One thing that isn’t slated to appear anytime soon is the much talked about, but little known D.V.D. that Clutch have been working on.
“We’ve had a D.V.D. in the works for about the last seven years! (Laughs) So when it comes out, it will come out. There’s definitely no targeted deadline. There are a number of reasons why it hasn’t happened yet. One is that we’ve never had the funds to film some great concert footage. Another reason is that we’re also not the kind of band that has a video camera in the van. No one in the bands wants to be that guy. Besides, when the camera goes on, we all clam up. It’s something that’s hard to understand because we’re all so preoccupied with other things, so it’s been kind of very piecemeal collecting footage for the D.V.D. I think the best thing for to do would be to simply bite the bullet, find someone and hire them to film the footage we need. If we don’t do that, I don’t know if it will ever get done.”
That’s not to say that there isn’t enough footage lying around to put together a Clutch D.V.D. however.
“I think that’s a very good question. We do have enough footage now that we could easily put a D.V.D. out there on the market, but I wouldn’t feel very proud of it. I think putting out a D.V.D. is a pretty powerful thing because it allows the outside world to get to know you, and if you give them a piece of crap, it’s not much of a leap to have them thinking of you in the same way. We don’t want to do that by simply putting out a D.V.D. just for the sake of putting one out.”
Clutch isn’t exactly a household name, but those who do follow the band are obviously diehard fans, which inevitably give the band a cult like status. While most would crave to breakout of the underground in into the major league, Fallon admits that their current level of success if something the whole band are more than happy with.
“You can look at the situation as the glass being half empty, or half full. We do great considering that we get to do this full time. I mean this is all we do. We’ve managed to stick together because we enjoy what we do, and because we’re a democracy. At this point, we can’t imagine jamming with somebody else under this name. That would simply be too bizarre. Humour and a fear of a day job drive us in this band, so we’re happy with doing this. A lot of times popularity is because it’s not threatening and an easy thing for people to like and they don’t feel intimidated by it. Most music fits into that equation. There are a lot of people out there with a lot of different tastes, and I don’t think anybody is right or wrong about those tastes. We just choose not to follow those particular tastes. We do what we do, and I think it’s just a little different to most. Put it this way, if we sounded like everybody else, we would be pretty damn boring! (Laughs)”
As mentioned before, one of the most striking aspects of Clutch is Fallon’s ability to come up with some of the strangest, twisted and memorable lyrics ever to proliferate rock and roll. It’s only one of the band’s most misconstrued elements as well.
“I think sometimes people hear the delivery of the music and the lyrics combined lead people to assume that there’s some element of violence there. Early on, when I wrote that stuff when I was around nineteen years old, some of the lyrical content was very juvenile I think. They were aggressive, and I think that set a somewhat of an unfortunate precedent. But these days, it’s all about good time rock and roll. Another thing that people don’t realise is that there’s no real clear-cut issue I’m voicing. If there is a message, then I’m unaware of it! (Laughs) A lot of times I’ll put words in because I like the sound of those words. I understand that a lot of the lyrics I write are hard to figure out just what they’re all about, but I too have trouble finding out the meaning behind those words too! I think in that element of being vague, it leaves a lot of room for interpretation, so in the end, nobody is right, and nobody is wrong.”
That hasn’t stopped some fans claiming that they understand a particular message that Fallon is trying to put across.
“It is strange to have someone coming up to you and claiming that they totally understand what you’re trying to say in a particular song, and knowing full well that you weren’t trying to say anything in particular in the first place. I don’t know what they’re saying. There are always those people out there that are going to find what they want to hear regardless of what you tell them. If it weren’t one of my songs, it would have been the next guy’s effort. But hey, if people are going to spend that much time analysing them, it at the very least makes me feel good.”
Speaking conceptually, the cover artwork accompanying ‘Robot Hive/Exodus’ on the other hand does have a theme running through it, but again, it’s not what you would assume.
“Well we sat down with Nick Lakiotes, who created the cover, and one of the things that we were lamenting is the death of the vinyl record artwork. You can do great things on twelve inches by twelve inches of cardboard. I remember going home and putting on the headphones and staring at the album artwork. It was like this static video that you could lose yourself in. That’s too bad, because you know you don’t have to use your imagination much these days because you can put on the D.V.D. extras and watch the band spit at each other and what have you. So this was sort of like that. I like the old Yes artwork, and even bands like Asia and a lot of the old metal bands. Lakiotes just read the lyrics without listening to the music and drew inspiration from different metal images he had. He eventually put together this eclectic mural of a creation about some kind of robot race. We think it looks great, but there’s no real deep meaning behind the imagery beyond Lakiotes’ own ideas.”
After numerous missed opportunities and bad timing, Clutch are finally making their way down to Australia for the first time ever, and it’s obvious that the band are excited by the opportunity.
“None of us have been down there before, unless of course one of us are leading a secret life! (Laughs) I’m glad it’s finally happening. There has been a few times in the past where we’ve been offered to come down, but it’s always been a case of the timing not being right, being either logistically or financially, or other prior obligations clashing with the schedule. It’s only been in the last couple of years when it’s become feasible for us to finally do this.”
If coming down for the first time wasn’t exciting enough, the fact that the first two shows sold out almost instantly only heightened the bands anticipation to play to fans.
“I was floored. Before that happened I went in with the attitude of just being happy to be there and play to just five people at the venue. I thought that would have been cool because we would be there in Australia. But to hear that these shows went clean like that is shocking. I have also heard that the couple of dates added on after the sold out shows have been selling fast too, so it’s fantastic! I didn’t realise there were so many fans down there, but now I do. We promise to put on a sincere straight ahead rock and roll show. I understand that it’s our first time there, but we’ll try and play everything that everyone wants to hear, knowing full well that we won’t be able to of course! (Laughs) But we will try our damnedest, and make sure that people will remember us!”
While Fallen didn’t have expectation on ticket sales, he’s quick to point out that he knows exactly what sort of crowd Clutch will be playing to here in Australia.
“If there’s one thing I’ve found while travelling everywhere is that when you get a large group of people into a nightclub, and they start drinking beer and there’s a lot of loud music, everybody, despite their nationality is exactly the same. It’s like an international language of rock clubs! (Laughs) I’m just looking forward to meeting people on a very one on one level. That’s one of the great things about being in a band. You get to do a lot of travelling, but you’re never really a tourist. You get to meet people and talk to them, and get a real grassroots understanding of what the country’s like.”
Unfortunately, time constraints means that while Clutch will be in Australia, they’re not likely going to see much while here.
“I think what we’ll be seeing most of is nightclubs and aeroplanes because there’s a lot of travelling involved in touring a place like Australia. Given the opportunity I would love to go see Ayers Rock, but I understand that’s a little bit out of the way. Everyone I talk to that’s been to Australia is always stung by the plant life, so if I manage to get a couple of plants, I’ll be happy.” [END]
