Clutch

Clutch tours with metal. Right before this issue was complete, the band played with Slayer and System Of A Down at Bricks. Before that they were with Limp Bizkit and Sevendust and before that, when they were still signed to Atlantic, they played with Orange 9mm and Fu Manchu in a church. The Elephant Riders was released in April. The disc is Clutch’s third and their first for Columbia. Neil Fallon is the Clutch vocalist and he spoke to SLUG.

After preliminary discussions on the local straight-edge movement, mosh pits and Atlantic Records, there was a question about The Elephant Riders. “Green Buckets” has this lyric, “I have enough food to last the two of us a year, 1,000 cans of chowder, 1,000 cans of beer.” Is there an underlying “survivalist” theme?

NF: “I think so, I’m not a survivalist type person, but I think about it a lot. That kind of thing would creep into the song, sometimes I think I should have a better supply of non-perishable items in my closet, but I never go and act on it. It kind of creeps into the song in that manner.”

SLUG: “So you do think about it?”

NF: “Oh yeah. I think we’re living in a very paranoid age. That paranoia can breed that kind of thinking and I’m no exception.”

Fallon’s handwritten “notebook” thoughts on each song and included the pages as a part of the “press packet.” Most songs were written while the band lived in Bakerton, West Virginia. The house was built around 1780 and Fallon reports that the road in front of the house was a major artery for the Confederate Army. The title song, “The Elephant Riders,” is what Fallon describes as “histor­ical fiction” — civil war soldiers riding ele­phants. The “notebook” is filled with refer­ences to the house — possible ghosts, snakes, fires, “slave” quarters on the property — all manner of influences and history filled his head while working on the album.

Fallon says that he never considered himself much of a history buff before. Does he consider himself one now?

NF: “I would say so, not a buff meaning I’m an expert, it just means that I have an interest in it and I think during that album and ever since then I’ve had an increased interest in the Civil War era. I do some reading on it now and again, but I don’t completely immerse myself in it.”

While living in the house and writing the songs Fallon took a “Primal Literature” course. He has a degree in English from the University of Maryland. My next question was where did he take the class and why?

NF: “I took it at Hood College, in Frederick, Maryland. It used to be an all-girls school, but about five years ago they opened it up to men. Still to this day it’s about a nine-to-one ratio. I knew we were going to be sitting around for three or four months and not touring. I do enjoy taking classes like that to kind of keep the juices in the brain going. I guess I don’t nec­essarily enjoy studying, but I enjoy learning new things.”

In Fallon’s notes he states that “Ship of Gold” was based on Bukka White and “The Voyage of Life,” a painting by Thomas Cole. The song’s chorus is based on Bukka White’s “Fixin’ To Die” and “Stream line Special.” Fallon writes that the chorus to Clutch’s “The Yeti” is based on White’s “Alabama Blues.” When and where did Fallon discover Bukka White?

NF: “I believe it was about four years ago. I bought a CD called Legends of Country Blues. It was a compilation of dif­ferent players and he was on there. He played a song that I just went crazy over. I picked up some of his stuff and just by coin­cidence I learned that Larry Packard, who has produced some of our stuff, remastered some of Bukka White’s material.”

A love of the blues isn’t uncommon for musicians, but a love of country blues is rare and for a so-called “modern metal band” to base two songs around country blues songs seems incredible to me. What other blues cats does Fallon like?

NF: “I like Mississippi John Hurt, I like Fred McDowell, the big guys like Son House and Robert Johnson, but my special favorite is, I think, Skip James. I just actually, about three weeks ago, took my first guitar lesson and country blues is what I’m learning.”

Wow! Neil Fallon spouted off the names like an expert. I could not believe it and I gained tremendous respect for him. I’ll be a Clutch fan for life after that exchange. How many in the SLUG reading audience can claim knowledge of any of those cats? Probably very few and among the staff, it’s probably just me and Gianni. (probably)

What kind of guitar is Fallon using for his country blues lessons?

NF: “I have a Gibson Epiphone that I got pretty cheap. Maybe someday I’ll buy a nice Martin or an old National, but those things are extremely pricey.”

Get ready for his next statement because I was nearly stricken dumber than usual. Does Fallon listen to any of the new country blues musicians? Country blues is currently undergoing a resurgence in inter­est after nearly dying out completely.

NF: I’m not really knowledgeable about that. The only new guy I know is this guy named Catfish Keith. That’s the only new blues guy that I’ve ever heard and liked enough to buy a CD.”

Just hours before I talked to Fallon, I’d been listening to the Catfish’s brand new Twist It Babe!. When I told him all about Catfish Keith, how he releases his own recordings, promotes his own shows and travels around the country with his wife in a motorboat of a car playing the blues, Fallon commented, “Huh, I’ll have to keep an eye out for him. The blues is one of those things that, no matter how good the recording is, it never does the live show jus­tice. You gotta see it then and there.”

Besides Bukka White, Fallon claims an interest in Doc Watson and Washington D.C. “Go-Go.” In his notes he claims that his song “The Yeti” is based upon his “Primal Literature” studies, Bukka White and “Go-Go.” I had to ask the next question, as cliched as it is.” What plays in the van?

NF: “Just about every­thing. I mean, you could hear on one tape deck, we’ll be lis­tening to Hank Williams up front and in back you’ll get some rap like Wu Tang Clan or maybe some Black Sabbath or Deep Purple. A lot of jazz is lis­tened to on the road. I would say the only music that we don’t listen to is “new country” music. It’s just drivel.” Yee haw. I love this guy! Take that you fat-assed, belt-buckle wearing, goateed, Garth-loving cows. A man after my own taste. He continues on the musical sub­ject with a few more choice words.

NF: “I just see it as, ‘Why deprive yourself?’ Whatever you listen to is an influence and if you listen to enough different kinds of things, you’ll influence yourself in the broadest possible spectrum and that’s the best case. Usually I’m not interested in hearing rock in our free time. I liken it to…if you’re a mechanic, the last thing you want to do when you go home is work on your car. So when we get time off we’re not particu­larly interested in listening to rock, although we do. We listen to a lot of rock.”

I’ll do one final question before closing the interview portion of the piece.

SLUG: “Do you believe the Yeti exists?”

NF: “It really depends on what kind of mood I’m in. Sometimes I do, I think it’s perfectly plausible that we have overlooked a species everyday. They discovered a new species of deer in Vietnam everyone had overlooked for hundreds of years. I think it’s plausible, but I’m not going to believe anything until I see it. Old shaky films don’t convince me though I would really love for there to be a Yeti or a Big Foot, or a Loch Ness for that matter. I do think that scientists in particular are very conceited in thinking that humanity has learned just about everything about our planet. I think we haven’t even touched the sur­face yet.”

Neil Fallon recently moved to Denver and who knows? Maybe he’ll see a Yeti on a trip into the Rocky Mountains? —Scotch

Read more interviews from the archives:
The Loud Family
Stanford Prison Experiment

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