Keller Williams Interview – Full Text
Keller Williams: Hello.
Josh Klemons: Hey, I’m looking for Keller Williams.
KW: That’s me.
JK: How you doing man? It’s Josh Klemons
KW: Hey Josh. How you doing?
JK: Good. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me.
KW: You’re welcome.
JK: This is a good time?
KW: What’s that?
JK: Are you good to go? Is this a good time for you?
KW: Yeah man. Yeah, you’re good.
JK: Okay cool. So you know, I’m covering Funk (Keller William’s new live album) for Honest Tune and I wanted to ask you some questions.
KW: I’m here.
JK: Cool. Where are you right now? What city are you in?
KW: I’m in, I’m at home. Just outside of Fredericksburg, VA.
JK: Yeah, sure. I grew up in North Carolina.
KW: Nice.
JK: So yeah, right off the bat, how do you approach a project like this? Do you see yourself as a band leader? A collaborator? You have toured with a bunch of bands in the last couple of years but this is definitely a deviation from what people know as Keller Williams.
KW: Yeah, I think it’s a natural progression, you know, of going into deeper, soulful R&B, gospel type of funk. I mean this is not your ordinary group of guys trying to play funk music. I mean, these folks have kind of allowed me into their world man. I think these folks feel the funk and they understand the soulful R&B formula that has been foreign to me until now. Teaching them these songs and having them teach them back to me, it’s been a real, super inspiring experience and it continues to be. It continues.
JK: In a way that’s different from other groups you’ve been with, the WMDs and what not? In a different approach on on a whole different level?
KW: It’s a little bit of both, you know? There’s a different approach definitely in that the type of formula, like the core progressions that naturally lends themselves to a gospel, R&B type of arrangement, you know? And it’s definitely different in that regard. A lot of these folks, you know, they play four or five nights a week but rarely, maybe get out of the Virginia area.
JK: Oh.
KW: So it’s really fun to share their excitement of going different places. I think like the tour bus. It’s super, super fun to hang and to feed of their excitement as well.
JK: How did this group come about? Where did these people come from?
KW: Well, my connection was with Toby Fairchild, the drummer. He and I have, we were in a band called The Added Bonus, that we.
JK: That was the New Year’s run, right?
KW: Thank you. Exactly, exactly, in between Christmas and New Year’s, I always try to put together something and Toby was part of one of those projects. He was running an R&B night at a local bar and pretty much the entire band minus Sugah Davis, one of the female singers, was there that night and I got on stage with them and we just kinda made stuff up. There was really no one in the bar so there was no pressure and it was just this some kind of magic that happened. And the guys that were in the band were both just, you know, over it and tired. But at the same time, this music that we were playing was just kind of, it just kind of opened up my whole mindset to, this could be something that I could really get into. And it was a couple of months later that I put it into action and started to do Tuesday rehearsals once a week for a couple of months and then we went out and did the New Year’s run together. Except, except for New Years. We did 26 through30 (of December).
JK: Okay.
KW: And there was a couple of other gigs in there as well before that. And by this point, we’ve done a handful, maybe twenty gigs, so the excitement is still really there of, like, a new, fresh band, that’s fresh, not jaded. You know?
JK: Yeah. For sure. I mean these guys, I’d never heard of anybody in this band other than you and I listened to the record a handful of times and they sound like, I mean, they’re amazing. They were playing for nobody in Virginia? That’s where you found them?
KW: Yes. Three of them are very, very involved in church bands. There’s two of them that get paid to play in two different churches so if they’re within like an eight hour drive of Richmond, VA on a Saturday night, they are going to drive to their church gigs. So there’s that. And you can tell, the keyboard player, Gerard Johnson, you can kind of tell, if you ever, like, listen to an African-American sermon, you know, like a real African-American sermon, you know with the people cheering them on and there’s like organ in the background. Yeah.
JK: Yeah
KW: That’s Gerard. He’s totally, his ears are constantly open, he’s following everything. He’s an auditory genius. I kinda forgot the question, I think.
JK: It’s all good man.
KW: Yeah, no, I definitely forgot the question.
JK: Thanks for being honest.
KW: I know this. I know.
JK: No. That’s fine. Why “More Than A Little?”
KW: Well, it started with the song.
JK: Yeah.
KW: The song’s called more More Than A Little and that was kind of, once we all got together in our rehearsal space, and I had those lyrics written out and we were playing it and the way we flipped into the harmony, you know, I felt that from the first time we ever played it. And you step back and this project has made me more than a little inspired. It’s made me more than a little happy. And I feel it’s more than a little funky, just kind of lending itself to that name.
JK: Nice. So, yeah, I assume to be a Keller fan is to expect the unexpected. I think that’s in your press kit. But I’ve been listening to you forever and I know how that works. But do you find pushback or encouragement from fans when you tour with a band?
KW: Yeah, there’s a little bit of both. My fans are so incredibly polite and nice that even the pushback is with a very positive, yet passive aggressive stripe.
JK: (Laughing!)
KW: It could be a lot worse. It’s not like, you know, bashing me online or anything. It’s like, this is great, buuuuut. You know? It’s kind of like all win/win for me because, you know, it’s super fun and inspiring for me to play with them as humans yet at the same time, for those that make them want the solo thing more, I mean, that’s a positive thing too because that’s, that’s my day job and that’s where I do the most action I will do and these projects, as fun as they are, the possibility exists that they will go on forever, but the majority of my shows in a year will be done solo. I mean, that’s always how it’s been and to have people want that is a luxury problem.
JK: Right. On that. I guess on that, you kind of already answered that: it’s good to go back and forth. But do you find it freeing to have a band up there that you can work off of or is it constricting that suddenly you have to worry about what register you’re singing in and what notes you’re playing?
KW: Oh my god. That’s the thing with these people. I can’t say enough how they allow me to be in their world, you know? There’s a certain kind of freedom playing solo where you can go anywhere at anytime and that’s not always the case with a band. Except for this band. This band is so used to following, you know, different, just different energies, whether it be a preacher or some kind of R&B thing. Or, you know, in R&B, at any time, the lead singer can say “Break it down” and then go into some kind of story. You know, it’s like, it’s almost as free as playing solo, playing with these folks, because they’re so in tune with what I’m doing, they’ll follow me anywhere and slip right in as if we rehearsed. There’s a certain element of improv that I didn’t expect going in to this project, you know, is really unbelievable.
JK: They call you Reverend?
KW: Say again.
JK: Do they call you Reverend?
KW: No. No. They don’t. They call me a lot of things.
JK: Anything worth sharing?
KW: Well, you know, no. No, that’s an inner thing.
JK: No worries man. Is the first, you’re playing electric guitar on this album right?
KW: Yeah.
JK: Is this the first album that’s been based around an electric guitar for you?
KW: No and I’m really glad you asked that. The first album based around electric guitar came out in 2008 and it was a triple disc record called Live. Keller Williams with Mosely, Droll and Sipe. This is a double live record with a bonus DVD of completely different material from the other two.
JK: Huh.
KW: I’m just over the top proud of this project as well as the product that came out that I feel like, really kinda got ignored, and there was a certain magic with Keith Mosely, Gibb Droll, Jeff Sipe and myself.
JK: That was the WMDs, right?
KW: Say again.
JK: That was the WMDs, right?
KW: Well, yes. Legally we’re not allowed to call it that. Because there was another band of the same name.
JK: Oh. Not because of the Department of Defense called or anything?
KW: No, no, there was another band that issued a cease and desist. I don’t know. There was actually two bands. One was like an indie rock, college band.
JK: Okay
KW: Issued the cease and desist. And then there was this other, like, gay metal. Figure, gay metal. It was a thing. But they didn’t seem to mind.
JK: Okay. So, that was, I mean, Droll was obviously playing electric on that. You were playing mostly acoustic. Cause I saw you guys live and you played primarily acoustic with the WMDs, right?
KW: Where was that? Where did you see that show?
JK: Probably the Neighborhood Theatre, but I’ve seen you all over. I don’t know.
KW: No, no, I was full on electric. I was living out my fantasies of rock and roll music.
JK: Nice.
KW: And, I think we did about 80 shows around the country in the course of a year. Maybe it was a year and a half. And that’s kind of where those live recordings came from and that was full on bus and trailer and amplifiers and two sets of four piece fusion craziness.
JK: I mean, I’ll tell you on a side note, I knew everybody in the band intimately, you know, musically, except Droll who I’d heard his name like a thousand times in college and I always thought he was another run of the mill blues guy and I saw him with you and I was blown away. I mean, I regretted all the times I didn’t see him when I was in college in Georgia. So good.
KW: That was his stomping ground, the whole Southeast.
JK: Yep.
KW: To Texas and back.
JK: His name was everywhere and I just, you know, just kinda wrote him off as another one of those guys but man, he is not.
KW: It was probably 1991 or 92 and he was running around with Everything and Indecision and New Potato Caboose and Egypt. These are other bands that were from this area that were all kind of running around together.
JK: Nice. So on other firsts, I was off on the first one, but I think this might be the first time someone’s put a Flight of the Conchords cover on an album. What do you think?
KW: (Laughing) Wouldn’t that be funny? Yeah, those guys crack me up and I’ve always kind of been in touch with my inner freak and anything with freak in the title, I’m going to check out how can I make it my own.
JK: Yeah. What did this group of church playing, you know, straight up funk musicians, had they ever even heard of Flight of the Conchords? Was that a new thing for them?
KW: I think they’ve possibly heard of it but you know, I don’t know if they’ve actually heard they’re version of it.
JK: I listed to it this morning. I’ve listened to your version like six times, you know, since I got the record, but I went and listened to theirs today. It’s very different. You guys funked it up. For a song called funky, yours is much funkier.
KW: (Laughter) Freaky. There’s is a little more freakier, and were kinda like a funky freak.
JK: Exactly.
KW: The freak funk
JK: The freak funk. So, I guess, on I Feel Love, I was listening to the record and I was thinking to myself, man, if disco were monosyllabic, would this album have a different sound.
KW: If disco was what?
JK: If disco was monosyllabic.
KW: (Laughter)
JK: Would this have been a different album?
KW: Oh right, right. Well, I think, you know, if you want to go monosyllabic, you can go “doontz.”
JK: Go what?
KW: D-O-O-N-T-Z maybe. Doontz.
JK: For disco?
KW: Yeah. If you were to do a disco record and it would be called doontz. Say that ten times and you have disco.
JK: Oh yeah, nice. I was trying to think of what else you could do. I thought of Fro. F-R-O.
KW: Fro. Yep. Fro.
JK: There’s not a lot of options for monosyllabic ways, but doontz, that works.
KW: Doontz is an idea, you know. There’s the possible dubstep remix record called Womp.
JK: Womp.
KW: Womp. Yeah.
JK: There’s that meme of the cat hitting the doorstopper. The Birth of Dubstep. I don’t know if you’ve seen that.
KW: Hmmm.
JK: It’s pretty funny. So yeah, first time playing Flight of the Conchords for them. Have they played [Grateful] Dead tunes before?
KW: Umm. I don’t think so. I don’t think so. No. But now that they have they are starting to more often with other bands. (Laughter) Like other bands are, the singers are getting some love from other bands too and that’s really exciting.
JK: Yeah. That’s really exciting. Was West LA Fadeaway an obvious choice for you for a Dead song? Not Shakedown Street or I don’t know, there’s lot of ways you could have gone.
KW: Yeah, the first place my mind goes to with these upfront singers – notice they’re not background singers, they’re upfront singers – the first thing I think that goes through my mind, you know, are Jerry [Garcia] Band songs and there are so many. So many of the harmony vocals that the ladies in the Jerry Band would sing that I could totally see them. Sometimes I just kinda sing their part when I listen to the music. I didn’t want to go there. But you know, I still wanted to make sure that my groups play some Grateful Dead music and possibly something that didn’t have, you know, the female harmony stuff on, and just kind of create a new vibe, arrangement of some of this stuff. You know, I’ve always like West LA Fadeaway and that lick. And it’s a cool song and the ladies in the band dig it, so.
JK: I mean you can tell on the recording, for sure.
KW: Yeah.
JK: For sure. Cool, well I don’t want to keep you. Two more quick questions. What’s next? Like, are you making doontz next or you got new plans?
KW: Am I making what next? What was the first part?
JK: Doontz.
KW: Oh! Doontz. No, no, that was just a joke.
JK: Yeah.
KW: Gotcha. Um, I have like seven songs, you know seven original songs, I think there’s a, I think the next record’s gonna be kinda focusing on my idea of acoustic dance music. Not necessarily disco, not necessarily electronica, but kind of like a hybrid of acoustic instruments getting into that type of formula. But, umm, organically. But that’s something that I’ve been really following, electronic dance music, the past ten to fifteen years. Different, there’s so many different sub-genres and sub-sub-avenues of the genre. It’s fascinating. And when you put different things together, it’s really interesting, for me at least and that’s kinda what the idea is. To keep myself interested.
JK: (Laughing)
KW: So I’m looking at maybe upright bass primarily and acoustic instruments, maybe doing with a mixture of real drums and percussion with possibly additional help and just sub-suburb (?) area and that’s kind of my idea with these, these songs that I have so far. And you know with this record coming out, there’s no rush on any kind of next release or anything. That’s just kind of in the “I think” process.
JK: Right.
KW: And that is, in the “I think” process today. Tomorrow, it could be something completely different.
JK: Sure. So I was gonna ask, do you have players in mind, but it sounds like it’s down the road.
KW: Absolutely. I’ve got about six players in mind for each instrument. (Laughing).
JK: That would be an interesting album.
KW: Yeah, yeah. Will just see whose available and who shares, or more importantly, who shares the common vision. You gotta have that first.
JK: And then, what are you listening to these days?
KW: Umm, this crazy band called Breastfist. All one word. Breastfist.
JK: Okay.
KW: It’s a mix of like Ween meets, you know, super-funk, super-, it’s like Ween, Zappa but with like real strong sense of groove and funk. Breastfist. And if you need a song to pinpoint, check out Ask the Fist. No, wait. I think it’s, shit, it’s on my computer.
JK: No, I’ll look into it.
KW: Talk to the Fist. From Breastfist. That’s, that’s my favorite song of the day.
JK: If I can get that one past the censors, I’ll give them a plug for you.
KW: If you can do what?
JK: If I can get it past the censors. Breastfist.
KW: Yeah, there’s a fuck in there too. Yeah, be careful. The line is “Momma’s got nothing but love/she’ll fuck you up if push comes to shove.” (Laughing)
JK: Nice.
KW: (Laughter)
JK: That’s the good kind of fuck.
KW: That, that’s a great line. I love that line.
JK: Yeah. Well hey man, I don’t want to keep you. I really appreciate you taking the time and I’ll be writing this up and sending it over to your people’s way.
KW: All right. Thank you so much for the press.
JK: Yeah, of course. Have a great one, man.
KW: You too.
Josh Klemons: Hey, I’m looking for Keller Williams.
KW: That’s me.
JK: How you doing man? It’s Josh Klemons
KW: Hey Josh. How you doing?
JK: Good. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me.
KW: You’re welcome.
JK: This is a good time?
KW: What’s that?
JK: Are you good to go? Is this a good time for you?
KW: Yeah man. Yeah, you’re good.
JK: Okay cool. So you know, I’m covering Funk (Keller William’s new live album) for Honest Tune and I wanted to ask you some questions.
KW: I’m here.
JK: Cool. Where are you right now? What city are you in?
KW: I’m in, I’m at home. Just outside of Fredericksburg, VA.
JK: Yeah, sure. I grew up in North Carolina.
KW: Nice.
JK: So yeah, right off the bat, how do you approach a project like this? Do you see yourself as a band leader? A collaborator? You have toured with a bunch of bands in the last couple of years but this is definitely a deviation from what people know as Keller Williams.
KW: Yeah, I think it’s a natural progression, you know, of going into deeper, soulful R&B, gospel type of funk. I mean this is not your ordinary group of guys trying to play funk music. I mean, these folks have kind of allowed me into their world man. I think these folks feel the funk and they understand the soulful R&B formula that has been foreign to me until now. Teaching them these songs and having them teach them back to me, it’s been a real, super inspiring experience and it continues to be. It continues.
JK: In a way that’s different from other groups you’ve been with, the WMDs and what not? In a different approach on on a whole different level?
KW: It’s a little bit of both, you know? There’s a different approach definitely in that the type of formula, like the core progressions that naturally lends themselves to a gospel, R&B type of arrangement, you know? And it’s definitely different in that regard. A lot of these folks, you know, they play four or five nights a week but rarely, maybe get out of the Virginia area.
JK: Oh.
KW: So it’s really fun to share their excitement of going different places. I think like the tour bus. It’s super, super fun to hang and to feed of their excitement as well.
JK: How did this group come about? Where did these people come from?
KW: Well, my connection was with Toby Fairchild, the drummer. He and I have, we were in a band called The Added Bonus, that we.
JK: That was the New Year’s run, right?
KW: Thank you. Exactly, exactly, in between Christmas and New Year’s, I always try to put together something and Toby was part of one of those projects. He was running an R&B night at a local bar and pretty much the entire band minus Sugah Davis, one of the female singers, was there that night and I got on stage with them and we just kinda made stuff up. There was really no one in the bar so there was no pressure and it was just this some kind of magic that happened. And the guys that were in the band were both just, you know, over it and tired. But at the same time, this music that we were playing was just kind of, it just kind of opened up my whole mindset to, this could be something that I could really get into. And it was a couple of months later that I put it into action and started to do Tuesday rehearsals once a week for a couple of months and then we went out and did the New Year’s run together. Except, except for New Years. We did 26 through30 (of December).
JK: Okay.
KW: And there was a couple of other gigs in there as well before that. And by this point, we’ve done a handful, maybe twenty gigs, so the excitement is still really there of, like, a new, fresh band, that’s fresh, not jaded. You know?
JK: Yeah. For sure. I mean these guys, I’d never heard of anybody in this band other than you and I listened to the record a handful of times and they sound like, I mean, they’re amazing. They were playing for nobody in Virginia? That’s where you found them?
KW: Yes. Three of them are very, very involved in church bands. There’s two of them that get paid to play in two different churches so if they’re within like an eight hour drive of Richmond, VA on a Saturday night, they are going to drive to their church gigs. So there’s that. And you can tell, the keyboard player, Gerard Johnson, you can kind of tell, if you ever, like, listen to an African-American sermon, you know, like a real African-American sermon, you know with the people cheering them on and there’s like organ in the background. Yeah.
JK: Yeah
KW: That’s Gerard. He’s totally, his ears are constantly open, he’s following everything. He’s an auditory genius. I kinda forgot the question, I think.
JK: It’s all good man.
KW: Yeah, no, I definitely forgot the question.
JK: Thanks for being honest.
KW: I know this. I know.
JK: No. That’s fine. Why “More Than A Little?”
KW: Well, it started with the song.
JK: Yeah.
KW: The song’s called more More Than A Little and that was kind of, once we all got together in our rehearsal space, and I had those lyrics written out and we were playing it and the way we flipped into the harmony, you know, I felt that from the first time we ever played it. And you step back and this project has made me more than a little inspired. It’s made me more than a little happy. And I feel it’s more than a little funky, just kind of lending itself to that name.
JK: Nice. So, yeah, I assume to be a Keller fan is to expect the unexpected. I think that’s in your press kit. But I’ve been listening to you forever and I know how that works. But do you find pushback or encouragement from fans when you tour with a band?
KW: Yeah, there’s a little bit of both. My fans are so incredibly polite and nice that even the pushback is with a very positive, yet passive aggressive stripe.
JK: (Laughing!)
KW: It could be a lot worse. It’s not like, you know, bashing me online or anything. It’s like, this is great, buuuuut. You know? It’s kind of like all win/win for me because, you know, it’s super fun and inspiring for me to play with them as humans yet at the same time, for those that make them want the solo thing more, I mean, that’s a positive thing too because that’s, that’s my day job and that’s where I do the most action I will do and these projects, as fun as they are, the possibility exists that they will go on forever, but the majority of my shows in a year will be done solo. I mean, that’s always how it’s been and to have people want that is a luxury problem.
JK: Right. On that. I guess on that, you kind of already answered that: it’s good to go back and forth. But do you find it freeing to have a band up there that you can work off of or is it constricting that suddenly you have to worry about what register you’re singing in and what notes you’re playing?
KW: Oh my god. That’s the thing with these people. I can’t say enough how they allow me to be in their world, you know? There’s a certain kind of freedom playing solo where you can go anywhere at anytime and that’s not always the case with a band. Except for this band. This band is so used to following, you know, different, just different energies, whether it be a preacher or some kind of R&B thing. Or, you know, in R&B, at any time, the lead singer can say “Break it down” and then go into some kind of story. You know, it’s like, it’s almost as free as playing solo, playing with these folks, because they’re so in tune with what I’m doing, they’ll follow me anywhere and slip right in as if we rehearsed. There’s a certain element of improv that I didn’t expect going in to this project, you know, is really unbelievable.
JK: They call you Reverend?
KW: Say again.
JK: Do they call you Reverend?
KW: No. No. They don’t. They call me a lot of things.
JK: Anything worth sharing?
KW: Well, you know, no. No, that’s an inner thing.
JK: No worries man. Is the first, you’re playing electric guitar on this album right?
KW: Yeah.
JK: Is this the first album that’s been based around an electric guitar for you?
KW: No and I’m really glad you asked that. The first album based around electric guitar came out in 2008 and it was a triple disc record called Live. Keller Williams with Mosely, Droll and Sipe. This is a double live record with a bonus DVD of completely different material from the other two.
JK: Huh.
KW: I’m just over the top proud of this project as well as the product that came out that I feel like, really kinda got ignored, and there was a certain magic with Keith Mosely, Gibb Droll, Jeff Sipe and myself.
JK: That was the WMDs, right?
KW: Say again.
JK: That was the WMDs, right?
KW: Well, yes. Legally we’re not allowed to call it that. Because there was another band of the same name.
JK: Oh. Not because of the Department of Defense called or anything?
KW: No, no, there was another band that issued a cease and desist. I don’t know. There was actually two bands. One was like an indie rock, college band.
JK: Okay
KW: Issued the cease and desist. And then there was this other, like, gay metal. Figure, gay metal. It was a thing. But they didn’t seem to mind.
JK: Okay. So, that was, I mean, Droll was obviously playing electric on that. You were playing mostly acoustic. Cause I saw you guys live and you played primarily acoustic with the WMDs, right?
KW: Where was that? Where did you see that show?
JK: Probably the Neighborhood Theatre, but I’ve seen you all over. I don’t know.
KW: No, no, I was full on electric. I was living out my fantasies of rock and roll music.
JK: Nice.
KW: And, I think we did about 80 shows around the country in the course of a year. Maybe it was a year and a half. And that’s kind of where those live recordings came from and that was full on bus and trailer and amplifiers and two sets of four piece fusion craziness.
JK: I mean, I’ll tell you on a side note, I knew everybody in the band intimately, you know, musically, except Droll who I’d heard his name like a thousand times in college and I always thought he was another run of the mill blues guy and I saw him with you and I was blown away. I mean, I regretted all the times I didn’t see him when I was in college in Georgia. So good.
KW: That was his stomping ground, the whole Southeast.
JK: Yep.
KW: To Texas and back.
JK: His name was everywhere and I just, you know, just kinda wrote him off as another one of those guys but man, he is not.
KW: It was probably 1991 or 92 and he was running around with Everything and Indecision and New Potato Caboose and Egypt. These are other bands that were from this area that were all kind of running around together.
JK: Nice. So on other firsts, I was off on the first one, but I think this might be the first time someone’s put a Flight of the Conchords cover on an album. What do you think?
KW: (Laughing) Wouldn’t that be funny? Yeah, those guys crack me up and I’ve always kind of been in touch with my inner freak and anything with freak in the title, I’m going to check out how can I make it my own.
JK: Yeah. What did this group of church playing, you know, straight up funk musicians, had they ever even heard of Flight of the Conchords? Was that a new thing for them?
KW: I think they’ve possibly heard of it but you know, I don’t know if they’ve actually heard they’re version of it.
JK: I listed to it this morning. I’ve listened to your version like six times, you know, since I got the record, but I went and listened to theirs today. It’s very different. You guys funked it up. For a song called funky, yours is much funkier.
KW: (Laughter) Freaky. There’s is a little more freakier, and were kinda like a funky freak.
JK: Exactly.
KW: The freak funk
JK: The freak funk. So, I guess, on I Feel Love, I was listening to the record and I was thinking to myself, man, if disco were monosyllabic, would this album have a different sound.
KW: If disco was what?
JK: If disco was monosyllabic.
KW: (Laughter)
JK: Would this have been a different album?
KW: Oh right, right. Well, I think, you know, if you want to go monosyllabic, you can go “doontz.”
JK: Go what?
KW: D-O-O-N-T-Z maybe. Doontz.
JK: For disco?
KW: Yeah. If you were to do a disco record and it would be called doontz. Say that ten times and you have disco.
JK: Oh yeah, nice. I was trying to think of what else you could do. I thought of Fro. F-R-O.
KW: Fro. Yep. Fro.
JK: There’s not a lot of options for monosyllabic ways, but doontz, that works.
KW: Doontz is an idea, you know. There’s the possible dubstep remix record called Womp.
JK: Womp.
KW: Womp. Yeah.
JK: There’s that meme of the cat hitting the doorstopper. The Birth of Dubstep. I don’t know if you’ve seen that.
KW: Hmmm.
JK: It’s pretty funny. So yeah, first time playing Flight of the Conchords for them. Have they played [Grateful] Dead tunes before?
KW: Umm. I don’t think so. I don’t think so. No. But now that they have they are starting to more often with other bands. (Laughter) Like other bands are, the singers are getting some love from other bands too and that’s really exciting.
JK: Yeah. That’s really exciting. Was West LA Fadeaway an obvious choice for you for a Dead song? Not Shakedown Street or I don’t know, there’s lot of ways you could have gone.
KW: Yeah, the first place my mind goes to with these upfront singers – notice they’re not background singers, they’re upfront singers – the first thing I think that goes through my mind, you know, are Jerry [Garcia] Band songs and there are so many. So many of the harmony vocals that the ladies in the Jerry Band would sing that I could totally see them. Sometimes I just kinda sing their part when I listen to the music. I didn’t want to go there. But you know, I still wanted to make sure that my groups play some Grateful Dead music and possibly something that didn’t have, you know, the female harmony stuff on, and just kind of create a new vibe, arrangement of some of this stuff. You know, I’ve always like West LA Fadeaway and that lick. And it’s a cool song and the ladies in the band dig it, so.
JK: I mean you can tell on the recording, for sure.
KW: Yeah.
JK: For sure. Cool, well I don’t want to keep you. Two more quick questions. What’s next? Like, are you making doontz next or you got new plans?
KW: Am I making what next? What was the first part?
JK: Doontz.
KW: Oh! Doontz. No, no, that was just a joke.
JK: Yeah.
KW: Gotcha. Um, I have like seven songs, you know seven original songs, I think there’s a, I think the next record’s gonna be kinda focusing on my idea of acoustic dance music. Not necessarily disco, not necessarily electronica, but kind of like a hybrid of acoustic instruments getting into that type of formula. But, umm, organically. But that’s something that I’ve been really following, electronic dance music, the past ten to fifteen years. Different, there’s so many different sub-genres and sub-sub-avenues of the genre. It’s fascinating. And when you put different things together, it’s really interesting, for me at least and that’s kinda what the idea is. To keep myself interested.
JK: (Laughing)
KW: So I’m looking at maybe upright bass primarily and acoustic instruments, maybe doing with a mixture of real drums and percussion with possibly additional help and just sub-suburb (?) area and that’s kind of my idea with these, these songs that I have so far. And you know with this record coming out, there’s no rush on any kind of next release or anything. That’s just kind of in the “I think” process.
JK: Right.
KW: And that is, in the “I think” process today. Tomorrow, it could be something completely different.
JK: Sure. So I was gonna ask, do you have players in mind, but it sounds like it’s down the road.
KW: Absolutely. I’ve got about six players in mind for each instrument. (Laughing).
JK: That would be an interesting album.
KW: Yeah, yeah. Will just see whose available and who shares, or more importantly, who shares the common vision. You gotta have that first.
JK: And then, what are you listening to these days?
KW: Umm, this crazy band called Breastfist. All one word. Breastfist.
JK: Okay.
KW: It’s a mix of like Ween meets, you know, super-funk, super-, it’s like Ween, Zappa but with like real strong sense of groove and funk. Breastfist. And if you need a song to pinpoint, check out Ask the Fist. No, wait. I think it’s, shit, it’s on my computer.
JK: No, I’ll look into it.
KW: Talk to the Fist. From Breastfist. That’s, that’s my favorite song of the day.
JK: If I can get that one past the censors, I’ll give them a plug for you.
KW: If you can do what?
JK: If I can get it past the censors. Breastfist.
KW: Yeah, there’s a fuck in there too. Yeah, be careful. The line is “Momma’s got nothing but love/she’ll fuck you up if push comes to shove.” (Laughing)
JK: Nice.
KW: (Laughter)
JK: That’s the good kind of fuck.
KW: That, that’s a great line. I love that line.
JK: Yeah. Well hey man, I don’t want to keep you. I really appreciate you taking the time and I’ll be writing this up and sending it over to your people’s way.
KW: All right. Thank you so much for the press.
JK: Yeah, of course. Have a great one, man.
KW: You too.