JPG: When I think of your album, I think of other so-called studio efforts that were made outside of the confines of studio such as Jackson Browne’s Running On Empty or Joe Jackson’s Big World, where he played in front of an audience and they were instructed not to say a word or clap so it wouldn’t sound like a live recording. In your case why bring the audience into that setting? Did these songs need that extra energy?
RR: We just wanted people to be there and be a part of it. I mean we’ve been doing it for coming up on 20 years. So yeah, I mean there is that element, but I think it was more just to be inclusive. ‘Here’s what we’re doing. This might be a really cool thing. We want you guys to come.’
And the audience was amazing. They showed up. They were very respectful to the process, seemed very interested and into what was going on. That was the best thing for us, just to have these people and have this symbiotic relationship where we work together and feed off of them and they feed off of us. It was this really interesting thing. It was a cool experiment.
JPG: The change to your approach is really interesting because I recall seeing you open for Aerosmith back in 1990 when you were supporting Shake Your Moneymaker. And then you were so different – image and musically – on your next album, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. The change seemed so drastic but I came to enjoy the band even more because of it.
RR: Well, Shake Your Moneymaker I was writing some songs when I was 17, like “She Talks to Angels.” And Chris was 19 and then 20 when we really started the process of that whole album. Then, I was recording it when I was 19. So, we were still kids. We loved music and, basically, that record was our love of music, writing these songs and doing this thing. It was successful beyond our dreams. No one ever thought it would be like that, but it was also us sort of standing up for the first time.
By the time Southern Harmony came out we could put a stamp on who we were, like ‘This is us.’ It was definitely a move in our direction, technically. People could write it off, said we sound like the Stones. That used to be…any time anyone wrote about us, ‘They sound like the Stones.’ Like really? I never heard a song like “Thorn in My Pride” that the Stones ever wrote. You know what I mean? But at least we were trying to take a stance. Then with Amorica, which is even further out and then Three Snakes, which is further out.
We’ve always tried and had sort of a theme. Southern Harmony was a live record. We went in and made it in eight days. Done. Amorica, we wanted to make a studio album. So, we found the guy who made those Jellyfish records that we loved and who we felt was the best engineer and we took our time and made a studio album. That took months and months and months. For Three Snakes we wanted to make a slightly organic almost like a Led Zeppelin III kind of thing in a house. And we went in there and did that. By Your Side was just a straight ahead rock record. We’ve always tried to do these specific type of records. Lions, it was an experiment as well. We went in and tried these different things. I really loved that record thought it was cool. Warpaint was like a re-introduction. And then this record was, ‘Okay, what can we do? What else can we do? Let’s try something different.’ So, it always keeps what we do fresh. I’m not the type of person that has a lot of regrets, that thinks, ‘Oh, I wish we would have done that or wish we would have done…’ I’ve always been comfortable or happy with the records we made at the time and what they represented and what they were at the time we made them.
JPG: Since Moneymaker was brought up, the Pixies are doing a tour where they’re playing the entire Doolittle album. Steely Dan’s been touring with a focus on two full albums. Has anyone approached you or have even considered doing such a thing because we’re coming upon the 20 anniversary of Moneymaker?
RR: Well, I mean, next year’s our 20 year anniversary. We’ve talked about it but we don’t know what we’re going to do. Right now, we’re in this tour, so we just focus on what we’re doing, at the task at hand. Next year, we’ll think about that. It’s definitely an accomplishment. There are many times when we didn’t think we would ever be 20 years into it. Half of my life was spent doing this. We’re definitely fortunate to be doing this for this long.
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