Little Steven Van Zandt at the Four Seasons hotel in Austin

Lincoln Journal Star : INTERVIEW Little Steven Q&A
On March 19, the Journal Star’s L. Kent Wolgamott and Gary Graff of Suburban Newspapers interviewed Little Steven Van Zandt at the Four Seasons hotel in Austin, Texas, during the South by Southwest Music Conference. This is a transcript of that interview....MORE

Artist:Little Steven Van Zandt

Title:

Publication:Lincoln Journal Star

Date:March 27, 2009

Ref: http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2009/03/27/living/gz/music/doc49caf80a22ca1320601475.txt

Q and A: Little Steven Van Zandt
By the Lincoln Journal Star
Friday, Mar 27, 2009 - 12:18:59 am CDT

On March 19, the Journal Star’s L. Kent Wolgamott and Gary Graff of Suburban Newspapers interviewed Little Steven Van Zandt at the Four Seasons hotel in Austin, Texas, during the South by Southwest Music Conference. This is a transcript of that interview.

Bruce Springsteen, left, sings with Steven Van Zandt as they open the first of 10 sold-out shows Tuesday, July 15, 2003, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP)

Did you have to get a note from mom to get out of rehearsal?

SVZ: “I did actually. I’ve got to get back early Saturday. It’s just right in the middle. We don’t do much. We did like three days this week and we’ll do three more.”
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Story Photo
Bruce Springsteen, left, sings with Steven Van Zandt as they open the first of 10 sold-out shows Tuesday, July 15, 2003, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP)
Story Photo
Bruce Springsteen, left, sings with Steven Van Zandt as they open the first of 10 sold-out shows Tuesday, July 15, 2003, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP)
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And then go?

SVZ: “Yeah.”

Is the new stuff coming?

SVZ: “Yeah. You spend the time translating the new album to live. There’s various changes you make to it, adjustments and all that. That’s what you do.

We may run through a set once or twice. We usually let a crowd in the last couple rehearsals.

But in this case, usually, you have a couple years between tours so you have to get used to doing it again. This last tour ended like six, seven months ago or something.

This is the quickest we’ve ever put out two records since we’ve been in the band.”

What’s that about, huh?

SVZ: “I think it’s fun, I hope we keep doing it.

Honestly, I’d like to do a record every year, I really would. A year and a half, whatever. It’s just that he’s writing. He’s a writin’ fool is what it’s about.

As long as he keeps writing stuff this great, why not put it out, right?”

The last month of the “Magic” tour was so off the hook with the signs and the audibles and stuff. This is an album tour again?

SVZ: “There was no further we could go with that direction. So we’re probably coming back to a little bit more of an organized set for a minute.

I’m saying that, but who knows? I don’t really know that for a fact.

But we usually want to get the new album in. We usually play more of the new album than most groups do.

Our audience is used to it and they like it, which is a wonderful thing about our audience. I think they’re the best in the world for that reason. We’ll probably go out and do half the record, we usually do.”

Do any of the songs really stand out?

SVZ: “They’re all working very well. Let’s see here, “Lucky Day” just kills as you would expect. “Surprise Surprise” has been fun. I love that “Kingdom of Day” …what’s that one, it’s got that sort of Turtles ending?

That one’s coming out really great…maybe I’ll think of it. I’m thinking of the ending I can’t think of the verse right now.

They’re all sounding great. It’s just a matter of seeing where he wants to go themewise.

“Every show has a three, four song segment that’s sort of the theme of that show that says whatever he wants to say at any given time. Then we fit the rest of the show around it, more or less. That’s all developing as we speak, literally.”

Do any of them ever not work? Do you ever get there and go, OK, this is not going to go live?

SVZ: “Not too often. There are so many people in the band that there’s virtually nothing we can’t do.

We could do ‘Beethoven’s Fifth’ probably and we wouldn’t miss much. I’m trying to think, I don’t remember having that problem. Not really, they all seem to work very well.”

What kind of discussion happens about the older material?

SVZ: “At some point, he’ll decide ‘I want to talk about this this tour,’ the subject, the theme if you will. Then we’ll fit the other stuff around that. But then there will be segments of the show where anything goes and that will change every night. We always change a good third of the show.

Every night?

SVZ: “Yeah, oh yeah.”

And spontaneously, he just calls them out?

SVZ: “It has been extremely spontaneous and might still be. Literally, we were taking requests not only his obscure songs, but any songs. We were doing songs we hadn’t done since the Stone Pony. I have no idea where it will start out and where it will end up. But there’s always, I’d say, a third of the show different every night. There’s spontaneity built in already.

“We’re never, ever rigid. I know a lot of bands play the same set over and over. It’s because they have all that expense of production that has be coordinated, which we don’t have. We’re like, The light man and the sound man, they’ll catch up, they’ll figure it out by the second verse. We don’t care. It’s all about the music. It’s all about the relationship with the audience. We kind of just go for it. I’m very proud of the fact that we’re able to turn arenas and even stadiums into clubs. That’s kind of what we do.”

How hard is it to do that, in particular in stadiums when there are people 300 yards away?

SVZ: “We configure the stage so there’s an intimacy going on up front. The crowd’s right there. Like we did with the Super Bowl. Which is why we finally did the Super Bowl, because they let us do that. You’ve never seen the audience that close before in a Super Bowl. We do the same thing with the show. Bruce is in the crowd, he’s literally talking to people, they’re singing the songs with him.

“So it is a club, if you will in those first 50 feet or 30 rows. That’s the club you’re in. The nice thing now about the big screens is that translates very well to the back of the room. I’ve had people tell me that are in the back that they can see what’s happening, they’re right there. So you feel the intimacy when you’re in the back of the big room. It works real well.”

What are you anticipating with Bonnaroo?

SVZ: “I’m looking forward to that. I hope we do more and more and more of these festivals. I’m politicking for next year to do nothing but.

I just love the idea of meeting new people and reaching new people. I’m sure half the crowd won’t know anything we’re doing, or more. I don’t know.”

It’s been a long time since you’ve been in that position.

SVZ: “We did it last year for the first time with the Harley Davidson thing. You can [see] the curiosity [in] singers that are ‘what is this about?’ They haven’t been there all those years. And it’s fun to win them over, like the old days. Which we had to do for many years. It’s never easy.”

You breaking out the tie-dye for Bonnaroo?

SVZ: I don’t have to break it out. It’s in my blood. My blood’s tie-dyed.

So how do you do all that and do your Underground Garage, Wicked Cool (record label) and all that?

SVZ: “Good question. It actually is helpful. We do a lot of work on the road. Keep in mind, we’re an international company. We have affiliates, 144 or whatever it is in America and every single country in Europe, except France, which we may never get.

I should bring Jerry Lewis over and have him get us a station. Any time you’re in those countries or in those towns, you visit the affiliates. We have distributors in every small country and every town for the record label. I visit record stores. A lot of work gets done on the road. Then you’ve got email and phone and what’s the difference whether you’re in Manhattan or Oslo. You don’t miss much to be honest.

“If it were up to me, I’d be on the road and stay on the road forever. Record as we go and just stay out there. We probably get more done on the road than when we’re off the road.”

Home is probably a lot more distracting.

SVZ: “Actually in some ways it is.”

I remember when you first began the Underground Garage. It’s always felt like you were on a mission. How has that been refined…where are you now compared to where you were seven years ago?

SVZ: “On the one hand you have to say objectively we have come a long way. There has been an enormous amount of progress from when we started where there wasn’t one single rock ‘n’ roll band being played on the radio and there wasn’t any being signed by the record companies.

“When we started in 2002, we knew every single contemporary rock’n’roll record that was being released in the world. We had ‘em all, we knew ‘em all by name. Now, you’ve got thousands and thousands of bands. On the one hand, it’s grown tremendously and it’s doing great. On the other hand, I’m extremely frustrated because it’s not going as fast as I would like, mostly in the area of the TV show.

“I’ve been wanting to get a TV show on for five years. The last three years in a row, we’ve come down to the finish line and didn’t quite get the deal done. That’s extremely frustrating because I think the TV show will really start to change things if we get it on and connect the dots if you will. So that part of it is still a struggle.

“They have the same fears on TV that they once had on radio. I don’t know why. What we’re doing, to me, is not very scary. But it’s scary to the powers that be. It was at one time to the radio too. It took us a year to start with those 20 affiliates. Now we’ve got over a million listeners and we’re an institution, which is great. If we can get the same thing going on TV, the world will start to change.”

Where did that passion come from? Seven years ago and it continues now. What’s the root of that?

SVZ: “It started off very casually, there was no thought of a mission or anything like that. I thought ‘I’m not really hearing my favorite songs on the radio anymore’ in terms of the older ones and I’d discover all these new bands that were obviously not being played on the radio – in the contemporary garage rock scene.

“For the listeners, viewers, and readers, when we say garage rock, just substitute traditional rock ‘n’ roll. Just think of the early Rolling Stones and the early Beatles or whatever. There were a whole bunch of bands whose roots were obviously in the ‘50s and ‘60s, which is another way we define it, with nowhere to go.

“I’d just done the first season of the Sopranos, a ridiculously acclaimed show. We’d just done the reunion tour, very successful. I thought ‘OK, I’ve got a little celebrity capital, which comes and goes, let me use it on this because I think it would a nice, fun thing to do.’ Honestly, I didn't t think anything past that.

“I did a pilot show, we sent it to 350 stations, they all turned it down. Every single one. Now I’ve got to pay attention. What’s going on here. I couldn’t have been more casual about it. I thought this would be the easiest thing in the world. I’m giving it to them for free, by the way. No charge.”

They wouldn’t take free programming?

SVZ: “No. I know I’m going to be the most famous deejay in South Dakota or Montana. Don’t want it. Wait a minute, what’s going on here. So I go to syndicators, there are about five big syndicators in the country, they all say the same thing. This is a great show, I’d listen to this show, but we can’t get rock ‘n’ roll on the radio. That’s a quote. You can’t get rock ‘n’ roll on the radio. We’ve come this far down where we can’t get rock ‘n’ roll on the radio. I got really, really, really pissed off. I’m like ‘what the hell have we been doing this 30 years for?

“We spent six, eight months fighting our way in. The program directors were into it, but nervous. So finally, I said, this is stupid. Let’s go to the general managers and see what we can do. I went to several cities and said ‘Listen, I’ll sell the show out for a year for you. I’m going to come to town and play your arena and that whole top row is going to be all your sponsors. I know they’ll support the show. So forget about the music, let’s talk money. This is America. I’m going to sell the show out for a year. In radio, you may know this or may not, they sell their entire inventory every month. That’s a lot of work. No thanks. We sell by the entire year. We did that in 20 cities, sold the show out for a year.

“Then I said to the general managers to tell the program director if they’re nervous about anything that it’s fine, which they did. It also helped that in most cases, not all the cases, but most, I’ll take your worst time slot. What’s the least revenue producing time slot you have? 10 o’clock Sunday night. That’s the last time it’s measured. All of a sudden that became a revenue producing slot for them.

“The first ratings books came out and went sky high, ridiculous numbers. Numbers no one’s ever seen before. Eights and 10s and 12s in a world where they struggle to get to two. All of a sudden people relax when they see those kinds of numbers. It’s not so scary after all. I don’t know what’s so scary. I’m playing 25 percent of the bands they play, you know what I mean. Just different tracks. It worked out fine.”

So when does the label figure in?

SVZ: “The label came from bands that we were playing on the radio from overseas that were saying Listen, we don’t have any American distribution, would you start a label?’ We said, alright, let’s give it a shot. It’s the worst possible time to start a label, so let’s do it. Makes sense to me. That’s why we have so many international bands.

“It’s kind of a fun challenge to figure out what the record business is going to be. I wish I had a little more time. We’re starting to make time to be creative, which I haven’t had much time to do. This Cocktail Slippers record is the first record I’ve produced in 15 years. Since the Arc Angels probably.”

How about yourself as a solo artist?

SVZ: “We got my masters back, so we’ll probably release all of those records again, which will be fun. I don’t have that much of a desire to do a solo record. I’m not saying never, but right now, I’d rather work with these new bands, maybe write a song or two for them, produce a song or two for them. It’s fun, it’s fun to do that. I want to do that more often.

“I stopped producing in the ‘90s because there was no reason to make a great record. What are you going to do with it, you know? No radio can play it, nobody. I said ‘until we start creating a new infrastructure, there’s no reason to be creative any more.’ Now we’re getting there. We have distribution in America and western Europe, a bit of a pipeline. We’ve got a solid structure on those two continents. We’ll get to Asia next year, I hope.”

What was it about the Cocktail Slippers that brought you back into producing?

SVZ: “Really it’s a prerequisite for all of our bands that they have some roots in the 50s and 60s or else we wouldn’t be playing them on radio, we wouldn’t be signing them. In their case, the last record was terrific. I heard a little girl group in them, I thought “I wonder if we could push that a little bit and go in that direction a little bit further. I talked to the girls about it. They liked the idea, making it a little bit broader, a little bit less narrow punky and making it more of a straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll group with girl group roots that you could actually hear a little more obviously. Without being nostalgic, it will still sound like a new record.

“They were into it. I said ‘let’s try some things’ and I did a song or two and before you know, I did the whole album. I brought in (his production company president) Jean Beauvior to help me out. It turned out great. I’ve got to say I’m extremely happy with the record.

Does he still have the hair?

SVZ: “No, he shaved his head completely. I didn’t ask him to do it. It would be fun to have a chief executive looking like that, with a Mohawk.”

So why do you think it is that traditional rock ‘n’ roll has gone underground? It just never made sense to me.

SVZ: “It’s a little hard to figure. It sounds a little bit like a paranoid conspiracy theory and I don’t mean to say they all sat in a room and decided this, but the way the corporate mergers have gone – and it’s not just music – I think the most homogenized genres are the ones that have been supported and been made accessible to the public, through accident or circumstance.

“You’ve got hip-hop, pop and hard rock. That’s the three big genres the mainstream supports and allows to hear on a regular basis. Coincidentally, those are the three most homogenized genres. I think consciously or not, a decision was made – ‘these rock ‘n’ roll artists are a pain in the ass. They’re kind of inconsistent, sometimes they’re really great, sometimes they’re not and who knows what they’re going to do.’

“They went back to controlling artists through production companies and, coincidentally or not, giving up the artistic development that they used to do. So it was easier to sort of watch the bottom line, make it more consistent. So you cut off all the great stuff, but you also cut off, maybe a lot of the failures, so you get this nice middle that we all call boring that they call the business. I guess it works. But along the way, the eccentricities and personality got kind of trimmed out. Rock ‘n’ roll, it’s personality. Little Richard invented it, okay. You don’t get more personality than that. That’s just how it is.

I think it’s partly that. Let’s go the easier route. We don’t really know how to make records any more because most of us are run by accountants and lawyers. So let’s not worry about that nasty, ugly process of the record making, let’s just watch the business and give it to the production companies.”

It’s the TV model, when they were no longer studios, they became distributors…

SVZ: “That’s right, that is a good analogy. I think that’s what happened. I don’t know. I think radio has certainly overreacted, becoming so obsessed with familiarity that they play 300 records. I don’t get that. I don’t get that. We have over 3,000 songs in our playbook. Nobody runs for the hills when we play something they don’t know as long as it’s great.

You say on the radio a lot that bands shouldn’t look like the audience…

SVZ: “I feel that way, I do. I think there’s been a lot of compromises and diluting of that personality thing, ending up with sometimes the band and the audience blending together. I don’t think that’s the healthiest thing.”

People want their stars.

SVZ: “I need mine, you know what I mean. But there are fewer and fewer and fewer.”

Do you think there’s ever going to be rock stars again?

SVZ: “I don’t know. We’re going to hit a gap here soon because we’re not being replaced. So there’s going to be a problem. We’re doing everything we can. That’s what’s so frustrating because things are not going fast enough. We’re doing everything we can to try to create this infrastructure that will support new rock stars, which doesn’t exist right now.

“Rock star means long term success, which is another way of saying it. That means long time development on the other side. That’s the problem. We are trying to create an infrastructure that allows development, with the long term in mind. This goes against every business principle in our society right now, so it’s a struggle. We’ll see if we win or don’t win. If we don’t win, no, there will not be any more stars. There will not be any more long term relationships where you grow up with an artist and continue into your old age with them. Which is wonderful, wonderful we’ve got 30 years with our people and who knows how much more. And the relationship is deep, it’s just like any other relationship. It’s a very valuable relationship, you can depend on it.”

So if you guys were coming out of Jersey now?

SVZ: “We might not get out. It’s hard. We are right in the middle of it and it’s even hard for us to figure out. Honestly, I think the TV show is essential to begin to hope that we can maybe break something through.”

What would that TV show look like?

SVZ: “Did you see Austin Powers, that club scene? It will look like that. It will be wildly colorful. It will have our go-go girls. It will have bands. It will have young hosts. It will have kids dancing to rock ‘n’ roll, which no one’s seen in 30 years. It will be ‘Shindig, ‘Hullabaloo’, ‘Ready Steady Go’, a little bit of (American) ‘Bandstand’. It’s easy. I know how to do it.

“The problem is every other music show that’s been on in the last 20 years has failed. So they’re extremely nervous about it. I’m like ‘They fail because they suck. Why don’t we do a show that doesn’t suck? Maybe that would work. We haven’t found that one partner yet to push the button. We’ve come very, very close.”

Would you host?

SVZ: “No, I don’t want to host. I want younger people. I might make a cameo appearance. There may be an interview segment where I interview somebody, an Ellie Greenwich, a Jeff Barry, an Andrew Loog Oldham. Maybe a little segment, but I want young people seeing their own age group or a few years older as we did. That’s what has to happen. We have to re-shock people with this stuff before they reach the inevitable diluted mainstream and just sort of give up on becoming emotionally attached to music. That’s what’s happening right now. By the time they get into to music, there’s a few things they like, but not really ‘I can’t get through the day without this.’”

It is so constant in their lives still, everybody walks around with earbuds.

SVZ: “It’s a bit of a contradiction. You’re right, there’s a lot of music being sold or stolen, being traded. They are all listening to their iPods. But I’m not getting the feeling there’s a relationship.

“Myself, before the Beatles I was a music fan, I bought singles and I loved those singles, but I didn’t care who the artist was. It was a cool record, then the next month there was another cool record. I’d buy that and I’d enjoy it, I really would. I didn’t care. I didn’t want to see them. I didn’t know who they were. The Beatles, I wanted to know who they are. It was something different. They were a band, not individuals.

That band thing hit me. That band thing I think is universal, I think is timeless. I really do. If we get on TV, that band thing will hit somebody the same way it hit. I don’t know who, I don’t know when. But there will be something magical.

“Because a great band is magical, you know what I mean. The individuals may be whatever. But when you put them together, something magical happens. That’s something that’s impossible to really analyze, that magic, though, does communicate. I’m hoping that can happen again.”

Being in a great band, when do you know its magical?

SVZ: “You just kind of know it. You scramble around, try to find the right members for a few years. Maybe, find those magical four, five. In this case it kept building.

“Bruce, it was his vision. He handpicked everybody. The same way David Chase would handpick the cast of the Sopranos. The same exact thing, When there’s no compromise in a vision like that, it tends to work.

It’s assembled in a very conscious way by somebody who’s a visionary who knows the pieces of the puzzle. Then you get on stage and you just know it.”