Living Colour: A Lively Conversation

. In a lot of ways, I think this is a good time for rock, and I think it's going to become a better time for rock. When I look at say The Mars Volta, the complexion of what rock is has been fundamentally altered. And that's a good thing.

-Vernon Reid

Race has been a pronounced issue for Living Colour since day one, but almost always coming from outside the band. Inside, these guys understand that rock is the child of multiple influences - some white, some black and some brown. The notion that black men playing rock is somehow unusual announces the ignorance of any critic speaking such nonsense. One would have to conveniently forget Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Buddy Guy, Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix and countless others to utter such stupidity.

"Rock was an amalgam of so many things. It was mutt music to begin with. It was a little bit of gospel, a little bit of country music, a little bit of classical, a little bit of everything just thrown in there and all of a sudden here's this new thing. That's the only way innovation occurs. Something new is born of several different mothers and fathers," says Glover. "The fact that we didn't come directly from the blues, that a lot of it came from fusion jazz, maybe set people back a bit. Unfortunately, I read a lot of blogs, and the so-called metal blogs think we're a metal band. We're not a metal band. There's aspects of metal music to it – we play HARD – but we're in no way a metal band. There's no particular category that suits us well. You couldn't say we're a jazz band or a complete rock band because we play elements of R&B. So, what are you going to say? We're a band. Leave it at that."

Will Calhoun & Corey Glover
by Greg Styer

Modern music culture has become very comfortable labeling things. It's easier to market and sell that way, but music itself is fluid and hard to contain. It is, by nature, liquid stuff.

"It should be fluid! Do you listen to your iPod that way? You're not going to go the 'Rock' category and just listen to rock songs. No, you hit play and whatever comes up you're surprised and delighted by because it's all the music that you love," says Glover. "The other day I was listening to [69 Boyz'] 'Tootsee Roll' and then something real dark like the Swans came on afterwards and it worked!"

Realizing that he wasn't alone in his struggles, in 1985 Vernon Reid co-founded the Black Rock Coalition, an organization formed in "reaction to the constrictions that the commercial music industry places on Black artists." The Coalition continues to this day and Reid is suitably proud and excited about the current generation of artists of color reshaping rock and popular music.

"Now we have great bands like TV on the Radio, Santigold and Earl Greyhound on the scene. And there's Afro-punk, which is kind of the snarky little brother to the Black Rock Coalition," says Reid. "I'll tell you what's really got me jazzed right now. A really good friend of mine, William DuVall, is the new singer in Alice In Chains and I'm so happy for him. I had a solo record, This little room, that was going to be the follow-up to Mistaken Identity (1996) and William sings on two of the songs on that (unreleased) record. In a lot of ways, I think this is a good time for rock, and I think it's going to become a better time for rock. When I look at say The Mars Volta, the complexion of what rock is has been fundamentally altered. And that's a good thing."

"One of the things I love about The Mars Volta is I don't get it! I listen to it and it's weird. It's partly in Spanish but it's prog. I love the fact that I didn't already know where it was going," continues Reid. "So much rock is a lifestyle, a factory produced thing. Led Zeppelin was still tied to the blues in a fundamental way, but the idea behind Led Zeppelin was still this experimental thing. You hear these bootlegs where they played 'The Battle of Evermore' for a half hour! There's this whole notion that they were the beginning of cock rock – and in a way it is – but there's so much more to it."

Will Calhoun by Bill Bernstein

One characteristic that runs throughout Living Colour's catalog is a pronounced love of interesting sounds. Beyond the stellar musicianship and compositional edge, their albums overflow with cool noises and interesting digressions. This passion extends to a breathless enthusiasm for old gear like Mellotrons.

"You're singing my song right there! There's something about an instrument, because of the nature of what it is, that lends an air of instant nostalgia to anything you do with it," offers Reid. "Hearing the sound of strings that sound like they're from an old movie instantly transports you. Psychedelia wouldn't have been possible without the Mellotron. The sound of those Beatles records is just…[Reid trails off into a sigh of pure delight]."

"We recorded The Chair In The Door in a very different way. With all the other records we'd been hitting the tunes and playing and playing them in front of people. With this record we did overdubs with live skeletons, and a lot of this record was broken down into parts and components, which in a sense is how things are done now. There's parts of this record that are very live. You can tell that 'Bless Those' is just recorded live. There's a lot of tunes that are very dense, and what I like about 'Bless Those' is it's very stripped down, very rock 'n' roll band. We went 360-degrees with that tune, where one take was too bar-bandy, etc. At the end of the day it was right the first time," says Reid. "Other pieces like 'Behind The Sun' were found digging through an archive of things we'd done. I heard it and said, 'Oh, that's that crazy tapping riff!' We wound up getting into it and it evolved, like the whole project. I think album concept still has merit as an organizing principle. I think sequencing matters. I think having a body of songs that pertain to something - a real song cycle - matters. I think the fact that you can release a single song and not be tied to an album is cool, but people say the album is over or irrelevant and I don't believe that. Further on the convergence of various technologies are going to take the notion of albums and the experiential objects therein and change them."

"The [new album] was inspirational to me. When they heard me sing something new or in a different way it helped inspire us to do more stuff. I tried to get at things the best I could," says Glover. "Technically, I'd been schooled constantly by the time we got the studio because I'd been touring with Jesus Christ Superstar [playing Judas Iscariot] for two years (2006-2008). So, my voice was ready to go when it was time to hit play because I haven't stopped singing for two years! My vocal coach gave me a lot of good ideas if you want to keep doing this. You need to have a personal routine but also growth, because if there's no growth it becomes boring and uninteresting. The singer is the emotional interpreter of the song. If he's not able to tell you what the emotions are that the band is playing then it doesn't make any sense. It's just not worth doing if you don't throw your personality into it. It's the bravado or the angst or the melancholy of whoever is singing and those they're singing with. And with an uncategorized band it's going to be different every time."

Living Colour by Bill Bernstein

Regardless of anything else they may do, Living Colour will likely always be best known for "Cult of Personality," simply one of the great moments in late 20th century music. It's a piece that will be knocking skulls together and making folks question the celebrity driven nature of modern culture long after all of us are resting ashily in our urns. The song has become so ubiquitous - Guitar Hero anyone? – it's become part of the contemporary background noise through no fault of its own.

"What I really didn't want to be were the people I was singing about [laughs]. At a certain point it kinda got that way, but that's not what I was saying. There's a certain thing that goes on. Just watch the Sonia Sotomayor hearings to see it," says Glover. "What's funny about it is it's a phenomenon that occurs in every aspect of life. There's an insurance salesman that every other insurance salesman talks about. What we were talking about is rock stars. And I'm not a rock star. Mick Jagger isn't a rock star. Barack Obama IS a rock star! I'm not the one who can stop traffic. Michael Jackson is the biggest star in the world…next to Barack Obama [laughs]."

"I read a book a while back that said that what people do to their betters is raise them up, bring them down and then raise them up again. And it's only after their death that they truly raise them up and the reality of their impact can be assessed. It's what happened with Elvis. He was the biggest thing in the world, then they said he was kind of corny and then he died and he was the greatest thing in the world again," comments Glover. "It's going to happen to every person of any note everywhere in the world. It happened to Bill Clinton. It happened to Ed Koch. It happens to your local community board member, who once seemed so new and young and hip. Look at John Travolta's career! That's the way it works. That's how [culture] manifests itself. You're hot shit one minute and then you're out. Like Frank Sinatra said, 'That's life' [laughs]."

"As long as there's a forum for social commentary – whether it comes from music or the arts or life itself – there's always going to be a conversation to be had. There's always going to be a conversation to what's considered infantile or sophomoric. There's going to be a real conversation about the world we live in. That's what philosophy is, and that's how these things come apart. That's how we deal with our music," says Glover. "This conversation is one we're trying to have with our audience. Of course, some people would love to hear Living Colour do 'Back In Black' and we'd love to get out there and do that, too [laughs]."