a shellac article containing an interiew

von kicko

this might seem a strange heading for an article but in fact, there isn't a more concise description of what's going to follow the heading, esp. with a band like SHELLAC who play very precise and concise music and have a strict anti-commercial attitude which even goes as far as to not do any advertising for their records (this is also the topic of a question later in the interview).

this preliminary blabla (aka "the article" or "the introduction before the interview") only serves the purpose to shed some light on history and music of this fascinating band before the interview starts so people might get interested although I know that the English language might be enough to put people off - but as we are a fanziners who take illiteracy and related phenomena very serious, if you don't read so good or do not speak English, contact some smart-ass type of guy of your choice and bug him long enough until he translates or reads this article for you.

shellac is a three-piece in classical rock instrumentation guitar-drum-bass consisting of the following persons: steve albini (guitar,vocals), bob weston (bass), todd trainer (drums). they have all played (or even are still playing) in various other bands (weston in the volcano sons, albini in big black and rapeman).

another thing to be said about shellac doesn't actually have anything to do with the band, but two of its members are very well-known recording engineers: bob weston has worked with e.g. sebadoh and other bands, while albini has produced/recorded an awful of records, including nirvana's "in utero", 18th dye's "tribute to a bus", pj harvey's "dry".

the band so far has put out two long players "at action park" (1994) and "terraform" (1998) and various 7" records before the long players. they are on touch and go records and I recommend very highly to check them out because they are really awesome (o.k, now I do sound like some dumb-ass us college radio dick)! their music may not be the easiest accessible of all sorts but there songs contain beauty, though of a harsh kind. the same seems to be the case with their live appearances as I have read in some reviews on the most fabulous piece-of-shit-invention since the wheel, yes, ladies and gentlemen, I'm talking about "the Internet" (it has to be said, though, that the interview was done via email so maybe it's not that bad).

o.k. that should suffice as an introduction to the band, check out their music. here is the interview done with bob weston via email.

Q: your songs always sound very tight and well-crafted. how do you write them, is it that one of the band members comes up with a couple of riffs and then you build the structure around that? who writes the songs? the lyrics seem to be by steve, is that true?

A: One person will have a riff. The others write parts around it. the songs are arranged by us all. It's pretty equal. I think it's like most bands that I know of. There's nothing special about the process. We all have a pretty similar arrangement aesthetic. The singer usually writes the words. Steve wrote the most, but Todd and I have written some.

Q: the band kind of keeps a rather low profile, I didn't see any announcements for the "terraform" record before I actually saw it in the shops: what is the reason for this behavior? do you want to keep away from all the market-oriented mechanisms and just rely on word of mouth?

A: We don't want anyone to buy the record due to advertising or reading reviews. We don't want anyone to be tricked into buying the record, and then dislike it. We rely on word of mouth. the records don't sell as quick initially, but they still eventually find their audience.

Q: what do you consider as your main influences? what sort of music do you listen to yourself (apart from the bands you and steve are producing)?

A: We're all huge music fans. Rock music - underground music - experimental music. That's the influence (being fans), and that's what we listen to.

Q: is it easy to maintain the band as a 'real' band (i.e. concerts, records and stuff) when both you and steve are pretty well-known and wanted producers? do you ever have time to go on bigger tours, or do you even want to go on tour, I mean, all of you have been around for a while so maybe you're not very keen on touring anymore?

A: We treat the band as our hobby. We all have full-time jobs. We never want the band to be our "job". That would ruin it for us, as it has for so many others. We treasure it too much. We all think about the band all the time and love it every time we get together. We do it for fun. A 6-week tour of the US in a van does not sound like fun to us right now. A tour to South America or Spain for a week, for instance, does sound like fun. So that's how we tour.

Q: are there any plans for a tour in europe, especially germany?

A: No specific plans. But a general agreement that we will tour in western Europe again.

Q: how big is shellac in america, when you play a show, how many people usually come to it? how many records do you sell? do you care at all about such things (I mean record sales, not people coming to your shows)?

A: From 30 to perhaps 1500 people. I don't know how many records. Call Touch and Go about that.

Q: back to your music (or rather the lyrics): what are the songs about? in an interview on the web I read that a lot of your songs are about canada, there is even one track on "terraform" that's called canada and on the cartoon in "at action park" there is a pond with "5 tries to dunk a canadian". do you dislike canada or do you just take the piss, or what else is the reason for so much concern?

A: We love Canada. Sometimes in interviews people say something untrue because they think it's funny.

Q: is the band a full-time job for you, can you live off the money you make with the band? or is the producing business your main income? or do you have even more jobs?

A: The band pays for itself. Occasionally there is some extra that we split up, but we never count on that money to live off of - it's simply a little surprise sometimes. I, personally, make my living as a recording engineer.

Q: your music sounds pretty industrial, sort of, the staccato guitaring with the typical albini-aluminum sound (at least I would call it like that, it sounds really cutting and metallic), the hard drumming, the very accentuated bass lines, did you ever think about using some electronic devices, like big black had a drum machine, did you think about using a sequencer or some keyboards or is that part of what shellac is all about, creating an industrial-like sound with a traditional guitar-bass-drums line-up?

A: I've never ever thought of our music as industrial. We've messed with synthesizers at practice, but nothing has come up that we liked yet. We're not against the experimentation - we just haven't come across any electronic parts that we like yet.