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The band has been going on for... over 19 years now? How did you end up together?
"We were just high-school friends, and we all liked to rock, so it was
just the next step to try to learn how to play music. I had played
guitar, but at the beginning of the Fastbacks, I was on drums."
What makes you go on? It seems as though you want to outdo the Rolling Stones!
"I don't think we could ever do that! They'll never split up - they make
too much money. I think that if we had ever made a hit record, it would have
split us up by now. Not that we'll stop trying, but the chances of a true
hit record from the old Fastbacks gets slimmer each year! I don't know
why we've kept going, other than we all still like the music, and we try
to keep the pressure off!"
Why did you pick Fastbacks as the name for your band?
"I don't remember... I think we were driving around, and saw a cool Ford
Mustang fastback at a gas station... at the time it was less
stupid-sounding than the other names we had going... Never in a million
years would we have guessed that we'd still be using it this far along."
Now if someone were to ask you to desribe the Fastbacks-sound, what definition would you come up with?
" 'Everything great about music'? I don't know, thats for someone else to
do!"
At one time you had Guns 'n' Roses Duff McKagan as a drummer. That was in the beginning, right? How did that come about and do you still keep in contact?
"Duff was our second drummer, after me. He was always hanging around back
then, just ready to play music at any time. I was the drummer, but wasn't
so hot. He was better than I, and one afternoon, he came over to Lulu and
Kim's house, where we practiced, and sat in for a few songs, whilst I
played guitar. It was so much better of a sound, I never played the drums
again."
There's definitely a punkiness to the Fastbacks. Is it just the sound or does Punk influence you in a bigger way?
"Well you can probably tell that punk was what got the Fastbacks to start
ticking. At our best, we were terrible, but Punk gave us a flag to fly -
it made it okay to keep plugging away, trying to get better, and made it
okay to have fun while we were getting better. We were never much for the
anarchy in the USA style punk, ours was a more personal politic, but
quite punk nonetheless."
Kurt, you also played in the equally fantastic YoungFreshFellows. How different was it playing in that band, compared to the Fastbacks?
"The ethic was the same, just go and try as hard as you can to make a
memorable show, play hard, and do anything you think of to rock the
people who need to rock, and have a good time together. The difference,
well, the YFF's it's Scott's songs, and I guess that band is a _bit_ more
of a democracy, and less predictable of a live show. You really have to
be "on the ball" at a Fellows show, no-one knows what might happen next.
The Fastbacks are a little more planned out beforehand."
As usual you were the producer for the record. Where did you learn to produce? Am I right when it was with Conrad Uno at Egg studios in Seattle?
"Uno was really my mentor for production - not that he fancied himself a
teacher or anything, more that he was the first producer that seemed to
wind things up and let them go the way they do, rather than dissect every
bit of the music and try to change things before stepping back and
listening first to what is already there. There were some early lessons
to be learned there, for me anyway!"
Why do you produce the records yourself?
"Why not? I can do it faster than anyone else, and if I don't like how it
turns out, I don't have to blame anyone. It's also good to learn as much
as you can."
Apart from that you also produce other bands, like Tad, Mudhoney and Les Thugs. Do you approach producing other bands differently?
"Not at all. You just listen and try to find out what makes you like a
certain band, what makes them tick, and make sure that spirit come
through loud and clear. Don't mess things up any more than they already
are. Make sure the musicians are happy and having a good time, and
hopefully that will shine through on the recording!"
Do you still produce bands? If you were able to pick any band to produce, which one would it be? And why...
"Probably Cheap Trick, they're one of my favorite American bands, I think
they do a good job themselves, but it'd be great to try to get them to go
one step further!"
Your new record "The Day That Didn't Exist" is out on spinArRT. Do you still play in that CheapTrick cover band with SubPop man Jonathan Poneman?
"That band 'Sick Man Of Europe', I don't know if we'll do anything again.
I kind of ran its course, but really, you never know!"
You have covered songs from bands ranging from Sweet, the BeeGees to Guided By Voices. If you could pick a band that covered one of your songs, which band would it be? And what song?
"Does it have to be a current band? I'd love to see Cheap Trick do
something! Maybe Deep Purple circa '72! King Crimson! Led Zeppelin! Peter
Green's Fleetwood Mac circa '69 doing 'The Day That Didn't Exist'! The
Who doing 'I Was Stolen', around 1968. Oh, I could go on..."
The band is a very big part of Seattle. Not only do you produce many of the local bands, you also use a lot of the local drummers. What do you think are the good and bad sides to Seattle? Do you feel it has survived the Grunge bomb?
"I like ol' Seattle. My friends live here. I like the music. The only bad
side is, well, lots more other people think so too. It's getting more
crowded and expensive. But this is my home. It survived whatever grunge
bomb damage - but remember - the grunge bomb may have been launched from
Seattle, but the explosion was felt elsewhere in greater numbers. We just
do what we do!"
Mike Musburger has been playing for the last five years in the band now. You can't get rid of him?
"It was never our idea to be the band with the joke drummer! I'm glad Mike
still likes playing with us. I suppose we're a demanding bunch, but we're
all sorta on the same wavelength now."
Okay, that was a lame drummer-joke. You have toured with bands like Ramones, Pil and Pearl Jam. Experienced any Spinal Tap moments?
"Really, no. We've relived that scene where you are walking for what seems
to be miles, trying to find the stage door, only to be back at your
dressing room - but not the harmful stuff. All the Pearl Jam band and
editor were really so nice, and put up with our rampages!"
Are you still big in Japan? And how was it like touring there?
"Don't know - love to find out. Japan is a gas - so much fun. I hope we
can get back there someday!"
Although this might sound like a cricitism, the sound seems to remain the same throughout the years. How come you don't change?
"I don't know - how should we change? Get funky? Do some rap-style tunes?
Add a synthesizer player? We just do the best we can with what we got, we
don't tour so constantly that we're sick of our songs, we don't sit
around trying to stay the same, we try to come up with songs that sound
different from the ones before, but we don't want to change just so we
can do something that none of us like, because when it's all said and
done, if we don't like it, if we can't enjoy listening to our own
records, then, well, that's when I give up!"
http://www.kindamuzik.net/interview/fastbacks/fastbacks/377/
Meer Fastbacks op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/fastbacks
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