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It is about energy and movement. That is what The Gourds are about musically. Our sound has such a big swirling flow to it. We are a great "combo" in the classic sense. We make a sound, all of us together, and a feel that is kinetic and vibrant. We seek to resonate like the skin on a drum or the reeds in the weeds along a river raging down hill. We are in motion and seeking the ocean. -Kevin Russell |
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"Gin and Juice" – a blessing or a curse at this point? It's an undeniably brilliant cover - as well handled as a cover can be - but it's funny how many people don't know it's The Gourds due to Internet mislabeling. Ever thought of revisiting it as a duet with Snoop himself? He seems game to stray outside accepted lines with his music from time to time.
It is what it is. We have no desire to re-brand it. We consciously made it a nebulous release into the world. It has its own life. We think of ourselves as a collective Mary Shelly in regards to that ugly beast roaming the digital networks in search of love.
Live, The Gourds are a force of nature. I mean that sincerely. What's the mindset going in each night? You always seem to leave it all up there on the stage, and that's freakin' hard to maintain over a long tour. What keeps you going, keeps you sane, while grinding out dates?
 Kevin Russell |
I think the stage show is usually a release of pent-up emotion and energy from the day of travel, sound check, hurry up and wait situations, whatever personal stuff crops up between people in our group. None of us are into drugs like cocaine or heroin or pills, so we have to get up and down as best we can. Lots of musicians use drugs to do this for them. But, that is a slippery slope obviously and is temporary at best. For me anyway, performance is a place where I can let it all out through singing and dancing and stomping and connecting with the audience. There is a great release that can take place up there, cathartic moments. I think sobriety though is crucial to my experience - to be in the moment totally. We are not always sober, but usually.
Maintaining is the hard part, of course. My voice is the most important thing for me to take care of. So, I don't smoke or drink much alcohol. I try to eat a vegetarian diet and get as much rest as I can. I am not as disciplined as I could be, you see? I am pretty good though. The one thing I cannot control is shitty production. Loud rooms with crappy monitors will eventually wear even the strongest voice down. When that happens I have to choose songs based on my ability to sing. I hate when I lose range in my voice. I get depressed, really. I live to sing, I do. If I can't sing I want to just cry or destroy a chair. Reading and writing keep me sane. Sometimes praying/meditating. I like listening to late night AM radio and shortwave when I am going to sleep. There is something about hearing distant radio signals that comforts me. I especially like listening to Coast To Coast AM.
There is very little private time in our world. There is always someone with you, next to you, talking to you and making you laugh. We laugh a lot, this group of guys. Chemistry of humans is important to us. We have a good mix of crew right now. They are all sweet, happy people with thick skin and senses of humor.
Growin' A Beard is a such a sweet, strange documentary. How'd you get involved with the soundtrack?
 The Gourds |
Pretty simple, Mike Woolf, a longtime friend and fan in Austin told me about this project he had been working on about this beard growing contest. He described what a "donegal" beard [a beard that goes from one sideburn along the jawline to the other sideburn without a mustache] is. As I envisioned his description I remembered a morning I woke up with the fellows around me in Portland, Oregon. I looked at them and they all had donegal beards. I think Max always used to wear one. Then suddenly Jimmy had one and Claude had one. It was creepy funny. When Mike mentioned this I knew we were the only band that could handle the soundtrack for this beard movie. It came out great. I only wish we would have recorded the whole "Get Yer Kicks On Route 66" song. That recording has such a spooky, cool, groovy quality to it, but we only did that one little part of it.
I don't think you cats have ever made a bad record - a rare thing for any band around more than a decade - but I've argued for years that Ghosts of Hallelujah is one of the unsung classics of the '90s. It seemed like a lot of things clicked into place on that album, and in many ways help set the stage for the music that followed. What do you think of it now? What do you recall of its creation?
I remember there was a huge storm that hit Central Texas during the recording of this. A friend of ours got in a car wreck driving through East Texas on the way to the ranch where we were recording. We were stranded for a short time as well as some of the roads were washed out by swelling creeks from the rainfall. Keith and I arrived first and did a few of my songs early on. One of those was the title track. It was originally a slow, sad waltz, but we did that more up-tempo version and went with that. I got sick near the end of this and had to go home from feeling so bad. Keith actually had to take me to the hospital because I thought something was seriously wrong. Then, he had to take our friend to the hospital because we were concerned he might have a concussion from his wreck. Keith was very busy during [these sessions]. We were both fine. Amid all that, we had a good time.
It was the last of the first three records that we recorded at The Laurels Ranch in the Hill Country. It is very close to Luckenbach and Fredericksburg, Texas-German country, obviously; lots of goats and cows around. We had great times out there just making weird records. They weren't the best sounding records, but they were cool, we thought. And it kept us in a certain frame of mind that maybe being in a real recording studio could have dampened. I think this is where the final lineup of The Gourds begins with Max having joined us there. And it being Keith's first recording with us, you have a good case for this being a forgotten classic of the decade. There are many Gourds faithful who appreciate this one that way. One reason it may have been overlooked is the fact that it was the third release in as many as two years. It really seemed that we released it too soon. If we had waited another six months maybe it would have made more of a splash. Lots of music biz folks seemed to have a "oh another record already" reaction to it. And it was released on a very small label. Essentially, this had little marketing behind it. Great record though.
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