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Rocky Votolato Interview
by Michelle Geslani on 2007-06-06 |
Mammoth Press: So how's the tour been?
Rocky: Tour is fantastic. The shows have been really good. Had a really good time traveling. Got my laptop stolen in Maxwell’s in NJ though with all my money!
MP: Oh no, how'd that happen?
Rocky: We were loading out and someone stole it all. It was a $2,000 Mac, just bought it.
MP: I want a Mac.
Rocky: Apparently someone did too. Only big bummer for me though on this tour.
MP: So are you a fan of the other bands on this tour? Played with them before?
I'm a fan of Mike Kinsella...Drag the River. I had played two shows with Drag the River before and that's what turned me on to their music. It was at the end of the 8 1/2 week tour with Lucero, and that tour was a blast, too.
MP: Who are the guys playing with you?
Rocky: Some of the Drag the River guys.
MP: What made you decide to add to it and have a full band?
Rocky: I wanted to do something different for this tour; it’s my last headlining tour before the new record comes out. It's in support of Makers still... we're doing those songs, treating them differently. It's a little bit more of a rock show. This is louder, but still mellow and country-esque, along with a section with harmonica and guitar but still different than the past solo stuff I've done. I kind of do both, its fun for me because I've been solo for so long, so its been fun getting up there with a band and everything. I've been doing solo stuff since, shit, 2003. As long as I've been putting out records. This is the first tour with a full band, actually.
MP: Is the new album like this? Full band?
Rocky: Yeah, I'm moving in that direction. The new record has more instrumentation. At the core, it's still similar to the last record, like the songs are similar in style and they have some country direction but there is significantly more instrumentation.
MP: How did you approach writing songs (especially since this is a full band record)...?
Rocky: I still wrote everything on my own, before getting into the studio. I spent two weeks in pre-production with Casey Foubert, who plays guitar with Sufjan Stevens now. Him as well as the drummer play with Sufjan... those guys are great players, they were in town. My buddy Bill came and he plays bass with Jesse Sykes, another Barsuk group. Some guys from Lucero came, too. It was basically a group of guys that all have been playing in cool bands for years, all pretty experienced. We all just got together, I had all the songs ready. Casey would talk it out with me and go over what songs would be better acoustic, and which would be better as a full band.
MP: How many tracks?
Rocky: 11 songs, about 40 minutes of music. It's called The Brag and the Cuss.
MP: What kind of leap do you feel you made between Makers and this new record?
Rocky: It's not so sparse of a record. It's still very much the kind of songs that I write, though the themes are bit different- not as preoccupied with death (laughs). It's a little bit lighter in terms of subject matter.
MP: Is there a reason for that?
Rocky: Just that out of all the songs I wrote, I thought these were the best from a songwriting perspective.
MP: Where did the title come from?
Rocky: The Brag and the Cuss is actually a lyric from one of the songs. A lot of the songs are about fighting and drinking (laughs), and bragging and cussing can kind of happen at a bar or otherwise after. And in the song, the line was, "the brag and the cuss promising the fall"... it's usually a sign that "some shits about to go down" or you're about to fall... so that’s kind of the idea behind it. I also just like the way it sounded, seemed like a good fit for it all.
MP: The whole Seattle scene (where you're from) is pretty close-knit it seems?
Rocky: Oh, definitely. My brother is there, he's in the Blood Brothers. My other brother is in Slender Means. I have friends in Minus the Bear, Modest Mouse, and Death Cab, and so on...
MP: What is it about Seattle, do you think, that makes you guys constantly cross the same paths? Especially since the genres are all different too?
Rocky: I think it's 'cause we all grew up together, playing shows... like Pedro the Lion and David Bazan, we've all been playing since we were younger and I've always respected them as songwriters and hopefully vice versa. I feel like everyone has their own vibe and their own sound, and doing their own thing and that’s important to me, originality is really important to me. I see people copying me and that irritates me. There are certain artists out there that copy the shit out of other artists and that really bothers me.
MP: So you went from Texas to Washington, right?
Rocky: I moved up there when I was 15, my parents had just gotten divorced, and I just went into high school. I finished high school there and went to college up there. In Texas I got my first guitar at a Houston pawn shop for $200. I am still very much tied down to the roots there in Texas.
MP: What kind of roots are those?
Rocky: Like Steve Earl, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and a lot of Dylan.
MP: So those are some big musical influences?
Rocky: Early on in life, yeah, before I was introduced to punk rock and before waxwing. I did that for 10 years, and moved through that period of my life.
MP: Did both projects (Waxwing and solo) complement your personality?
Rocky: I've always had dual sides to music, one more leaning towards punk like Fugazi and Jawbreaker, all the bands I initially went to see. Then I got older. I had always been writing acoustic songs on the side, but then I finally released a solo album in 1999. Makers was my 4th, and now Brag and Cuss is my 5th. I'm finally in a good position where I can tour a lot, and I've got great label support. I love working with Barsuk.
MP: Yeah, how did that deal with Barsuk come about, because all the previous releases were on Second Nature Recordings?
Rocky: I met the owner of Barsuk and somehow he ended up with a demo for Makers and he fell in love with it, and before you know it they had a licensing deal worked out. Brag and the Cuss will be the last album released on both labels, and then after that everything will come out strictly on just Barsuk.
MP: They've been treating you well?
Rocky: They are one of the best, one of the real true independents left that has a large staff and a big roster. I mean there’s Barsuk, Merge, Touch and Go... there's very few other labels left that you can name off the top of your head that are truly independent and haven't sold out to anybody. We make our own decisions. I do what the fuck I want, when I want, how I want. No one tells me what to do (laughs). They trust me as an artist to do what I want and whether we sell records or not, we're in it to make good music.
MP: So why end Waxwing?
Rocky: It was the time and place... the moment passed. I feel like its good to move on when something's done. I didn't feel like I needed to cling to anything. We always still keep in touch of course.
Me: Rudy (Waxwing, Gatsby's American Dream) got married?
Rocky: Yes, he did. I sang at his wedding (laughs).
MP: So let's talk about your musically inclined family...
Rocky: I'm really proud of my brothers with their bands.
MP: Who is the oldest?
Rocky: Sonny is oldest (Slender Means).
MP: Ever think of making a band together?
Rocky: We've talked about it. Probably when we get old (laughs), when we cant tour anymore, when we're all living in one place. We'll break out the acoustic guitars...
MP: Do you draw influences from their bands too?
Rocky: Sorta. We all at times have affected what the other's doing. But for me I’m beyond influence. My influences were established when I was younger, or when I was a teenager. I feel like I've found my own voice. The songs I write come out the way they come out. They kind of write themselves at this point. I feel comfortable in my own sense of originality; I don't really name any single artist as an influence anymore.
MP: What have you been listening to as of late?
Rocky: I listen to a lot of country records; as far as new artists go… I like Cat Power's new one, Tom Waits is amazing. (Laughs) Unfortunately I don't really pay attention anymore [to newer music>. I listen to what I have already...I listen to Jawbreaker a lot (laughs), or my friend's bands, I'm always stoked about them.
MP: This tour being the last big one to promote Makers is there a favorite song you like to play?
Rocky: I still love playing "White Daisy Passing." "Portland is Leaving" is one of my favorites. This whole tour is a mixture of Suicide Medicine and Makers plus some older ones and one new song from Brag and Cuss.
MP: What kind of progression have you seen over all your records?
Rocky: I change as a person, what I'm interested in has changed. There's a slowing down and maturing process. Learning to self-edit. You have to be honest with yourself and say "This is bullshit, I have to throw this out" (laughs)
MP: What's the current writing process?
Rocky: I write the lyrics first. I write on tour all the time. I keep an acoustic guitar around always. I lay all the thoughts and some songs come from a single line that is really good. Or sometimes it [the single line> will inspire an idea for a whole song. But usually it's a little piece at a time, which I then just elaborate on. Some are quick, some take 2 months.
MP: What’s the influence for a lot of the songs now?
Rocky: Anything from books I'm reading- Emerson, Transcendentalist writers... I read a lot of books; I have a degree in English Literature from college. The influence is also from movies, love, and life. It's like an autobiography, but it's also fiction. It’s not a diary, but its stuff I know about. It’s my life mixed in with fiction as well. But it’s totally all real; I don't want to be bullshitting people.
MP: Favorite movie?
Rocky: Shawshank Redemption, Cool Hand Luke. All prison movies (laughs).
MP: What would you be doing besides music?
Rocky: I'd probably whatever I had to do to support my family.
MP: How does having kids affect the way you write?
Rocky: I had to grow up (laughs), other than that it definitely influenced my writing.
MP: I imagine its hard being away from home.
Rocky: Yeah, definitely. Especially when someone takes your fucking laptop, it makes you wanna go home and lose faith a little bit in human beings. But I know I still have bills to pay while playing shows. But this is what I wanna do, so I'll make all the sacrifices that need to be made in order to fulfill this.
Thanks to Rocky and the fine people at Barsuk for setting this interview up.
[ VIEW ALL INTERVIEWS ]
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