INTERVIEW: Butch Walker [Part 2]

by John Davidson
18 November 2006

Then do you feel the pressure from those higher-profile artists and their management to come up with something gigantic?

WALKER: Always. Oh, always. There’s never a doubt that there’s not going to be that underlying pressure that the label is going to fold if they don’t have another hit…because, you know what? It’s TRUE. They’re all f**kin’ going down right now. It’s a whole new world out there and everyone’s scared to death but it’s funny because business for me couldn’t be better! (laughs) And so that’s kind of the irony of all this, is that when you’re needed and you can provide, then you do it. It feels good right now because the good news is that’s fun for me because I don’t really care about making those kinds of records for myself anymore. I get all kinds of these dumbasses at labels that sit around with nothing to do but blog on websites about their useless opinions of people, people that say or think that I’m dumb for not writing a hit for myself. Why is that dumb? I had a taste of that in my last band and I hated it. I hated sucking corporate d**k. I hated going in and doing the “Friday Morning Wacky Wake-Up Zoo Beaver Eating Contest With Pie-Eating Rodeo!” I’d have radio guys sitting there looking me right in the face, when I’m going around trying to promote my record with these f**king DJs, talking to the label guy and asking him, “Where are my season tickets to the Lakers? We’re gonna drop this record if you don’t give me those tickets.” Stuff like that, as if I weren’t even there. I was just floored and speechless that they think I don’t get it, that they don’t think that I see that it was all about favors and corruption instead of about the art and the song. I mean, hello THREE DOORS DOWN.

Are you able to find peace about this because you’re working more on an artistic level or do you still feel like you’re a cog in the machine?

WALKER: It’s totally justified because even if radio or MTV doesn’t care to play something because it’s not formulaic enough, in my case, my fanbase is bigger than it’s ever been. So that ought to tell you something, that the power of DIY, which I was all through the 90s. I did my 250 days in a van every year, down by the river blah blah blah. That was my life, making my own albums and selling them at shows with my band. So now, it doesn’t even phase me that I’d need anybody else. People ask me why I’m even still signed to a major, and I’m actually signed to my own imprint, which is an indie deal through the label that allows me to do whatever I want. I just want to put my records out, and all they are is a store. And that’s great, because that’s all I need them for. I don’t need them to tell me that I, “need a little more vocal in that second verse.”

And so you can do whatever you want as a musician then.

Yeah, and for like this tour I’m doing during the fall with my new band, it’s going to be a great big party. This s**t is gonna be fun. I have seven people in my band, two girl background singers. We’re going to do karaoke between acts with the fans. It’s going to be blast, so if you get there early and sign up, you can do your favorite JOURNEY cover! I have a great band right now, and I figure that most people love to go out and get loaded, see a band, do karaoke. I figure we’ll cover all of that with our shows. I’ve always been a big fan of performing to an audience with an audience.

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