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Clark Vogeler Interview by Eric Mitts |
Apparently, the murky lore of Toadies’ songs lasts a long, long time. Perhaps that’s why the veteran alt-rockers from Texas could resurface this past summer, after disappearing from the rock pond for the last seven years, to reunite for a full-fledged tour in support of their just-released, and very loud, new album No Deliverance. When Wide-Eyed spoke with guitarist and L.A. transplant Clark Vogeler to catch up on where the band has been he had nearly returned to the Lonestar State for a long-since sold-out show in Tyler, Texas, the town that inspired the eerily epic song and much-beloved fan-favorite off the band’s first album, 1994’s Rubberneck. Of course that disc also spawned Toadies’ biggest hit, the unforgettable “Possum Kingdom,” and at the end of last month the band played its first show ever at Possum Kingdom Lake in Graham, Texas, deeming the small festival-like event the first-annual Dia De Los Toadies. “Whenever we play in Texas the fans are always really excitable,” Vogeler said. “It’s generally a different vibe as soon as we cross the state line because the fans here are just so intense.” That Texas intensity came out at the band’s much larger summer festival event, last month’s Lollapalooza, where they didn’t let their age lessen their ability to rock.
Wide-Eyed: How did the whole idea to reunite come about?
Clark Vogeler: Well it started about two years ago when we got an invite to do a show for the Dallas Observer’s St. Patrick’s Day parade and it kind of fit into everybody’s schedule, so we were like, ‘What the hell, let’s do it.’ And the response was kind of overwhelming to us. We sold-out of a whole lot of tickets and all the people there were going crazy while we were playing. So after that we were like, ‘Maybe we should do another one?’ We ended up doing another one a few weeks after that and it just kind of snowballed. And then (vocalist/guitarist) Todd (Lewis) found himself with some extra time on his hands because (Lewis’ other band) The Burden Brothers were temporarily defunct and he started writing songs and those sounded like Toadies songs to him. So it kind of all happened organically, just little by little. It was never like a planned thing. And it’s been fun all along the way. Even if the fun stops today; it’s all been worth it. But I don’t expect the fun to stop today. I think the fun’s just getting going now that the album’s out and people are aware that we’re back around.
WE: Both Todd and (drummer) Mark (Reznick) have stayed in Texas and kept their hands in music over the years. Was it more of a trick for you to get back on board?
CV: Yeah, it definitely was kind of a mind fuck for me to go from just being quiet editor guy in L.A., you know like editing TV shows and documentaries, where I just work and hang out with a few people to getting on the tour bus and playing shows and signing autographs and getting drunk and being rowdy and all that stuff. It took a little getting used to for me, but I like to think I’m right back in the pocket again.
WE: When you guys broke up in 2001 the biggest reason for calling it quits at that time was that the band didn’t want to go on without (longtime bassist) Lisa (Umbarger). What’s been different this time around, reuniting without her?
CV: I’ll tell you the main reason why it’s different this time. It’s weird, but it actually feels like we’re in a better spot now than we were in 2001 when our second album (Hell Below/Stars Above( came out. We were touring and people would come up and say, ‘When’s the new album coming out?’ And we’d be like, ‘That album’s been out for two months!’ Because basically the whole situation with (Toadies former label) Interscope had gotten so bad and they did so little to promote us that people were just unaware that we even had a new album. But now we play these shows, and we have lots of sold-out shows, and Todd has been asking from the stage, ‘How many first-time Toadies fans do we have here? How many people is this the first time you’ve seen the Toadies?’ And every time it’s more than half, so we’re seeing this whole generation of younger Toadies fans who never saw us back in the day, that maybe got Rubberneck, or maybe Rubberneck and Hell Below, or maybe they got into it too late, or we’re just too young, but I mean these fans are just so excited about seeing the band and hearing new music that somehow we’re just in a better spot to put out a record than we were in 2001. As far as Lisa being gone… Lisa quit the band and it really disappointed the rest of us when she quit. I understand why she quit. Her life had just changed. You know, I miss Lisa, but she had to do what she had to do at the time and she just couldn’t fit the band in with everything else. But she’s back in music again. She’s got a new band called Tile. I haven’t really seen her or talked to her in a while, but I hope she’s good.
WE: When did your new bass player Doni Blair get into the band then?
CV: We held some auditions and we put out the word on MySpace and everything. And he’s a guy that I had known for ten, fifteen years, and our drummer’s known him for maybe ten years from his work in Hagfish. He’s a super nice guy, an amazing bass player, so when he came to audition he just nailed everything. So it was kind of just on the spot, ‘He’s the right guy.’ And he’s been working out great.
WE: Going back to how many people are seeing Toadies for the first time now, how much do you think Guitar Hero II (which includes “Possum Kingdom”) is responsible for bringing some those kids out to shows?
CV: I’ve seen a lot of messages on our MySpace and posts on YouTube comments and elsewhere that there are a lot of people that never heard the band before Guitar Hero. I don’t know if that constitutes a large amount of the new fans, but I think probably part of that is that it is on Guitar Hero and I think the other half of it is that that song has just become a staple at a lot of radio stations and it still gets played as much as it ever did. It’s bizarre, but it just comes down to the fact that people are still hearing ‘Possum Kingdom’ for the first time and liking it and getting turned onto the band.
WE: What do you think it is about a song like “Possum Kingdom” that makes it so timeless regardless of what context it’s in?
CV: Man, I don’t know. I think people connect with the lyrics for sure, because fans are always interested to find out what the story is behind that song. They’re always disappointed to find out that Todd didn’t necessarily mean all the things that they thought it meant. I think it’s a catchy riff and it’s got such a weird time signature, so that sets it apart. It’s got good dynamics. I wasn’t in the band when Todd wrote that song, so I think I can comment and say that it’s just a shit-hot good rock song! [Laughs] And even saying that, I had no idea that that song would have the legs or the life that it has. That song is just out there in the consciousness now and if anybody hears three seconds of it, they know that song. It usually takes people back to high school, like them driving around, drinking beers, smoking joints and listening to that song or that album. I was that kid listening to Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, and whenever I hear any of those bands it takes me back, so it’s cool to be a part of a band that people connect with certain parts of their lives in a good way. That’s awesome.
WE: When I first listened to No Deliverance it sounded like you guys were trying to knock it out of the park. Since you guys are a bit older, did you want to set out to prove that you could still rock it every bit as much as you ever did?
CV: Oh yeah, definitely. We realized that were up against it being a band that’s reuniting because we’ve all gone to see our favorite bands we like, and it’s usually like waiting to hear the songs off the albums you like and just tolerating the new stuff, and we certainly expect a large portion of the fans to have to be patient at the shows and wait through the new stuff. But a lot of the fans are listening to the new album with an open mind, and the people are just considering it as an album and not something from this reunited band or somebody trying to give it a second or third shot. We definitely weren’t trying to write like ‘Possum Kingdom II.’ We weren’t even trying to write a hit or put a hit on the album. Our main concern was just to make a good Toadies album in a way that if anybody has Rubberneck or has Hell Below and you like those albums, we want to make sure that they like this album, and we feel like we did pull that off. But since we didn’t want ‘Possum Kingdom II,’ we wanted to make sure that we did take steps in certain directions easily and not just do the same thing over again. Even though it’s been so long, we still want to evolve as a band and try new things and push into new areas. So we were definitely conscious of that when we were making the album.
WE: Despite the challenges of playing new songs on a reunion tour, how excited were you to take those songs you had created in the studio live?
CV: {Laughs} We were excited and nervous. The way we recorded, it actually wasn’t all four guys playing at once. We did the drums and then we did the bass and then the guitars, so we decided all the details, the fine details, were considered on the spot as they were recorded, so when we had to get these songs ready to take on the road, we basically had to learn how to play them live. And that was a new experience for us because for Hell Below/Stars Above, we practiced those songs for five years before we recorded them. So there’s only about five or six songs on the new record that we can play well and the rest we need to learn how to play. {Laughs} We’ve got some homework to do, basically.
WE: Having already had that experience where you were forced to sit on songs for such a long time before an album came out, is it fun to have the opposite of that now, having those be so fresh for the band?
CV: It is an interesting experience. It’s kind of nerve wracking, especially because I really didn’t work out the guitar solos. We just decided that we’d go in and on the day of the solo for this song or that song, we’d just kind of figure it out on the spot, kind of just go for it. And that’s real nerve wracking for a guitar player to think that in the space of a half hour you’re going to put something on tape that’s going to be on record forever. Especially if that’s not the way you’re used to doing it. But it’s also kind of freeing in a way because you’re able to just like feel it and go for it and get behind or try something different and I think if we were going to make another record, I would probably prefer to do it this way where you work more spontaneously. It’s much more interesting than rehearsing for five years. I mean who’s got the time? We’re all old as fuck now, so I think we’d have to do it that way.
WE: Speaking of how freeing the who experience was with the new album, was maintaining a sense of freedom this time around a big part of why you went with an independent label for the release of No Deliverance rather than even attempting to go back into the major label world?
CV: I don’t think we would even if we were given the opportunity to for a couple of reasons. Of course the business climate has changed completely, and going back to Hell Below/Stars Above, it took them not just five years, but seven years to put out that record and Interscope bungled that all the way down the line. We had a record ready to go in ’96 and it didn’t come out until 2001. But this time, last August Todd decided to call us and we all decided to do a new record and we talked to Kirtland Records and here we are a year later and that record’s out, and that is something you just can’t do on a major label. So for myriad reasons we’re happy to be on an independent label and especially Kirtland Records, because from start to finish they’ve all been about the music. Just helping us try to get what we want on record. Whereas Interscope was like, ‘We don’t hear a single, go write more songs.’ So we couldn’t be happier than where we are to be label-wise.
WE: With what happened to you guys while you were working on Hell Below/Stars Above, how glad are you that that major label machine is starting to crumble?
CV: Oh man, I’m real happy. They’ve been fucking artists for so long and it’s just been getting worse and worse and now they’re just reaping what they sow. I mean the best part of it all is it really seems like the power is shifting back towards the artist in all these little ways and that’s something that’s needed to happen for a long time. And the way indie labels are now, bands are allowed to kind of develop and get better over a few records, whereas with major labels, like you’ve got two weeks with one single at radio and if that single doesn’t pop immediately you’re dead in the water and there goes your chances. So I think that over the next few years all we’re going to see is just better music available to us because artists are given more opportunities to do what they do creatively. I think it’s a really exciting time. I don’t know where it’s all going to land. I think it’s going to take some time for the new business model to evolve because it’s definitely in the process now and it’s cool to see.
WE: Especially with a band like you guys who did struggle with your label situation so much quite a while ago, being able to come back and be who you really wanted to be now, that really shows a lot to other bands coming up what’s possible now.
CV: Yeah, that’s a great way of looking at it. I hadn’t thought about it that way. It’s kind of like in a break-up, what do they say, the best revenge is just a happy life. We’re getting our revenge on Interscope by making music our way and being happy about it. But, dude, I’ve got to say that was five years of our lives! So collectively twenty years of our lives just spent sitting in a rehearsal space because of the fucking men who didn’t like the songs they heard. {Sighs} Still bitter, still bitter. But that does add to how happy I am with how things are going now. Now it feels like all the suffering that we went through in the late ‘90s into 2001 is paying off and so it just feels great to be able to come back seven years later and still have a career or an opportunity to play music on this scale. It’s a big shock to me that we’re able to, I think it was a shock to everybody to realize that we still have fans out there, but we’re just fucking stoked to go play songs and have people be excited about it.
Toadies will rock The Roxy Sept. 11. No Deliverance is in stores and online now. To hear songs off the album now, click over to thetoadies.com.
