Andy: First off, congratulations on your new album, which is fantastic. Let`s start off talking about your writing process a little bit. How does the typical Warlocks song start off, and how is the final arrangement worked out? Talk me through how the typical Warlocks song comes into being...
Bobby: Thanks! Glad you like it. Well out of all the questions, this one`s always the hardest to answer. There is no set system to song writing. Not for me anyways. So I guess the best way to answer it is its all nuts, like there is no rhyme or rhythm to it. Sometimes I start with a melody in my head or it’s a bass line or its just completely done (like a transmission) and all I have to do is play it. Its that unpredictable. Thing is when I talk about song writing I always feel the most uncomfortable. I just don’t think it can be really put into words without cheesing it all out.
Andy: On the last album, you dropped down from your signature two drummer sound to a single drummer. Was this a conscious decision, or was it a matter of someone leaving and not wanting to find a replacement? How do you think it has affected your sound, and your outlook on your music?
Bobby: Well there were two drummers on Heavy Deavy Skull Lover and one on Mirror Explodes. I really like the sound of two drummers and would like to move back in that direction someday.
Andy: I know live, you used to improvise a lot of those instrumental jams, and on your early material, there also seems to be a lot of improvised songs. Is "Frequency Meltdown" an improvised instrumental? How much material on Heavy Deavy Skull Lover was improvised?
Bobby: Sort of, there is a basic structure to jams or else it would just turn to mush. "Frequency Meltdown" does have a loose structure it took many, many takes to get it sound like that. Some of the end of “Moving Mountains” and 8 track stuff was improvised on Heavy Deavy.
Andy: Some have described your previous album as darker and more influenced by shoegaze, but to me you`ve always had a shoegaze element and some pretty dark themes. What is your take on the sound of that album in particular? What prompted the decision to depart from your earlier sound on Heavy Deavy Skull Lover?
Bobby: The Mirror Explodes is a completion of a period of music for me. I’m really stubborn like that. I feel like I can’t move on until I finished the ideas at hand. So that’s what this is: a finished piece of art. Finally. I’m ready to try something else sound-wise now. Sonically I thought it was pretty straight forward because the structure was more in song mode than Heavy Deavy. I don’t know less blurry or something... I guess The Warlocks IS an experimental band first and foremost but we’ve drifted in and out of song and non-song. Maybe that’s because I started out inspired by bands that were nuts and have spotty records.. Butthole Surfers, Sonic Youth, Hawkwind, Merzbow, etc…
Andy: What did you decide to change in your approach to making the new album, The Mirror Explodes?
Bobby: To not rush but we ended up rushing anyway.
Andy: Let`s talk a bit about your past collaborations a bit... you`ve played with Beck, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and hung out with Timothy Leary. What was it like hanging with a cultural icon like Leary?
Bobby: He was really nice person. Our friend Howard Hallis was his biographer and helping him get his book together among other things. I don’t know if they ever got anything done because he got sick fast and that took its toll. He would just spontaneously have parties in his house and invited us to hang out and meet people. It was really cool. I think he liked having all these people around him because it made him feel life directly. It was quite inspiring and I feel lucky to have been there. I was just a teenager but understood the impact he had on the 60s counterculture.
Andy: You hear a lot of crazy stories, but what was it actually like working with Anton in BJM?
Bobby: I got involved with him just after all that shit went down and he canned people, or people left, or whatever. I guess that would be 1999 or so. I went to his house and he had all these pawn tickets on the door and guns and shit everywhere. It was a weird scene. He was very alone. He played some music for me and I thought it was just beautiful. I guess I felt for some reason or another I should help Anton get back on his feet. He got evicted and I had this house that The Warlocks started jamming at and then it started to work as BJM space too. He stayed there for a bit and I would kick down food or a little cash if he needed it. We did a bunch of shows and he really encouraged me in his own way to not be afraid to write and to play.. I have no regrets working with Anton, and yes, a lot of dig really was over-amplified. Yes there was crazy moments when we played, a few fights broke out and a few druggy, boozy parties but really nothing too insane. It helped kick start The Warlocks by getting Greg Shaw involved and then pretty soon we started touring and Anton was getting it back together. I’m glad he is on the sober side these days.
Andy: I`ve heard a lot of crazy stories about The Warlocks as well. Did you really have a member of the band overdose on stage? What happened with that?
Bobby: Yes, Jen Chiba, who was also Elliot’s Smiths girlfriend, was in The Warlocks in the beginning. I think they met at our show. She took some Vicodin or something and waltzed on stage and played everything but the song. She was blitzed out of her mind. We are great friends these days, but boy was a I sore at her that night. She was considering rejoining recently but just wants a stable life after everything that’s happened. I can’t blame her… Unfortunately, that’s not the only time it happened with members doing that shit… but the other notorious moments are quite sad and really shouldn’t be repeated here.
Andy: A lot of your earlier songs are either implicitly about drugs, or have drug references in them. Do you or the band have any official stance or other opinions on the relationship between drug use and the artistic vision?
Bobby: Oh boy the ol` drug question. I’m going to side step this one.
Andy: On that subject, I would imagine Spacemen 3 are a definite influence on the Warlocks, how did you end up hooking up with Sonic and getting him to play on the Phoenix album?
Bobby: I met Sonic in 1993/1994. I thought then (and still do) that he is one of the best songwriters ever. He is another one that is very inconsistent album wise. But when he hits it, he really hits it. "Glide Divine," and plethora of songs after that really exemplify Sonic`s talent. Anyway I got a call from Gary Dent at Jabberjaw needing “keyboards for a Spectrum show” so I turned up with all this gear and Sonic was happy, got me in and gave me some merch. That was exciting stuff at 19! After that I kept in touch and helped where I could. I loaned him our van and things like that. He was in town and showed up to do some noise a few times after that.
Andy: You`ve been on a couple of different labels now, how is it working with Tee Pee? They`ve put out some pretty heavy releases over the years, how do you feel about their roster of bands and their back catalog?
Bobby: Tee Pee is one of the best labels I’ve been on. They let me do what I want (for better or worse I guess) and are understanding of the needs of their artists. I’m very grateful. Well I haven’t heard everything but I like Witch, Entrance, BJM, the new Assemble Head, Graveyard.
Andy: What other current bands out there are you digging on (besides the ones on Tee Pee)?
Bobby: At the moment bands called Tobacco, Warpaint, Gliss, and I like Panda Bear.
Andy: If you had a time machine, and could travel through time and grab any three bands to do a tour with, which would you choose, and what year would you snag them from?
Bobby: Hmm what a weird question! I don’t know I would be wonderful to see anyone one of these bands let alone play with them... uh, The Velvet Underground, Syd Barret / Pink Floyd era… Spacemen 3, Neu! Loop, Tim Blake (uh, circa 77), I guess...
Andy: If you could use that same time machine to go back and change or do anything differently in your musical career, what would it be, and why?
Bobby: Difficult question to answer this time machine stuff. Uh I don’t know. Well, I wish I wasn’t involved with certain individuals. I guess but that’s the way life is. I wish I didn’t rush some songs or album artwork, things like that. Recordings should have been better. I wish I moved out of my old apartment sooner because a serious burglary really screwed up my life and my mind for a while. I should have left when I was getting strangers knocking on my door or demos left on my steps and shit… uh, daily. So I guess more careful with my privacy. For some reason or another people feel very jealous of me or something or have a very malicious view point, I don’t know... Thing is, I work tirelessly to get all this to happen. Practice, writing, touring, getting everything together, recording, it`s lots of work. So I never really understood why people put energy into negative judgment when they should be concentrating on their own lives.
Andy: Thanks for your time Bobby, and good luck with your album and your tour. If you`ve got anything else to add or say, now would be the time to do it...
Bobby: Thank you, good questions.
