Back in 1990 a bunch of school mates wanted to form a band and not knowing what to use as a name they temporarily settled on Clutch. It stuck.

This is a great band with a unique sound that is awesome live. I spoke with front man Neil Fallon ahead of the April 15 show when Fingers Metal Shop Presents HellYeah and Clutch at The Paramount.

If Clutch was not the first choice for a name then what was?

Find out by listening or reading below.

Fingers: Brother man, I think the first thing I want to say to you is congratulations for sticking to your guns.  Your band has been the same band since 1990 when you guys came out of Maryland.  You have not change the way you do things, except for maybe the fact that you just put out your own music now. You always stood your ground, you managed to go through major league labels, and give us great music all along the way.  So thanks for staying the way you be.

Neil: Well, thank you.  That’s really the only way we know how to do it. I wouldn’t know how to change it, if I wanted to.

Fingers:There you go.  When you guys were getting started you put stuff out of relatively, you finally getting pick up by East West as a branch of Atlantic, and then you went to Columbia, and all the big label stuff, and then somewhere  in the mix you guys decided to run things on your own.  To what extent do you have your own distribution?  Is it just your own label?

Neil:Well we have our own record label called Weather Maker Music… 

Fingers:Right

Neil:Which is a vehicle to just press up CDs, and vinyl, and digital formats for Clutch.  We have a distribution deal through a distribution company by the name of Red.

Fingers:Ok

Neil:They service Weather Makers music, and um, and there was a bit of some growing pains at first, but its working out real well these days.

Fingers:I would imagine it’s nice to have control of your own destiny, even thou there’s more work involved.

Neil:Well, yea know it’s like everything else.  More work is more reward.  We’ve tried the major label thing. Things were a lot different back then in the 90s.  It’s so easy to reach your fan directly now. I think that a band that’s in the position to get music to there fans, if they don’t, if they are able to and they don’t, they are fools not to. Just including more middle people, I don’t know why you wouldn’t do that.

Fingers:Yeah, it’s interesting how we all got lulled into the seaming necessity to have some big brother watch over our stuff.

Neil: Yeah there’s an attitude with a lot of bands, like you got to have so type of patron or mother figure in the label, and they made sense in the 60s, when labels like Stacks or Motown actually had a type of music and an identity.  Nowadays labels, you know, they also publish books, and it’s just a commodity in a lot of ways.  Some people we tell that we put out our own record, they look at us, like something’s wrong, like “oh we are so sorry to hear that.”  That we put out our own record. Were as, why would you sign a multi-album deal with some record label, and probably, you know, everything would be out of our control…

Fingers: Including the money

Neil: Yeah, and if there’s a mistake we know who to blame now. We can point the fingers at ourselves and fix it. Instead of getting frustrated because of someone else incompetence. 

Fingers: Right.  Through the years of your albums, you got nine studio albums under your belt, I mean,  the last one can out in 2009 Strange Cousins from the West,  you’ve worked with a lot of different kinds of producers.  Has anybody stood out?

Neil: Well, they have all been great. They all have their strong suits and their signage sounds. We gone to Jake Robins quiet a bit, he’s up in Baltimore.  Machine who did the Blast Tyrant record, we were looking to record with him for the next Clutch record, probably in August.  And um, so there’s that.  We also worked with Joe Barresi, and a host of others and each and every one of them we have learned something from, and fortunately they’ve been all really good dudes to work with.

 Fingers: Good, good.  What was it like working with Jack Douglas?  I mean, here’s a guy who had such a huge name with his tie-in to Lennon and he’s done so much.

Neil: Um, yeah, some of these anecdotes Jack had were just baffling.  He’d just talk about recording, you know, with Lennon, just in casual conversation.  And I felt for a good portion of the session that I was kind of out of my league, you know, recording with him.  But, he’s got a lot of experience and defiantly walked, well I’d like to think I walked away from that session smarter, but maybe just my own misconceptions about myself.

Fingers: On the new album, you have a song called 50,000 Unstoppable Watts.  One of the lines in the song is “Anthrax, ham radio, and liquor.”  What are you saying in this song?

Neil: The song is more or less about where we rehearsed in Fredrick, MD, next to an army base, Fort Detrick, where they do a lot of the chemical weapons manufacturing and testing.

Fingers: Ah, ok.

Neil: So, when I’m saying Anthrax, I’m talking about Anthrax, the chemical weapon, not the band.  And there is a lot of ham radio operators, well, old ham towers there, because I think back in the Cold War, there was a sort of civil defense around the base there.  And one morning I was going, well one morning, oh Jesus, one afternoon I was going to the liquor store and the lyrics just popped into my head after practice.  You know, just going to the beer store next to Fort Detrick and that’s all there really is to it.

Fingers: Ok.  It’s a great song.

Neil: Well, thank you very much.

Fingers: I’ll be honest with you.  Clutch is one of those bands, I don’t listen to your music often.  I don’t really listen to anybody often.  I put my iTunes on when I come in and just let it roll.  But, you’re one of those bands that when I get into, I listen to it for days and I just go through all the albums and stuff.  Because you guys just stand out, so different.  That’s one of the cool things about Clutch:  You don’t sound like anybody else.

Neil: It’s always hard for me to comment on, because, you know, it’s like when someone asks you “what kind of person are you?”  You don’t even know where to start.

Fingers: Right, Right.

Neil:  With us, we never talked about what kind of band we wanted to be or didn’t want to be.  We all went to high school together and, you know, we weren’t jocks, and we definitely weren’t scientists.  So we were like let’s start a band just because it looks like a lot of fun.  And that was it.  You know, we didn’t have to hunt for like-minded individuals and kind of concoct an idea of what kind of music we wanted to create.

Fingers:  How fast did the name Clutch come up?

Neil: You know, we meant to change Clutch because we all liked, and still do, Prong.  That was one of the very first influences on us, and we wanted a band name that sounded like Prong.  I think we wanted to change it at some point, but before we knew it, people were coming to our shows and we said well, maybe we’ll just change it later.  And that was about 20 years ago, so I guess we’re sticking with it.

Fingers: You’re coming into town into a great new venue out here on Long Island.  It’s called The Paramount up in Huntington.  That happens on April 15, and my question to you is what are we going to get on that stage on April 15?

Neil: Well, hopefully we’ll be playing a couple of, at least a couple of new songs we’ve been working on the new record.

Fingers: Oh, good!

Neil: We’re really making a goal of playing out the new songs as much as possible because that makes a world of difference when you ultimately track them.  So, if we can get out act together, and get these songs in a working order, or function, we will definitely bust them out ASAP.

Fingers: Excellent, excellent.  I like the lyric content.  Do you do all the writing, Neil, as far as lyrics?

Neil: Yes.

Fingers: Where do you derive your, I mean, did you have a big literary education?  You have a very cool way of writing and a lot of your interesting metaphors and stuff you write about are deeper than your average hard rock band.

Neil: Well, I did go to University of Maryland, and studied English there, which, this is the only way I could have used an English degree in a, in some capacity after graduating.  But really, I just love reading.  I think that’s, you know, a great free education.  And touring the world has been a great education.  And I think anything can be a valid subject for a rock and roll song.  I just try to look at each song as a short story or a fiction; I can say whatever I want.  I don’t have to be fruitful about it.  I have a license to lie, so you might as well go all the way with it and no apologies about doing it.

Fingers: Yeah, there you go.  So, I don’t know if there is any other band out there that has a website that doesn’t include your name…

Neil: Yeah, well, when we’ve tried getting Clutch out there, it was either taken up by the automotive industry or German porn, so, we just decided to go with Pro-Rock.

Fingers: So anybody that is looking info on the band and wants to get a little education, or if you’re looking to get tickets to the shows, you can go to pro rock, or Pro Dash Rock Dot Com (Pro-Rock.com).  And, of course, this full interview will be at WBAB.com as well.  We have a lot of excitement building up around the event, and I’m looking forward to seeing you guys.  Are you going to be doing this tour with HellYeah! in it’s entirety in the US?  Or, is it just part of the tour with HellYeah!?

Neil: As far as I know, it’s the whole tour.  I don’t know if they have dates after us.  It runs about four weeks, so I imagine that’s probably the whole tour for them, as well.  It goes all the way to the west coast and back again.

Fingers: Cool, man.  Well, we wish you success continued.  And any idea when we might get that new album?

Neil: It’ll probably be close to a year.  If we record it in August, September, it’ll probably be out, let’s say, mid-February of 2013 would be my rough guess, if I have to.

Fingers: Last question:  Being in the business the way you are, and taking it the way you take it, what could you pass on to bands that are coming up now?  Because their experience, they haven’t had a chance to experience the industry like you did, and you’re working the industry in a different way than a lot of bands that are still out are.  So, what info, or what advise could you pass on to bands that are coming up that might be different than the advise that somebody gave that came up in the 80s, or even the 70s?

Neil: I would say, um, don’t concern yourself with getting signed, and don’t concern yourself with your webpage.  You know, I think the number one thing for any band of any genre to do it play live, and play as much as you can in as many places as you can because your music is as good as you believe it is.  That is the best publicity you can give yourself.  Word will get out that your band’s awesome and people will go to see your band, and then they’ll start talking about it and it’s free publicity.  Anything else is a shortcut, and a bit of a gamble, but the one thing you can rely on is just doing it yourself and playing live.  And that’s all I know.

Fingers: Well, that’s good enough for me, brotha.  Thank you very much for the time you spent with us, Neil, I appreciate it.  Clutch coming into town, The Paramount Theater in Huntington on the 15^th, along with HellYeah!.  In the meantime, we’ll let you get back to your little one, and we’ll see you in Huntington on the 15^th.

Neil:
Alright Fingers, thanks for the opportunity.

Fingers:
You’re welcome, man.  Appreciate it.  Take care.

Neil:

Take it easy.