Sustained appeal away from home
Placed among those touring acts that have enjoyed a close and enduring affiliation with this country, Seattle rock band the Walkabouts, formed in the mid-1980s, have garnered a considerable Greek following since first visiting in the early 90s. The group’s dark, haunting and, at times, abrasive material has proven far more popular in Europe than at home. The paradoxical appeal pattern has been the same for Chris & Carla, a milder, warmer-sounding offshoot project initiated in 1993 by the band’s nucleus, Chris Eckman and Carla Torgerson. There have been three Chris & Carla studio albums so far, as well as two live recordings. One of these, 1995’s «Nights Between Stations,» was recorded in Thessaloniki with backing from local musicians. Eckman and Torgerson had canceled a show in the northern city because of sound-related technical problems at the venue. The pair pledged to return and did so several months later, hiring a mobile recording unit to document the occasion. Eckman, nowadays married and based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Torgerson, who remains in Seattle, were back in Greece just days ago in support of their latest Chris & Carla outing, «Fly High Brave Dreamers.» Kathimerini English Edition caught up with them for a chat between shows in Athens and Thessaloniki. Considering the time that had elapsed since the previous Chris & Carla release [1998’s «Swinger 500»], was it a surprise for you to do this new one, or was it something you knew would happen? C. E: I think we knew eventually we’d do another one. C. T: We always look forward to projects, but we don’t try to force them to happen if it’s not a good time for them to happen. We were in a situation where the Walkabouts had just done an album and all of the others needed to kind of work and tend to fires, and all that opened up a window for us again to see what we could do. C. E: And the last Walkabouts record was a very defined kind of sound, a rock record, and I don’t think the next move for the Walkabouts, even on an artistic level, was very clear. The Chris & Carla records have always served like an incubator for ideas, because on these records we don’t really have to work as close with other people, so we can follow whatever whim runs through our minds very easily. It’s easier to explore, or get lost in your own ideas, when working with fewer people. There’s more personal control over the music… C. E: Yes, that’s true. But I think what we did with this record, we took a specific approach to try to prevent that. We basically split the record in two halves. One half was done in my small studio with my equipment, and we really built things up piece by piece. Then the other half was more out in the air. We brought in a group of musicians and we got them to hear and play on the spot. There were no rehearsals. The rehearsal was the recording. So I think that kept it from being too insular and claustrophobic. C. T: In the song «Rising Backwards» it was Chris and I in his room, and he had added some cosmic-sounding sounds, and with the title of the song I was thinking, «Now it’s getting out into space a little bit.» So I figured I wanted to bring the listener back to earth. I said: «Water. Let’s do bubble through water.» So we brought in a bucket of water, I pushed a plastic bottle down into it, and there was Chris with the microphone over it. C. E: She destroyed the microphone! C. T: I don’t think that in a room full of six or seven people you would take the time to record bubbles. So, what makes you decide whether to do a Walkabouts or Chris & Carla album? C. E: Each time we’ve done a Chris & Carla album, we were at a junction where we did not know what to do next. The first Chris & Carla album [1995’s «Life Full of Holes» featuring REM’s Peter Buck and Tindersticks members] was essentially that. We had had a long period of albums and tours and we could sense a collective exhaustion among the rest of the band. But Carla and I didn’t exactly feel like going to Tahiti. We just felt like there were songs to write and things to do. C. T: Now that I think of it, we had decided to go to Morocco after a Walkabouts tour, and we basically went down there with the idea of searching for the seeds to songs that might turn into a Chris & Carla album. As for the latest album, I sense a political undercurrent running through the material. C. E: The last Walkabouts album was really highly charged politically. I think that at least if we were going to talk about politics on this album, we wanted to try and do it on a personal level rather than a broad, big-picture kind of thing. This may sound cliched, but we all need to find hope between the cracks now. C. T: One of the biggest political attitudes is the song «Whatever It Takes.» Toward the end, we sing: «God is such a mess/Forgiveness is a messy business.» How more simply could it be put, because that could be adjusted to any person of any religion. Everyone’s taught to grow up and be able to say, «I’m sorry,» but it’s so hard for certain leaders right now. C. E: Well, it’s not to their advantage. The post-9/11 drama, then, has crept into your work. C. E: I think so, sure… C. T: We had to do interviews that day in Italy. Almost immediately, we were telling those first interviewers, «Well I hope Bush doesn’t go to war over this.» The writing was on the wall. I was like, «Oh my God, this is going to start a huge avalanche.» And avalanches are hard to stop when they’re huge. It’s affected every single country – this whole security issue and fear that’s been unleashed. C. E: It’s sad that people exploit real tragedy for their own rather transparent political goals. Does your music continue to be more popular in Europe than in the USA? C. E: Yeah. This record has no US release. The last Walkabouts record, too. We had a run there with the previous three records, but the label went under. It was our second bad experience with a label. C. T: We might have to start to get a little more modern and use things like CD Baby [online distribution]. I guess I’m a little bit tired of our friends not being able to find our music. We’ll get modern… Have you been following any of the newer work being released, like some of the folk-type music from young American artists that’s developed into a scene? C. E: Yeah, I know some of it – this kind of new-folk thing. I follow some of it. Some of it I’ve heard and don’t really get. There’s a lot I haven’t heard. I think Joanna Newsom is really interesting. Very singular and a very developed artist for somebody who’s only done two albums. C. T: I like Laura Veirs. She’s great, and she’s great live, and I like her as a soloist. She’s so honest. Just real. C. E: As for this new-folk thing, I’m always a little afraid of movements. Folk music’s never really gone away. So, it’s funny when they talk about a folk revival, which I think is a bit of a contradiction in terms. Has this been a good tour? C. E: We’ve had good audiences, so we can’t complain. C. T: It’s been a five-week tour with a few more shows to go. We missed some pretty big cities, so we’re thinking of coming back in the fall. It’s been pleasant. It’s still work, but it’s somehow working. Has touring worn you out over the years? C. E: Well, it has worn us out. That’s why we don’t do it so often. You must do it sometimes for financial reasons. There’s no point in being too romantic about it. But, on the other hand, I think we don’t do it only for the money. If that were the case, we’d do it a lot more. But there’s a dividend you pay with your personal life when you do that and I don’t think either of us, at this point, are willing to live that. And it does mess you up. Probably the highest points and lowest points in my life have been on the road – but I underline the low points. C. T: Beyond the performances, and the selling of CDs at shows, which, actually, is our salary, I think it’s about the wish to further explore the material that you just recorded. You don’t understand songs 100 percent if you just record them. You have to go out and present them.
