08.07.05 - Volume 1, Episode #5 - Length 41:40
We are excited to feature one of the most innovative bands playing music today. The unique blend of Eric on acoustic guitar, James on upright bass, and Jeff on drums can only be described one way, AWESOME! Find out why the Eugene Weekly said, “If McFadden and his gang are new to you avail yourself to this opportunity to hear this unique rock experience.”
EMT members: Eric McFadden – guitar/vocals, James Whiton – bass, Jeff Anthony – drums
AAC 38.6 MB
MP3 38.1 MB
( ♪ Put It Down – From the album, Joy of Suffering ♪ )
Eric: Jeff was in San Francisco, but we met him in Portland when we lived there… Which was March 2005 was the first time the three of us played a show together.
Jeff: 2002? 2003?
Eric: 2002. That was at Dante’s in Portland, actually. We were referred to Jeff through somebody who referred us to Jeff. Oh, wait no. Twice referred…Yeah, let’s just say we were referred to Jeff. We got together and played with no rehearsal except for a little sound check action and went on from there. We stayed on the road a little bit and then recorded Diamonds to Coal. Eventually Jeff moved to San Francisco, but this is the first tour he has down with us in a year and a half. So, he’s been out with Chuck Prophet and doing some other things…so know we are reunited here for this wonderful tour that we are calling the ah, offending…
James: Offending Christians over Dinner.
Eric: Something like that.
(Laughter)
James: Eric and I actually knew each other back in Albuquerque were we both grew up.
Eric: That’s where it began.
James: That’s where the connection was initially made. And then we lost touch. Eric moved to San Francisco. My band was still touring out of Albuquerque so I would see him every four or five months. Then my band stopped touring and we kinda’ lost contact.
Eric: For a few years.
James: For a few years.
(Laughter)
Eric: But as fate would have it. If you believe in such things. Or something like that.
James: I believe in fate.
Eric: Satan brought us together. He did.
James: Your too fatalistic.
(Laughter)
Eric: I’m not such a genre guy. I look at music as sort of it’s all music and it all serves whatever purpose it’s meant to serve. We kinda’ to transcend the whole idea of genre, but though essentially you can call us a rock band, which we are, because we like to rock. But, where that comes from is I think we kinda’ all come from an eclectic background as far as that goes. James was classically trained. His mother was a classical bassist. My mother and father were into music so, everything from Classical and Jazz, to Blues and Funk and Rock to Punk are in our collections. We’ve always drawn from all these different things. We put it together in a way we feel inclined. Did I leave something out?
Jeff: I think you did.
(Laughter)
Eric: What about Country? I hated country music until I was about 19.
Jeff: Until you fell down the stairs.
Eric: Busted my fucking head open. Then suddenly I started playing Hank Williams records. I hated Jazz too until I was about 11. It sounded like…John Coltrane sounded like a bunch of fucking chaos and noise to me. I was like, “What is this shit?”
(Laughter)
Eric: And then one day I’m like, “This is beautiful. Oh, God!” At certain points in my life I opened up to all of these different things. I went beyond the Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and the Sex Pistols and I found some other things.
James: That’s the evil Rock ‘n Roll side of…yeah as Eric was saying I got brought up on Classical music and Jazz. My dad was a jazz drummer and my mom was a symphonic bass player so, that where I started from, but then I kinda’ strayed from the fold and started listening to the Dead Kennedy’s and Black Sabbath and Metallica and you know, a bunch of evil, weird stuff. A bunch of Frank Zappa.
Eric: It fucked him up forever.
James: It kinda’ did. You know I started seeing guys playing slap electric bass and I never knew how to play electric bass, never really figured it out so, I just wanted to make that sound with my bass and kept messing around; hitting it harder and harder till it sounded right (Laughter). It’s kinda’ like friends, you know. If you hit ‘em…
Eric: If you hit them hard enough…
James: If you hit them kinda’ hard it doesn’t work out. You have to hit them hard enough…
Eric: Really hard.
James: Then the friendship can work.
Eric: That’s the only way to get these bitches to listen to me man. You gotta’ hit them really fucking hard.
(Laughter)
Eric: Of course then they may be inclined to do the same to me, but that’s just the chance I am willing to take. We find that the more we abuse each other, especially physically, we also torment each other mentally and emotionally, but the better we get along musically and on stage.
Jeff: Sacrifices to be made.
Eric: Yeah, exactly.
( ♪ Diamonds to Coal – Live from the Eastside Tavern Recorded by BSB ♪ )
Jeff: It’s a challenge at times. I was lucky to go to school for jazz where I was able to learn all those different styles. I think this is one of the few bands on the planet where I can apply every groove of any style of music in one single two hour setting.
(Laughter)
Eric: And you do rise to the challenge me good lad. That you do. He is most worthy, the Commander, as we call him.
(Song)
Eric: We certainly could but we shouldn’t really. Are their children listening? Oh, you mean the musical bond? Well, I think you have witnessed such bands where people are all on stage playing music at the same time, but they aren’t actually interacting with each other or responding to each other musically and I think that makes for a less fulfilling and less exciting, you know, musical performance. As a spectator and a fan of music I rather see people interacting, that’s where the magic happens, where you are actually playing together as a unit. When you are listening to what’s going on you support each other and you respond to each other so, in that sense it is like, that is the jazz element of this band essentially is; that though it is a hard rockin’ band that is sorta’ what defines jazz as being jazz, you know. It’s not just the improvisational aspect of it. Not just noodling over somebody, but rather improvising together.
James: It’s having the skill to be able to do that and I think a lot of people, a lot of musicians, who don’t have experience with that. It’s almost like the difference between delivering, reading, something to someone that you have already written and actually having a conversation with them. In order to have a conversation with them you have to have a certain amount of vocabulary or a certain amount of commonality between the two of you. You have to have common experiences and common language base so that you can actually communicate about lofty ideas or whatever, you know. If you are trying to speak English to someone who doesn’t speak English and you are trying to speak in an in-depth conversation…
Eric: I often do that.
James: ...it doesn’t work that well, unless you are coming from both the same place. So, it’s difficult to find musicians, I think, who are well versed in that kind of playing and are able to improvise in the way we improvise when we speak to each other.
Eric: It’s like when I’m in Europe touring or like in Spain for instance, when I am struggling to speak, what little I know, the language. It’s frustrating because I can’t be ultimately expressive. I may know in my head what I want to say, but it is so difficult to convey it in this foreign language. I think with music just as I was younger and I had all of these things that I wanted to get them across and I could hear them but I couldn’t execute it. So really what this knowledge is, it’s not, It can be a hinderance to some, but I use it as a means of…tools to express myself rather letting them get in the way of expression by becoming too caught up technical aspect/side of it. It should become second nature. I mean you do all that hard tedious work, you know, developing your technique and learning music theory so that you can later on forget it so it becomes second nature and you just go out there and express yourself. Rather than have to think so hard about what you are doing.
James: Same thing in conversation too. You can over someone’s head using jargon you know they don’t understand. You know, it’s specific to your field. Then you’re not having a conversation either, you know.
Eric: Right.
James: Then it’s like, oh, well that was a wonderful A 11 chord that you played.
(Laughter)
Eric: So who gives a fuck if we aren’t speaking together.
Jeff: You can be like Dennis Miller.
(Laughter)
Eric: Nice lovely G demented 5th.
James: Demented. The demented chord.
(Laughter)
Eric: It’s amongst one of my favorites.
James: I like the demented scale. It has 13 steps doesn’t it?
Eric: Yes, it does. One more than actually exists. That’s why I like it so much.
(Laughter)
Eric: It’s a good thing none of this is really happening right now.
James: It’s a good thing we aren’t doing an interview. We would have to be wittier.
Eric: No, then we would have to apologize for our behavior.
(Laughter)
Eric: And you know how I feel about that.
James: Fuck apology.
Eric: Yeah, that’s what I say.
(Song)
James: Their strangle hold is over.
Eric: Death to the Majors, death to the Majors!
James: No anyone can make a CD in their basement and put it out. That didn’t exist 30 years ago. You could not do that. You had to go through them to get your records pressed and to get them put out in stores. Now everyone can do it. Anyone with an Internet connection can get distribution.
Eric: And the Majors don’t like that.
James: They don’t like. They don’t have a strangle hold anymore.
Eric: I guess that’s what they get for ass-fucking us for so many years.
(Laughter)
James: I haven’t been personally been ass-fucked by the labels.
Eric: Nor have I, but I wouldn’t let them do it. I would kindly decline. No thanks. No thanks. Thanks for asking though.
(Laughter)
( ♪ Song ♪ )
James: It takes a lot of sleeping on floors and not knowing where your next tin of tuna is coming from.
Eric: That’s why most people that get into this don’t stick with it. A majority of people give up because once they realize what it really in-tales and what goes into it it’s not always a fucking picnic.
James: There’s always the myth that you’re going to be playing some two bit joint and some A&R guy gonna’ come and sign you. I think a lot of people start off going, Oh well that’s what’s going to happen.
Eric: Or that people, if you really good that there’s, you know, justice in the Arts.
(Laughter)
Eric: There’s no fucking justice in the Arts. Or anywhere for that matter so, you kinda’ have to create your own. You have to do it for the right reasons. If you’re not doing it for the right reasons you aren’t going to last. You’ve got to care that much. You’ve gotta’ be willing to sacrifice a lot and eat some shit and to be treated unjustly and unfairly. Not to say it’s not without its rewards. There’s PCP and hookers and firearms and stuff like that. But that’s not all the time, man. That doesn’t come at the beginning, you know what I’m saying? You have to do lesser drugs. You can’t afford good hookers.
James: You’re drinking Schlitz and smoking swag at first, but then you work your way up.
Eric: You work your way up. Eventually it pays off, you know what I mean?
(Laughter)
James: I feel like most of the musicians who I know who are touring on this level have really felt like they didn’t have a choice. Anything else they did didn’t make it for them.
Eric: You know we don’t really do this as a choice either. This isn’t something we said, well, this seems like a viable career option or I like music, I’m going to try this. If it doesn’t pan out in 20 years I will move onto something else. We don’t have a choice, man. It would be ludicrous to think we are new to this. We do this. This is what we do. That’s George Clinton for you right there. Yeah, G-Dog. There’s only one of those guys around. I hope he sticks around for a while. I met George Clinton through a friend of mine named, Jeana Hall, a mutual friend of ours. She setup a recording session because she wanted me to meet him and had me do the session George Clinton and few other members of P-Funk and a couple of members of my band, Alien Lovestock. Paulo Baldy, Kevin Carnes, Charles Gasper, and then David Boise from the Brown Filinis and a couple of other guys. So, we did the session. It lasted all night. George was, you know…It went very well. It was a great session and I remember it was right before I went to Spain for the first time and the day I got back, the hour I got back. Within the hour I get a phone call and it’s George Clinton. And I’m thinking to myself, “George Clinton is calling me at home? What the fuck is going on. What did I do?” That was it. We went into the studio and over the course of the next couple of years we did some recording and I sat in with P-Funk a couple of times and then one day I found myself on the bus, man, I don’t know how it happened, but one minute I’m hanging out with him in his hotel room thinking that I’m just taking off in my own direction and the next minute I was on the bus and I didn’t get off the bus for three-and-a-half years. It was just one of those things. He just kinda’...if he want’s you he just sucks you into his world.
James: Join the circus.
Eric: Your joining the circus, baby. So I joined that P-Funk circus and it was a great experience, not just because I was playing with such a legend as George Clinton and a great innovator, but he turned out to be such a generous and kind and humble person, as well as, so many of the other great musicians in the band. It was really a rewarding experience for me, man, and a great honor. I don’t tour with him actively anymore, but I jump on for a few gigs and we still collaborate now and again. We did a show in Portland a few weeks ago that was sorta’ EMT, me and James, Kevin with Ron Cat. It was sorta’ EMTism meets P-Funk. You know, George Clinton and Blackbird and Leige and Kendra and a few folks. Sometimes we get together in different configurations and get down with our bad selves, so to speak.
( ♪ Song ♪ )
James: We gifts of cash, tax deductible donations…
Eric: Good Scotch.
James: Good Scotch?
Eric: Yes.
James: Fine marijuana. Anything…
Eric: Soft, fluffy bunny rabbits.
James: Yes, yes. We like Chihuahuas.
Eric: Chihuahuas are cool.
James: Chihuahuas are bitchin’.
Eric: Really the message is, just give us stuff, basically.
James: We’ll take what you have to give. Free dinners…
Eric: Sushi. Italian. I like Thai too.
James: Free dinners. Did I mention drugs? I did, didn’t I? Drugs too. Oh, female company.
Eric: That’s the American way, right there. Take a bunch and don’t really give any stuff to anybody unless you have to.
( ♪ The Ghost of Saint Patrick – From the album, Joy of Suffering ♪ )
Eric: We have a brand new record out. An EMT record called, the Joy of Suffering. It’s going to be released on Terminus Records this fall and it sounds spectacular. It was produced by Dan Rafman at Polymorph studios. He did wonders with it. I think we did alright too. I mean the playings not so bad either, is it? If you like that kinda’ thing, you know, music and stuff. I think its probably among the better records I’ve been involved with making. The Joy of Suffering. I think that pretty much says it. Doesn’t it? Also Electraphobia. Myself and Wally Ingram featuring our Buddy James here and several folks. That’s also new. I guess the Downtown Apostles have something coming out here pretty soon.
James: It should be coming out in the beginning in September.
Eric: Yes indeed.
James: The new record that we just finished recording about two weeks ago.
Eric: Lot’s of new shit.
James: It’s a work of…it doesn’t even have a working title. It will be called something. It will. I can definitely guarantee it will have a titled.
( ♪ *Put It Down – Live from the Eastside Tavern Recorded by BSB * ♪ )
"I'm not such a genre guy. I look at music as sort of it's all music and it all serves whatever purpose it's meant to serve." -Eric McFadden
Official Website http://www.ericmcfadden.com/
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