STARPOLISH: What sort of advice would you give to young
artists on how to maintain longevity and not burn out?
WATT: You gotta keep re-inventing
yourself through inspiration. It's not just persona -- it's long
journeys. Those stories get back to other people, it kind of inspires
them, and they get going on it, too. The scene I started out with
had very adventurous people playing, and I got caught up in the
enthusiasm for it. You know, there wasn't as much of the business
there yet. There wasn't that many people there who liked it, who
would go to the gigs. You gotta understand, especially in those
days -- punk was not a popular thing to get into. Everyone hated
you [chuckles]. But that built even more self-reliance. And now,
down the road, I'm even doing small shows of Stooges covers; I still
have to get inspired somehow. Inspiration keeps you re-inventing
yourself and not just trying to be a one-trick thing.
On
being a front man: "It's very hard. It's very easy to tell
people what to do, but it's very difficult to inspire them.
There's a big difference between telling them what to do and
inspiring them."
Kids, the younger bands, they look to the old days, they say, "Whoa!
If they did it then, then maybe we can do it now!" But I'm interested
in what they're experimenting with. That doesn't just mean tape
recorders and synthesizers -- I mean with the bass and the drums,
all that stuff. So I still think trying to find your own sound is
one thing, but the other thing is to for young bands to get caught
up in an idea.
But the worst thing I think you can do is let MTV and that stuff
spiral in on you too much. I think that stuff's kinda cool, [but]
it's an outlet for a whole nation, and a lot of [what] I'm talking
about is down to the town level. It seems that gets overlooked,
because everyone's at home watching the TV. But nobody lives in
TV -- TV is just one kind of outlet. And people go to clubs, and
they play in garages -- and they do that in towns. That's one advantage
from my days…everybody had to invent their own scenes because there
was no MTV, there was no right way of doing it. And so it forced
people to get into it. The fans scenes were really important, and
I see a parallel with the Internet, and with sites like StarPolish
and [others]. It's a way of networking it without having to go through
the one outlet.
ON USING THE INTERNET
STARPOLISH: Can you talk a little bit about how you use
the Internet and Mike Watt's Hoot Page (www.hootpage.com) to kind
of reach out to your fans?
WATT: I use the Hoot Page with
the same mentality as the fanzines, with their stapling and the
Xeroxing. It's a lot easier to distribute, though! [laughs] God,
its a parody-- I mean, your website StarPolish is just as big as
Mr. Sony's or something!
[For people using the Internet to express themselves], there's not
so much filtering the message, which is similar to the fanzine people--
they just pressed and printed it up themselves. But I can imagine
somebody who's writing for Spin or Rolling Stone, it has to get
all filtered through. You don't have to deal with that with the
Internet.
BEING A FRONTMAN AND A DECKHAND
STARPOLISH: I wanted to ask you about leading a group,
being the front man, especially when you went out on tour with your
"Ballhog Or Tugboat?" album. There were a lot of artists involved
in that tour -- and a lot of those artists are celebrities. Was
it hard to keep the group together and be the front man? What kind
of advice would you give to a young artist who needs to lead a group
and be the front man with a lot of different personalities in the
rest of the group?
WATT: It's very hard. The thing
is, it's very easy to tell people what to do, but it's very difficult
to inspire them. There's a big difference between telling them what
to do and inspiring them. 'Cause you get the best work out of them
if you inspire them.
Number one, you gotta know your own material. You gotta know your
tunes, not just ideas of tunes. That doesn't mean that you can't
let people create, but you gotta have an idea, 'cause you're the
runner man when you're a leader.
Watt with J Mascis at Brownies,
NY -
photo by Craig Young
There's another kind of sensibility that you have to understand
-- that this is just your turn at being a leader. You're gonna be
a deckhand for another runner guy down the road. So think about
that while you're manning the rudder at that time. That's why I
do things like play with J Mascis. You can't
learn everything when you're always the boss. That's why it's good
to be a deckhand.
And its kinda neat [being the leader], 'cause you get inspired --
you get a personal inspiration from [someone] who's been talking
to you in emails or pictures at work. And you get to thinking, "That's
hard to dream about in committee." But you [can] take that idea,
that inspiration, and you bring it to [the band], and then they
aid and abet. And that's a magical kind of thing. That's a bizarre
kind of relationship that goes on, chemicals and stuff…atoms and
molecules. 'Cause you're taking different backgrounds and experiences,
and then people in the moment, and then their abilities and all
this. You're melding them together, all because you were all inspired
by some idea in your head and you brought it to other people. So
being a leader in a band, if you can do this, if you can inspire
people to help you realize that idea, that tune, that performance…that
to me is the idea of leading a band.
Being a fascist and just telling people what to do might work, sort
of, but I don't think it's the best it can be. One of the big problems
is that usually the guy who's the boss, such as myself, can't play
everything (and there must be a problem with people who can play
everything, 'cause they probably want everyone to play like them).
I can't play everything, so I can't be a guitarist, or a drummer.
So what I try to do instead is pretend like I know how to work their
machines. I use other words -- I use food words, or I use book words,
writing words. When I was doing my opera (Contemplating the Boiler
Room), I would say to Nels [Cline, guitarist], "Now the sailors
are on the deck and they're whistling and they're happy. Now we're
in the bellows of the boat, we're down there with the boiler and
you can hear people humming to themselves". I was telling him these
things so he could translate, so he could have a creative thing
and still be taking direction.
I tell you, there's a talent to get people to live the good thing.
Then they give you mystery stuff that you couldn't predict -- you
know, they bring something to the party. That's what you're asking
them to play for anyway, not just to be cutouts. At least from my
experience...
I know there are other ways to run a band. But being a bass player
is a trippy situation; I love it. I think politically it's the best
thing in a band. But you have to have this understanding -- to look
good, you make other cats look good. So you're kind of the grout
for their tiles. You're trying to get them to deliver good performances,
creative things, so you can use those things. It's a weird point
of view to be coming from, but I don't think it's really weaker.
I think in a way it's sort of strong, because it helps boost the
other cats. I remember a quote from John Coltrane. This guy was
asking him, "What are you trying to do, John Coltrane, with your
music?" He says, "Well, I'm just trying to uplift people." Me, I've
always taken that to heart. To me its stays close to the values
I had with D Boone as a boy, and what we were trying to do even
with the message of our words… I can take it to a personal level
with guys in my own band I'm playing with. So there's not this big
wall between endeavors, like, "Oh, I'm trying to help the world,
but I'm a Nazi in my band."
