Hey Kids, It's the Fastbacks
by Jennifer Clay - From Rip Magazine - July 1996
You say you haven't heard of the Fastbacks? That's not too surprising as most people in the States haven't- but in Japan they're rock stars. "Everyone's a rock star in Japan," counters bassist/vocalist Kim Warnick. For 16 years the Fastbacks have been living in relative obscurity except in their hometown of Seattle in and hearts and turntables of serious music fans. Thanks to "rock stars" like Pearl Jam and Seattle's Presidents, the current "pop" music craze and a new album on Sub Pop, New Mansions In Sound, 1996 could very well be the Fastbacks' banner year.
Seated in a Euro-bistro- the kind with taped piano music tinkling in the background and bow-tied servers- across from Sub Pop's world headquarters in Seattle, Warnick and guitarist/king pop-song-writer Kurt Bloch look oddly comfortable. Maybe they don't give a shit. Maybe they're just happy. Probably both. Missing is guitarist/vocalist Lulu Gargiulo, but then again, she often is as she lives part time in Michigan where she does video and film work. Bloch and Warnick don't mind as they have their own busy lives: Warnick works at Sub Pop and Bloch plays in the seminal Young Fresh Fellows and produces too many bands to name.
So what about the drummer? Fastbacks are notorious for having gone through more drummers than Spinal Tap. It seems their longest drumming stickman is Mike Musburger from the Posies. He plays on all the new tracks except "No Information" (President's Jason Finn) and "Banner Year" (Flop's Nate Johnson).
It's somewhat haphazard. It's somewhat humorous. It's not big secret, no big mystery. It's the Fastbacks- one of the great, hidden pop treasures.
Bloch's head is where much of the Fastbacks sound festers. A great place to start…
RIP: You have an odd, warped sense of humor, which is reflected in your lyrics.
KURT BLOCH: A lot of stuff that's too humorous is sometimes a little bit hard to listen to. People don't have to see the humor in it. I don't really think about how other people perceive things. You'd get into a whole other thought process if you wrote something and thought, "Some people might not get this. Some people might misunderstand it." Pretty much anything that's not obviously funny, people pretty much misunderstand.
KIM WARNICK: I think people that talk about any of the lyrics always find the saddest parts of them too. They'll always write about this music that sounds so happy [but] has these really depressing lyrics.
RIP: Do you think they are depressing?
KW: You know what's funny is I sing them, and I never ever think about them. Very rarely. Sometimes Kurt has to bring it to my attention that they could be thought of as depressing, which I don't ever think. I just don't think about [it].
RIP: Is that weird, to sing about something you don't think about?
KW: No. That's what I've done all my life. I'm just more worried that I'll forget them. I'm just more thinking of them. At least I remember what they are. [Laughs]. They're very memorable. I just can't remember them. I need a TelePrompTer.
RIP: Kurt, are you a perfectionist?
KB: You have to be a perfectionist to write songs. How can you not be? Look at a lot of music out there: it's just crap. If you're going to write songs and put your heart into it, then you have to be a perfectionist. If there's something in a song that you don't like, what's the point in doing it? These bands that say, "We can't play out hit song anymore, man. We played it for two years every night." Too bad. You should have worked a little harder on it. [Laughs] I'd be honored to have a song that means enough to that many people. It's hard enough for me to finish a song that I like, to get a song that's done from start to finish a song like that I like, to get a song that's done from start to finish is pretty tough. Sometimes I'll be laboring over a couple words in a song, [and] it'll sit there for months and not be finished because there's something about it…
RIP: Kurt, once again, you wrote all the songs except the two covers, the Who's "Girl's Eyes" and Montrose's "Space Station #5."
KB: I think we've done our Montrose tribute for our lifetime.
KW: Some people are going to be really psyched about "Space Station #5," and some people won't get it. [Laughs] Its' one of our favorites from high school.
RIP: Why don't you think people will get it?
KB: It's good ol' kick-ass rock 'n' roll. If they don't get that, then they don't get anything.
KW: Sometimes people don't like that kind of music. It's not pop-ular.
KB: Rock is kinda out of favor this year, but it's coming back.
KW: Unless you do it tongue-in-cheek, which that isn't.
KB: You should stand up for what you believe in.
KW: Which we did. That's why we put it on the record. I even wanted to put it [as] track one, I believed in it so much. [Laughs] That would have been a bold statement.
KB: It's a wise move not to. [Laughs]
RIP: Since rock is out of fashion, and pop is in fashion, is this the year for Fastbacks?
KB: Every year is our year. People just don't realize it.
KW: We really had our year two years ago. We didn't tell anybody.
KB: Every year is my year. I don't care about the Fastbacks. It's my year.
KW: That's a bold statement.
KB: I'm not taking a no answer from anybody. I'm gonna do it all. I'm gonna make people buy this record. I don't care, whatever it takes to make people buy this record.
RIP: Is that important to you?
KW: It would be nice.
KB: No. [Laughs]
KW: I would love it if it did. Each one seems like it sells a little more than the last. If that's the case, it makes me happy. If it sells the same as the last, then it makes me happy. If it sells a little less . . .
KB: It sucks.
KW: Then I quit.
KB: All you can do is get people to listen to it. I mean, if people can listen to it [they can] decide if they like it or not. We're not trying to force ourselves down anyone's throats. Let the people decide. Let them vote with their pocketbooks. Let them vote with their parents' Visa card.
RIP: Would you really do whatever it takes to make it big?
KB: Things are okay for us now… It's not like we're trying to just go for the gold, but we're certainly not trying to avoid it either. I'll do anything within reason to get exposure, but you can't make people buy your record. You can't grab them at the record store and take the charge card out of their pocket and charge one up. We're not going out of our way to make people not like us. [Laughs] We're not trying to be popular. We're trying to write hits. They just never get out there far enough for people to listen to.
RIP: How many times have major labels talked to you guys?
KW: Never.
KB: I think they're kinda scared of us.
RIP: You've never had a 'dinner' or a 'lunch?'
KW: Well, we have, but not for us. We tag along on all our friends' major label things, so we can say that certain labels have taken us out. But no, nobody's ever asked. I was just talking to somebody about that. She said that people perceive us as we would not be interested in the least- like we're some self-contained thing- like a Fugazi or something.
KB: [In a deep menacing voice:] "We hate them. They don't want to sell records at all. They want to bask in obscurity."
KW: I'm really happy with where we are. I'm really happy we're on Sub Pop and not one of these labels where we might get lost in the maelstrom of millions of signed bands. So many of our friends' bands do that, and it's kinda sad.
KB: We're just a misplaced butt-rock band. [Laughs]
RIP: Do you think having Eddie Vedder on the Who track is going to help?
KW: Not really. I don't know how many people will actually know that. We'll have [to have] a fold out picture of him. He does a good job considering that funny night.
RIP: Sounds like a drunken time.
KW: It was amazing we got anything done that night. We were blessed. Eddie showed up and we said, "You go in there and sing. Come on, you sing." We were all drunk.
KB: Bag of beer and a bottle of wine.
KW: Eddie and Kurt did the back-up vocals. [Laughter] The next day we're in the studio, we put on the tape on- Kurt [says], "Maybe we should start working on some other songs." We're like, "We did that last night." [They both laugh, again.] "Really!" We're like, "Yeah, we did the vocals." [Kurt makes ghost-like noises] It sounds good. One of those rare moments. Funny thing was, there was only Kurt and I, Pete Gerrald (who engineered), Eddie, and, like, three other people. At times it seemed like there was just a hundred people there.
KB: The studio is not that big.
KW: It was very cramped. It was very festive. Kurt was trying to do this guitar part, this really quiet part, and we were all out there laughing, "blah, blah, blah" It all got on the tape.
KB: It was like, "Pete, Can you hear all those people talking on the tape?" Pete's like, "Oh, yeah." [Laughs] This quiet little acoustic guitar. I'm like, "Shhh."
KW: For five seconds everyone's all quiet. Then "blah, blah, blah" all over again. That was the night we needed to get back on track.
RIP: Certainly this isn't the "normal" Fastbacks way to record, but judging by your recording history, nothing has ever been "normal."
KW: Each time we record it's a little different. Each time it's hedging more and more towards what I would imagine professional bands do.
KB: Write the songs before you record them.
KW: For a while there we would just record [when] we could, before anybody would put out our records. Do three songs here, whenever we had the money, we'd do one more. Our records didn't come out very often.
RIP: Are you hedging towards becoming a professional band in your older age?
[Response is burps, laughter and groans.]
KW: No. But I mean it seems like we have just gotten to the point where we finally actually go into a good studio, black out a certain amount of time, and do it.
KB: Well, this one was recorded in the bathroom. And this one was recorded in . . .
KW: Yeah. It's finally getting to the point where it's a little more cohesive, I think.
RIP: Kurt, did you produce New Mansions?
KB: It's all mine. [In a scary Dr. Jekyll voice.]
KW: It's Kurt's child. All of it.
KB: That's a funny thing about records being our children. We don't have children, so our records are our children.
RIP: Do you have a favorite child?
KB: [Kurt shakes his head "no."]
KW: It's the most cliched thing, but for me, right now, it's the newest one. I don't know. I like them all. I can go back and listen to them all. There's not very many parts that I can not listen to, that I don't think are very good.
RIP: In the Fastbacks' 16 years, how many times have you wanted to break up?
KW: We kind of have.
KB: It depends on who you ask. Different people have different interest levels that go up and down. Hopefully they're all up at the same time. But not always.
KW: Not usually.
KB: Sometimes you have to find where people are in the country and drag them out… The whole idea of just being in your rock band and just doing that, sticking together and living in the same house, and starving, and only doing your rock band. We all have other things we want to do.
KW: I think the reason we do this band is because we don't do exactly what he said. I mean that. We never actually just did this. We always had other things we were doing. We never just did the band and lived off it. I would hate to have to be a slave to that.
KB: Being a slave to the macaroni and cheese.
RIP: With pop music being 'the thing,' it really seems like this record will do well.
KW: I would never think [it] would. I would think it would be just like the last one. It really seems like nothing would change, even though things have changed. I really can't imagine this one going through the roof.
KB: I think if this record did really well, and we had to go on tour for a really long, long time, and we were really popular and everyone loved us, God, that would be really bad. That would just tear me up. [Laughs].
RIP: Could you do that though?
KB: Sure. I'll take that challenge. First we sell a million records, and then we'll see if we can go on tour for a long time and make a whole bunch of money and be really popular. What else would I want to do?
KW: I don't know if I would want to do it. But I'd like to try. Each [tour] gets more fun.
RIP: Your Presidents dates are just over two weeks long…
KW: Your basic Fastbacks tour. I think the longest we've gone is like three weeks.
RIP: What happens at the end of the three weeks?
KW: Lulu flies home because she's sick. We finish up as a three piece. And me and Kurt and Hammi [friend/roadie] drive home from the end of the world, the edge of the country.
KB: Mike flies somewhere else to do something else.
RIP: How many times have you guys wanted to kill each other?
KB: Not that much in a while. Maybe ten years ago we wanted to kill each other. We had some pretty serious death threats.
KW: People are getting older and mellowing out a bit.
KB: Let's see, ten years ago was 1986, yeah, that was not a good time. '86 was a bad time.
RIP: What happened during that time?
KW: Just certain people being pains.
KB: A little bit of unacceptable behavior by various members.
RIP: So that was the worst time for you, when was the best?
KW: Now. From this point on. From right this second.
KB: The best time will be in about four months when we're super-huge rock stars and we've sold that first 500k, and we're working on that second 500k.
RIP: Does it seem odd that you've been around for 16 years and some shows there's hardly anyone there?
KW: No, I'm used to it. I know there's new people that like us all the time. I've done this for so long I almost have tunnel vision, in that I perceive my band a lot different than anyone else. I still think of us how we were when we were growing up. I can hear the change on the record. I think we've gotten better at what we do, [but] it just seems to me the same. I think it's kinda weird that people know. That's why it's strange to go out on the road and have all these people collecting all your singles, and they have them all. It's weird. I don't know if I'll ever get used to that.
RIP: Last year, you did a few shows opening for Pearl Jam- the largest being San Jose to 35,000 people…
KB: We don't know how many people were paying attention to us…
KW: It didn't matter if they were paying attention or not. I saw it, and I thought it looked amazing. I would like to see that every night. It was scary and this huge adrenaline rush that I have never felt before. You see people flipping you off, but who cares? I'm up here in front of this huge crowd. I don't care.
KB: It's a fun challenge playing a show like that because maybe one-tenth of one percent of those people have ever even heard of you at best. You go to go up there…
KW: Try harder than normal.
KB: If people need a little excuse to want to like a band or go have fun before the headlining act starts, whatever it takes, we're there to take 'em on. It's the rock 'n' roll challenge. We challenge each and every 35,400 of you. We're challenging you all to have a good time.
RIP: Does it bother you that you've been around for so long, yet you're opening for many of these relatively new bands?
KW: No, because they have to go on tour for two years and that's not what I want to do. So in my eyes, I'm getting the better part of the deal, even though we might be the openers, because I get to live my life. It sounds so corny, but it's the life we lead. It's the same. It's not about being in a band. It's the way that we are. This is as much of us as anything else we do. It's not more or less; it's just ingrained. I've done this over half my life.
KB: Would you rather see on TV friends' bands that you like, or some band that you hate that you don't know? We're never going to break up, so people might as well buy our records because we're not going to go away… Join us or fight us, it's all the same to us.
