Clutch’s Neil Fallon: The Gun Shy Interview
Posted by Chris Harris on November 2, 2010 in Exclusive, Gun Shy Interview
Clutch frontman Neil Fallon
Unfortunately, the albums the band is re-releasing now on its own label, Weathermaker — 2004’s Blast Tyrant, 2005’s Robot Hive/Exodus, and 2007‘s From Beale Street to Oblivion — the band made no money on.
“Those were all released on DRT initially, and that was a three-record deal,” frontman Neil Fallon tells Gun Shy Assassin. “We started our own label after the fact but DRT — to make a long story short — never paid us what we were owed for the sale of those records, so we sued them in state court in New York, and when all was said and done, they couldn’t pay us because they didn’t have the money. So the judge awarded us ownership back of the masters of those three records. So we are re-releasing them 1.) Because now they’re fully ours, and 2.) Its a little psychological revenge for us…the satisfaction of finally getting our due with these records.”
I urge you to go and buy these records again, especially if you only illegally downloaded them the first time they were released. There will be new additions to the discs, including re-worked art by my college roommate Nick Lakiotes.
“Whatever spelling errors were in the lyrics, we got a second chance to correct that and put the Weathermaker logo on it — that’s the big part,” Fallon says. “Sometimes I think, when bands hear that another band has their own label, they see it as a sign of failure because you’re not signed to a label. But Jesus, its a no-brainer. If you can do it yourself, by all means.”
Now that Clutch are on their own, Fallon says “we’re never ever going back — that much I know with certainty.” They’ve been screwed over by both independent and major labels and he thinks that “fans of any band would probably more appreciate the fact that you’re buying that record straight from the band and not a third party.” I would.
“I think sometimes there’s a myth that independent labels are more righteous; well, that’s a lie,” he says. “In this day and age, its hard to sell records, and DRT fell victim of their own 1985 business model. Some folks — still, to this day — think you need to spend a half million dollars to make anything of credible artistic value. But all the best classic rock records in the world were made for a pittance and it’s almost like the wiser you become about business, the less business is involved in the art and that frees up a musician to be a musician.”
The good news is the band is now working on a follow-up to 2009’s Strange Cousins From the West, the first Weathermaker release. “We’re just starting the process of writing, but we’re always writing,” Fallon tells Gun Shy. “But when there’s a self-imposed deadline, we don’t really put the nose to the grindstone. When we get back home, after New Year’s, we’re really going to buckle down and start writing and I would hope we’re finished recording by May and it will probably be out this same time next year.”
Before they hit the studio, though, they’ll be playing a spate of holiday shows with Kylesa. The New Year’s Eve gig is set for Asheville, North Carolina. “Kylesa are a fantastic band and they’re good people,” Fallon says. “Sometimes, they’re great bands but they’re dicks. Sometimes, they’re really nice but a terrible band and Kylesa’s awesome in all regards.”
