What Dickie has to say...
(like we care a pig's rear end)
BURNING IN PURGATORY
by Keith Harris
It's been a rough couple of years for the enigmatic West Virginians
Karma To Burn. Keith Harris finds out from bassist Richie how they came
back from the brink with a great new album 'Wild, Wonderful...
Purgatory'.
On the line from his native West Virginia, Karma To Burn bassist Richie
comes across as a contented man.
"We now have the most stability we've ever had," he explains. "It's
taken a long time but we're in control of all our stuff now."
Yet there are few bands with a more turbulent history than Karma To
Burn. After being highly praised for their 1997 eponymous debut and
playing a handful of European shows in that year they subsequently
seemed to vanish off the face of the earth. Since then, although the
core of bassist Richie and guitarist Will has remained stable, almost
everything else has caused the band hassle. Like many other bands,
drummers have been a recurring problem, with their previous one leaving
suddenly, ripping them off financially in the process. But their
biggest problem stems from their reluctance to work with a full time
vocalist. The band never made a secret of their desire to be a purely
instrumental band and this set them on collision course with their
record company.
"Roadrunner told us they would cut off our tour support if we didn't
have a singer when we went to Europe," Richie explains. "So we got the
guy who used to sing with us a long time ago but who never really sang
with us cos we got committed. We were going to play a show in Chicago
and we knew Roadrunner were sending spies over to make sure we had a
singer. And all he had to do was to play that show and we'd have been
able to go to Europe with tour support, but he went crazy again. He
walked off the stage in Cleveland and we never saw him again for a year
and a half."
Their relationship with Roadrunner didn't last long either.
"The first album was totally done instrumentally and then they made us
go back and put vocals on it. I thought it was retarded. Our idea was
to go in and do a Joy Division cover with vocals and see if we could
get away with doing just that. But every day they made us do more and
to appease us they said they'd put out four instrumental songs on 10"
vinyl. We asked them to release us but we had to wait out the contract
as they wouldn't let us go."
The last we saw of Karma To Burn was in spring 1997 when they abandoned
an attempt to tour the UK without a vocalist and flew home to West
Virginia to regroup. Things got very sticky indeed as the band tried to
put together a new project with ex-Kyuss and then-Slo Burn frontman
John Garcia on vocals.
"We were really good friends with him. In 1997 at Dynamo we played on a
side stage together and early that year he did twelve shows with us.
But that's all over now. The delays with Garcia probably set our lives
back a good year. We were totally broke and pissed off."
Over the last year though, things have started to come right for Karma
To Burn. The recruiting of new drummer Rob and touring with Queens Of
The Stone Age has helped restore morale. Most importantly the band have
given up on reluctant attempts to play with a vocalist and the new
album 'Wild, Wonderful... Purgatory' is defiantly and gloriously
instrumental. To avoid record company interference it was recorded
first then touted to labels. Ironically enough it was Roadrunner that
picked up the album first. What changed their mind about signing an
instrumental band?
"They listened to the album and Monte [Conner - Roadrunner head honcho]
came to see us play all the new songs. Now look what they're doing -
they`re putting out our instrumental record and they're attaching our
10" record that we begged them to put out two years ago!"
Of course, it should be noted that the band are only on Roadrunner in Europe.
"Roadrunner Europe we've never had any problem with, but we're putting
the album out on a different label in America." Richie adds.
It's little wonder that Roadrunner did such a quick U-turn. The new
album is quite a piece of work and its lack of vocals adds something
indefinably mysterious to it. Their sound is simultaneously uplifting
yet eerie. The songs are structured around repetitive, twisted,
sometimes Metallic and sometimes bluesy, bass-heavy riffs. With no
vocals to hide behind, the effect is almost mantra-like in its
intensity. The fact that the tracks are numbered rather than titled
(chronologically. in the order they were written) puts even less in the
way of the music itself.
"To me they have a lot longer life span that way," Richie explains
"Because on the first record someone's singing and you don't really pay
attention. I think lyrics are superfluous. The only lyrics I like are
funny ones and that doesn't have a very long lifespan. Musicians are
just not smart enough to tell people about anything."
This reluctance to sully music by using words extends to Richie's
reluctance to describe Karma To Burn's indefinable sound.
"The Metal press always put the Stoner Rock thing on it. I guess people
need to put things into categories."
I'd say that in many ways you have a classic Rock/Metal feel.
"I think so," Richie agrees "but I don't know if people get that or
not. To me the whole idea is to get things that were good before and
try to change it just a bit..."
The old fashioned approach extends to a quick and dirty recording method.
"We had the songs written and we just went in and played them live. The
actuall recording was done in two days and we used an analogue board.
We used the same studio the Rolling Stones used in New York. It's real
tiny but cool and there's a bunch of vintage stuff there. It was
produced by Gary Rinefest who did all the old Aerosmith records and
Queen and stuff like that."
However much Richie might dislike the "Stoner" tag, Karma To Burn have
never hidden the importance of drugs in there music.
"Drugs are a pretty big part of our life. We had one guy who followed
our bus from the Netherlands into Belgium. And because we were doing
border crossings we didn't have anything and I was sitting at the back
of the bus going "God I wish we had just pot even". [Note the "even"
-KH]. "This guy followed our bus flashing his lights until finally the
bus driver pulled over. He opened the door and handed like a pound of
weed to the bus driver and said this is for them and left!"
Could you play clean?
"Yeah, cos when we started out we were. Then I got this girlfriend who
smoked pot all the time and that was the end of that! Songs one through
nine were written before me and Will got high. It was weird as we both
got girlfriends at the same time who were big potheads."
The other thing Karma To Burn are associated with is their home state
of West Virginia.
"We love it, we really do. It's very different from the rest of the
United States. It's pretty much the poorest state and the people here
don't give a shit about a whole bunch of things. It's very easy to be
yourself."
It's known as a redneck kind of place.
"We are rednecks, there's no getting around that," Richie admits "I had
a pickup trick and I wrapped it round a tree. In fact, when I wrecked
it I believe I had a Lynyrd Skynyrd track on. We fool round with guns
too. Our drummer Rob has a farm, and we can pretty much go down there
and do what we want. Shooting TVs for no reason and stuff..."
The band's background also lends itself perfectly to the sleazy sound of their music.
"That's just inherited. It came from my Dad. He got kicked out of
school when he was fourteen. He was smoking and this teacher tried to
grab his cigarette off him when he was going onto the school bus. He
spit on the guy and he was told he was going to be expelled. Then he
went home and he had seven brothers and they all went back to school
and got into a fight with the teachers. Then he lied about his age and
went into the Navy."
With this kind of background it's hardly surprising that Karma To
Burn's history has been so tumultuous. It's this that has inspired the
band to write such insanely uplifting music, but it's also made their
career so very difficult. Let's hope their new found stability doesn't
mean that Karma To Burn lose their inspiration...
This interview was sent to me by Andy Hawkesworth. No clue about where he got it from... there's some relation with this review.
more (older) interviews, click
here!
"We now have the most stability we've ever had," he explains. "It's taken a long time but we're in control of all our stuff now."
Yet there are few bands with a more turbulent history than Karma To Burn. After being highly praised for their 1997 eponymous debut and playing a handful of European shows in that year they subsequently seemed to vanish off the face of the earth. Since then, although the core of bassist Richie and guitarist Will has remained stable, almost everything else has caused the band hassle. Like many other bands, drummers have been a recurring problem, with their previous one leaving suddenly, ripping them off financially in the process. But their biggest problem stems from their reluctance to work with a full time vocalist. The band never made a secret of their desire to be a purely instrumental band and this set them on collision course with their record company.
"Roadrunner told us they would cut off our tour support if we didn't have a singer when we went to Europe," Richie explains. "So we got the guy who used to sing with us a long time ago but who never really sang with us cos we got committed. We were going to play a show in Chicago and we knew Roadrunner were sending spies over to make sure we had a singer. And all he had to do was to play that show and we'd have been able to go to Europe with tour support, but he went crazy again. He walked off the stage in Cleveland and we never saw him again for a year and a half."
Their relationship with Roadrunner didn't last long either.
"The first album was totally done instrumentally and then they made us go back and put vocals on it. I thought it was retarded. Our idea was to go in and do a Joy Division cover with vocals and see if we could get away with doing just that. But every day they made us do more and to appease us they said they'd put out four instrumental songs on 10" vinyl. We asked them to release us but we had to wait out the contract as they wouldn't let us go."
The last we saw of Karma To Burn was in spring 1997 when they abandoned an attempt to tour the UK without a vocalist and flew home to West Virginia to regroup. Things got very sticky indeed as the band tried to put together a new project with ex-Kyuss and then-Slo Burn frontman John Garcia on vocals.
"We were really good friends with him. In 1997 at Dynamo we played on a side stage together and early that year he did twelve shows with us. But that's all over now. The delays with Garcia probably set our lives back a good year. We were totally broke and pissed off."
Over the last year though, things have started to come right for Karma To Burn. The recruiting of new drummer Rob and touring with Queens Of The Stone Age has helped restore morale. Most importantly the band have given up on reluctant attempts to play with a vocalist and the new album 'Wild, Wonderful... Purgatory' is defiantly and gloriously instrumental. To avoid record company interference it was recorded first then touted to labels. Ironically enough it was Roadrunner that picked up the album first. What changed their mind about signing an instrumental band?
"They listened to the album and Monte [Conner - Roadrunner head honcho] came to see us play all the new songs. Now look what they're doing - they`re putting out our instrumental record and they're attaching our 10" record that we begged them to put out two years ago!"
Of course, it should be noted that the band are only on Roadrunner in Europe.
"Roadrunner Europe we've never had any problem with, but we're putting the album out on a different label in America." Richie adds.
It's little wonder that Roadrunner did such a quick U-turn. The new album is quite a piece of work and its lack of vocals adds something indefinably mysterious to it. Their sound is simultaneously uplifting yet eerie. The songs are structured around repetitive, twisted, sometimes Metallic and sometimes bluesy, bass-heavy riffs. With no vocals to hide behind, the effect is almost mantra-like in its intensity. The fact that the tracks are numbered rather than titled (chronologically. in the order they were written) puts even less in the way of the music itself.
"To me they have a lot longer life span that way," Richie explains "Because on the first record someone's singing and you don't really pay attention. I think lyrics are superfluous. The only lyrics I like are funny ones and that doesn't have a very long lifespan. Musicians are just not smart enough to tell people about anything."
This reluctance to sully music by using words extends to Richie's reluctance to describe Karma To Burn's indefinable sound.
"The Metal press always put the Stoner Rock thing on it. I guess people need to put things into categories."
I'd say that in many ways you have a classic Rock/Metal feel.
"I think so," Richie agrees "but I don't know if people get that or not. To me the whole idea is to get things that were good before and try to change it just a bit..."
The old fashioned approach extends to a quick and dirty recording method.
"We had the songs written and we just went in and played them live. The actuall recording was done in two days and we used an analogue board. We used the same studio the Rolling Stones used in New York. It's real tiny but cool and there's a bunch of vintage stuff there. It was produced by Gary Rinefest who did all the old Aerosmith records and Queen and stuff like that."
However much Richie might dislike the "Stoner" tag, Karma To Burn have never hidden the importance of drugs in there music.
"Drugs are a pretty big part of our life. We had one guy who followed our bus from the Netherlands into Belgium. And because we were doing border crossings we didn't have anything and I was sitting at the back of the bus going "God I wish we had just pot even". [Note the "even" -KH]. "This guy followed our bus flashing his lights until finally the bus driver pulled over. He opened the door and handed like a pound of weed to the bus driver and said this is for them and left!"
Could you play clean?
"Yeah, cos when we started out we were. Then I got this girlfriend who smoked pot all the time and that was the end of that! Songs one through nine were written before me and Will got high. It was weird as we both got girlfriends at the same time who were big potheads."
The other thing Karma To Burn are associated with is their home state of West Virginia.
"We love it, we really do. It's very different from the rest of the United States. It's pretty much the poorest state and the people here don't give a shit about a whole bunch of things. It's very easy to be yourself."
It's known as a redneck kind of place.
"We are rednecks, there's no getting around that," Richie admits "I had a pickup trick and I wrapped it round a tree. In fact, when I wrecked it I believe I had a Lynyrd Skynyrd track on. We fool round with guns too. Our drummer Rob has a farm, and we can pretty much go down there and do what we want. Shooting TVs for no reason and stuff..."
The band's background also lends itself perfectly to the sleazy sound of their music.
"That's just inherited. It came from my Dad. He got kicked out of school when he was fourteen. He was smoking and this teacher tried to grab his cigarette off him when he was going onto the school bus. He spit on the guy and he was told he was going to be expelled. Then he went home and he had seven brothers and they all went back to school and got into a fight with the teachers. Then he lied about his age and went into the Navy."
With this kind of background it's hardly surprising that Karma To Burn's history has been so tumultuous. It's this that has inspired the band to write such insanely uplifting music, but it's also made their career so very difficult. Let's hope their new found stability doesn't mean that Karma To Burn lose their inspiration...
This interview was sent to me by Andy Hawkesworth. No clue about where he got it from... there's some relation with this review.
more (older) interviews, click here!
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last update: 7th october 1999
