Connells Interview in Greenville,SC 9/13/96 ---Part One
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Note: This was done before the show with Mike Connell, Tim Harper, and Doug
MacMillan. Interview and questions by Lee Collins([log in to unmask]). Please
reprint this as much as you want to, as permission is expressly given! Please
excuse grammatical errors. I'm a math guy.
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LC: How is _WFAD_ doing now with sales and airplay?
DM: It just came out and it's really too soon to tell but....
MC: Through _Soundscan_, it's probably up near the 8,000-10,000 range.
LC: Airplay?
DM: It's a little slow right now, but the excuse is that we haven't toured in
2-3 years, so they're thinking that when the actual tour starts, that should
jump start it.
LC: Was there any premeditation on your part to make _WFAD_ more diverse in
relation to the number of songwriters?
MC: The trend is for more contributions from the other guys, which suits me
fine. With us, nothing is ever that calculated.
LC: Mike, did it take any pressure off you to produce?
MC: Yeah, it suits me fine. I like the opportunity for the other guys to
contribute songs, because mine are kind of a type, and it gets to be a little
much after five or more records. I'm not capable of branching out enough to
keep things very interesting. I'm sure that the other guys keep things very
interesting.
DM: There's the downfall. ( everyone laughs ).
LC: Doug, when you composed "Fifth Fret", I guess there was a day when you
had to present it to the band for the first time. How does it sound now
compared to then?
DM: I guess I played it for Tim first, of course, Tim produced the record,
you know. His idea was to come in on a certain day of the week and he'd tape
them on a DAT. So, I guess I wanted it to sound that way, real loud with loud
guitars, and it is.
LC: Isn't it about an abusive relationship?
DM: Emotional and verbal abuse, yeah.
LC: Do you think _WFAD_ is getting back to your musical roots? Especially for
Mike, with the Beatlesque sounds in "Start" and "Friendly Time"? George's
solo in "Smoke" is pure Hendrix, and "Let It Go" has some Zeppelin meets
Jerry Lee Lewis
sounds in there.
MC: As far as "Start" and "Friendly Time" are concerned, you're giving those
two a lot more credit than they deserve. I don't think through this stuff so
much. It's really haphazard. Well, with "Start", I'd been listening to
Teenage Fanclub ( A Scottish band) and I think that, you know, maybe The
Beatles by way of Teenage Fanclub. I still listen to The Beatles all the
time, but when I picked up the guitar on the day I wrote "Start", I probably
had been listening to Teenage Fanclub right before that. Their songs are
sorta mid-tempo. With "Friendly Time", there was this idea of a _White Album_
sort of thing going on; something zany going on.
TH: He had that on his 4-track, though....
MC: It was a little warped on the 4-track and then Tim tried to knock it up a
notch or two.
LC: I really like that song.
DM: I think we're going to play it live soon.
LC: I can sense sarcasm.
MC: A lot of people have a big problem with that song.
LC: Although I love the record, my least favorite is the "Adj.Song".
MC: That's a lot of people's least favorite.
DM: But that's one of my favorites!! ;)
MC: It's really tongue-in-cheek.
LC: I think the concept was good but...
TH: It's just the execution! ( everyone laughs )
DM: On paper it was great.
LC: "Brown" is a great song. Why didn't it make the cut?
MC: Yeah, I wanted it to be on the record, but it didn't make the cut. What
can I say? I wanted it there. "Brown" just didn't make the cut.
TH: But there's only one reason it didn't.
MC: What's that?
TH: We felt the record might be too long, just too unwieldy for someone to
try to digest 15 songs...
MC: So in the voting, it was the 15th song, and the decision was to keep only
the top
14 , so "Brown" didn't make it. We had to take that one off the record.
LC: What's your favorite song on _WFAD_?
MC: I think that "Too High" might be my favorite, and it almost got yanked
due to the vote.
LC: It must have been # 14?( No response )
What about you, Doug?
DM: I like the "Adj.Song"( laughing ). I love that song, I really do, because
it's so tongue in cheek.
LC: You two just don't want to hurt each other's feelings...
DM: No, this is my pat answer, that it's one of my favorite songs. That, and
"Pretty Rough". The "Adj.Song" to me is really funny and it, uh, just kicks
in on the chorus, I think.
MC: When I took the "Adj.Song" in, I was just thinking "this is such
nonsense", there's no way the band is gonna go for this, and I thought that
it was completely tongue in cheek and the best description I've heard for it
so far is that it's a " warped addendum to schoolhouse rock".
DM: I still like what Kristi ( Mike's wife) said: "Nirvana meets Mr.Rogers".
MC: But then it occured to me soon after we worked it up that it really
didn't translate the fact that it was tongue in cheek.
LC: I'm assuming "Maybe" will be released after "Fifth Fret"?
MC: I think that's the case.
LC: "Back to Blue" would be a good third single.
MC: I think that would be a fine choice.
DM: I think they should go to the AAA for that one. Adult Alternate
whatever...where Natalie Merchant and all those guys retire.
LC: Who's the person who helped on "Back to Blue"?
DM: You probably remember Lifeboat, don't you?
LC: Yeah.
Greg "Skeggy" Kendall, the guy with the blond hair.
MC: He also wrote the music for _Bandwagon_, the movie that John Schultz
wrote and directed.
LC: Doug, tell us about _Bandwagon_.
DM: We're hoping it will come out. I play the tour manager of a band.
MC: It's really good. It was accepted at the Sundance film festival in
Raleigh.
DM: We're just waiting for them to get it to the distributor. It's got some
pretty funny moments in it, actually. The music really makes it.
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End of part one of the 9/13/96 Greenville interview. Part two will be typed
soon.
E-mail me direct and tell me what you think.
Lee Collins
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