…an interview with Chris Ballew
Welcome to my first of hopefully many interviews to come at OlyKaz.com. When brainstorming whom I wanted as my first interview, I was cycling through my photos and came across many photos I had done for Chris Ballew and the Presidents of the United States of America. As I was going through these photos, I recalled numerous conversations from Chris about music on all levels from his personal history, to the roots of rock and roll, all the way back to the West African influences. Chris Ballew, being one to never shy away from giving his insight of musical knowledge to the lending ear, prompted me to be the one wanting to pick his brain about his own career. From his time as a youth to the inauguration of Presidents of the United States of America and Caspar Babypants, this interview dissects the simplicities and influences of Chris Ballew, the musician, and how he found success with a minimalistic approach.
KAZ: What was your first intro to music and what was it that influenced you into wanting to be a musician
CHRIS: My first introduction to music was the satisfying sound that the upright piano in our house made when I banged on it with a hammer! I would have been perfectly happy as a 2 year old banging on that piano forever but in 1967 I got Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and discovered that you could organize those vibrations into these things called "songs" and the rest is history. Now that I have been through the whole fame machine and the DIY method and had times of volcanic creativity and dry spells that last years I am starting to wind my way back to just banging on a piano with a hammer and calling it good!
KAZ: In previous conversations with you, everything from the Beatles music to their movies has become a course of study for you. Dating back from your introduction of Sgt. Pepper to present time, what is it that continues to intrigue you the most from them
CHRIS: For me the common thread with any form of expression and creativity that resonates with me is transcendence. Creativity is an opportunity to transcend the regular world full of tasks and assumptions we make about how our lives should be. A movie or a piece of music that takes me out of my usual perceptions and prejudices and allows me to fly free is the most appealing to me. That is why you will never hear a Caspar Babypants song about how to perform a task or learn a skill. I love to make the inanimate world of objects and the mysterious world of animals come to life so that little kids and their parents can have a shared rich surreal experience.
KAZ: What was your first intro to music and what was it that influenced you into wanting to be a musician
CHRIS: My first introduction to music was the satisfying sound that the upright piano in our house made when I banged on it with a hammer! I would have been perfectly happy as a 2 year old banging on that piano forever but in 1967 I got Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and discovered that you could organize those vibrations into these things called "songs" and the rest is history. Now that I have been through the whole fame machine and the DIY method and had times of volcanic creativity and dry spells that last years I am starting to wind my way back to just banging on a piano with a hammer and calling it good!
KAZ: In previous conversations with you, everything from the Beatles music to their movies has become a course of study for you. Dating back from your introduction of Sgt. Pepper to present time, what is it that continues to intrigue you the most from them
CHRIS: For me the common thread with any form of expression and creativity that resonates with me is transcendence. Creativity is an opportunity to transcend the regular world full of tasks and assumptions we make about how our lives should be. A movie or a piece of music that takes me out of my usual perceptions and prejudices and allows me to fly free is the most appealing to me. That is why you will never hear a Caspar Babypants song about how to perform a task or learn a skill. I love to make the inanimate world of objects and the mysterious world of animals come to life so that little kids and their parents can have a shared rich surreal experience.
KAZ: Not only do you transcend your world through your songwriting, but you also did this with your musical instruments. It was your time in Boston where you took the typical 6 string guitar/ 4 string bass and converted them into what most people know as the “Guitbass” and “Basitar”. The outcome of this seems to parallel your personal philosophies on music. How did this all come about
CHRIS: It is strange but I cannot remember meeting Mark Sandman(Morphine). He seems to have just always been there. He played a two string bass with a slide but in his studio he had a version of his instrument that was set up on a guitar “Y” that could be played without a slide. When I picked up that instrument something incredible happened. I felt as if I had been searching for this instrument my entire life and that every idea I had ever had before just needed to flow through that instrument. The unique cord of relationships that a two string limits a player to use somehow made all my ideas seem elemental and fresh at the same time. So the revolution in instrumentation was really a personal thing. It was later that I came to understand that rock and roll came from West Africa through New Orleans and evangelical preachers and mineral jazz and that the original instruments from West Africa were two and three string catgut Banjos. So now I feel not only a personal connection but it also feels like there is a historical connection to the roots of rock and roll that these instruments represent. Also being a minimalist at heart the limitation appeals to that side of me too. In the early days of the rock band it was just another unique thing about us that people could write about as well. Now after all these years it seems so natural I don't even think about it and I wonder why everybody isn't playing two string and three string guitars they are so much easier to learn on and tune! Eventually I would like to create a one-string guitar for little babies but that is another project for it when I am NOT so busy!
CHRIS: It is strange but I cannot remember meeting Mark Sandman(Morphine). He seems to have just always been there. He played a two string bass with a slide but in his studio he had a version of his instrument that was set up on a guitar “Y” that could be played without a slide. When I picked up that instrument something incredible happened. I felt as if I had been searching for this instrument my entire life and that every idea I had ever had before just needed to flow through that instrument. The unique cord of relationships that a two string limits a player to use somehow made all my ideas seem elemental and fresh at the same time. So the revolution in instrumentation was really a personal thing. It was later that I came to understand that rock and roll came from West Africa through New Orleans and evangelical preachers and mineral jazz and that the original instruments from West Africa were two and three string catgut Banjos. So now I feel not only a personal connection but it also feels like there is a historical connection to the roots of rock and roll that these instruments represent. Also being a minimalist at heart the limitation appeals to that side of me too. In the early days of the rock band it was just another unique thing about us that people could write about as well. Now after all these years it seems so natural I don't even think about it and I wonder why everybody isn't playing two string and three string guitars they are so much easier to learn on and tune! Eventually I would like to create a one-string guitar for little babies but that is another project for it when I am NOT so busy!
KAZ: In discovering this way of conveying your musical expression through a more simplistic approach and the influence of Mark Sandman, the surface was now scratched for the idea of the Presidents of the United States of America. Along the way you have mentioned other influences such as the MC5, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Spider John Koerner, and Lenny Kravitz, which would ultimately create the elements of the Presidents of the United States of America. What was it about these particular musicians that influenced your vision?
CHRIS: Good question! Well I suppose I will go through these one at a time and tell you why they influenced the chemistry of The Presidents.
the MC5
I became aware of the MC5 pretty late in the game. I think it was 1991 when my friend Dave Thiele played me the live album. I knew immediately that I wanted to incorporate that kind of energy into a new band but I didn't exactly know how. Then it just hit me...why not cover their biggest song and change the lyrics and make it our own and have that be part of who we are? So that is exactly what we did. What I really appreciate it about the MC5 is how they blended hard rock and jazz together. My friend Dave Thiele and I had been experimenting with the same combination with not nearly as much success obviously but when I heard the MC5 I thought, "That’s it! That’s the loose powerful feeling that I want this band to have." A side benefit of having covered the song is getting the honor of knowing Wayne Kramer, Dennis Thompson and Michael Davis a little bit and getting to play our version of kick out the jams with the actual MC5 in Seattle one time.
Iggy Pop and the Stooges
I became aware of the Stooges late in the game as well. I heard TV Eye on the radio in 1991 and it completely blew my mind. The repetition, the energy and the simplicity made me feel like I wanted to jump on that pony and take a ride. I have seen Iggy Pop perform a couple of times over the years and I saw him within the Stooges last summer in Europe when we played on the same festival with them. The thing that struck me that I didn't understand when I first heard him but became clear when I saw him live recently is that he is both a dork and a god. It seemed to me to be the most honest expression of being human being, which is infinite and fallible. I also recently found out that he practices Qigong, which I do as well. It's the one thing that keeps me energized enough to put on our high-energy show at almost 50 years old. He is of course much older than me and puts on an even more energetic show than I do in some ways and when asked how he does it in interviews he answers that Qigong keeps him young. I got within a few feet of being able to talk to him about what kind of Qigong practice he does but he was getting ready to go on stage and our conversation never happened. So if you're out there Iggy, I would still love to talk to you about where you studied and what style you use.
Spider John Koerner
I used to go to this bar in Boston called The Plough and Stars. One night the place was pretty empty and there was a guy in the back of the bar near the bathroom playing this incredible 12 string finger picking style guitar and singing about a little animals and chickens and frogs and I thought "this is the best combination of music and lyrics that I've ever heard in my life!". It also validated something that I had been doing already which was writing songs about little animals. I have always thought that those songs were less important than songs about human relations etc. But listing to Spider John made me aware of early American folk music and the long tradition of anthropomorphizing animals and playing funny songs about them. His interpretations gave me permission to write about what I really wanted to write about. Years later we had him open up for The Presidents in Seattle and I got to pick him up at the airport and drive him around and hang out with him a little bit. He was a bit crusty around the edges and not as excited to play as I would have hoped but he did have some interesting things to say about the old folk music and blues scene in New York and his reasons for switching from blues to folk songs.
Lenny Kravitz
My appreciation for Lenny Kravitz has to do with the way his music is performed and recorded. That super lush dry warm sound of his early records is extremely appealing to me. However I was never a big fan of his lyrics. So I thought why don't I take the Spider John influence of the animal songs and put it with the groove of some of that Lenny Kravitz music? The resulting songs were Feather Pluckin', Dune Buggy and Body. So he influenced me musically very much.
I have never met Lenny Kravitz.
CHRIS: Good question! Well I suppose I will go through these one at a time and tell you why they influenced the chemistry of The Presidents.
the MC5
I became aware of the MC5 pretty late in the game. I think it was 1991 when my friend Dave Thiele played me the live album. I knew immediately that I wanted to incorporate that kind of energy into a new band but I didn't exactly know how. Then it just hit me...why not cover their biggest song and change the lyrics and make it our own and have that be part of who we are? So that is exactly what we did. What I really appreciate it about the MC5 is how they blended hard rock and jazz together. My friend Dave Thiele and I had been experimenting with the same combination with not nearly as much success obviously but when I heard the MC5 I thought, "That’s it! That’s the loose powerful feeling that I want this band to have." A side benefit of having covered the song is getting the honor of knowing Wayne Kramer, Dennis Thompson and Michael Davis a little bit and getting to play our version of kick out the jams with the actual MC5 in Seattle one time.
Iggy Pop and the Stooges
I became aware of the Stooges late in the game as well. I heard TV Eye on the radio in 1991 and it completely blew my mind. The repetition, the energy and the simplicity made me feel like I wanted to jump on that pony and take a ride. I have seen Iggy Pop perform a couple of times over the years and I saw him within the Stooges last summer in Europe when we played on the same festival with them. The thing that struck me that I didn't understand when I first heard him but became clear when I saw him live recently is that he is both a dork and a god. It seemed to me to be the most honest expression of being human being, which is infinite and fallible. I also recently found out that he practices Qigong, which I do as well. It's the one thing that keeps me energized enough to put on our high-energy show at almost 50 years old. He is of course much older than me and puts on an even more energetic show than I do in some ways and when asked how he does it in interviews he answers that Qigong keeps him young. I got within a few feet of being able to talk to him about what kind of Qigong practice he does but he was getting ready to go on stage and our conversation never happened. So if you're out there Iggy, I would still love to talk to you about where you studied and what style you use.
Spider John Koerner
I used to go to this bar in Boston called The Plough and Stars. One night the place was pretty empty and there was a guy in the back of the bar near the bathroom playing this incredible 12 string finger picking style guitar and singing about a little animals and chickens and frogs and I thought "this is the best combination of music and lyrics that I've ever heard in my life!". It also validated something that I had been doing already which was writing songs about little animals. I have always thought that those songs were less important than songs about human relations etc. But listing to Spider John made me aware of early American folk music and the long tradition of anthropomorphizing animals and playing funny songs about them. His interpretations gave me permission to write about what I really wanted to write about. Years later we had him open up for The Presidents in Seattle and I got to pick him up at the airport and drive him around and hang out with him a little bit. He was a bit crusty around the edges and not as excited to play as I would have hoped but he did have some interesting things to say about the old folk music and blues scene in New York and his reasons for switching from blues to folk songs.
Lenny Kravitz
My appreciation for Lenny Kravitz has to do with the way his music is performed and recorded. That super lush dry warm sound of his early records is extremely appealing to me. However I was never a big fan of his lyrics. So I thought why don't I take the Spider John influence of the animal songs and put it with the groove of some of that Lenny Kravitz music? The resulting songs were Feather Pluckin', Dune Buggy and Body. So he influenced me musically very much.
I have never met Lenny Kravitz.
I want to thank first and foremost Chris Ballew for offering his time for this interview, which was done between New York City/Airport Concourses/Backstage Green Rooms and Hotels in Spain…. All in a few days work.
For more on Chris Ballew and the Presidents of the United States of America…
www.presidentsrock.com
www.babypantsmusic.com
For more on Chris Ballew and the Presidents of the United States of America…
www.presidentsrock.com
www.babypantsmusic.com