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There's this great line in the Talmud - "We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are." A lot of times we put our own baggage into anything that we are. You go somewhere, no matter where you are, this is your home, this is your temple right here. Wherever you are, in the middle of nowhere, you're bringing it with you. So, L.A. can eat you up, can do all these things to you, but it's you. It's your humanity. It's how you reach humanity. How you feel about humanity is how you approach it. -Prechtel-Cortez |
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Photo of The Weather Underground by Sonia Onate
JamBase: Describe what Los Angeles means to you.
Prechtel-Cortez: Los Angeles is kind of like a thrift store – you have to go and find the treasure. It's not something that is right in front of you, but like Herzog says, "There's a lot of substance in this town."
JamBase: A lot of people – even those who live here - disparage L.A.
 Ryan Kirkpatrick by Benjamin Hoste |
Prechtel-Cortez: There's this great line in the Talmud - "We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are." A lot of times we put our own baggage into anything that we are. You go somewhere, no matter where you are, this is your home, this is your temple right here. Wherever you are, in the middle of nowhere, you're bringing it with you. So, L.A. can eat you up, can do all these things to you, but it's you. It's your humanity. It's how you reach humanity. How you feel about humanity is how you approach it. People meet us and they go, "Wow, you guys are from L.A.? That's so crazy because you guys are so cool." This is the ground we're sitting on. This has nothing to do with it. I mean, it has everything to do with everything, but see things how they are, not as you are.
Sho: There are some great natural features in L.A. like Crystal Cove in PV. I was also really into L.A. bands growing up - Black Flag, The Descendents, Mike Watt, Roaming Blackouts, punk rock culture in general. A few venues have some real history in places you wouldn't expect, like in Redondo Beach. Miles Davis used to play at the Lighthouse, down on the pier. It's cool to check these places out, to go where the legends played.
While Prechtel-Cortez is the defacto leader and voice of the band, The Weather Underground is very much a collective of musical revolutionaries. Each member contributes something to the band. Music is written democratically.
Prechtel-Cortez: There's no contrivance to what we are doing. We throw the ball at the wall and some stuff sticks. Ideas are always going through my head. We'll start playing something and everyone gets invested in it.
JamBase: Do the lyrics come before or after the music?
Prechtel-Cortez: It's always different. There is a lot of patience. Bob Dylan said there are certain things you have to hold to yourself, because if they get out early they are too fragile. Patience creates fertile ground for ideas to come out. I think there is an understanding of what everyone does best. We all get along really well, and that's kind of a blessing. I feel blessed to be allowed to be the principal lyricist. It's like someone is giving me a canvas to finish a painting.
JamBase: You have released three EPs, but not a full length. Tell me why?
 Prechtel-Cortez by Benjamin Hoste |
Prechtel-Cortez: EPs allow us to flesh out ideas, and there is not much pressure. We have everything we need for the phase we're at. The idea is to have longer careers. Basically we're doing things our way.
JamBase: Are the new songs being drawn from the same artistic well as the first EP?
Kirkpatrick: I think they are way different now. I think we are growing. Everything is growing in different ways. Everything changes and the music changes too. It's easier now. We're more comfortable playing with each other. We know what everyone does best and we're able to sit back and let each other do that thing that they do best. We wrote a lot of the songs on Psalms and Shanties together. At the end of that record, Harley and Diego would write together. There were a couple songs where they were locked up. I attribute that to the guitar and drums being easy to play together. You let your heart take over.
Guerrero: We all wrote the songs together, but Harley and I saw some shows together and got really inspired. And then Sho and Ryan came in later.
Kirkpatrick: For us to know where our parameters are is really liberating. Songwriting is a group process. It's nice to let people take their time with things, while pushing each other to let them do the things they are really good at. Let the Tour de Force come together - four people doing what they naturally do best, all together.
JamBase: You've also been playing together long enough for things to gel.
Kirkpatrick: The live show is coming together. Playing on the road, man! Playing every night is great.
Sho: Now we know for sure that this is what we're going to be doing for the long run.
Music is reincarnated through new artists mining the past. There is something in The Weather Underground's music that has this quality, the timeless essence of the struggles in the fields or a lonely night on the train or walking down the street staring at the cracks in the pavement.
JamBase: What are you trying to share through your music?
 Diego Guerrero by Benjamin Hoste |
Prechtel-Cortez: An engagement, I think, being able to send some sort of message through music. As cliché and cheesy as that can be, I think we are trying to inspire. I know that it's idealistic to think that you can actually do much or actually change things in an activist way, but we have that punk ethos to not shy away from a message. When the show's over, you go home and there's more to it - you have your life. So, take something from it. The music is first and foremost.
Kirkpatrick: One thing that has always inspired me is to watch the relationships that develop during live performances; also, the ability to communicate without having to talk. I think there is another form of understanding that gets passed around. Shows kind of breed that. You can almost feel that in the audience. You can even feel that after the show, that sensibility - tolerance, love, the experience. I hope it translates.
JamBase: From listening to the music, I've noticed there aren't really any love songs. The one that you sing in Spanish ["Fight Song For The Desalojos"] sounds like it has some romantic themes. I read the translation and found it was a tribute to the days of working in the fields - nostalgia for a simple, honest existence - so I suppose you could say it's a love song of sorts. Tell me about why you don't write love songs, and tell me about that song.
Prechtel-Cortez: There's a lot of that stuff that has already been written, and we can leave that to those people that do that really well. I personally think that the sentiment can sometimes be there. Like you said, "Fight Song For The Desalojos" feels like it's a relationship thing. The Desalojos are evacuees, indigenous people from Guatemala displaced by these big coal-mining corporations from Canada and the United States. Canada is a big culprit actually. They take over this land, promise the indigenous people work and then kick them off while they are making profit off this whole different country. This happens often, and so yeah, the sentiment is there. The cool thing about lyrics and music is that is doesn't always have to be what you think it's about. You listen to The Smiths, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and it's there.
Continue reading for more on The Weather Underground...
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