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I like the idea of having restrictions because it forces you to think outside of the box. Your handicap becomes your advantage. I don't want to make things too easy for myself. How am I going to grow that way? With the instrument you play it's not just a matter of exploring different avenues musically but also technically, like when you have to fight an instrument to get something out of it. -Eric McFadden on his favorite guitar, the 1933 Gibson L-10 |
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Engorged Reveries
I could take on an army if I had me a cause
I would break all the rules, break all the laws
I would prowl in your jungle like an animal child
I could hunt you down like a beast in the wild.
 Eric McFadden & Dave Schools by Josh Miller |
At its origins, rock 'n' roll is about getting it on, wildness, rebellion and sensuality. To excise sex from its predominant makeup is ludicrous and dishonest. Fortunately, Eric McFadden injects huge, rippling waves of carnality into his music. When he leers over his primo moustache and sings, "You look pretty good in the rain, girl, why don't you come on inside," well there's plenty of humid wetness to go around.
"Beyond just my pleasure in keeping that spirit alive, I feel a duty and responsibility to keep that fucking element alive in rock 'n' roll. It should have an element of danger. It shouldn't be fucking safe and easy to digest all the time. It's not the nature of it," says McFadden. "People are buying what they're force fed. That works across the board, whether you're buying Nike, shopping at the Gap, going to Starbucks or McDonald's or whatever. It's the same with the music business. They're all buying their stuff from the McDonald's of music – safe and familiar and easy to digest, familiar and no risk involved. But there are people who want the danger, who want to take risks. You find the most fulfilling, satisfying shit when you go someplace like the dive bar on the corner or the little café with the shitty paint job and discover they have the best hamburger or enchiladas ever [laughs]. You take a chance and discover the Holy Grail of enchiladas!"
Much of what endures in rock is the dangerous stuff, the music that feels like it could go off the rails any minute or gets up to its elbows in human mess. It's not "Emotional Rescue" or limp retreads like "Harlem Shuffle" that cement The Rolling Stones in rock's foundation. It's the nasty, uncomfortable, misbehaving corkers like their empathetic pitch for Lucifer ("Sympathy For The Devil") or slave auction block ode to dark meat ("Brown Sugar") that ensures what the Stones have wrought will endure.
 Eric McFadden by Eddy Briere |
"Before I went to bed last night I watched "Cocksucker Blues". That kind of exemplifies some of what we're talking about. That movie is The Rolling Stones in their prime – fuckin' sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll," observes McFadden. "I'm not advocating things like, 'Hey kids, go out and have sex and do drugs!' But, it was the real deal. Now they have glitz and they're in great shape for old guys still out there rockin' but it ain't the same thing."
This conversation illustrates the difficulties of playing genuine, heartfelt, unsafe rock-and-motherfuckin-roll in 2008. When factory produced lug nuts Maroon 5 and Nickelback define popular rock where does that leave a mud splattered, emotional, grandly unpretty craftsman like McFadden?
"My whole life I've kinda felt I've gone against what's good for me, in terms of business. I've never wanted to latch onto the latest trends in music, you know? I could do that and reap greater success; I can adapt to anything. My reasons for not doing it isn't because I can't, it's because you have to do what you naturally feel compelled to do," says McFadden. "I don't want to go play a bunch of homogenized, soulless bullshit to make a buck. Different people have different reasons for doing things. There's musicians with VERY different reasons for doing it than mine. It is so much easier to take the easy way out."
"At gigs I sometimes think, 'This might be a good place for a happy song,' then I realize I already played my happy song! 'Sorry folks, I played my one happy song. I should have saved it for later but oh well [laughs].' If I look through the catalog, I probably have a few but there's not many. We're living in the fucking Bush Age. How much happiness is there to be writing about? And it's not just this administration and the profoundly negative, horrific effects they've had on society, it's the disenchantment that comes with so many people buying into it," says McFadden (though this conversation took place before the recent presidential election). "The only reason people can support these things is they don't know, they don't have the right information."
 Eric McFadden by Resa Blobaum |
On record, McFadden's approach to politics and societal ills runs parallel to The Clash, where the music is paramount but it's dotted with prickly truths and unwanted reflections that avoid naming names, which traps one's ideas in time. It's not so much a spoonful of sugar as a candy shell on arsenic laced speed – a rough ride you don't see coming until the beast is all the way underneath you. It's a sneaky but very effective way to jostle discourse and shake off comfort's cocoon. You'll likely be having too good a time to realize the amphetamine rush about to course through your bloodstream, but when it hits, woo howdy you'll feel it. When McFadden barks, "The President is feeding us bullshit," that cuts through the subterfuge and niceties often buffering us from reality. But, it works for any President that's lying their ass off to achieve an agenda, not just one called W.
"It's got to be a broad thing. What The Clash did then is still relevant now. You can still listen to it and believe in it. It's not too specific," says McFadden. "Sometimes you can write a little less directly than just saying 'bullshit' but sometimes, in the context of a song, you just need a line that says, 'Well, there it is.' A lot of times there's an urge to mix sex with politics. I think when you have that doomsday feeling, that sense that it all might go to shit and this is the end that you gravitate towards the idea of sex, like in a plane crash. I'm just thinkin' good times and how to make the most of these final days here. In my mind that gravitates towards sex and love – love for your friends, love for your family. You need to be close to people you love or have sex with someone you love. It's the only real comfort in these times. People are really out for themselves now, and this current administration has really caused a separation of people, effectively dividing the people through their propaganda and tactics. It's not supposed to be the people versus the people, it's supposed to be the people united and the government working for us. They've pitted us against each other, and we're so fucking polarized it's tragic."
"One thing I hope to do through my music besides just entertain people and make them feel good is maybe raise some awareness. I know people need healthy forms of escapism, some sort of release, and coming to a rock show is a way of achieving that. I hope I provide that necessary service [laughs]. But I also hope to raise some awareness and inform people on some level, not by preaching at them but maybe they'll get the message if they're paying attention," says McFadden, touching on how concert halls and clubs are ritual spaces where an increasingly divided, insular society shares a communal experience. "It's my fucking church. When I'm playing and the audience connects with me it's magic. But I'm also the kind of guy who likes to catch a show whenever he can when I'm not playing. I'm still a fan. That's why I got into making music, so why wouldn't I continue being a fan of music after becoming a musician? It doesn't make sense to me. I need to have that feeling of just being a fan going to see a band that rocks me and connects with me. Plus, how much inspiration can I derive just with myself? I live with me everyday. I know how I think and what I feel [laughs]. I need to experience other things, bring in more information, more experiences."
EMT - Eric McFadden Trio "Devil Moon" 1
Eric McFadden on Fog Town Network - "Mr. Toyhead"
Widespread Panic Red Rocks 2008 with Eric McFadden
JamBase | Ever Beckoning Tomorrow
Go See Live Music!
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