Connells Interview in Greenville,SC 9/13/96 ---Part One ------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ------------------------------------------------------------- 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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