Clutch is one of those bands that keeps you on your toes. They march to the beat of a different drummer, and could care less about the status quo. They are simply here to make music, and because they are unyielding to standard and traditional genres, they forge their own flavors of rock. It’s what they do, and they do it damn well. Since 1991, they’ve been delivering their style of rock, and currently under their own label, will be releasing their 11th album this coming fall.
We caught up with them at their show in Columbus at the LC Pavilion on May 24th, and the night was nothing short of spectacular. As they continue to march on to that different drummer, we had the pleasure of speaking with that drummer, JP Gaster. An amazing afternoon was had, speaking about touring, drumming, and the joys and struggles of running a label.
Clutch has been pushing the boundaries that define heavy rock since the four original members got together back in high school. How do you keep the magic alive without killing each other?
(laughs) It’s probably a being focused. We had two goals in mind: we wanted to make great shows and make great recordings. That was really the beginning and the end of it. The idea of making a career was not really on our radar. Thankfully, here we are 25 years later, and we been able to do that. We still subscribe to those two points of view.
Are you all attached to the hip, or does absence makes the heart grow fonder?
We spend a tremendous amount of time with each other. When we are not on the road we are usually working on new music. Just recently we wrapped up recording our latest studio album, so there’s been a little bit of downtime for us. We’ve been away from one another for about a month, but we hit the road tomorrow night. We will get on the bus and be in close quarters again.
You all have been tagged with various genres: hard rock, blues rock, Southern Stoner rock, and so forth. What are your thoughts on your genre?
I think what we do is rock ‘n roll. Anything other than that pigeonholes you. Certainly, think there are a lot of journalists out there (and music fans too) who use labels to describe the music that they like. We call it rock ‘n roll. For me, it’s an amalgamation of all the music that we grew up listening to, whether it’s the Bad Brains or Black Sabbath, Fats Domino or Bob Marley and the Wailers. To me it’s all rock ‘n roll, and it all become one thing.
You all tour like nobody else. You are constantly out there. How do you keep your stamina on the road?
I try to practice quite a bit. You have to stay focused out there. It is easy to not do much of anything and become complacent. The road can be a tedious place. I constantly challenge myself. I spent a lot of time practicing and warming up for the shows. When I wake up in the morning, I think about the show that is to happen that night. That’s my prime goal: prepare myself the best way possible to make that gig. Then after the shows, we usually have a good time, have some beers, and relax. This is a great tour because we get to watch Mastodon.
What are your “Go-To-Must-Have-On-Hand” when you go on on the road?
A pair of headphones for sure. Shower shoes (very very important). A couple of drum books. I have a library of drum books, and I usually pick two or three of those to take with me; those keep me mentally in the game. Like I said before, it’s very easy to let things become very routine. We do everything we can to shake that. For me, it just means being prepared and studying while I’m out there.
It kind of helps you from getting burned out.
For sure. You have to constantly keep challenging yourself. I’m lucky that I’ve been playing drums for coming up on 30 years now and I still find new things about the drums. I still find new players that I like. I still listen to a lot of music. The drums are still very exciting thing for me.
Who’s your favorite drummer of all-time, and are there any up-and-coming drivers that you would say, “this guy’s going to be the next big thing!”?
I think there are a lot of great drummers out there coming out. When I first started going to see shows and concerts, I had the opportunity to see a lot of different kinds of drummers. The DC Go-Go scene was a very important part of what made me want to play drums, and it continues to shape how I look at the drums. For me, I got to see drummers like JuJu House and Brandon Finley. These were guys that played with Chuck Brown of the Soul Searchers (massive drummers, really powerful sound, and really deep pocket). I got the opportunity to see Elvin Jones when I was growing. He’s a huge influence on me. Then there were great metal drummer Steve. We were fortunate enough early on to do some tours with Sepultura, so Igor Cavalera was an inspiring drummer. On this next tour we get to go out with Mastodon, and I think Brann is one of the most innovative metal drummers out there. One of the things about metal drumming that I don’t care for is the physical aspect of it; everything becomes a speed contest. For me, that’s just not interesting. You can easily paint yourself into a corner, and before you know it, things are very unmusical. That’s one of the reasons why I like Brann. He plays in a very heavy metal band that I think has its own sound and approach, and Brann is instrumental in making that band sound the way they do.
Your music has been featured as the official goal song for the NHL’s Vancouver Cannucks, and the intro music for Eric Church’s live-set. Tell us your thoughts on that, and a) are you a hockey fan?, and b) are you a country fan?
I’m not a hockey fan. I think hockey is a fine sport, but I really don’t follow sports too much. Am I a country fan? I think that’s a pretty broad genre. They are certainly some country things that I like, then a lot of the new country stuff to me sounds just like top 40 music with Southern accents. (laughs) I will say though that I’ve been listening to a lot of Willie Nelson. I think The Redheaded Stranger is probably the most powerful records ever recorded, and I just recently discovered that a couple of months ago. It was a really great record, and I have a great appreciation towards Willie Nelson.
He is the original outlaw. I wouldn’t even put them in the same category of “country”.
Right! Right! He kind of occupied is known.
Yes. And he owns it! You all released Earth Rocker on your own label back in 2013. Tell us more about your label, what it’s like to run a label, and what artists, if any, you have on it.
With the label was designed to put out Clutch music, and things that are related to Clutch. The early years of the band were frustrating when it came to dealing with labels. We were on major labels, independent labels, and we were on labels in between the two. Inevitably those relationships were stressful. They involved a lot of time in conversations about things that were not very musical. That kind of sucked. It was tough. We realized when we finished our contractual obligations to DRG (the last label we were signed to), that there was no way that we would sign to another label. It would’ve been a huge step backwards. We decided to start our own label, and even if we were terrible at running a label, it would be better than having to deal with another label, getting to know one other group of people/staff, and get them excited about the band. It was so unappetizing for us at the time. So, we made the plunge, and it’s been the best thing we’ve ever done. We can put out records when we want to, the way that we want to. Ultimately we’ve been more successful at releasing our own records than when we were on other labels. We do put out other music too. We recently released a record by a band called Lionize. They are a great band. We know those guys for a lot of years, when they were young. They tour hard, they work hard, and have great songs. In a lot of ways, we see ourselves in them. They get down to business and make music and play gigs. You don’t really see this these days; there are a lot of bands doing something other than playing their instruments. These guys are musicians through and through. We are very proud of them.
What is been the greatest challenge in today’s age as a musician as well as a label owner?
The challenge of running a label is finding people to work a label that see your vision of what it is you’re trying to do. For us, it was important to find just the few people to build that relationship with. We were very very lucky. We now have Stephan Costner. He’s our label manager. He pretty much runs things day-to-day. Our manager, Jack Hess, has a lot to do with the runnings of the label as well. We handle all of our own in-house bookkeeping, and all that other stuff too. I would think that is the main thing: if you do your own label, find some people that can help you. It’s nice to think that as a musician you can do everything (“I’ll call the retailers and get with the distributor”), and that’s a tremendous amount of work and you really need to find somebody who you trust and give those responsibilities to, and know things are going to be handled the way you want them to.
You said you just finished up your follow-up to Earth Rocker, your 11th album. When can we expect and how will it compare to Earth Rocker?
I think we can expect it to be out in the early fall, something like that. It is a departure from Earth Rocker in some ways. There are six songs on there that are little bit more dynamic than the stuff we got into on Earth Rocker. Earth Rocker had a linear feel to it, with the exception of one song, most of the songs were pretty happy, pretty fast. On this one we got into some more bluesier things; we got into some more funk-based things as well, but we also learned a lot playing all those Earth Rocker songs on tour. I think we got good playing that kind of song. As a result of that there is going to be a lot of songs out there that definitely sound like they are related to stuff on Earth Rocker.
Check out these GORGEOUS shots from their recent show at the LC Pavilion in Columbus OH
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What were some of the inspirations for the follow-up album?
A lot of touring. Each tour that we do, I think the band grows in one way or another. We listen to a tremendous amount of music on the road. More than anything, we make an attempt to not repeat ourselves. That can be challenging. It can be time-consuming. This record probably took the longest of all the records that we’ve made (to write and record). In fact, were still in the mixing stages right now. I’m hoping that we will have the mixes and this week.
Do you have a name for it yet?
Not yet. No.
Are there any songs dedicated the shower shoes?
(laughs) No. Songs dedicated the shower shoes, but everybody should have a pair!
That’s right! When you are touring, wear the shoes! I read on Wikipedia that you are a Walking Dead fan. What are your thoughts on this past season and how do you think Morgan it’s going to accept Rick’s changes?
Well, I have to preface it by saying that my wife is really more of an expert on the show than I am. She watched the show early on. The time I wasn’t too sure about the zombies. (laughs) she showed me the episode that had the regulator in it. For me, that was really powerful. I wasn’t expecting to see that. She just said, “hey, watch the show.” I was pretty blown away. I think my favorite part of the show is watching the characters watch out for themselves. I like watching the make that decision as to whether or not they should trust somebody. I am a fan of the show. I like it quite a bit.
Yes. After a while it becomes less about the zombies, and more about the people coping with the post-apocalyptic world, and other people.
Yeah. I think that’s what I like about it, and probably foolishly, the zombies were the things that turned me off at first. In the big picture, it’s part of the show, but like you say the story about the struggle is bigger than the zombies.
On Earth Rocker you had a handful of guests. Do you have any guests on this upcoming album?
We did record a song that will have percussion by Mike Dillon, a friend of ours. He does a tremendous amount of work on his own. He plays for Primus from time to time. He plays with one of my favorite drummers from New Orleans, Johnny Vidacovich. Mike is a really all around multi-percussionists. He’s versed in all kinds of rhythms, including Tabla and Middle Eastern stuff. More than anything, he knows about DC Go-Go. There’s not a lot of people who do. So, he immediately hit it off and we recorded a Go-Go song. I won’t name which one it is. We will wait on that. We are very proud of it. It turned out great!
