Pro-rock at its finest. Neil Fallon talks about moogs and interesting words, but if only somebody had told us not to mention the clowns!
R13: This is the first day of your tour supporting CKY in the UK, how did you hook up?
NF: We've known them for quite some time. Jess [Margera, CKY] came to our shows for years and we did a show with them about two years ago in Philadelphia. Whenever we roll through West Chesterfield where they live, they always come out and say hi.
R13: You're also headlining a couple of dates, do you prefer this to supporting?
NF: Headlining's nice because you get to do what you want to do but you can't always preach to your own choir. You have to go out in front of new audiences, so you've got to support as well, that just goes with the territory.
R13:Your latest release 'Robot Hive' has followed closely on the release of your previous album 'Blast Tyrant'. Do you plan to continue releasing albums only a year apart?
NF: I hope so. That's our plan. We're now in a position to put out records with the frequency we want to. In the past some of the labels we've been with have been reluctant to put out albums anywhere near two years in. We get bored.
R13: Your happy with the label [DRT] your signed to then?
NF: A label is a business agreement, it's not a family so, so far so good. They have helped us get over here financially so that's a good thing.
R13: Out of the eight albums you've released can you pick a favourite song?
NF: That's kind of like picking your favourite child. Even the ugly ones you still love. On our self-titled album there's 'Big News I & II', that song's like ten years old and I still love playing it. I think it's because it's such a fun song, it's a very loose song so we can change it quite a bit and add things into it. I think that's why I still like it.
R13: Fantastic descriptive words are used a lot in your lyrics, what is currently your favourite word?
NF: Wow! Umm...what's a good word? I like coming over here because I hear a bunch of new words I don't hear back home like 'knackered'. It sounds very exciting to someone who doesn't hear it on a daily basis. Simple minds, simple pleasures I suppose.
R13: Who's the best cook in the band?
NF: Jean Paul does a mean barbecue.
R13: Does he make any specialities?
NF: I think he knows how to make handmade sausages, I've never tried it but that's the rumour.
R13: How did you get the guest appearance on the Mastodon album 'Leviathan'?
NF: We've toured with Mastodon quite a bit. They were getting ready to start 'Leviathan' and they called me up and asked me to sing on it which I though was very flattering, especially because they're a band that I really love. They wanted me to play the voice of Captain Ahab which I thought was really cool. I went out there and recorded it in a couple of hours and then flew back home it was very cool.
R13: It didn't take long then?
NF: Took about an hour. I flew all the way to Seattle then flew back the next day.
R13: You dressed up as the clown in the video?
NF: That's not me. It's a doppleganger. I don't know who he is.
R13: Do you think he did a good job of playing you?
NF: Yeah...To be honest clowns scare me, I don't like to be around them at all.
R13: Do you remember the first ever Clutch gig?
NF: When we took the name Clutch? Yeah I do. It was in Fort Reno, Washington DC. It was an outdoor gig, I don't remember how many people were there. It went alright. The thing I remember most about it was that it was by some radio towers, so through our amplifiers the radio was actually louder than our guitars. That's really the only detail I remember, you gotta start somewhere I suppose.
R13: On the Sounds Of The Underground tour who impressed you the most?
NF: Opeth I loved, fantastic band. Madball were really good. Strapping Young Lad I really enjoyed. Jeez there were eighteen of them, those were the ones that immediately come to mind.
R13: What's on the Clutch stereo at the moment?
NF: I've done something I haven't done in a very long time - I bought vinyl off ebay. The name of the band is 'Tonto's Expanding Headband' and it was one of the first bands to be based solely on Moog synthesizers. When Stevie Wonder heard that record he decided to go electric. It's on my turntable but I haven't listened to it yet. I only had one day before I had to come out here.
R13: How about the other guys in the band?
NF: Pretty much anything. Rap, country, rock 'n' roll, you name it we try to keep a broad perspective.
R13: You've just release the single 'Burning Beard' and you're starting this European tour...What's next for Clutch?
NF: After this we're going to do two more tours in the United States, which will cover all the US. We do double sets, it's like an evening's worth. and we have an opener that's usually a solo acoustic act like a blues guy. We got a guy, Kelly Carmichael who is in a band called Pentagramand also Internal Void but he now plays acoustic blues. There's also a guy called William Elliot Whitmore who plays the banjo and the crowd loves it. So we'll be doing that till the end of the year. Maybe try to get over to the UK and Europe at the beginning of the next year possibly and then do another record.