Buffalo Tom Interview

Sometime in 1991

The Umbunctious Llamas? Pinhead, Scrawny,Wheels ? Perhaps I can help. The former? An early beginning to a blossoming career, the latter their most recent incarnation. Well, stretching the truth a bit. We are, of course, talking about the collective heading of Buffalo Tom. Boston Noise Merchants, to coin a completely inept phrase, currently `on the road' with the Wedding Present, (that's if you are able to project yourself into the world this interview inhabits).

Bill Janowitz, Tom mcGinnis, Chris Colburn on their first trip to the cold north, at least it was at that time. Janowitz, vocals, lead guitar, answered most of the curiosity whilst cheerfully supping his beer, with occasional words of shy wisdom from McGinnis and the odd appearance of Colburn.

The Basics : formed at school, The University of Massa-chusetts to be precise, three guitar players into the same sort of music but in bands not going where they wanted to be. Chris switched to Bass, Tom to Drums `strenuous at first and it took a while', they made some demos and eventually landed themselves a record deal. And the name ?

`Tom's a really shy guy, he wouldn't really want the band named after him and my name is Bill so .... it's kinda take-off from Buffalo Springfield as well really.'

After the first eponymously titled album came a new record deal with Beggars Banquet. `It's really crazy all these labels, once they hear one label is interested they all wanna hear about it, they don't wanna miss the next Michael Jackson or something !'

With their small office and the all important major distrib-ution, Beggar's Banquet won the race. Buffalo Tom didn't feel quite ready for the big names like RCA and Warners.

The result was Birdbrain, a second foray into the land inhabited by the presence of Dinosaur Jnr frontman and general all round clever person, J Mascis. How did they first come into contact with him ?

`He went to school in Amherst where the university of Mass. is situated....it's a big university but a small town so it was kinda inevitable that other people who are into the same sort of music know each other. Dinosaur's second album had just come out and Mascis was interested in doing some production other than his own band. So, when our record company asked if we had anyone in mind we suggested him.'

And if any of you have the same strange wish to know inane details about the man they don't call hyperactive, the J stands for Joseph, at least that's what Bill said.

They may or may not work with him again, it's not a personal thing (relax J) and recording on the new album has probably already started by the time you read this. There is a tentative release date set for January.

Bill says he doesn't mind the Dinosaur Jnr references, his brother's band Cold Water Flak are already getting Dinosaur Jnr Jnr Jnr comparisons, but would obviously like to get away from the tag a bit. He sees more direct influences on the band with Husker Du and the Replacements, but as a songwriter he relates personally more to Van Morrison, Bob Dylan and Neil Young. To him it's the songs that matter : `It's just the fact that we play them really loud through Marshall Amps that obviously effects how they turn out!'

There's no inherent Buff Tom `philosophy', just the songs. He's not interested in being a certain type of band, grunge or otherwise. This he sees as being very traditional, adding that BT songs transfer well into acoustic. melody more than anything else is the key.

`The feedback we got from the last record was that there wasn't enough catchy poppier or fast stuff that is considered singles orientated so there's a lot more catchy melody in the next record. But if people liked the last record, I think they'll like the next one.'

Unfortunately for Bill this creates a bit of a problem with the lyrics.

`The lyrics are becoming more and more difficult....the first record I just didn't think people would listen to them - or even hear them !'

Feedback revealed that people were doing just that and having to think about it made it worse:

`It used to be that the music and the lyrics came together now the music's coming out quicker than the words, it's hard to make it sound natural.'

There is one ness about BT songs, Janowitz described them as impressionistic which fits nicely, relationships are the only thing that he can pin down as a possible underlying theme in his songs `composites of personalities' that merge together to create a feeling.

But now I'm beginning to sound like a post Joycian pretentious bullshitter. One more arty question and we'll have done the major prose. What about the record covers, those strange creations that make Buffalo Tom stand out from the rest of the A to C section of a record shop. As liberal art majors, that's graduates to you and me, they can claim a broad interests and knowledge about art that makes them interested in all aspects of record production including videos and art direction.

`It's a kinda pain in the arse at times cos we all get in a room and it's like two days to make a decision and everyone'll have a different opinion.... but we want to be democratic about it. The two covers were done by friends of ours, the second cover was an existing piece of work that our friend Bob put together with the graphics.'

We then proceeded to expose our ignorance of pop TV by admitting we hadn't caught either of the bands videos on the box, one of which had to be re-edited for the BBC because of a scene with a Voodoo doll !

Voodoo was ok for the states, but they encountered problems with MTV over the video for Birdbrain:

`We had a lightsaw, blowtorch effect with an aerosol, it looked really great on video - came out really colourful. MTV told us it was a bad example for children! If you see some of the MTV stuff in the states it's just complete trash - something I wouldn't want my kids to watch if I had any ! It was so outta line. Here we have a small band, show the video maybe three times after twelve o'clock. So we re-edited that and they showed it with the lightsaw footage anyway !'

For such a small band, as Janowitz puts it, they've been lucky with the TV coverage they've received :

`Either Beggar's Banquet paid 'em off or they liked our stuff !'

And the Media in general ?

`We've done really well with the three weeklies over here, well two weeklies now, unfortunately Sounds was our biggest supporter. We've done Peel Sessions and stuff too. Europe's pretty much the same. There's not anything like the weeklies in the states. Spin is somewhat alternative, Rolling Stone is trying to regain some integrity back so we got in that.'

He sees their performance overall in Europe and the States as pretty consistent, with the cities the major factor in their popularity. Any problems have come with the promoters, but again on that point they've been lucky so far. No horror stories to entertain us with.

`We deal with pretty reputable agencies so they don't want to screw around... they don't want to jeopardise their deals with the more lucrative bands.'

At this point in the convers-ation band namesake Tom managed to stand on our tape recorder carefully placed in the middle of the floor, but it survived. Just like BT on tour.

`We could be on tour a lot more than we are and therefore probably making more money, but it'd drive you crazy after a while, just like all the old cliches. It's a crazy thing to do like being in a rock club every night....physically it's exhausting. Real peaks and valleys.'

So was there a Keith Moon side to any of them, any wrecked hotel rooms, TV's out of the window and the like ? Tom grinned sheepishly in the corner while Bill admitted to : ` No sex, No drugs and very little Rock and Roll !'

Crowd reaction they divulged could be a little strange at times. One Parisian skinhead thought it would be `refreshing' for the band if she threw beer at them. When Bill pointed out that refreshing it wasn't she spat at him. When he reacted by spitting back she went crazy, kicking and scratching at him. By the end of the night the "fascist heavy duty security" - complete with dogs - had given her a stun gun ! This had obviously had a bit of a negative effect on Bill, (as presumably it did with the skinhead !), but other than that they usually get a good reaction - listing Leeds and London as the most crazy slammers !

As far as the image goes, far from being trend setters:

`We're not very conscious about it. In the last year or so people keep bringing it up. A lot of people would like us to have some kinda image and in a sense I think we do - in not having a `real life' rock image !'

You can't win really can you. Practical is probably the word that springs to mind - Bill brings :

`A pair of jeans and some shirts on tour. We change our shirt after a show cos it's sweaty !'

There's no Sub Pop long hair or Spinal Tap Stonehenge sets on stage, just energy. Well almost...

`We went out and spent money on a backdrop that hasn't seen the light of day as it's technically impossible to rig it up in almost all the places we play !'

This lack of any distinct image including the lack of a `frontman' of a particularly egotistic nature, plus the slowish solid growth of their popularity has helped them as a band. They get on well together `no threatened walk outs or anything.'

The only thing that might get to them would be the rigours of touring. Tom puts it aptly :' There's just moments when you kinda bum out...you can be in a really bad mood and just wanna go home.' London was the only place they felt they became too popular too quickly, going from postage stamp stages to the Town and Country Club. Musically they agree they weren't ready for it then, now, however they're more than ready to cope.

There is one obstacle in their way, the one we all know about, a little word beginning with m and ending in y, bucks. Buffalo Tom don't earn as much financially as the three would like. All have to hold down `normal' jobs back in the states, ideally they would like to give them up to concentrate entirely on the band. Tom is a Video Editor on a cable TV station - `it's small and boring'. Bill works in a print shop that `lets me come and go ', whilst Chris is a jazz and folk booking agent. Chris is the only band member doing the sort of job he'd like to, but because of the band he can't commit himself as much to progress to the level he'd like to be at. It's a vicious circle.

As far as ambitions to play a particular place go, it works somewhat differently : `With us it's like, where do we want to go and see ? So we'll go and play there !' Australia and Japan were the two uncharted territories that sprang to mind. Offers from Australia and New Zealand probably mean they'll be touring there soon.

As the time began to beckon towards curtain call the conversation began to drift towards the general and , well the not so general - Food, Weather, John Lydon, Scottish Accents : `Some guy asked me a question and I had to get him to repeat it five times !' Bill on New York : `I love New York but I don't think I ever really wanna live anywhere near it again....I love going there but every time I feel my stomach knot up ! Everything is just very intense, Boston's much more laid back....I just can't handle paying five dollars for a beer !' Jane's Addiction : We're not part of their club maaan ! ...I don't care for their music, but independent of that we know a lot of bands who did some dates with them - Dinosaur included - and they have these certain regulations and things. For instance Perry Farrel makes the bands agree to do only fast songs, only certain songs, if they're gonna open for them. He just has this whole idea about he's the big star.'

Drugs: It's hard to play when you're on acid. I think we tried it once and I just didn't want anything to do with my guitar! It was like people are watching me, people are watching me `!Paranoia !'

Peter Buck : I don't wanna name drop or anything, but we stayed with Peter Buck while we were in Athens. And we were shown round his house. He's got this room, there's not much REM stuff on the wall, but he's got this picture of him shaking hands with Tipper Gore (of the PMRC censorship group in the US). He's looking kinda soppy with droopy eyes and his wife was telling us that he said `Ok, the only reason that I'm going to do this thing is to tell her what I think, what I feel about this !' But when he got there he was so overcome with the flu all he could say was `I think what you are doing is wrong '. She just kinda smiled, took the picture and left !'

We didn't have quite enough time to finish our discussion on the Gun Laws of America before they had to head for the backdropless stage.

So we just smiled, shook hands and left....

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