Interviews in Tasty November 2004 (original) (raw)

Howe Gelb
12/07/04
Howe Gelb is verging on becoming an institution. Having been an active part of the American music scene now for decades, he is held in high esteem by listeners and fellow musicians alike and is rather prolific in his song writing. This said though it�s been along wait for new material from his most famous outing, Giant Sand, but thankfully the wait will soon be over. As the release date of the next instalment into the Giant Sand saga, �It�s all Over�the Map�, draws gradually closer, Tasty was given the opportunity of catching up with Howe on a recent visit to London so with great trepidation and nervy demeanour that�s exactly what it did.

You�re obviously a busy man. You have quite a range of musical projects on the go including Giant Sand. I was wondering how you balance the pressures of your music with that of your family commitments. How do the two combined leave you feeling at the moment? Yeah, I kind of come to terms with that on a daily basis. It definitely depends on the day, but�do you have kids?

I don�t actually, no. My friend has a one year old daughter though. How old is he?

He�s 23 That�s young. Yeah there�s no sleep for a while. Father shock lasts at least a year (laughs)

I�ll let him know. It�s obviously been quite a while since �Covers Magazine� and then before that �Chore of Enchantment�, so this is the first album of all new Giant Sand material for some time. Any particular reason for such a long hiatus? Well I, err� I don�t make a decent enough game plan ever. So I get occupied and I guess I�ve been real occupied with the children, there�s three of them. I�m in my late forties now, So they �the music kinda is there and you think it handles itself and you sorta get in and out of it when you can, but children are always needing stuff. In the old days the music needed stuff and now that just kinda takes a backseat but you just get focused in on what�s in front of you that needs your attention. The kids are turning out pretty good though.

Am I right in thinking you�re a painter as well? Yeah but I�ve had no time for that.

It must be difficult to balance all the aspects of your life. Yeah and then there�s the energy equation. That�s why I asked how old your friend was cause as you get older, and what I�m finding here in your late forties, is your energy kinda dilapidates in the way that you don�t have the imagination it would in your thirties, let alone twenties. So at the end of the day when the kids are down, your kinda wasted, you don�t have much going on, but then in the middle of the day or anytime you�ll get this notion for a song and you�ve got to find a corner to hide away in. You just put the phone down real quick, virtually shove it away and just get on with it for five minutes, ten minutes and then just put it away and get on with your other stuff.

So the new album, �It�s all Over�the Map�, is out this autumn in the UK. How do feel it�s turned out compared to your previous works? I don�t let them go until I really love them. So I�m never sure what it�s going to be until it�s over and then I kinda get entertained by how it�s shaped up and try to figure out what�s going on exactly myself. It makes sense to me; the whole thing makes a lot of sense to me. Have you heard it yet?

I�ve only heard the track on the Thrill Jockey website. Oh yeah �NYC of Time�. Well I guess it sounds like, when I step back form it, I think it sounds a lot like the last five years all wrapped up. There are some rockers in there and there�s some piano songs and some guitar songs.

So who�s in the Giant Sand line up for this album? It�s become the Danes that I�ve been playing with for the last couple, of years. They�re the guys who seem to be around me the most and hang out so they�re ready to make music when I�m ready to make it. And it�s beginning the third decade of Giant Sand so it�s fair enough, that�s where it�s supposed to go.

So it�s verging on an odyssey now then? Yeah, I, err (laughs). Odyssey?

I think it�s a fitting word to describe it. That�s huge, three decades. Yeah but it seems like it�s always lacked a healthy quota of ambition. Which when I step back and think about it on occasion I wonder about the foundation of such a lack and it comes from, you know, the given nature of whatever you wanted it to be. I think what I wanted was something other than whatever was, reality wise. So that�s what its stuck being, something �other�.

So in terms of the tour that�s coming up soon, who is coming over with you this time? It�ll be the guys on the record which are Anders on slide work and Th�ger on bass and Peter on drums. For the London show we�re talking John Parish and, or even playing with, his new band he�s putting together, and Scout Niblett maybe. She�s my favourite band at the moment. She ALONE is my favourite rock band. I love her.

So no Joey and John then for the moment? Are you still in close contact with those guys? Yeah Johns coming up to Denmark in a few weeks�can you hold on a second? There�s another line, I�ll just beep it in. I hope this works. If not you�ll need to call me right back.

(Put on hold for a short time before the phone goes dead. I call-back)

Hello

Its Luke again Sorry about that Luke. So when the phone beeps it means I can go over to another call but I lose you I guess. Where were we?

Joey and John. Yeah. Johns coming over to Denmark where we live in ht e summer and then we�ll travel back to Tucson together. I think it comes down to, as life has changed through the years, there�s this common bond that comes back to having children. John having a child still seems close because he goes through the rigors of dealing with being a father. And all our children have become so tight with each other like they�re brothers and sisters, between John�s daughter and my daughter and Rainer�s daughter. Plus there�s the younger ones as well so that whole family thin has taken over and become more of a bonding issue between us then the music.

They were with you on the last Blacky Ranchette record though weren�t they? Well I�ve got�what I�ve been doing the last five years is I�ve been making music whenever I fin a spare minute. I just do it like that and at the end of the year or so, when the place gets cluttered up, I�ll determine what�s going on here. Do I have a Blacky album that needs to be just topped off or what? And that kinda how it goes, so I�ll have like five different possibilities or stuff that could fit into various camps. So some of the stuff, like the stuff that they were on (Joey and John) was a couple of years old.

Right, cause I remember reading an interview a while ago where you said you didn�t imagine another Blacky Ranchette album rearing its head but we had �still looking Good� last year And I didn�t even think that was a real record at the time. I thought that was going to be, well, I like to make these records, these anti records, these tour only records and that�s what I thought that was and then Thrill Jockey heard it and said they wanted to put it to the top of the heap of what I was working on.

I think it turned out to be some of the strongest songs we�ve heard from you in a while though. How did the song with Kurt Wagner and you in the car come about? I was at Kurt�s house. I�d been invited over to Nashville to record with St.Thomas and he was being produced by a guy named Marky Nevers who plays for Lambchop and does the production for Will Oldham�

And Andrew Birds last album� Oh yeah, Andrew Bird, right. There�s like this coincidental circle, there�s been this weather, this climate of coincidence around all things Giant Sand that�s always permeated everything and that�s how these things sort of lend themselves. For instance Bird and I just got off tour together in November and I didn�t even realise the Marky Nevers connection. When I hooked up with Mark it was by accident through St. Thomas and I loved his studios, they�re very similar to the criteria of recording, you know the sixteen track, kind of a home studio, and I like his method of madness, how quickly he works. It�s similar to the way I work. But it was Kurt that put me up at his house for those few days and the song that he sang on I happened to be writing in his living room Kurt would get up every morning and go into his room and write

His song a day Right (chuckles). And he reminded me later that he has me in there, I guess I went in there one morning with and went on at length about a dream or something and he taped it all so he says he�s gonna do the same thing where he uses that in something, I don�t know, like a rock opera or something. But anyway, he was dropping me off at the airport and I hadn�t gotten around to asking, cause at the house we never had time, if he wanted to sing on it so I just pulled out the minidisk therein the front seat of his truck before I had to get out for my plane. The funny part was of course that while he�s attempting it the state trooper came to ask us to move along which is sorta better than any solo.

So you�ve mentioned being on tour with Andrew Bird and your love of Scout Niblett. Is there anyone else that you�re listening to or have been on tour with that you think deserves a mention? There�s a women you�ve never heard of yet called Katie Maki, she�s a young 26 year old singer songwriter from Canada, and another woman, a rocker who�s an Inuit and an amazing singer, great, great rockin stuff, named Lucy Idlout and she�s pretty fantastic. I was spending, ahh, I have like a follow-up record to this giant sand record finished already and I ended up doing it up in Canada and that�s why I was running into these people there.

So is it a Giant Sand record or a Howe Gelb one or� I think it�s gonna be a Howe Gelb because it�s very simple. Its mostly just guitar and drums but with a ten piece gospel choir.

Excellent Yeah, so that was really, really fun to do and I found myself being more excited than I�ve been in a long time about recording.

When are we likely to be seeing that released? You know it�s in its holding pattern waiting for this one to do its job so probably not till spring 2005 or so, because you tell me, but I�m told by the record company that if I keep putting these things out too often then the writers can�t make room to write about each record there�s so many. There�s only so much space a magazines gonna give you. So that�s the problem. You can put it out but nobody�s going to be able to touch it or write about it so the record company has to be concerned with that and I�m kinda not.

You�re just stockpiling it somewhere? Yeah I don�t know it seems like that more than ever. I�ve got these Grandaddy sessions I�ve done and that means that�s the third record that�s half done and I have no idea what to do with them. And then I�ve just completed another tour only CD like the Blacky one turned into and I�ve just finished it and I was listening to it on the plane over. That will be a tour only CD but it�s a pretty good record. it almost sounds better than the real records.

I think that�s what a lot of the Blacky stuff ended up sounding like as well. Its kind of, I don�t know, maybe if you sit there and just make music and don�t really consider if its going anywhere then� Exactly yeah, you don�t think about it in terms of presenting it and so it has that nice cloaked, I don�t know what kind of atmosphere you call it, but it�s sort of in your room kind of vibe a lot of it. You�re not looking like, �oh I'm going to present this� or �I've got to clean it up enough to be presentable�.

I�ve just got a couple of final questions off a friend of mine who�s a big fan. Bearing in mind he could ask you any question in the world and this is what he wants to know.

Okay

�Have you seen Mark Linkous recently and is he okay?� because he worries about him you see? No I haven�t. I haven�t seen him in over� Paulie was keeping in touch with him for a while and then she hadn�t heard from him for a while so that might be, erm�(pauses) but then I heard something good about him. I heard something, I can�t remember what it was. Maybe she told me he resurfaced or he did something. It ended on a positive note but I can�t remember what it was.

That�s okay then, I�ll let my friend know. The other question was �Where are you living currently and is it dusty?�. I promise he won�t stalk you. He sounds odd but he�s harmless. I�m still in Tucson for 8 months of the year and then I go to Denmark for 4. So yeah, it�s pretty fucking dusty.

Luke Drozd