Larry Heath talked to Ringo Deathstarr while at CMJ in New York City about their tour with The Smashing Pumpkins, the Catch 22 of alcohol, the future of the music industry – and of their own shows.
You guys have been on the road, doing a lot of shows recently. How’s the touring life been treating you?
Like a bitch.
It looks like it. You guys look exhausted!
We’re hungover. It’s a Catch 22. We have to keep drinking so we don’t feel hungover.
How do you think this will affect the show tonight? Do think the adrenaline will just kick in?
Yeah. We usually feel better once bands start playing. We get ready, drink beer…
So what was it about the show last night that caused this massive hangover?
They had all these drink tickets, and each ticket was worth three beers… It may as well have been in a bucket. And they kept giving us more.
How could you say no!
It was mostly after the show that all the drinking took place. I meant to drink water, but vodka looks like water. Exactly the same.
Well, hindsight is 20-20, as they say. Anyway, lets talk about the reason you are putting yourself through so much misery. It’s to promote your new record, Mauve. It must be good to be back on the road, and show off the music that you’ve been working on for so long.
Yeah, we like the road. But it’s pretty weird, because we’ve never done it all in one go before.
How long has it been? Because the album’s been available since September…
We’ve been out since August 25, and have only had three days off since then.
Apart from lack of sleep, what’s the hardest thing about a jaunt that long?
Being away from our significant others, and pets, and not making enough money.
I’ve spoken to a lot of up-and-coming bands, and most of them say that they make just enough to get them to the next city.
Well, this tour is better than the last US tour, but it’s still an uphill battle.
How does it compare to the time when you’re able to just sit down, and work on making the record?
It doesn’t. They’re so different. But we’re happy whether we’re recording or touring. It’s the time when we’re not doing anything that’s harder.
It doesn’t seem like you’ve had much of that in the last few years.
We’re always busy. Last year, it took a while to come back home – to get a job, and get settled, and get the new songs together. But we ended up with some 25, 20 songs… they all started pouring out after the tour with The Smashing Pumpkins.
I’ve read a lot about how that, how touring them really influenced the direction you’ve taken since then — but is that hard to maintain, when you’re not making anywhere near the amount of money they are?
Yeah. It’s harder today for musicians to live off their music, especially when you’re spending all your mental energy on paying bills… When you’re at home, you’ve got to worry about stupid things, like working at a retail store. Customer service… Customers suck!
Yeah. Not every band can afford to stay in hotels — you sleep on friend’s floors, you sleep in hostels — so there is that sort of disconnect, because you want to achieve that easier lifestyle.
People that aren’t in bands, and don’t tour, have this perception of what it must be like, when they don’t have any clue. None of their assumptions are right. Say you go on a plane to Europe. ‘Oh, that’s awesome, you get to see all the stuff—’ You don’t get to see anything. You see a venue, the inside of a van, and the highway. And it all blurs together.
Out of that blur, have their been any highlights on this tour so far?
Chicago was awesome. Seattle was funny, because the bass amp blew up, and the kick-drum fell apart, and our pedals stopped working. It’s weird how all those things build up for one show, and then just stop working. Luckily, we had some other band there who let us use their amp…
But in retrospect, I’m sure that was something memorable, an experience…
Oh yeah. We’ve had far worse gear problems before. But that was one of the things we wanted to learn when we were on tour with The Smashing Pumpkins — how they do things, and what we were doing wrong. We found there were a lot of easy places to fuck-up. A lot of variables to eliminate.
When it comes to the new record, are there particular songs that you’re really enjoying playing each night?
Yeah, yeah. They’re way better than the old songs. It was such a shame, when we were on tour with The Smashing Pumpkins — if we had these songs then, we would have been headlining by the end of it!
Fair enough! Well, because I’m from Australia, this next question is going to be obvious, but have there been any suggestions of you guys coming down to Australia?
No, but if you spread the word… We can’t just go down there.
Gotta get on a festival or something.
Someone’s gotta pay for all of that. And we can’t even pay for food right now… But we’d love to go to Australia.
Do you see many people in your audience wearing Star Wars shirts?
No. Mostly people wearing My Bloody Valentine shirts.
Much more appropriate!
There’s a lot of those. It’s bizarre, and a little scary.
So what has the rest of the year got for you?
We don’t know! Our tour in Europe might not be happening, because we don’t have money for the expenses, so…
I suppose that’s the goal of this touring, then! To have the money for that.
That’s the dream! But the scary thing for us is music is becoming just like everything else: The bigger bands are able to make it, and all the little bands won’t, because all the corporations have all the money, all the rich people have everything. And the poor people just keep getting poorer. That’s a big fear that I have.
I guess you have to become a total sell-out, and get songs in every add campaign, ever!
That’s the crappy thing about these days. You have to do that, in order to get money.
Yeah, well now there’s no shame in it, because that’s the only way to survive.
And you have to have t-shirts and little stupid things to sell at your shows because you’re not going to sell your music. People will just get it for free, and then bitch at you for complaining.
Did you do any limited edition vinyl for this run?
Yeah, but our vinyl is verylimited. Not by our choice, though — it’s so limited that it’s a collector’s edition.
Well I hope the show goes well tonight. And that you have a chuck-bucket near, for after the beers…
Thanks man!
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Their new record, Mauve, is on iTunes now.
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