|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interview |
|
|
|
|
|
|
by Monique Montibon, NetCafe Editor Upon first glance, his lean frame and dark wavy
hair may be vaguely reminiscent of the young Bob Dylan in "Don't Look
Back" -- minus the cigarette and acerbic wit. Take another look and
you'll find that he's humorous, unassuming, and more charming than the
legendary folk hero. His voice rings just as sweet as Paul McCartney's in his
heyday, and his compositions are as literate and unique as anything that
Elvis Costello has created. He's Chris von Sneidern, also known as CvS, one
of the most talented singer/songwriters to surface in a great long while. A Syracuse native, CvS moved to San Francisco in
1985 and joined a few successive pop bands. After a short stint with Paul
Collins (The Beat) that lead him back to New York, he returned to the City by
the Bay to pursue a solo career. Since 1994, this multi-instrumentalist has
released four critically-acclaimed albums, including last year's Wood + Wire,
and worked with a variety of artists, including E (Eels) and Jewel. He also
performs with three local bands and runs his own studio, Ordophon-Upon-Avon,
where he's producer, mixer and engineer. The free-spirited musician has
become a cult hero within the independent pop music scene, but it's time for
the rest of the world to take notice. In the tradition of Brian Wilson and
John Lennon, he's experimenting with his sound. He's currently working on a
soul album, tentatively titled CvSoul. [Which will become The Sportsmen “Spirited”
CD] On a beautiful San Francisco afternoon, CvS took
some time off to chat with Monique Montibon in the NetCafe about his recent
work and his future plans. Interview: I think one of the best ways for someone to sustain a musical career is to keep trying new things. After making a name for yourself in the pop world, it seems natural that you would want to branch out, but what made you want to do a soul album? Chris von Sneidern: I wanted to do something that was less confined to that very narrow genre of power pop. I like power pop, but I've got all this art I want to make, and I thought maybe I'd have a little fun and do something else. I wanted to do something that I felt was a part of my personality, and I think there's a voice in there for me to sing something a little more over the top. So when will it be out? CvS: This fall in Japan, and depending on when the band is ready to go and when we finish the record, I would say maybe the New Year [domestically]. I want it to be good. Because I'm experimenting, I'm more apt to double-check myself on this project than on, say, the last one. You're categorized as a pop artist, yet your work has evolved into something that's more literate and more complex than what most people associate with the average, catchy, three-minute pop song. And now you're making a soul record. Do you feel that being so closely associated with the pop genre will hinder the introduction of your new material to a wider audience? CvS: That is a concern. I've named the group The Sportsmen, and the title of the album is CvSoul, which is still up for debate. I wanted to keep the thread that it's very much my thing, but I didn't want to say this is a new Chris von Sneidern record, because I also wanted to have this be a band. I figure if there was any time to call it a band, this is the time, because it is so different. That's part of [what] I'm doing to help prevent any confusion and alienation. I could always go back to making power pop and call it Chris von Sneidern and pick up where I left off. Although, it's really not, to me, any different than what I've done before except for the attitude. I'm using the same sensibilities that I applied to my other records. I just used different musicians and picked a few covers. There's moments on this new record that aren't much different than the opening track on my first album. But yeah, I will admit people do get confused, especially when they can't generalize it and pigeonhole it. In addition to reworking your sound, you've been reworking your shows and performing without a guitar. How's that been going? CvS: It's scary. Yeah? CvS: Yeah. Because the guitar is something that you're holding when you're performing. It covers your body, it gives you something to do to keep the beat with, and it also makes a lot of noise. I think when front people who are used to playing the guitar don't have that in their hands, they don't know what to do with their hands. It's a security blanket. So you have to relearn, that's what I'm doing. Are you enjoying it? CvS: Well, I haven't had much of a chance because I've only done two shows like that. I've heard live tapes of those shows, and the first thing I could tell is that I sing much better. It's a lot of fun because you can move around and it's a lot more show-biz. Everybody's got a band and everybody's got a guitar, but more often than not there's a guitar player who sings. Roger Daltrey didn't have a guitar! CvS: Exactly! You're going to have to go out and swing the mike. CvS: I've got a few tricks. You know, there's Elvis [Presley], Roger Daltrey, Steve Marriott and the [Small] Faces, Rod Stewart... Robert Plant. CvS: Yeah! And then there's all the soul singers. They didn't play guitars. None of them played guitars, they all sang. Are you going to tour that way? CvS: Yeah. The new band is drums and bass, [and] I have a guitar player. I feel for him because I'm a guitar player and I'm going to be looking to him to really carry the show in a way. We've also got Pete Sears from Rod Stewart's band playing piano on the record. It's going to be fun. On a live level it's going to be better than the record, as opposed to all the Chris von Sneidern records that were really polished and worked up and perfected, and the live thing was a skeleton of the record. You've put out almost an album a year since 1994. At the moment you're a cult hero of sorts, and like it or not, somewhat of a critic's darling. But what's the ultimate goal for you in your career? CvS: Movies. Yeah? CvS: I think, yeah. I like music, [but] it's a young man's game. But you're still a young man! CvS: Well, I'm planning on the future, I won't be a young man forever! Last year I made a cameo appearance in this flick called Conceiving Ada. I played myself as this street musician, and I like the way it looked. Anybody who's chosen performing as a profession always likes to see themselves on the big screen. It's like hearing yourself for the first time on a record. It's pretty exciting. I like what Mike Myers is doing. I think he's got a cool thing going on. Right, with the Austin Powers movies. CvS: I could be wrong, but I imagine he's going to make up another character. He's the mad genius borrowing from the past and putting a catchy twist on it and making funny films that are probably a lot of fun to make. Kind of like making a record that borrows from the past, like my new soul record. It takes things from Rod Stewart records, Otis Redding records. I took an Allen Toussaint song and changed the beat around to a shuffle beat from a Gary Glitter song, and made something that is very much me. Even if you caught the Gary Glitter beat, you would still be able to enjoy the record because it's not a Gary Glitter rip-off. But if you've never heard of Gary Glitter and never heard that song, you would still go, "Oh, that's a cool idea, that's something new." To me that's a good way of borrowing from the past without ripping anybody off or insulting somebody's intelligence. Are you actively pursuing a film career now? CvS: I'm too busy keeping a band together and paying my rent. I get too many ideas and then it takes me two years to follow them through because I'm too busy sticking to what I'm doing now. You need a secretary! CvS: I do, but I don't have one! I'm learning to give up control. For the past five years I've been in total control of everything. I write all the songs on my records, I come up with all the arrangements, I record everything, engineer it, mix it, play everything, and I just got sick of it! So [I'm] not playing guitar, not playing everything, not recording in my own studio... I'm not even going to be in charge of the album's title or the artwork. I'm just going to do what I do, and then get the best person I know to help me make those decisions, rather than assume that I'm the best person. I figure no matter what, it's still going to sound like Chris von Sneidern. It's still me. That's the mark of someone who has established his own sound. CvS: To go out on a limb perilously, sometimes when you imitate somebody, you can do the imitation better than the actual person. I think I know what you mean. CvS: Like when someone imitates Ronald Reagan, they do a better Ronald Reagan than Ronald Reagan does. I usually get really exaggerated. CvS: That's the thing, you take the identifying thing and you exaggerate it. I think that's what happens when somebody from outside a genre goes into another genre. I'm doing soul music, I'm probably capturing certain things and overplaying [them], and maybe completely missing a certain subtlety. Some people may see that as "You do soul music better than soul people." [Or] one might think, "I don't like soul music, but I like the Chris von Sneidern soul record because it's so broken down and simplified." When you do something different, sometimes you can hit it right on the head. You are maintaining a solo career, but you're also playing with a few other bands. How is that going and how does it all fit into your grand plan? CvS: I think that it's probably good for me to play with other people. But a lot of times I feel like I'm barely giving enough of myself to my own thing. The business of Chris von Sneidern is top priority, and it should be. Right now I'm a side man in three other projects. Which are... CvS: The Saturn V, organ player; a [new] group called Triple Shiner, I'm playing Wurlitzer piano; and Map of Wyoming, which is a Flying Color offshoot, playing piano and guitar and singing and helping with producing. [Sometimes] I think, "I just gotta stop doing it, cut back, help them out but not as a full-time member of the band." Then I'll play and have a good night, and I'm just really glad I did it because it's fun and I'm not the front guy, [I'm not] the person everybody runs to with questions and problems. You're also going to be playing in the upcoming IPO [International Pop Overthrow] festival in Los Angeles on July 30th. Are you going to have a full band? CvS: I'm going to get a pickup band, and that's kind of what people do at IPO. You're doing a 20-minute set, and anyone who doesn't live in Los Angeles isn't going to bring their whole band. God bless them if they do! But there's no money in it unless you sell some CDs and T-shirts. I'm just going to get a pickup band and play some covers and play some of my songs and have fun. Are you going to roll out the new material? CvS: For this, I don't know. That's one little task I haven't taken on because it's not until the end of July. I gotta get on that pretty soon. That whole crowd -- everybody loves everybody, so I'm sure it'll be fun and I'm not worried about it. It's a good night. It'll be packed, and it's at the Troubadour so that'll be cool. I've been dealt a good hand by the IPO people. So what about the shows that you've got coming up in the fall at Café du Nord [recently named the Best Bar in San Francisco by Rolling Stone]? Is that going to be a regular gig? CvS: Well, it's kind of like the [Elvis] Costello and [Steve] Nieve thing -- grand piano, and I play guitar and sing, although, like I said before, I'm not playing much guitar so I'll probably set it down. But being that I'm doing a regular, once-a-week thing for a month or so, I'm going to mix it up. I'm going to probably have a standup bass for the drums and have a bunch of different people come play. Does it sound like Jon Brion? Yeah, maybe a little bit. But I'm not going to do Cars covers all night or anything like that. No BTO [Bachman Turner Overdrive] songs! CvS: I'm not going to do BTO! But I might do a Led Zeppelin medley, if the mood strikes us. All the musicians I've been playing with lately are really good so we can do anything. It doesn't matter. If everybody kind of knows the song we can play it. So I'm going to bring down friends and hopefully people from out of town who might be around in the fall. It'll be a regular Thursday night thing, a two-hour dinner show. It's a nice place. Depending on how it goes in the fall, that's pretty much the only place in town that I would want to do a residency of that type, because everybody will sit down, and come back every week, because it [will] be different every week. When does that start? CvS: I don't think I'm going to be able to do it until October, because that's the only time I'll be around enough to do a residency. So how about your Japan tour this fall? What can you tell me about it? CvS: Well, it's very much do-it-yourself. I have this friend who's put out a couple of power pop compilation records on this label called Lazy Cat. She's a big fan, and we talked about the possibility of me coming over there, so she and a friend put [this] together. We're doing two shows in Tokyo, then we go to Osaka, and then Nagoya, and Yokohama, and then I'm doing a show with a Japanese band backing me up in Tokyo before I leave. That'll be wild! CvS: Yeah! Actually they're going to be playing IPO, so I get to meet them and check them out and give them some tapes and charts and tell them what to learn. Maybe I'll get them to play the soul stuff, that would be a twist! A Japanese band playing soul! CvS: There's a Yokohama Mama Band! They're called Samantha's Favorite. This is totally off the topic, but how's the Thomas Pynchon book going? CvS: I've just started to focus on reading literature. I'm used to reading magazines and technical manuals and biographies, factual stuff, so I started The Crying of Lot 49. I asked two friends who are English professors for a little homework. I'm still reading the book, I get two chapters into it, and then I'm walking home and I find a textbook of psychology sitting in a box out in the street. So I pick this book up and now I'm reading that. I can't keep my nose out of factual text! I've got to steer myself back into it. I'm so obsessed [with] getting things done. I'm either writing letters, answering phone calls, or working on my music or worrying about what I haven't taken care of, what bill I haven't paid, or what person I haven't called back. I'm obsessive-compulsive about getting things done to the point of not being able to just sit down and relax and read a book. I don't think that's obsessive-compulsive behavior, that's just real life. CvS: Is it? I don't think everybody's like me. You just described my whole day! It's like, wait a minute, I have a problem and I didn't even realize it? CvS: I get a little worked up on things to do. So what else is new and interesting in your world? CvS: I might move to LA. Yeah? You think so? CvS: Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I could make it there, I can make it here, I can make it anywhere, right? That's right, you're from New York! CvS: I think I can go to LA and do that, maybe. The future is wide open. Photos copyright © 1999 Chris von Sneidern. All rights reserved. Interview with Chris von Sneidern copyright © 1999 by Borders Online, Inc. All rights reserved. | NetCafe
| Borders Online, Inc. is the authorized
licensee of the Borders.com trademark and domain name and the Borders NetCafe
trademark. All rights reserved. |
||