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Interview
by SashaS
29-8-2003
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| The Warlocks: cult but bloody grrreat! |
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White punks on hope
The Warlocks: one of the mostest rock-planeterians
Listen to some noise of change: ‘Hurricane Heart Attack’ is defiantly a Doorsian track, ‘Inside Outside’ roams as bluesy as the Yardbirds if they were young presently; on ‘Cosmic Letdown’ Joy Division-meets-Nirvana while ‘Oh Shadie’… Imagine Pink Floyd, Can, Frank Zappa and Led Zeppelin jamming on an improvisational jazz stage over 14 mins! This is a virtuous sonic bubble named ‘Phoenix’ by The Warlocks, one of the few stirring bands left on the planet.
It is unfortunate that in this sow’n’harvest hype zone masquerading as the current music scene you’ll be hard to hear of this band. Signed to a small label (Birdman in the US, City Rockers in the UK), there is not a lot of budget for a substantial advertising campaign and extensive promotion, a fact that doesn’t pass by two members being grilled on the behalf of the band, guitarist Corey Lee Granet and one of the drummers, Danny Hole.
“You do what you can, we are getting into a groove,” Granet says quietly, “and we are still finding our audience. We are a band that has no specific sound and that’s not flavour of the month. We hope it will become.”
“We are earning our fans now,” Hole adds quickly, “and we are aware that we’ll not be an overnight sensation. We are a real band that cultivates our sound and our audience. We’ll work slowly on establishing ourselves because that’s the way of doing it if you love music and not wish to just get famous.”
Cosmic letdown
Formed in 1998, this seven piece’s – aside Granet and Hole comprising of Bobby Hecksher (vocals/guitar), JC Rees (gtr), Bobby Martinez (bass), Laura Grigsby (tambourine/keys), Jason Anchondo (drums) – recently re-released ‘Phoenix’ album alerts to something approaching a wake-up call! Combining ‘languages’ of the Velvet Underground, Neu! and The Happy Mondays, The Warlocks hammer out relentless tunes, hypnotic and of the potential to e-establish belief in the power of Rock’n’Roll to inspire, influence and alter attitudes.
But they are often designated as the “heirs to Spaceman 3 and Jason Pierce’s Spiritualized”.
“Because we covered them,” Granet sighs, “two of their songs. They are the only band we all could agree on covering. We preferred to play original material and our sound developed naturally. We were just kids with different ideas what pop should sound like. At one moment we were, sonically, linked with BRMC (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) which helped us a lot.”
With two drummers and four guitars, you sound like a couple of BRMC’s!?
“Yeah, probably,” Hole smiles. “We ended up with this line-up by simply adding members. Well, Bobby wanted to have a big band, to sound really full, with greater sonic capabilities, lots of layers of guitars and different things rather than a simple rock outfit. It makes as different, it makes us stand out; the musical line-up has been formed before the band, it is part of the idea of having a rock orchestra.”
Deranged, psychedelic blues
A couple of songs on the album propagate dope, a theme that is taboo in their native land. Are they using it metaphorically, as a painkiller against the life’s ills, or literally to shake up the stale social view? In any case, shouldn’t Rock music be more responsible during a wartime?
“No one has mentioned anything to us about drugs,” drummer retorts, “because we are not saying anything new. It might be a taboo subject in certain circles but we are not saying anything more outrageous than anyone else. It is an escape for a lot of people we know, we are no angels either, so… I don’t think we’ll be writing more songs about it, but you never know.”
“It is terrifying what is happening in the world,” CLG reflects, “the world is full of evil people. American army has strategic bases all over the world and it is disgusting and horrible. The damage is done and it is too late to regress and music can hardly do anything in such a military-politico-economic situation. What’s the saddest is that Americans still believe that their country stands for democracy and freedom and a lot of people are blind to the truth.”
“It is all under the (clandestine) banner of corporations,” Hole interjects.
Such a comprehensive view for an outfit that seems a bit outta there.
“We are a minimalist band,” guitarist proclaims at the end, “it is about the power of it, not the complexity of it. We just do simple layering and add decorative simplicity on top.”
Yeah, and ‘happy gas’ prescribed for the masses?
Tour dates:
12 October – Wulfrun, Wolverhampton
13 October – Electric Ballroom, London
14 October – Fleece, Bristol
15 October – Hop, Manchester
17 October – King Tut’s, Glasgow
18 October – Cockpit, Leeds
SashaS
29-8-2003
The Warlocks’ album ‘Phoenix’ has been re-released on 18 July 2003 by Mute
The Warlocks’ single ‘Baby Blue’ is out on 27 October 2003 by Mute
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