CREEM SHOWCASE

JERRY HARRISON MAKES HEADWAY

CREEM SHOWCASE

Billy Cioffi

by

How did you get involved with the Violent Femmes?

Part of if was they were from Milwaukee. I had been working on my last solo album—which should be out soon, it’s all done—in Milwaukee because I had to go back and take care of my mother who had cancer, so I got to know them just a little bit. Then through Warner Brothers and other people, we got connected and I got their demo tape: it really knocked me out. They came over and just started working. The thing I had wanted to do—I felt they were a really great band but that because of the rawness of their earlier albums they weren’t going to get airplay even though they were really good albums. So my goal was to not take away that rawness, that freshness they had, and still make it clearer. We had a lot of back-and-forth on it but I think everyone was very happy with it.

When I first heard them I thought that they were out there, probably in the same way as the Modern Lovers, right?

The atmosphere when the Modern Lovers came on the scene was perhaps the most conservative in all of rock history, and we really had an uphill battle. I think that’s why, in many ways, we were kind of a groundstone for what we built later,. We were both a link between, say, the Velvet Underground and the Stooges: to what then became punk rock and new wave. I think we were more than a link in some ways, because it was really like you were standing against a hurricane.

The one word I would associate with the groups you have been involved with on a creative level would be “atmosphere. ” I think that is part of your playing.

I think it’s an important part. I never tried to be someone who had the super solo; I always tried to do things that made the song the most effective. And I think that was helping, as you say, the creative atmosphere.

What is your musical background?

I took some piano lessons and some saxophone, but not that much. I played in rock ’n’ roll bands all through high school and college. When I was in high school I played in bands that tried to sound like the Who, the Yardbirds, we did James Brown—that was the first one I was in, I was actually in bands before the Beatles came to America. There was a different feeling then. At that time I never thought I was going to be a professional musician; it was just something I did that was fun. We used to play for five dollars a job.

You play guitar and keyboards, but what do you consider your first instrument?

Well, I consider myself to be more of a keyboard player because I have done it longer. I really took up the guitar in frustration to Jonathan Richman changing his style. When Jonathan decided to abandon the sound of the Velvet Underground for the sound of Van Morrison, to me the songs weren’t the same. I said, “Look I can play the guitar like you do, so give me your guitar”—so he gave me a guitar and I taught myself to play. I had always been more influenced by guitarists than keyboard players, though. I think in the ‘60s people like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix were a lot more exciting to me than trying to play like most of the organ and keyboard players. If you Start looking at the blues aspect it was wonderful, but at that time I was thinking about rock bands. The way the guitarists used feedback and sound was so thrilling; so that was really what I tried to do with keyboards. Like with Modern Lovers I would use the fuzz tone on the Fender Rhodes, which had a very unique sound. It would kind of get the sound of a French police siren. So that is why guitar appealed to me. Do you still try to accomplish that? Is that still part of your repertoire or what you’re trying to do?

I think it was more the way guitarists were trying to use new sounds; it wasn’t trying to duplicate the phrasing. It was more just their attitude at the time, which has kind of been transferred to keyboard players and people who play synthesizers now. The synthesizer, obviously, opened up a lot of possibilities to the keyboard player.

It can get extremely redundant though.

It sure can. Finally you just end up wanting to use pianos and organs a lot. I think that lately, because there is so much to learn on keyboards, I’ve been playing keyboards a lot more than I have the guitar. We are about to start a new Talking Heads album, so I’m looking forward to doing both. You get to be sort of the switch hitter, if you will.

That’s right—“utility man.”

What kind of a rig do you use? I know you’re an endorser for Yamaha so let’s get that out of the way.

Actually I’m not really an endorser for anybody. I know Tasha and Doug Buttleman and I use a DX7, but I use an emulator. I still like the Profit 5 very much and the Profit PA.

I also like the Reb 2 Profit model. I still like their stuff and I know there is a whole bunch of new stuff that I haven’t investigated. I would be interested in the Profit BM—and there is all this other stuff. It just starts to be that there are just too many things to learn. One thing that bothers me is that keyboard players are becoming more like librarians than people who come up with new sounds.

Although it seems to me that there is a real movement to get back to more natural sounding instruments.

That was one of the things we tried to do on the True Stories album. I still like both because, obviously, when you start getting all this stuff it means you can do all this at home; you are dealing with an electronic medium and you can still come up with some great things. But I like to be able to do both at once. One of the things I tried to do is to blend electronic sounds with acoustic sounds; Little Creatures is a good example of that where you have sounds that are from both electronic and acoustic instruments. Sometimes you want one or another; like a song just sounds better electronic, or sounds better acoustic. I am finding that as we produce the BoDeans album; there is one song where we tried both the drum machine and a real drummer, and to me the drum machine sounded better. Now usually, a real drummer sounds better to me if he’s a great drummer, but in this case, the song.. .with a drum machine it’s almost that you stop paying attention to the drums a little bit, so if you want to hear something else they still can be loud, you know they are there, but you just forget about them.

So you are finishing up the BoDeans album, or have you finished it?

No, we’re midway. I’ve really loved their first album and I had met them because—again—they were from Milwaukee and they were talking about who they were going to have produce them. And I said, “Well, look, I’d love to do it, but if you don’t want to use me, call on me and I’ll give you my opinion on various people. I think they kind of went around in a circle about different people. We kept talking and I came to a few of the rehearsals and the communication began. So we decided to go ahead with it. I think it is going to be a great album.

How about your solo record? Tell me how it differs from Talking Heads.

I think that’s great too! I think it’s more muscular than Talking Heads; that’s one of the big differences. I tried to make a more commercial record than my last record because I just felt it was more important for me at this time in my life to do that. I think it has a real unique sound to it and the songs are varied. It has one song that kind of deals with death squads in El Salvador: it’s called “Cherokee Jeep.” They drive around in these armor-plated Cherokee * jeeps and it’s about the guy who drives for them. It’s sort of his deal with the devil—not exactly like he had a lot of choice. And it’s in the guise of a semi-heavy metal song, the idea of it. It’s hard for me to describe it—you have to hear it. There is one song that is going to be on the album which is already out—it was on the Something Wild soundtrack.

And we’re about to start another Talking Heads record in less than a month. That’s been the good thing that has happened with Talking Heads: when we’ve gone away from each other to do different projects we’ve kind of learned things from other people and gained different approaches that we can bring back to the “mother ship.”

NEW GEAR

Gibson SG Elite

The new Gibson Elite might well be called a variation on a classic theme. Like the classic original ’62 SG, the Elite has a sculpted mahogany body absolutely unique when it was first introduced over 25 years ago. The easy-to-play neck makes for flying across the frets and the neck features a bound ebony fingerboard with a pearl block inlay. The hardware is gold.

Electronically, the Elite comes equipped with a matched pair of Gibson’s new Spotlight pickups. The axe comes with a TP-6 tailpiece and Kahler-locking nut system, allowing for effective tremolo usage as well as precise fine tuning. For more information, contact the Gibson Guitar Corp., 641 Massman Dr., Nashville, TN 37210-3781.

Korg DS-8

Korg’s DS-8 is a successful attempt at combining the flexibility and power of FM synthesis with the logic and convenience of analog-style programming controls. The musician has lots of tonal options with the FM process, but mainly as presets. This is due to the difficulty of creating patches using operators and algorithms.

The DS-8 translates the FM operators and algorithms into familiar analog parameters and controls. The eight-voice DS-8 has 61 velocity-and-after-touch-sensitive keys. Internal memory holds 100 sounds with further expansion available through optional Korg ROM cards.

In addition, the instrument is multitimbral and contains a programmable Multi Effects unit for chorus, flanging or echo effects. Split and layer functions also expand the creative parameters of the keyboard. In Split mode, one division of the keyboard can play in unison (with up to eight sounds layered at once) while the other plays in the Poly mode. The DS-8 also contains a 40-character two-line LCD display for easy readout. Contact Korg U.S.A., Inc., 89 Frost Street, Westbury, NY 11590.

West Six-String Bass

First Strike Marketing and Andy West have announced the availability of the six-string West Bass. Nicknamed “EP” for extended play, it’s distributed by Aria. The six-string is strung with a low B and high C string and features a 24-fret neck of modulus graphite that goes through the body of the instrument. The body of the instrument is alder, with flame maple available at an additional charge. The bass has a custom-designed tremolo system and is strung in the “headless” style prominently featured in other popular instruments. The bass featues active/passive electronics switching and two humbucking pickups, and is also available in four and five string models. Contact First Strike Marketing, 1201 John Reed Court #B, City Of Industry, CA 91745.

Peavy RMC 4512 Remote MIDI Controller

For 1987, Peavy Electronics has introduced the RMC 4512—their newest remote MIDI controller capable of providing control functions to MIDI interfaced systems. The controller can transmit existing MIDI commands on 16 channels utilitizing a hexidecimal program mode or MIDI program mode. Full system control capability is provided from four MIDI outputs. The user can assign individual outputs for individual presets or within a command chain; sequencing or multiple chain is also provided for easier management of the system and creative freedom. For those players who are interested in system/computer interlinks, the RMC is completely co-operative. For more information contact Peavy Electronics, 711 A Street, Meridian, MS, 39301.

Boss LM-2 Compact Pedal

So many times—when a player is in a live situation or in a demo recording situation—that perfect sound is just out of reach. This is because amplified sounds or signals contain abrasive sharp peaks. The percussive synth sound, the slap of a bass string and even the lead singer’s “go for it” high note are all candidates for some kind of overload, resulting in unwanted distortion, amp clipping or a blown-out speaker. The LM-2 Limiter eliminates undesirable overload conditions by sharply compressing the peaks which exceed the threshold level.

The LM-2 incorporates a high level VCA which guarantees low noise operation at all times. The pedal has four controls: level, tone, threshold and release. The level control adjusts the volume of the affected sound; and the tone control allows for coloration; the threshold lets you determine the level where the limiting is going to be activated; and the release controls the time required for limiting to be cancelled after the signal falls below the already determined threshold level. The big news with Boss is all their pedals now come with a five-year limited warranty. Contact the Roland Corp U.S., 7200 Dominion Circle, Los Angeles, CA, 90040.