those three folks had just as much to do with the song being embraced as I did. Every songwriter needs a good team of people to believe in a song's life history. Twenty-eight years later and I still love playing and singing the song - and I am completely blown away that other people still love the song also.

BA: Does it ring true for you today, all these years later, or does it feel like a
time capsule from your past? 

CT: Music means positive power to me until I listen to what people have to say. Most say things about music because music doesn't speak to them, so they speak through music, not along with music. I feel that "Weakness" is music first and story second. The world of skateboarding embraced it first, and then the art of video/film making with Stacy Peralta took the song to a whole new level. I will play this song 4-eva.

I still love to play "Weakness" live, and I will always make small changes and add parts to the sections when I am not singing. It's music - and almost a theater approach to music. That way, I change it when I feel like it. Kind of like what we all do to the spoken word. We all create catch phrases to make the art of talking to people more interesting.

BA: The lyrics have a universally relatable message. I think we all apply our own stories to your words. Can I ask you what the original inspiration was – more or less?

CT: John Wagner, the drummer of McRad was into R.E.M. and I was into Hüsker Dü. So, when we collab'ed on "Weakness," we met in the middle. Bob Mould had such a big influence on my songwriting and guitar playing, so any chance to be a bit like Bob, I would go for it. R.E.M. at that time was the new underground pop rock band that all the educated punkers were getting into. I started to listen to R.E.M.'s first LP after John was after me to check them out. 

The lyrics in "Weakness" are about young life. That's all we have - young life, until we decide that it's older or boring. My goal is to have "Weakness" be a pure sign of youth. It's an honor to co-write a song with a great musician, drummer and songwriter. John Wagner was completely into the art of songwriting, and I was just into keeping McRad alive after the break-up of the first line-up. 

BA: Did it take ten minutes to write, or more like ten hours?

CT: To write "Weakness," in total, took about five hours. That is, to perfect it. The album track is one version live, and the vocals, guitar solo and rhythm guitar were overdubbed. We recorded it in San Francisco. Also, we had been playing the song for about six months before recording it . . . it had to feel right before we recorded it.
  
BA: The first time I heard the song, I remember your vocals jumping out at me. They had such a soulful, emotional tone that stood out against the structure of the music.  I also like that the vocal is doubled. Was that your decision?

CT: Ray Stevens produced the vocals and knew what to do by double-tracking them. When he heard "Weakness," he told me to double-track the vocals which gave it this Ozzy vibe. I did them all the way through and then did some punch-ins on my mistakes or the notes Ray didn't feel were right for the song. It all happened so fast. I knew it and felt the direction of the song while being completely nervous about recording my voice. I made it happen and am thankful for that. 

Thanx to Ray Stevens for producing the LP. I still remember listening to the ruff mix and being thankful that I made the right choice to record and write this song for that LP. So priceless . . . the memories of growing and learning through the art of recording.

BA: Who were some of your influences at the time?

CT: Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Bad Brains, Hüsker Dü, Blue Öyster Cult, Def Leppard, Ted Nugent, Metallica, Slayer, Artillery, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Descendents, The Dickies, 999, Buzzcocks, Void, Dio, Holy Diver and Motörhead.

All I would do was listen to music loud before my mom and the rest of the famz would get home from work. So, I had to crunch as much of my music as I could. Once they came home, I went to sk8 and think about music. Philadelphia is amazing for being and thinking creative. It's so fast and exact. No filler in the overall vibe/vine of Philly musicians, players and writers.

BA: How many different covers have you heard of "Weakness," over the years?

CT: I have heard about ten covers . . . most of them live, and one band recorded more of a metal version.
  
BA: How do you feel about a “roller-skating” version of your song going out into the world (by my band)?

CT: I like the roller-skating version. I used to go roller-skating when I was kid, and before I started skateboarding. You understand music and I heard that through yer version of "Weakness." I am glad ya did the version you wanted to do. That's what "Weakness" is all about. The first verse of the lyrics describes the entire song:

"My weakness is I can't say no . . ."

In other words, when I am thinking of music, my thoughts were to let my music be what it is inside of me. So, when I talk about it through singing and playing the song, it comes from within. That's the best place for music - within, before you let it out. Once it's out, the story has to be a bit of everyone's dreams. The art of making music . . . we want people to hear it, feel it and love it the way they want to.

BA: What’s your favorite song right this minute?

CT: "Frank Mills" by The Lemonheads. I wanna do a ska version of "Frank Mills." The melody is so nice. Evan Dando is a good one with his music and believes in collaborating with songwriters to create great music. That's what we all want - great collaborations that make great music . . . big stories without all the news or banter that comes along with scenes, and styles of scenes. Music is listened to, regardless of all of that opinionated noise.

BA: Thanks for talking with me, man. And thanks for making great music that we all get to sing along to, at the top of our lungs. It’s a gift.

CT: BA, thank you for loving music the way you want to. At the final sound of what we call life, music always makes the most sense. It's my quest to make sure me and my family understand how important music is for us to survive. The hits and the attention are great, but if we couldn't listen to each other it wouldn't matter. Music makes listening a pleasure. The choice is up to the person involved with music. Thank you.

I would like to thank Stacy Peralta, Thrasher Magazine, Ray Stevens, Tommy G., Ray Barbee, Brian Ware, Deluxe Records, Thunder Trucks, Ace Trucks, Pocket Pistols, Bones Wheels, Nike SB, and all the folks that have listened in for so many years.

CHUCK