DAVID: Too long. I'd say about 3-4 years depending on when you'd consider the Susans as being a group.
BILLY: Brown Eyed Susans, including David, Richard and
myself in our current
adult incarnation, has been an entity since January or February of 1996.
DAVID: The abridged version is that Rich & Bill
were friends in high school. Then Bill went away to University in Quebec.
That's when I met Rich through some mutual friends. We got together and
started writing songs. Actually, he wrote the songs and I helped out a little.
He played guitar back then and I played keyboard. I got jealous and learned
how to play guitar soon after.
Slowly, he let me write more and more until eventually my songs got to be
better than his. Just joking. Then we started playing in a band called Higher
Ground with this girl singer who I dated for a while named Rachel Owens.
She was a pretty good singer and was quite hot. Our keyboard player at the
time, Andrew put up an ad for singer and she answered. Now she's doing the
solo Jewel thing. I still have some demos of her singing Susans songs like
52 pickup. She left and that's when I started taking over the singing duties.
I wasn't much of a singer then. I still don't consider myself one. It was
just that no one else wanted the job. I've always been a song writer who
just wanted my songs out there. I really woulden't care at all if someone
else took the songs and performed them, as long as they were out there.
Well, nobody wanted to play our songs so we did. Then Bill came back to
town. I hated Bill at the time and was very unhappy that Rich had asked
him to join the band, just because he was friend's with him. Against my
protest, Rich decided that Bill was in! Bill and I didn't get along very
well at first. This is when the Brown Eyed Susans started playing seriously.
If nothing else, Bill handled the business side. We then recorded Afternoon
Tea in a couple days with the drummer who happened to be in the band at
the time, Peter Hendrikson, or was it Hendrixson? I don't remember much
about him. All that mattered is that we sucked live until we found Troy.
He just quit a band called the Plaid Tongued Devils, who are still pretty
popular in Calgary. They are a klezmer oompa pa type thing. He helped us
improve live and in the studio, as can be heard on the new album. This abridged
version is getting long so I'll stop here. Pretty boring stuff... I'm sure
Bill will give you a very different story.
BILLY: Richard and I started playing together and writing
songs when we were 11 or 12. In junior high we started jamming with some
other musicians and when we were 16 we made our first studio recording.
I still have a copy
of that on cassette. If we get big enough that my self esteem could
handle it, I might let you post a song on the net or something.
Dave started playing with us in grade 12 or something. like Dave said,
when I got back from university we all started playing together again.
At that point, our drummer was a guy named Eldan. We replaced Larry
with Peter who played on "Afternoon Tea" and when he stontaneously
combusted during a show we replaced him with Troy.
DAVID: Well Rich and I write the songs and our influences
pre-Afternoon Tea was mainly Beatles and R.E.M. We didn't even know who
Jellyfish were at the time. That's why it was weird when he heard about
all the comparisons.
After those reviews we went and got some Jellyfish stuff, liked it and went
and got all the derivatives; I don't have to tell you about that! I can
say that the influences for the second album were Eeels, Elliot Smith, Radiohead,
Supergrass, our friends Zuckerbaby, Bowie and of course Jellyfish &
Beatles. I'm sure I'm forgetting some more.
BILLY: Some of our influences are pretty obvious. Obviously
we enjoy the
Beatles, as should anyone. We do get a lot of Jellyfish comparisons,
but we really hadn't heard much Jellyfish prior to tracking "Afternoon
Tea". We started to get into them sometime between the recording and
mixing of that record, so if there is similarity between that record and
Jellyfish it is due to having had the same influences as them rather
than due to them being the influence. Since then, we've gotten quite
into the whole Jellyfish, Jason Falkner, Grays, Brendan Benson,Moog
Cookbook, Imperial Drag etc. scene. It's crazy that none of these
projects have had much success because they are all so good. Maybe that
doesn't bode well for us.
In terms of personal influences mine are somewhat different in that I
used to listen to a lot of blues music; Stevie ray, B.B. King, buddy
Guy, Sonny Boy Williamson,Robert Cray, Muddy Waters etc. I just love
the feeling and emotion of that music. Right now (this week) my
favorite records are the Imperial Drag album and Stevie Wonder's
"Talking Book" album. I know Stevie Wonder isn't exactly our genre,
but
I think everyone should own that album, as well as "Songs in the Key
of
Life" and "Innervisions", which I am listening to right now.
It's
amazing that he recorded three records that good in three years. the
Stevie Wonder obsession is new for me but I'm happy with it.
DAVID: It was the plan and may still happen. I recently ran into him again and he's still into it.
BILLY: I'm sorry to say that it doesn't llok like that's
going to happen. For
a white guy he has a lot of Stevie Wonder in him! The record is almost
done and doesn't really need much more in the way of keyboards, but you
never know.
DAVID: We ran into him at my favorite guitar store in L.A. called Black Market Music. I just bought a cool old Wurlitzer from there.
BILLY: We met Brian at Balck Market Music in L.A. It's a really cool music store with all kinds of amazing vintage gear.
DAVID: Bad production - Better Production. Singing has improved. Drumming has improved. Song writing has matured. More time in the studio, although we were working with an insane studio engineer who was on the brink of blowing up at any moment.
BILLY:The main differences between the two records are
better production and better drumming. "Afternoon Tea" has some
songs that I wish we could recut with Troy. Live Engine #3 and Pass the
Broken Glass rock, as does
lost my eyesight. Maybe someday we'll recut them. It would be fun.
DAVID: Wow I'm one step ahead of you.We're just taking
the whole thing a lot more seriouly now. Spending more time wrting the songs.
We've also learned alot about what it takes to create a great pop song.
More time on arrangements. Now that we know who Jellyfish are we can steal
better. HA HA.
Also, having had some strange L.A. experiences last year with some weird
fucked up people inspired me, anyway, to write songs about orgies and cocaine
and the whole L.A. thing. SEX.
For example She's Organic is about an Orgy. Maybe is about some girl that
picked me up in an S&M bar who was totally high on Cocaine. Afraid of
heights is about the L.A. quest/fear of stardom thing. "Don't look
so scared we're not flying that High YET!!". This song apitimizes the
album. <-I spelled that wrong. Monkey Friend is about a small town girl
trying to make it in Hollywood. Come on.. "Got her break from Climbing
trees" (If that's not an obvious sexual reference what is) The album
is basically about sex, and L.A. and Rock & Roll. Words on you is about
a star stalker. "I've seen your face upon a 1000 magazines". "I
know you'll never get this dream..." Stardom. Superficial Relationships.
"She'll settle for a fast paced life...." etc.. etc..
Oh yeah, and lonliness... L.A. creates a lot of lonliness...
BILLY: I think the songwriting has changed, but I'm
not sure if it's better or just different. I don't think the problem with
"Afternoon Tea" is the
songs (except for Gerald the Mouse which is iffy) but rather the
execution. I thing our playing has matured, but the songwriting was
always there.
DAVID: Well thanks, I'll take that as a compliment.
That's one of my songs. I basically wrote the thing on piano and handed
it over to my friend who played on the first album, Graham Neumann. We lucked
out, because he and his wife were back for a visit from San Fransisco, where
she is doing her masters on the violin at the Conservatory there. Graham,
I met back in my computer science days at university. Actually, I forgot
to mention that he was our keyboard player while we were recording Afternoon
Tea. Great piano player. Anyway, Graham, Andrea(his wife) and I wrote out
the string parts together. I basically sang the ideas to them and they made
it into something. She performed them all herself. She's amazing. I'm really
happy about the way the song turned out. I'm surprised it turned out as
well as it did, because the studio owner almost kicked the both of them
out of the studio in one of his drug induced rages. By the way, Andrea's
younger brother played trumpet. Sorry I'm rambling on, incoherently, it's
just late. I'm also surprised I managed to sing that one at all. I still
didn't have my voice back from the IPO trip and was gupling back that disgusting
Buckley's sore throat remedy in the studio. I'm starting to think my voice
sounds better when it's only half there.
(David is interuptedby the phone) One second the phone is ringing....
That was Troy, he just got back from the Falkner show tonight at the DragonFly.
It turns out Jason's really into working on a couple more new songs with
us. I'm looking forward to that whole thing. I think Jason will have a lot
of great ideas to contribute. Apparently, he mentioned again that he really
digs the album and is excited about helping out. I'm already looking to
the 3rd album. I'd liked to use both Jason and Roger Manning on that one.
Get a whole Jellyfish reunited thing happening. They have the same management
and Jason was saying that Roger would probably be into it. Fuck the Susans,
we'll just move out of the way and let them rock...
Anways, sorry about the distraction. On to the next question. Hopefully,
I'll get better on the next ones.
BILLY: George Martin was going to do the string arrangment
for "Suitcas Whore" but he had to cancel to record Celine Dion
singing "In My Life."
Seriously, the parts were arranged by Andrea, Graham and Dave, with some
input from the rest of us.
DAVID: The latter. We have a strict way of doing things
when it comes to songwriting. Rich and I usually write alone and then bring
our song to the other person. He then says what he likes and hates. Then
he adds and subtracts ideas. If we both like the song we'll bring it to
the band.
We have about 90 songs which haven't made the cut. We're not one of these
bands that records tons of songs in the studio and then picks the best one.
We rarely record something that doesn't make the album. Most of the time
the song changes completely in the studio. For example Maybe never had a
piano in it originally. Also, Richard sang Monkey Friend and it had a completely
different melody originaly. Richard then decided to just sing the backgrounds.
He does all the harmony stuff usually. He is amazing at it. He has great
falsetto and ear for harmony. The only song that we have recorded and will
not release is Secret Engineer. The song felt good at the time, but we soon
woke up and realized it was just a vessel to vent about the asshole studio
engineer.
BILLY: The latter is true. Usually, Rich or Dave write
the essential elements
of a song then we all but them together by adding or subtracting
(usually subtracting)parts. for instance, when Dave brought "She's
Organic" to the band it was a seven minute long rock operetta.(he was
listening to a lot of Pulp at the time) By the surf rock outra section
I was slouching in the corner in pain. Maybe it would have been better
that way.
DAVID: Personally, my favorites change day by day. The songs I am most proud of songwriting wise are: She's Organic, Maybe, Suitcase Whore, Afraid of Heights and Sunday School. The songs I am most proud of performance wise are: Monkey Friend, Window Seat.
BILLY: it changes all the time. When the mixes are done I'll know better. I'm really proud of all of the songs.
DAVID: I think I told you the story in a previous e-mail.
Basically, we met him at the IPO festival. We liked the fact that he was
very personable and approachable.
BILLY: We met Jason at Goldfinger's in Hollywood, the
bar from the Shawn Mullins "Lullaby" video. What a shit song that
is. Anyways, (time out,
Innervisions just ended...I'm back and listening to Badfinger), Jason
was playing a show there so we showed up early to be there for
soundcheck and he was giong to play acoustic for the show but they
couldn't mic the thing properly. He had an electric guitar with him,
but he had no amp. Because the bar was only a few blocks from our hotel
we let him Richard's Matchless DC30, a $4000 amp. Since then Jason has
liked us.
DAVID: It looks like mixing, producing and then helping out completely with 2 new songs. He expressed interest in adding some guitars, bg vocals and maybe some keyboards. He has a Chamberlain which would probably sound pretty cool in Afraid of Heights.
BILLY: We're not sure yet. He was going to mix the whole
thing, but I think
now we'll just get him to add a few vocals and some chamberlin on the
songs we've already recorded, then we might record two new songs with
him as producer.
DAVID: Unless the record company says differently, it
will probably be She's Organic first.
BILLY: Right know I'd have to say "She's organic".
Once it is properly mixed
it should be really cool. Either that or monkey friend.
DAVID: We're planning to.
BILLY: I sure hope so. Stylistically, I hope it to be like the Foxy Brown "Hot Spot" video. she's dirty!!!!!!!
DAVID: We're trying to get that organized as we speak. We've been asked to play China of all places in the summer. We're not sure if we will yet.
BILLY: One of my goals for this band has always been for it to take us all over the world, and we plan to make that happen.
DAVID: Europe and Japan.
BILLY: Spain and Portugal.
DAVID: Most likely summer time.
BILLY: No. There are so many factors. We have to mix,
maybe record two more song, and come up with all the money to do this. We
need to creat
artwork and a whole coordinated marketing plan. It could take a little
while.
DAVID: Yes.
BILLY: I think so.
DAVID: We're not sure if he is capable of giving us what we need for promtion with this album. We are currently in the process of shopping the CD around.
BILLY: I don't know if they'll be in the picture.
DAVID: We left Calgary with 2 cars. Richard's car broke down in Northern California. We all packed into Troy's jeep. Most of the stuff was then strapped to his roof. Then all the stuff flew off the roof and onto the freeway. That's when I played frogger and ran out almost killing myself to retrieve our stuff. I lost my voice after the Portland show at NXNW and by the time I got to Space Land my voice had become very heavy metal. I think this shocked David Bash the organizer of the festival. I think we still kicked ass at the show. People were really into us. The show in Portland was also really good. The two shows on that tour the sucked were the instores at Borders and in Portland. I felt bad for Joanne, having to see us like that. We were really hung over and exhausted from the trip. The borders show was especially bad. Richard was really sick. You can probably tell by the pictures.
BILLY: It was pretty cool, but like everything other
music festival there are
only a few good acts. At IPO the highlights were Jason and the Tories,
who are amazing live.
DAVID: Love it. I guess we're not jaded by it all yet.
BILLY: I don't know how magnificent it really is. I'll
be in a better postion
to evaluate in a couple of months.
DAVID: I really hope so. I try not to let the shitty
commercial stuff really bother me. I'm not really going for that one hit
wonder, coke commercial thing anyway. I want our band to slowly build up
a good reputation for releasing great albums. I'd be happy with moderate
success and enough money to just get by on music alone. I really respect
musicians like Falkner and Jon Brion that are just solid musicians and great
song writers. The big Fame thing is very fleeting and misleading.
BILLY: I hope so. BNL are really big right now and they're
a Canadian pop
band. They were really good on SNL this week. I hope Jason's record
does well. Radiohead have been succesful. Maybe we'll blow the whole
thing wide open.