So at the minute I’m
depriving myself of sleep for a magazine feature – as we speak I’m 52 hours
without sleep and feeling decidedly strange. So I’m wondering what’s the
longest you’ve ever stayed awake for?
Well I think I’ve gone for about a day and a half– 36 hours or something like that. Not partying though, it would just be working in studios. I hit a creative streak and just go straight through. In fact making NonStopErotik was probably the most sleeplessness I’ve gone through in quite a long time. Probably due to a combination of old habits and having limited studio time.
If you were to stay up for a long time, would you use anything to help stay pepped up?
Nah, it’s all adrenaline. If you drink too much coffee, or something like that, you just don’t feel well. And drinking will just make you go to bed. If you’re really cranking on adrenaline, that is your stimulant.
How important is sleep to you?
I don’t sleep that much actually. Maybe it’s an age thing or because I have kids. Last night I went to bed at about three and I’d just come from Paris so it felt like four o’clock. But I still only stayed in bed until 9.30am. That’s with the curtains closed and everything. When I’m up, I’m up. Hey, how come you still look ok and you haven’t slept anyway? I got five hours sleep and I look like fucking shit – you don’t look tired at all.
That’s what people keep telling me. I feel pretty shit though. I think I would look worse if I was sleeping a little bit. It’s interesting how different people can deal with no sleep.
Yeah. My friend Eric [Drew Feldman], who produced the record, he knew Captain Beefheart in his younger days. Beefheart claimed he stayed awake for a year and a half. 85 weeks. Which is probably total bullshit. However if it were physically possible, Captain Beefheart would be the guy to do it. Eric did say that when they were on tour, he would show up at his hotel room at really odd hours. And he was never observed sleeping at any time. Towards the end, Beefheart thought everything he could see was covered in fur or had turned into wood grain. Apparently he lost all his friends too, because no one could deal with him. He had become crazier and crazier.
I’m hoping that doesn’t happen to me, though I won’t be going a year and a half. A few days with no kip is bad enough. Moving on to the new record – I read it’s recording was inspired by a guitar you were given. Could you tell me a little about this backstory?
I was playing a gig a couple of years back and the club owner came to me afterwards and told me some guy had brought me a guitar. And, you know, when someone brings you a large gift like that, it’s usually a piece of shit. Which it was. And I was just getting ready to tour and I didn’t want to lug this guitar around. So, of course, I just left it at the club and said: ‘Whoops, I forgot it.’
I know that feeling…
Yeah everybody does. But a couple of months ago it came back to me through Eric. I didn’t want the guitar, though, because I assumed it was from this particular guy who’s a walking disaster. He used to be a seller of musical instruments but he blew it all on drugs, burned everyone he knew, lost his family – I was just a customer of his so I had no personal beef with him. But he was the crying-into-his-beer type, you know. So I thought this guitar was coming from him, which made it extra toxic. But Eric told me it looked pretty cool and pointed out it was given with the best of intentions. So it came to represent the last shitty thing this guy had. And he’d given it to me. So I cleaned it up and it played real easy. Turns out the guitar wasn’t actually from this guy, but from someone else and I’d misunderstood. But the point wasn’t moot because it still, to me represented good spirit and became the catalyst to make a recording.
It’s strange how this phantom guitar took on a twisted meaning. The record itself seemed to come together fairly spontaneously. Is this how you usually work?
A journalist once said I’m like a sponge – I’m not aware of it but I’m always soaking up information and doing research without actively doing research. I like the sponge analogy. And, I guess, as a sponge type of writer, I have to decide when to squeeze. And squeezing, for me, doesn’t work if it’s put on the calendar. When I squeeze it’s like: ‘Hey man, I got this guitar, can we go record like now? Tomorrow? Two days? Come on, let’s just do it.” That’s how I work and that’s how the guitar became a catalyst.
And the spontaneity is quite romantic. For NonStopErotik, I had received this old, cheap, toxic guitar so I had my tour manager drive me, straight from a gig, to LA at four in the morning. I’m in the back of my old Cadillac writing chords for this session where I’m gonna play with guys I’ve never played with before. And we’re gonna record in a studio Nat King Cole recorded in. And, you know, magic is gonna happen.
Is the right studio atmosphere important to the finished product?
It’s part of the romance, sure, but part of it might be real because some of these studios are old buildings with a lot of energy. There’s living activity in these buildings – not living in the sense of going to sleep, waking up and making toast. It’s special, creative activity.
In these old studios, there are records on the walls and everything is real nice. And they have these old beautiful grand pianos, tuned up proper and you just sit down and go ‘BONG’… - and there’s a song right there, man. It’s validation to be in a proper studio like that. If you’re in some shit place, and it’s not much fun, then you’re going to lose confidence. But go to the most expensive place in town and it’s fucking great. And not bullshit great, it’s great because this is where Frank Sinatra recorded and things haven’t been touched in fifty years. It’s proper. These old studios have point-to-point wiring – that means there’s not just electricity running though shit. It means a wire going from one place to another was actually soldered by some guy a long time ago. So everything has integrity. And that makes you think: ‘Yeah I’ve got integrity too, that’s why I’m fucking here.’
So it adds to the atmosphere, and there’s a little bit of ego in that I suppose. But these studios are not superfluous or shallow. They’ve got that oomph. Of course, it’s not the only way. I could tell you another story about recording music in some warehouse with little to work with and no money to spend. There are no rules with recording.
The record itself, with the NonStopErotik, is ostensibly a record about sex...
If it was just about sex though it would simply be called Erotic. But it’s NonStopErotik. So it throws it open. Yeah there’s a lot of earthy sex in it bur there’s also a larger psychological discussion going on.
What I found quite interesting was how the most apparently sex driven songs – the title track and ‘When I Go Down On You’ – are actually quite tender songs.
They are the closest songs to sex as an expression of love. But there are different things going on in the tracks. My theme is NonStopErotik but I don’t know where that theme is going to take me until I get there. I don’t know what a record is about until I write some couplets. Because if I don’t write some couplets, all I’ve got is a bunch of chords.
How does your cover of Flying Burrito Brothers’ ‘Wheels’ feed into the record?
It’s an open-ended song and, though it’s not a religious song, it’s got a spiritual quality. Also it’s co-written by a man [Gram Parsons] who famously burned himself out. So it feeds into this broader discussion on the record itself, which isn’t literally about sex. Sex, and the artistic notion of the orgasm, is associated with death. And of course sex is related to life cycle.
You’re on record for attributing much of the inspiration behind your last album ‘Bluefinger’ to Herman Brood. Are there any overt influences outside influences on NonStopErotik?
No, nothing really comes from outside my own personal world. All of the people on the record are ‘woman’ and ‘me’. It’s all very much from the inner circle of me, so to speak.
‘Bluefinger’ represented the re-emergence of Black Francis. What is it about different monikers that has made you switch?
Sometimes to be different you force yourself to make gestures, like taking on a new moniker. It’s a psychological manipulation. Most people can’t just walk down the street with a different body language or attitude. But put on an outfit – a long, black trench coat and a hat, all the trappings – and see what happens. You can achieve the new walk. Changing monikers is artificial but it’s difficult to change unless you’re a professional actor. I can’t be fake but give me something fake and I can be something different.
You’ve got so many projects on the go, it must be difficult to juggle. Last year you released a record as Grand Duchy [Francis’ music project with wife Violet Clark] and there’s always work with the Pixies. What’s coming up next for you? Touring? Recording?
Everything you just said, that’s my life. Tour, record, tour, record. Maybe because there are different bands, it gives the impression I’m doing different things but, on some level, I’m doing the same thing I’ve been doing my entire adult life.
Last year you were quoted saying the Pixies could be hitting the studio this year. Is this likely to happen?
I didn’t talk about it, other people talked about it because they wanted me to confirm if that’s going to happen or not happen. Which I can’t. The only thing I plan in advance are gigs, because I have to. But recording sessions only get planned weeks or months in advance. So what have I got planned? I don’t have anything planned. But will I be doing anything? Yeah I’m going to be doing lots. I just don’t know what it is yet.
You made a foray into the producer’s chair for last year’s Art Brut vs Satan record. Which band would you love it produce?
The Rolling Stones. It just occurred to me the other day. I was watching a Swedish garage rock band in Germany, and the DJ was playing a lot of stuff including The Stones. And I was thinking it would be good if those guys could tap into a bit of garage rock. Blues based but a bit faster. And produce it not too slick, a little more real and lo-fi. That’s what I’d do. With me, it wouldn’t be this big, giant production.
NonStopErotik is out 5th April on Cooking Vinyl and will be reviewed in Bizarre 161, out soon.
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