Interview: Golden Smog [Part III]

by John Davidson
9 August 2006

[Continued from Part II]

Even though you’d taken a lot of time off, did the relationships and the way the band writes songs stay the same?

DAN MURPHY: Yeah, it had, actually. It’s pretty democratic. DAVE PIRNER and I are very, very different people, but when we’re in a recording studio or something, we really work well together. We’re pretty intuitive. I think I really understand Dave’s songs, and can really come up with good guitar playing. So, we don’t really talk about it much. It was a little bit tricky this time because KARL MUELLER was really f***ing sick. He was really recovering from chemo and radiation, and there was a whole multitude of meds that they had him on. It was inspiring, but it was also really hard. One day, he’d come in and just play phenomenally well, so we’d try to do three or four bass tracks. And then other days he’d come in and just couldn’t do it. That was something that STEVE HODGE, the guy who produced our record, had to be really intuitive about. MICHAEL BLAND, who played drums, also plays bass and other instruments, so he gave us a lot of input and more ideas than previous drummers have. He’s pretty involved with a lot of the arranging, which is really nice. It’s funny, because he’s a drummer! But he can just hear stuff in his head. He’s a consummate pro, but he’s also just so excited about music. He just feels it’s a gift that we can do it. We were all kind of jaded, but he was really into it and it helped so much.

Is it inevitable that you look at this record as “one for Karl and him leaving us”?

DAN MURPHY: Yeah, we’ve got a couple of songs that are pretty poignant. There’s actually one on the GOLDEN SMOG record called “I Can” that KRAIG JOHNSON wrote about Karl. It makes me really sad. But you know, Karl pulled through and he did it. The quality of his life was pretty rough at the end, and Karl was not the kind of guy who wanted to spend the rest of his life in a hospital, either. Both records really make me think of Karl. At first, it was really difficult to imagine continuing as SOUL ASYLUM but Karl was insistent that if we put the record out, that we would tour no matter what. He was very clear about that, and he really liked the material. So when I listen to it, it’s the silver lining in that he’s the first and last thing I think of.

The new Golden Smog record is less rootsy than the others.

DAN MURPHY: Golden Smog is a bunch of really different, really strong personalities. GARY LOURIS said that when he critiqued the last record, Down By the Old Mainstream, he liked the collaborative feel of it, and he didn’t like how Weird Tales sounded like each person brought in their own songs that were already finished. So, we wanted loosely structured stuff that wasn’t finished for this one. It’s one of those records that can sound kind of rough in places, and then something beautiful will happen.

In a lot of places, it sounds like a different band, as if you guys kind of put some effort into sounding like the songs weren’t just happenstance.

DAN MURPHY: A lot of the rhythms to me have a bit of a VELVET UNDERGROUND feeling to them, which is a pretty good reference point for me because I listened to them a lot as a kid and as an adult.

How do you see the new Soul Asylum record stacking up against the rest?

DAN MURPHY: I can honestly say that if it’s not our best, it’s one of them. I’m really proud of it. I think it’s tuneful, it’s got some great lyrics. It’s got some great sentiment. 90% of the time it was really fun to make. I think if I had to look at the three previous records on Columbia, Grave Dancer’s was really hard to make but it had a good result. The one after that, we were a little rushed and I don’t know if there was actually enough material to warrant a record. And the last one, we made a record that Columbia didn’t like so we made another one. That kind of zapped our spirit. It kind of felt like a process.

I’m not really sure your heart was in that last one.

DAN MURPHY: Well, we made it in Miami. If ever a band was not made for Miami, it was Soul Asylum.

How did you end up on a new label?

DAN MURPHY: We left Columbia, and it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. DONNY INER was kind of our guy there, and we were kind of tired of him and he was kind of tired of us… they didn’t renew our contract, and we didn’t have any music to give them anyhow. We kind of shopped this record around a bit, and a lot of people passed on it because they thought that the band was kind of over. So what we did, which took a lot of balls: Dave and I secured a loan and paid for the record ourselves. So when we were out of money, we were done recording. And then we shopped it, and we ended up getting a deal… when I think about how much money we spent making those other records, it’s f***ing ridiculous! We did some records that were pushing seven figures. It gave us some much needed perspective in the studio. I guess what I’m trying to say is that since [this time] it was our money, we got a lot done every day!

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