Clutch

Rip It Up, Issue 250, 1 June 1998, Page 13

Clutch

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Clutch have just released their third album, The Elephant Riders, a calorie drenched slab of blues-boogie rock with a historical - spin. Produced by Jack Douglas, renowned for his work with Aerosmith, John Lennon and Cheap Trick, The Elephant Riders is steeped in American Civil War history, which in a weird way inspired the album title. Clutch vocalist Neil Fallon explains. “At one point I heard that a US civil war character wanted to use camels. So, I thought about if they’d used elephants. It’s just fantasy, or historical fiction. I also thought the phrase would present a great image for the album cover.”

Most of the lyrics for The Elephant Riders were written by Fallon in a house built in 1780, in Bakerton, West Virginia, just down the road from the historic town of Harper’s Ferry. The house and its surroundings, right next to what had been a main artery for confederate troups, provided inspiration for many of his strange, allegorical lyrics. “There’s no theme to the album, I’d describe it more as a mood,” says Fallon. “It captures a certain mood, and I’d say that could be attributed to where we were living. There’s a lot of history in the area. For the lyrics I’ll rip things from the dictionary or reference books, things that sound out of context or odd, so I’m like a spin doctor. I think if you say anything with enough authority

they’ll believe you!” Fallon grew up in Germantown, Maryland, where he went to school with the other Clutchers, guitarist Tim Sult, bassist Dan Maines, and drummer Jean Paul Gaster. Clutch played their first gig in 1991, after getting together at college, where it seems they did limited curricular work, choosing to concentrate on the band. For a band from a small town, it must be a big deal to sign with a huge label like Columbia. “It’s very nice,” states Fallon. “They’ve promoted the album, and given us tour support. At first it was intimidating, going to New York to offices with gold records on the walls, it was pretty stereotypical.”

It must also have been intimidating working with a producer of Douglas’s calibre, a decision that was outside Clutch’s control.

“We were going to produce our own album, but the label insisted [on Douglas]. We were working in a New York studio with someone with a lot of experience. Sometimes we listened, and sometimes we didn’t, but we learned a little more. Having a [name] producer draws attention from the record industry people, it’s for their own edification, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Just a lot of the time it’s done with misplaced intentions.”

Fallon’s love of old rock music (Beatles, Led

Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix), has given him the belief that it’s the emotional content in music that matters. “Bands that are in touch with the blues are what I listen to. A lot of bands now are two or three generations removed from the blues. But that’s what I look for in music, when it’s tapped into emotions, when it’s being played from the heart.”

Clutch happily admit to being a reluctant studio band, much preferring the danger of live performance.

“Sometimes it’s easy to start thinking about other things, but you have to remember for the audience it’s a one time occurrence. You only have one chance, so you have to get it right the first time. It’s the immediacy that makes it more exciting. We take risks when we play live, like if we wanna do improvisation, and we change the set list every night so we don’t fall into a routine.”

With a penchant for hard touring (they’ve been on the road with Sepultura, Pantera, and Marilyn Manson), it looks like they’re going to need all the sustenance that Colonel Sanders’ finest can offer. So, just what is it about KFC? “It’s just knowing that you’re doing something that’s bad for your body,” illuminates Fallon. Oh, of course...

GAVIN BERTRAM