Tigercub, Clutch

0:05?Welcome to Interceptor Beyond Podcast. My name is Arthur and today on the episode we have two freaking awesome rock bands. Tiger Cup and Clutch. Together with Green Lung they played in Vienna at Arena as part of the European tour. And they are currently continuing touring until December 17th. So check them out if there's still time. As usual if you wish to skip right to the interviews there are time calls in the description. And a quick mention don't forget to follow this podcast if you dig it. So context. So it was arranged that I would come early to Arena for the interview. Which I did. The organizers let me in. Told me to wait. I waited. I saw how Ted, John and Dave of the Clutch crew were adjusting the light and the sound. That was cool. Then Tiger Cup's Jamie and Jimmy picked me up. Took me upstairs. And what's cool about Arena is that the elevator takes you directly to the catering area. So when the elevator doors opened. Bam. There were Clutch people. Green Lung people. And organizers having a lunch. Stay cool man. Just stay frosty. We came to the green room. Which was behind the catering area. And recorded the interview with Tiger Cup. So here it is.

1:22JamieHey I'm Jamie. I sing in Tiger Cup.

1:24JimmyHello I'm Jimmy. And I play the bass and do a little bit of singing in Tiger Cup.

1:29HostAnd we also just saw the Jalex. The drummer. He was just here in the green room. So you arrived at night. You're tired. How was yesterday? How was the gig yesterday?

1:38JamieIt was a good show yesterday. The crowd were really receptive. And we felt like we'd sort of got. I felt like we got back a little bit of form with our live sets. Sort of like adjusted to the you know the German crowds. So it was really fun. And then we got really drunk afterwards.

1:58HostYou mean. Oh wait. But adjusted from what? What? There was not so good before or what?

2:02JamieWell we were. We were on an American tour before this one. For three weeks. With a group called Highly Suspect. And like we were just going. We were going down so well.

2:15JamieAnd like we were playing in a certain way. You know. To try and like. Like. Just. I don't know. So we could like win over American fans. You know. Because a lot of them are hearing us for the first time. So you've got to kind of. Think about how your set's structured.

2:30HostWas it like after the clutch one. That you did in March and April?

2:34JamieYeah. Yeah. Yeah. And again. Like that was. That was kind of a different mentality to go into. With that one. So it's just like taking a bit of adjustment. With the. This UK run. And then. And then the European run as well. And I feel like we're really sort of back on top of it now.

2:49HostYeah. How different are the crowds in the US and Europe?

2:53JamieEurope crowds are amazing. American crowds are amazing. They're both. They're both brilliant. You know.

2:58HostOf course they are. But how are they different?

3:00JamieI guess.

3:02HostNo. I know that you don't want to offend the audience. You know. But. Let's say. I will say. And you can confirm it or deny it. For example. Nordic countries. And maybe Germany. There's not a lot of movement in the crowd. It's more like.

3:18JimmyThat's fair to say. But as a British band. And. The meaning of being a British band is. Is. Is. You know. In England. People don't really care. They're like. Oh. Okay. You know. You've got to really like. Have a following. To get a good kind of response. In America. When you're British. That carries like. This amazing social capital. Like. You're an exotic. Bird of paradise. That happens to play guitar. Or whatever. So you get a lot more excitement. Just purely from being a British band in America. And in Europe. It's just. You know. We're European. Or we were European. So. Is. There's. There's more coolness. Generally in Europe. For an English band. If you break through the membrane. And manage to get over the Atlantic. There are amazing spoils for you over there. If you you know. Can play rock and roll.

4:10HostDo you have like. You know. Each musician. Each person. It doesn't matter. Artist. They always say. That out there. Somewhere. For example. United States. It's so much better than here. There. The artists are appreciated. And. People actually care. The fans are great. But. With. Everybody I talk to. They say about. Each other's country. So. It looks.

4:36JamieI would say. It's. It's different right. Because. It's. It's. We're going out as a support band. So like. As far as being received. From people. Who like.

4:48?Aren't necessarily there to see you. That's. That's an entirely different thing. To going out. Like Tiger Cup. Going out and headlining German shows. And headlining UK shows. Because whenever we do that. The shows are all really rowdy. You know. And there's a lot of. You know. A lot of people come out. And like really want to go mental at our shows and stuff. But. In the. In the support. Like. Environment. That. That is way different. And you do notice cultural differences.

5:14JamieOf how different audiences behave. So I would definitely say like. The American audiences. Like greeted us. Really. Really emphatically. And everyone was super. Super keen to like know what we're about. And. Just like. Oh my god. This is great. We're loving it. You know. Whereas like. We go to Glasgow. And play in front of the clutch Glasgow crowd. And it's very much like.

5:34JimmyYou want to sell merch. You want to sell merch. It's like. Whoa. Okay. We're home. We're home. Oh god.

5:41JamieYeah. Pretty eggy.

5:44?So.

5:45JamieCool. I hope that answers your question a bit better.

5:48HostI saw. You have like cool tour recordings. I mean. You did the recording on your phone. Right. And you made like a. When you went to the United States. You have two parts. Really cool stuff. I watched that work.

6:02JimmyOh nice one man. Yeah. It's really lovely to watch that now. It's quite nostalgic for us as well. It was a massive moment for our band. To get out there for the first time.

6:12HostYeah true. How did it come about? Is it because of your connection with your producer guy?

6:17?Yes. I knew it.

6:20JamieNice. Yeah. Tom Dalgetty's like. He's just a. He's a really really important person. To Tiger Cup. And he always has been. And like. I don't know. He's just. He's very. He's just very graceful. And very like generous with sharing his connections.

6:39JimmySo I'm totally gonna. I'm gonna tell him. He's graceful.

6:45JimmyHe has lost a bit of weight actually. He looks good. He looks good. I think it's because he wanted to get married. So he looks quite sexy now. To be fair.

6:52HostSo he's a guy that you know for a long time from Brighton.

6:56JamieYeah. He's actually from near Bath. But anyway. He. You know. He. He does other records. He did the latest Clutch record. And he knows their manager Blasco. And like. You know. They spoke. And Blasco. I think. And the Clutch guys are fans of what we do. And it just came. It came about very organically. You know.

7:17HostEverything about your band is like. How you started. Like for example. Blood Red Shoes. The guy pitched your single to the place. Right.

7:28HostAnd Jalex plays. Synth Keys. And then the Black Red Shoes. I mean. It's all about like personal connections. Not only. Well. Not only with you. It's mainly. It's with all the musicians. So that somebody knows each other. How did. First of all. Congrats on the new single. Thank you. I really like it. Was it a single that you recorded. After the album. Way after. Or it was it during the latest album.

7:53JamieIt was during the album sessions. Yeah.

7:55HostThe album sessions. Okay. So this album. That you recorded. The latest one. Is a bit. You said. There's a lot of emotions. Like the band was breaking up. Coming back together. And stuff. Right. So. I mean.

8:07TigercubYou're talking about a second record.

8:09?Yeah.

8:10JamieAll right. So yeah. Yeah. So.

8:12HostI really love that record. Just. I really like your music. I forgot to say that. I'm a fan.

8:18JimmyThe second record was recorded. Right at the start of the pandemic. And that was us coming back together. After a little fallow period. And then that whole mix session was a thing. But the very new single. We recorded. As part of a new album session. This summer. So summer 2022. It was recorded.

8:35HostAll right. So this is music. After the latest album. Oh no. Wait. I'm confused. Yeah.

8:42JimmyThe thing is. There is a latest album that exists. Which hasn't seen the light of day yet.

8:46HostOh. So you. All right. So yeah. I'm asking the right question. So there is new stuff coming up. Yeah.

8:52?March. Yeah. That's it. Right.

8:54JamieA little bit later. Yeah. We'll see.

8:56HostI always say March because.

8:58JimmyWe couldn't agree on the mix. Get pushed.

9:00?I'm saying March.

9:01JimmyYou can push back. No. Drums down. Drums up. We doing. Oh. We've missed our release schedule. Cool.

9:09HostI say March because. I realized after interviewing musicians. After the Corona. That Corona. Reset the timing on everybody. So everyone is in the sync. So.

9:19JimmyIt's so hard man. It's everyone wants to release. Everybody is on tour. You want to clear like landing zone. But there isn't one. There never will be one. Because everyone is so backed up. So yeah. You just have to put it out.

9:32HostThat's why I say like March. Because everybody is going to release in March. Because that's how the time goes by. It's going to be a buyer's market. So what's the difference in the music. In the sound. First this single. Right. And the previous album. Right. The blue indie. Right.

9:49?Um.

9:50JamieI think the new album is like way more. It's darker. And a little bit more gothic. And like. It points more towards like. Some aspects of heavy metal that we like. So it's. I would say like. It is. It is heavier. Um. I just think it's. To me it's. It's the. It's the best of the first and second records. In my opinion.

10:16?Jimmy.

10:17JimmyYeah. The new one is. Um. What do I think of it? It's. It's certainly.

10:24?Uh.

10:24JimmyYeah. Like Jamie says. More gothic. It's heavy. There's more. We're sort of. We found that through touring as blue as indigo. The stuff that works really well live. Is the kind of. The big riffs. And the kind of. Um. Yeah. The kind of. The heavier we go. The more of a response we get. So we're sort of. Just sort of. Pulling that thread still with this one. But that said. It has moments that I think are a bit like. Grizzly bear. Like deer hoof. Like. We're drawing a lot of inspiration from a lot of different places.

10:52?And.

10:53JimmyYeah. Yeah. I'm. We're really proud of it. I think it's going to be. Yeah. One that. It doesn't embarrass me to listen to when I'm 50. Hopefully.

11:01HostAnd what I think about it. Even though I've never heard about it. I think you say that it's more. Like rock. Because you said. That you finally realized. Or you accepted. Or you came. Turns with it. That you're a rock band. That Kyger Cub is a rock band. Because with your side projects. Like Nancy. You play with. Also. Nadine Shah. For example. Right. Jalex. Has keys in Bradoosh. It's like. It became easier. Now. With the Tyger Cub. To focus on the rock. Aspects of it. So. It's like. Kind of freed you. And the Blue Indigo. It was like a struggle. It was hard. And then you went. To do the side projects. During or after. And this is.

11:44JamieYeah. That's. That's all true. Yeah.

11:46?Ah shit. Yeah.

11:49JimmyYeah. I mean. We really love playing. You know. I think we all got stuff. Jamie got stuff out of doing Nancy. And I got stuff out of. Playing with Nadine. And Juanita. And other stuff I've done. And same with James. But. I think what Tyger Cub is. It's the three of us. Having a conversation. I think when you see Tyger Cub now. It's a band that's. You know. Coming up to 10 years. Touring.

12:09JimmyLots of time. Personal. And. Sort of. Group. Events. That have happened to us. So. Yeah. Yeah. We're a band of brothers. You know. We're a unit. And. I think that's really all we've got now. Is the fact that we can play quite convincingly live. And continue to grow as a band. And yeah. Just like. Yeah. Accepting what we are.

12:30HostYou mentioned quite convincingly live. So. You mentioned. You probably mean that. The Blue Indigo. It was like really heavy on the production. Right. You were not thinking about the live aspect of it. Exactly.

12:44?So yeah. It's like we've had to sort of learn how to cover our own band live. And see like what's important. What works. And yeah. It's funny. The notion of us sort of playing beauty live. When we first recorded beauty. It was such a hard thing to get down to sound properly. Proper. And yeah. In the rehearsal room we're trying to play it.

13:03JimmyIt was just. It was like a shreds video. It was like a farce. But we got there. There's a lot of the new stuff. We're going to have to learn how to play too.

13:10JamieIt's funny. Like beauty. When we were mixing beauty. There was only like three drum takes. And like only a few takes of everything. Because we just recorded it. At like the last part of the session. I was like. I've got. Like I've got. Let's just try this. I know. I was like. It's really silly. It's got really stupid riff. But like let's just give it a go. And it was all just like one pass. It's like the most. Yeah. It's like such a rough recording.

13:38HostIs this like a direct connection from the soul to the music?

13:42JamieYeah. Something like that maybe.

13:45?Yeah.

13:45JimmyThen when we were talking about putting it out as the first single. Again. It was like a joke. It was like a soft launch. You know. And then it's funny how. Within the perspective of the three band members. What you perceive to be something that's going to work. And something that's not. You're always wrong. You know. You never know what people are going to think. You know. Your opinion of something gets colored so many times. Before the public hear it.

14:07JamieIt's so true man. It's so true. You know. In a lot. I mean that. That record in a lot of ways is about like. That sort of sense of objectivity. You know. Like. How your mind can fail you. If you get too close to something. You start to lose the truth. Truth and things starts to get blurry. And that's very much. My experience of being in a band. It's a constant battle. To figure out what is the objective. Good. Objectively good path to take. Out of many. You know.

14:37HostYou still don't know probably. Right. You're still figuring it out. It's a constant battle.

14:41JamieYeah. Fucking. I don't have a clue. Yeah man.

14:44HostNobody knows. You know. I'm going to interview Clutch. I don't think they also know.

14:47?Yeah.

14:47HostSo you mentioned like the past. You know. Like blurry and stuff. How do you. So I guess it's the same thing with the artistry. And going commercial. So you know what you want to express. Like your emotional stuff. But at the same time. You want people to kind of come to the gigs. You know. Like a big commercial. So have you figured out a way. How or what. Or how it's going. Or you just decided. You know what. I'm going to do it with Nancy. That's it.

15:14JamieYeah. I guess. I think that's just a really interesting. Conversation. About being. Being in a band. And making music. Is like. It is. Commercial viability. Versus like. Artistic integrity. And I think like. Everyone has to. Reconcile those two elements. At some point. Whether it is to just completely. Disregard the commercial element. Or you know. Or completely disregard the artistic element. That's a conversation that all artists have to have. And we have that as well. And we've been trying to. Find the right balance. And yeah. I think Nancy helped. Helped me. Just. You know. Explore. Explore that conversation. In a different setting. Entirely. Where. That I guess. There aren't as many. Like. Sort of. Rules. I guess. Or. Or it's just. Whatever I do. It's just on me. You know. So it's not going to affect anyone else. Or whatever. So I just do whatever the fuck. Just whatever feels right. Whereas. You know. With Tiger Cub. You know. It's. It's a lot. It's a lot more popular. And a lot more like relevant. You know. So there has to be more. You know. There has to be more elements. That we take seriously. If that makes any fucking sense.

16:19?I'm sorry.

16:20HostYou probably mean. Like maybe the sound of it. At least. Let's say production. At least. You know. There's a. Yeah. With each stage of development. Of the whole music industry. You know. Now albums are louder. For example. Yeah. Some parts of the instrument. Should be in the center. Some in the background. Or something like this. So this is a commercial. Probably. Thinking. Way of thinking.

16:42?Yeah. Absolutely. Well. Now like playlisting. Is everything. At DSPs. So when you listen to. You know. Basically the algorithm. Will punish you. If you get skipped. You know. You will drop off playlists. There's a. There's a skip count. And there's like a.

16:58JamieUm. Like a longevity. Is monitored as well. How long people listen to your track for. Whether they. Favorite. It. And stuff like that. So. There's this sort of like. Um. Amplified. Meritocratic. Um. Like application now. That's been. That's been brought in. Because of. Like. It's been. Well not brought in. It's been just accentuated. Because of playlisting. So yeah. Records are brighter. Records are much louder. And they're much more like. Straight to the point. Usually fucking. Like a vocal. Straight in. Without any kind of introduction. You know. So in a lot of ways. Like the perfume of decay. Is sort of like. It's. It's almost like. The antithesis to that. Because the vocal doesn't come in. Until fucking 30 seconds. You know. Not that we're the first band. Who's ever done that. No. It's really interesting. At the minute. It's a really. Um. It's really great. Having Stone Gossard. From Pearl Jam. Is like a. Um. Like. I guess like a mentor. Almost. At this point. He's. He's. His opinion is. You know. Same with Reagan. And Billy. Their. Their voices are. Very loud. And we. And we do listen to them. They're almost like. Trying to say. No. Just think about the music. Think about the artistic. Integrity here. Do what you think is right. Rather than. Try. Try to please. An algorithm. Or try to play. To what someone. Thinks you should be. They're like. We'll take care of. The promotion side. You just. You just try and. You know. You try and. Get it. So it sounds good to you. Yeah.

18:22HostThat's what I wanted to ask. Are you like. Trying. Seeing that. Sometimes your music. Okay. Let's put the hook in the beginning. Because Spotify likes. When it's like. In the beginning. Then you have a. Good play count. For example. Yeah. I talk to other musicians. Some people start to think about it. It's natural. It's like with Instagram. You know. You start to. Notice. Okay. This photo. Gets more likes. You want success.

18:42?Yeah. Yeah.

18:43HostYou want success. Yes. Exactly. Unfortunately. Likes can be bots. The streams can be bots. And you can be. Get lost. In that. Digital. Age.

18:55?Yeah.

18:56HostHow. Why did you. Well. First of all. How did. I guess. Again. Personal connections. Come to the. Wolves Groove Records.

19:03?Yeah.

19:04JamieYeah. Yeah. I mean. Like the. Yeah. So loose groove records. Are a part of. Orchard. Distribution group. Which is part of Sony. As blues indigo. Came out on. On. On my record label. Blame recordings. But really. That was just like. A kind of. Shop front. And all of the actual. Real label work. Was being done. At Orchard. They're the actual. Label really. You know. But blame. Is just sort of. Front end of that.

19:32HostWhat was the reason. Is it not to. Put away people. Or like. Saying that. Okay. This is. Orchard. Mainstream stuff. We don't want to listen to this. Or is it some. Other. Reason. Because we couldn't get signed.

19:46JimmyWe were just like. Sick of trying to find the right. Deal. So. Jamie started the label.

19:50?All right.

19:50JamieThat is it man. Like. Remember when we were going on. With like.

19:54JimmyYeah. Yeah. We got sick of. Negotiating. Yeah. Things get off. Things fall through. It sets you back. Months and months. So. As a band. You're like. What. What do we need? We need a bit of money to record. We need a bit of money. To take it to market. So. You get sick of like. Dickheads with ponytails. Telling you how to do it. So you just. We just did it ourselves. So that's how that.

20:13HostThat's what I tell. Most of the musician. That they should do it themselves. Because. When you get signed to a label. It doesn't mean that you get success. No. And. Sometimes you get signed. And you can.

20:25JimmyIn the short term. What do you need? You need money. You need resources. So. You put the case forward to a company. And you say. Look. This is what we're going to do. And it becomes more like a bank loan. Or something. You know. I mean. Which a record label always sort of is. It's always your own money or spending. But. The problem is that like a big label.

20:41?And what Jemmy pointed on earlier. Is just that. You have a group of opinions. Within a band. About how things should go right. And then as soon as you have a manager. Then that expands out. As soon as you have a label. That expands out again. An agent.

20:52JimmyIt expands out. So. You have to have a lot of faith. In the label that you're signing to. You don't want to sign to someone. Who's going to make you wear a ruff. And sort of like. You know. Fillet pigs. In a music video. Unless you're into that. I don't know. If you want to do that. Great. But. You want to.

21:06JamieA label could like. They could be like. We really. Really want you to have. This featured artist. On your record. Or whatever. And they can really forcefully. Push you in a creative direction. And like. You see. You see bands. Just sort of. You see pictures of them. And it's just. It's not them. And they've just been dressed up. And you can feel the hand of. Of someone else. Who's got shit taste. And like. Forcing that on them. And all that does. Is just get in the way. Of good shit. Do you know what I mean? So it's like. Trying to just. What's good about Loose Groove. Is they just. They have their opinion. But they just stay out of the way. They're just like. All they're doing. Is reminding us. Just like. You guys know. We're buying into your. Artistic vision. So. You tell us. Do you know what I mean? Which is the way it should be. Because. You forget that. Like. We. We know. Like. We've listened to the records. We've done the gigs. We've. Been in the rehearsal room. Recording studio. Doing the fucking tunes. And we deeply care about. Art. So like. We should. Why. Why shouldn't people. Trust the artist. But sometimes they don't. I. I feel like I'm starting to get into a rant now. Starting to get like.

22:14HostIt's a safe space. You can. You can rent whatever you want. It's not a problem. All right. And. So. Okay. Loose Groove Records. And this personal connection. How did you get that?

22:25JamieOh yeah. That's it. So. My record label came out in Orchard. Loose Groove are also a part of the Orchard group as well. And there was just a mailer sent out. And. Billy Jean. Got it. Showed it to Stone. And you know. Within like a week. We were just getting emails from them. Just being like. We love this. What can we do? How can we get involved? They originally you know. Wanted to be involved with. As Blue as Indigo. But it was a little bit too late in the cycle. To have another label come in. And sort of. Essentially buy out. My record label. So. That didn't end up happening. But yeah. We're involved with them for this record. And they're fucking great. You know. So yeah. It's sort of like a.

23:05?It's more faithful. Faithful. Yeah. Yeah.

23:08HostSo they're backing you up. In the management and business kind of sense. And they're going to deal with promotion. And marketing probably. And the creative side is on your thing. Right? Do they. So there's no producer kind of. You don't work with the producer kind of.

23:24?Well.

23:25HostThere's a mixing or engineer or something. Yeah. This makes it.

23:28JamieI like. I guess like. I set out a creative vision. And like had a bit of a game plan. To record the record. So in. You know. There's an argument to be made. That I produced. The last record. And we did it with a guy called Alex Gordon. Who's a really really talented engineer. The studio that Jimmy actually runs. Called Brighton Electric. Absolutely amazing studio. And Gordy's an amazing engineer. Before we went to America in March. I wrote a lot of tracks. And made some demos. Sent them to Loose Groove. Sent them to the lads. And then we just had like a conversation. About like what materials. Strong. What materials. You know. Should maybe be kicked to the curb. What different songs. Speak to different people. And like forged this record. Over time. And then went in and knocked it out. And like. You know. Loose Groove were. You know. They were. They were part of the. The demo. Demoing process as well. They would hear things. And they would give us their. Opinions on what they think is strong. You know. But in the end. It was always like. You make the call. And we did make the call. As a unit. In the end.

24:31HostSo the music comes out. Probably next year. In spring. Hopefully. Right? Oh yeah.

24:37?Definitely. I'd say after the clocks change. Be ready. It could be any minute. After the clocks change. There's like.

24:44JamieSome surprises in store. And there's a plan. And yeah. We're going to be sending. Some of our like. Our friends and fans. Like. Who have supported us over the years. We're going to be sending them some like. Some early access. Little surprises.

25:00HostAnd you can get. You can still get on the list. On the mailing list. If you go to the website. Yeah.

25:05JamieAnd you alone. You can only get access. To these opportunities. Through our mailing list. So yeah. If you subscribe.

25:10HostHow do you get the password. To the website.

25:12JamieWell. That all will be revealed.

25:14HostBecause I was trying to bother. A reddit guy. Who was like. In charge of whatever. Like I was. No response.

25:21TigercubReally. To try and break in. Yeah. No. That is.

25:24HostYeah. I tried to break in also. I mean. I need to research. You know. I need to know what's there.

25:28TigercubYou need to know about the interview. Yeah. Salud. No. Yeah.

25:30JamieUntil the right time. That website will stay password protected.

25:35HostAll right. And the last thing. Tiger Cup. Could you please give me a song. Which is a good introduction. To your band. I will put it at the end. Of this interview.

25:44?The perfume of decay.

29:24?Thanks Tiger Cup. That's an awesome song. So after the interview. I went downstairs. Waited for the Julian. The photographer to come. Because he was doing the photos later. Obviously. So I went outside. Got a beer at the shop. Came back shortly. And the tour manager of Clutch picked us up. And right after that. I interviewed the Mega Monster guitar player. The riff master. Tim Salt of Clutch. And this is how it went.

29:51TimI am Tim Salt. I play guitar in Clutch.

29:54HostAnd you've been there. With the Clutch. Like all the Clutch members. Since the very beginning. Since 1991.

30:00TimYes. We started the band in 1991. And there were a few other bands. That existed. Going back to 1988. I believe.

30:11HostYou mean like before the Clutch. Right?

30:13ClutchYes. Before Clutch. When we first started playing music. And trying to write songs.

30:18HostAnd you also have like side projects also.

30:21TimWell. Me personally. I did at one point. Have a side project. But. You know. I ended up with four kids. So I don't really have time. To do anything else at this point.

30:33HostYeah. I mean. I remember. That's one of the fans. That were asking you questions. When. During the interview. He mentioned something. And you became a dad. Like. Recently. When I was watching it. You know. Like. Yeah. Yeah. So. All this responsibility came later. In your life. Kind of.

30:50ClutchYeah. Exactly. I. You know. Got to be in a band. That drove around in a van. For years. And years. And years. And have no responsibility. Whatsoever. For other people. And then once I turned 40 years old. I started having kids. So. Now I'm. The age of a grandparent. And. Well.

31:07?It's great. I love it.

31:08HostI want to talk about. The addiction of touring. What I mean. It's like. When you're on a tour. It becomes really addicting. Because you don't have responsibilities. As you have in their. Life back home. So. What do you do? How do you relax. After the tour. And how long can you stay. Not on the tour.

31:28TimYeah. Good question. For the last. Little break we had. We had about a three week break. And. I kind of stayed on tour. In my head. Do you know what I mean? But you know. The older I get. And the more we go on tour. It's actually. Not that hard. To decompress. Once we're at home. It used to be harder. Back in the old days. But. You know what? I mean. Having this job. Is the funnest thing. Of all time. So there's really no stress. Or. Anything weird. Whatsoever. With it. As far as decompression goes. Maybe I just. Drink a little bit less. When I'm at home. Less.

32:07HostYou drink a lot on tour?

32:09ClutchI wouldn't say a lot. But maybe more often.

32:11HostMore often. With the boys. I mean. With the gang. And everybody. Yeah.

32:16ClutchIt's just fun to drink German beers sometimes.

32:18HostYou're a fan of beer right? Yeah.

32:20?I mean.

32:20HostJohn Paul was more like into the beer. And now. The Nielos.

32:23ClutchYeah. I mean. I like getting drunk. But I do hate the flavor of beer. So. I would never actually like it. I just drink it.

32:31HostWhat do you think about Guinness?

32:33?Hate it.

32:33HostOh shit. That's it. Okay. We're done with this interview. I don't want to disrespect you. But okay. That's done.

32:41TimThat's funny. No. I've kind of just transitioned into drinking just basic German Weissbier. Weissbier.

32:48?All right.

32:49HostSo unfiltered. Julian. Is it unfiltered?

32:51?It tastes like banana. Is it definitely like banana?

32:54TimYou think Weissbier tastes like banana? You know what? I think that's interesting because I was talking to someone the other day and he specifically pointed out one Weissbier that he thought tasted like bananas. I have not had that one. And I don't even like bananas.

33:07ClutchOh. Me neither. Oh.

33:09HostWe see a connection here.

33:11?All right. But the tour. That's. You mentioned one thing. It's like you. Everybody's asking about the secret of clutch. Right? Kind of. You know. Like how come you're like still going and all this stuff. But after watching dozens of hours of interviews. I figured it out that actually it is understanding what you have. So clutch musicians, you, everybody in the band are really good musicians and you all come together. I mean, there's a lot of luck and you understand how it came together and you appreciate it.

33:44HostYou know, you're humble about it. And that's, I think it's the secret. You know, you like what you're doing. Right? But at the same time, you understand how hard it is to making it happen. Like the thing that you met in high school, right? That you started playing and then, and then you got picked up. You went on a tour. You got tour support that you got your fans and you on. And then you went independent with your own label. All of this is like, you appreciate what's going on. And that's what I think is like the kind of a secret to success, how you call it for the clutch.

34:18TimYes, I would say that. I think the main secret though, is not quitting and not depending on anybody other than ourselves. You know, we always just had to do it ourselves. Pay for everything, make everything happen on our own. And that's really the secret of the whole thing.

34:36HostI have, when I told people that I will interview clutch, I asked like the pets that are starting out now, like, what should I ask them from your perspective? You know, like who was like starting out now? And they said, how do you keep continuing like doing what you're doing? I mean, just as a musician without immediate feedback, you know, you're like sending emails to promoters, bookers, no response. How do you keep going? How is it possible?

35:03TimWell, I mean, you just have to continue writing songs, remain creative, and, you know, just try to play as many shows as possible. I know that's easier said than done these days, but I mean, we kind of have a different perspective on the whole thing since we started out before the internet era. So we would like literally have to take our seven inch, bring it down to a club, give it to the booking agent, give it to other bands. That's how we really, you know, started to get ourselves out there. Our favorite club in DC was called the 930 Club. And we, you know, we just went down there and brought some tapes down there, brought some seven inches down there, talked to people, said, hey, we'd love to open for somebody someday. And we also met the guys from COC like that, the guys from Prong like that. We just went to their shows and said, hey, we love your band. Check out our music, you know. And next thing you know, we're playing with those bands.

36:05HostYeah, I mean, don't be, well, like when I do interviews with the musicians, I ask the similar questions and you can see the through lines, like don't be an asshole, respect, play your music, play lots of shows. And I would add also play shows outside of your city, maybe like more, two or more.

36:24TimOh yeah. Yeah. That was one of the most important things for us. Just not playing in one place, trying to get out and play as many places as possible. But younger bands should never underestimate just going to a club and talking to people. Go try to give your favorite bands your music and hopefully they'll check it out and maybe you'll get some feedback or even some shows.

36:46HostAnd especially with the musicians like you, for example, you appreciate what is how hard it is to go through all the steps. You just, because it seems that it's harder to approach maybe like more established musicians. But actually I would say it's easier in a way because those people understand how hard it is and they appreciate. I mean, and of course they need to dig your music, of course, and stuff, but still, you know, they know how hard it is.

37:11?Yeah. I mean, especially these days, there's so many bands out there and it's a lot easier to record your music. Like when, back in the early nineties, when we started recording, you know, we couldn't do it ourselves other than on a cheap, terrible sounding four track. You know, nowadays I can't imagine being in a younger band. Like for example, my kid goes to one of our local rock schools and he, by the time he

37:37Timwas, you know, nine or 10 years old, he had already played shows himself at bars with like the local rock schools. So it seems to me like there's a lot of bands that are coming up through, I don't know if they have those here in Europe, like School of Rock.

37:55?No. Yeah. We only know the movie.

37:57TimYes. Yeah. Oh yeah. Those things, they're all not exactly like that, but very similar, you know, there'll be, you know, 50 to a hundred kids that all go to this school and they meet each other and they form bands and they all jam together and, uh, that I feel like maybe more of the direction younger bands are establishing themselves through these rock schools in the U S.

38:24HostAll right. I've never heard about it as a completely new thing for us. Yeah.

38:28ClutchI mean, it's not really a school school. It's more like, you know, kind of a community center kind of vibe.

38:34HostYou know, it's like in a way, like a, it's like a, uh, a film industry in order to get into film industry, you need to get connections. Right. And the, most of the people who go to the, who, who get the connection, you can do it only in the film school, you know? Yeah. So those schools of rock sound like it's a good place where you can start and build your friends and find friends with whom you can talk. Yep.

38:56TimJust learn how to interact with other musicians, you know, learn a couple of motorhead songs, play some shows at biker bars.

39:04HostYeah, yeah, yeah. And go through the, this fire of, of get the experience.

39:09?Yeah.

39:09HostI like to tell, I like to tell musicians that these days, uh, that, uh, you don't have to be like super good, but you need to be one step ahead of, of other musicians. If you want to stand out, you don't need to go like super out, but with each step you're going up and up. If you just continue, if you even do social media, for example, if you can do it by yourself, you're already above the majority of the musicians.

39:34TimYeah. That's one of the things we're not personally good at doing social media very well. It took us a long time to really get into Facebook and Instagram and actually trying hard with that.

39:46HostYeah. But you did live stream, you did live stream, uh, two, three times at least. I know.

39:51ClutchYes. Those were probably what helped us survive COVID.

39:54HostBut I remember like when I checked the second live stream, when you had, you played only three songs and you're at a studio rehearsal place or whatever. Right. And then Neil in the end says, Oh, how many people watched us 8,000 or whoa, you're not, you start to think, Oh my God, you know, this is, this is serious. Yeah.

40:12TimIt's pretty amazing that our biggest shows that we've ever played have been online. Yeah.

40:18HostAre you planning to do something with that? Or for now it's more touring.

40:21TimUh, we've definitely thought about it. We probably will do it again. Actually. I'm pretty sure there's a Melvin's live stream tomorrow. So I'm going to get into that Melvin's live in New York tomorrow. Looking forward to watching that.

40:35HostEverybody check out. Ah, no, it's if the episode comes next week. So yeah, but it might be tonight actually.

40:41?Yeah.

40:42HostWell, we're not gonna, well, when, okay. How do you play at the show? Like for example, tonight and then you go to sleep or how, what's the regular when you play your set, for example, at nine, I don't know when you play.

40:55TimUh, we just ride on the bus overnight. We're lucky enough to have a tour bus and we just sleep on the tour bus and wake up in the next town. All right.

41:03ClutchIt's the easiest thing ever.

41:05HostNo, I meant like, if you want to see Melvin's today, like when would you do it? In the bus, right?

41:10ClutchYeah, definitely on the bus.

41:12?Yeah.

41:12ClutchIt's probably not, it probably doesn't come on until like four in the morning here. To tell you the truth.

41:17HostI forgot about the time difference. Slaughter beach, right? So what was the decision to work with, uh, Tom Dale T?

41:26TimUh, well, he was, uh, I believe our manager brought up the idea and we loved the Opeth album that he worked on and we thought his stuff sounded pretty cool. And we met him and he was a super cool guy. Totally funny, easy to work with. He had great ideas and it was awesome. Maybe one day we'll be able to go record at Rockfield Studios up in, uh, I think it's in Wales actually.

41:53HostYeah. Because he came to you, right? Yeah.

41:55TimHe came to, uh, Baltimore at the same, he, he was working really hard while he was in the U S he did a Pixies album. He did our album and he did a cult album.

42:05HostThe, yeah, yeah, that guy is like, and you need to, Julian, you need to check out his, his portfolio is crazy. And ghost, of course.

42:15ClutchI think ghost is probably one of the biggest things he's done.

42:17HostI think he also did Rammstein.

42:19?Oh, really?

42:20ClutchUh, he, okay. I didn't even know that.

42:22HostMaybe he did some, maybe not completely product. I don't know, but there's like Rammstein there somewhere. I will check it out. Fans don't hate me. Nobody hate me, please. Maybe I made a mistake, but definitely. I saw Rammstein somewhere there. Cool. All right. But also like what you recorded this album in a weird way that usually when you play songs live and then you record an album, but this time you recorded an album and now you check the songs live in a way. Right. So how, how was the experience?

42:49TimUm, you, yeah, it has been a little different. We did manage to play maybe three or four of the songs live before we recorded, but it's

42:58Clutchfine. It seems to be all right.

42:59HostI mean, the, the, the whole thing you mean, like, like a fine as a response or fine.

43:05TimI would say it's been great response wise, but it definitely felt a little bit different once we started playing some of the songs that we hadn't played live before. It was kind of a new experience for us. Really? Yeah. Having a fully formed song before we actually performed it live is something that we'd never done in the past.

43:26HostHave you changed the songs after that? When you played them live, did you tweak it a little bit or you kept it the way how it's on the record?

43:33ClutchUh, we kept it the way it is on the record for the most part.

43:37HostBut next to record, how are you going to plan? Are you going back to the old school ways, how you did it?

43:41TimWe want to, for sure. We don't, we don't want to be stuck at home, not playing our songs.

43:46HostI wanted to ask about stuck at home. Like, because when you play in the same, did you record it separately or how was it? Well, usually you write music when you jam together, I think, or it gives ideas. Yep. And I realized that when you're in a, in a jam room, for example, like even when the drummer hits the drums, the airwaves affecting the voice and everything, you know, without that recording separately, it's.

44:13ClutchUh, yeah. I mean, we've done that in the past. Um, but definitely I think clutch songs work out better when we all record basic tracks together as far as just separately.

44:26HostClutter Beach is really great album. I really love it. I really like, I like the music. I'm not joking. It's really cool. I like your music in general. I'm just not. All right. I don't want to bother you too much. You're going to have a show tonight.

44:39ClutchYou're definitely not bothering me. I would never think that.

44:42HostUh, last thing. Could you please give us a clutch song that would be a good introduction to the clutch band?

44:48?Slaughter Beach, baby. Freaking love that song. After the interview, Julian and I stayed at Arena, drinking and waiting for the gigs to start, and it finally happened. All the bands totally killed it. The house was packed. The bands totally destroyed it. Man, it was amazing. Freaking seeing and hearing that music live is wicked. It was a freaking awesome evening and the whole day, actually. I will always remember this experience. And now it's time to thank some people. Big thanks to my guests Jamie and Jimmy of the band Tiger Cup. Big thanks to Tim Salt of the Clutch band. Thanks to Oscar. Thanks to Clutch crew and Arena crew. Super major big thanks to Stefan and the Weathermaker music label for making it all possible. Thanks to Julian the photographer. Thanks Alex of the Barcuda music. Thanks to Ricky Switchblade of the Buki Hammer band. Thanks Yulia of the Eagle vs. Shark band. And of course, I can't stop saying this. Thank you Tiger Cup, Green Lung and Clutch for awesome music. And thank you, dear listener, for staying till the end. Don't forget to follow this podcast if you dig it. More stuff to come. Until next time. Bye. Bye. Bye.