Violent Femmes

Rip It Up, Issue 81, 1 April 1984, Page 14

Violent Femmes

by Russell Brown

Vox Pop Violent Femmes? Weird name. Vex Pop “Someone said we sounded like the Clean. Do we?” Not really. Sex Pop “I am CONVINCED that this Gordon Gano is the sexiest dude ever to walk on the face of this earth. 1 may be a boy but I’m not. Gordon, I love you!! I just hope you’re not gay, ’cause if you arc I'll have no chance!” Bev (Wellington) “How did she know which one was me? Our names aren't next to our pictures on the back of the album.” It’s easy Gordon. You look like your voice. Shox Pop “I’m not allowed to have pictures taken with my glasses on. It ruins the image as a real rock n' roll, sex kind of band. Too intellectual ... “Actually it’s really handy wearing glasses sometimes. Like, after we’ve played I can put them on and wander around in the audience, among people who’ve been staring at me only a few minutes before. I like that.” Enough Kidding Around Gordon Gano is 20 and plays guitar and violin and sings and writes songs for Milwaukee’s Violent Femmes. He is small, unshaven and bespectacled and wears a raincoat that probably looked old and grubby when it was brand new. 1. shouldn’t say it but he reminds me a bit of Jonathan Richman. Victor de Lorenzo plays drums and percussion, is 29 and thoughtful in manner. Brian Ritchie plays bass, is tall with a sonorous voice and is elsewhere. But If They Don’t Sound Like the Clean, Who Do They Sound Like? It’s already become a cliche to portray the Violent Femmes as the offspring of some unholy marriage of the Velvet Underground and Jonathan Richman. Does that annoy you? “Very, very much, yeah,” says Gordon. Is it accurate in your opinion?

“Yeah, there’s a connection there but I think there’s been way too much importance placed on it. I think some people would think we were trying to sound like those bands, but I don’t think we sound that much like them. I think we stand on our own musical merits.

“But I try and be patient with them because when you come up against something you’re not familiar with it’s natural to compare it to something you know. But I think when our second album comes out all those comparisons will fade away.” Arc there any other influences you can put your finger on? What were you listening to when you were 13? “Thirteen? I’m sure I was listening to Dylan, the Grateful Dead . . . well, after Dylan and the Dead there’s really no point in going on ...” Ah, so you’re hippies. “Yeah! No, not really. I think I’ve always listened to a wide range of music. I grew up hearing country music Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and Broadway show tunes, through my involvement in theatre . . . and hymns. I grew up in a church, hearing hymns. I still love that music.” • .

Hook, Line and Thinker Gordon, one critic has suggested there arc enough hooks in a Violent Femmes song for. a whole album from another band. Do you think in terms of hooks when you write? “I don’t think in terms of hooks or anything like that. 1 don’t even think that way. With most of the songs I’ve written I don’t even think of melodies. Someone might say ‘that’s a really great melody,’ but I don’t think of it in those, little sections, it just all comes together.” So what’s the element that makes the songs catchy and appealing? “The hooks. Slaved over ...” “I wonder about that too,” chimes in Victor.

“I think it’s because the songs, in and of themselves, are very exciting. They’re little complete plays. They tell little stories and also you have a very clear picture of the character who’s singing the songs. I don’t think Gordon is ever ambivalent towards any of his material he always has a stance, even though it may change from night to night. But that’s what makes it interesting and what keeps it fresh.”

Snatches of Songs “Oh, Big Hands, I know you’re the one.” “Vague sketch of a fantasy; Laughing at the moon like he’s been up all night; Ooh, slippin’ and si id in’; What a good time; But now I find a bed; That can take this weight.” “Why can’t I get Just One Fuck?” “I ain’t no Kid Chicago; I ain’t no A 1 Capone.” “I feel so lonely; Feel like I’m gonna hack it apart; I’m gonna HACKHACKHACK it apaaaart ...” “I hope you realise; This will go down on your personal record; Oh yeah?" It's Ironic That We Get Paid These Sums of Money to Make Mistakes Victor, particularly ' in terms of the lyrical content, Gordon’s songs are very much youth music, men music even. As someone nine years older; how do you feel about that? “Well, I'd have to say that Gordon fools a lot

of people by his age, because the words he chooses to use, how he tells his stories, can’t really be described as the ways a 19 or 20-year-old would express himself. It’s very mature music and, as an instrumentalist, playing with Gordon is a pleasure because I consider what I do best is give support to people and if l can play behind lyrics like Gordon’s and the way he performs them then it’s very easy. I’m behind him 100 percent because I’m all for truth and trying to communicate some kind of emotion to an audience.

“I’m not. the kind of performer who likes to do things by rote because that’s when I really start to suspect myself. If I start to feel too safe then I know I’m probably not doing a good job.” “As a band we really take risks when we play,” Gordon joins in. “For better or for worse, we actively try and stay open as much as possible and not plan our ‘spontaneous’ things for the night. And sometimes it doesn’t work, because if it’s a real risk it’s not 100 per cent foolproof. Something can bomb and it’s like tryin’ to . . . it’s like you’ve been shot and you’re bleeding to death and yop’ve got to get up again. If it works, though, and the audience can sense the danger in it, then it gets exciting.”

“It’s ironic that we get paid these sums of money to make mistakes ...” muses Victor.“Of course, some of our best shows are when everything is going wrong, just one mistake after

another,” Gordon points out. Does this carry through into recording? “Naturally,” says Victor. “On our new album there’s a certain vocal that Gordon was doing and for all intents and purposes it was a mistake. He was going with something I’d given him to try and express the lyric and he messed up but there was a quality about the mistake that was perfect for the song. If we had been very pristine and clinical we’d have switched off the tape machine.”

Electricity Is Invisible After a year of touring the States you’re playing bigger venues now do you find it hard to keep the acoustic element in the music? Victor: “Well, I think the way we think of the acoustic element is more in terms of rhythm, of volume and of the different personalities of the three of us interacting when we play. We go from a whisper to a roar very easily.” Gordon: “When we played on the street it was acoustic, although before that we played in clubs, eLectric. Regarding what Victor said about dynamics, we would sometimes play a night with only electric guitars and people would come back afterwards and say ‘That’s great acoustic rock. I love it!’.” That’s exactly the feel I mean. I don’t know if you’re familiar w'ith the Go-Betweens . . . Victor: “Yes! We know the Go-Betweens actually. When we were in England we . . .” Gordon: “Slept with them.”

Victor: “. . . went out with them.” Violent Femmes The Album . You seem an unusual band to be on Slash Records. You’re not from LA and you’re not a punk band for a start .. . “Yeah, we were virtually the first band they signed which wasn’t their friends,” agrees Victor. “Right,” Gordon chimes in. “It’s really an LA type of thing and we’re not at all . . . we don’t like LA much. I mean, there’s some nice people there, I’m sure ...”

“What originally happened was that we sent them a demo recorded in the little home studio

that Mark (van Hecke, the album’s producer) has and a couple of A&R people liked it but the boss didn’t. Then we sent them a tape which was the album,” Victor explains. “We just went out there and financed it ourselves. Everything had fallen through on us people said ‘yeah, we’re gonna do this record’ and just kept stringing us along,” Gordon continues.

“We’d booked time with someone and at the last moment this person pulled the money out,” says Victor. “So we thought the hell with it, we’ll keep to the schedule, we’ll get the money. We recorded it and mixed it ourselves and sent it to Slash.”

“Our new album is the same way,” Gordon says. “Except this time there was a lot more fighting over it.. The relationship between a band and a record company is a real business one and the two parties don’t always see eye to eye.” The New Album A Nightmare Gordon: “Well, it’s so different. You might hate it.” Victor: won’t but your readers might Gordon: “That’s right. You’ll be one of the few who’ll be so intelligent and so sensitive that you’ll appreciate it for what it’s worth.” Okay, guys .. . ~ “Something really struck me the other day when I was listening to a tape of it,” ventures

Victor. “It’s funny, we go through all these different musical styles in the nine songs and then on the last song you hear Gordon say ‘Who, who, who do you think I am?’ and it just caught me like T wonder who you are?”’ “That song’s about Noah’s Ark, so that’s a little different to the songs on the first album,” Gordon puts in. “‘Why can’t I get just one fuck’ to Noah’s Ark ...” Victor ponders. “There’s a greater variety in the subject matter and also in the types of music,” Gordon says. "Certainly our country roots and our love of country music will come through much stronger. We had some guest musicians so we’ve got a greater variety of instruments. It’s pretty wild, I think . . . like a roller coaster from one song to another.” Victor: “The president of our record company described it as a nightmare.” Gordon: “Our bass player Brian described it as demented but that’s his way of saying it’s good. And yet, for me, I think there’s a lot of stuff that’s just downright beautiful.”

Of God and Gano Gordon, you’re a practising Christian, yet some of your lyrics arc decidedly unpious. Do you find many people asking you about your beliefs? “Yeah 1 think more people will be asking me about that sort of thing with the new album because there’s more songs in which the spiritual thing comes across. Like, one song is called ‘Jesus Walkin’ On the Water’, which is what I would call a country gospel song. It’s sincere, I believe in it as much or more than ‘Add It Up’. And yet I wonder, are some people going to think ‘ls this a joke?’ or ‘What happened to my favourite band?’, yet I hope there’s a good number of people who’ll really respect it, because we’re continuing to follow our hearts and play the music we feel.” But your father is a minister what would he and the church think of‘Add It Up’? “Well, he knew about lots of things that were happening and he told his congregation; ‘Gordon’s got a record, support him and pray for him,’ not like in pray for him ’cause he’s gone astray, y’ know, but just ‘support him and love him but you don’t have to buy the record’. So everyone got a good chuckle out of that. It was actually a guy from the church who helped us get a van so we could tour after the record came out. Otherwise we would have been stuck. “I know my father really likes ‘Good Feeling’, except it makes him feel too sad. But I don’t feel that our music is such a new wave or an underground thing that only a few people can listen to it. I mean, my mother is a big fan of the band. Sometimes she wishes that I wouldn’t have to say certain words and I can respect that. All our parents are fans of the band, they’ll get out there and dance and everything.” A Manual For Listeners and Readers The trick lies in knowing what to take seiiously

Russell Brown