missy

In the 1953 movie The Wild One, Marlon Brando stars as Johnny, leader of the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club. In what has become one of Brando's most famous scenes, a young woman asks Johnny, "What are you rebelling against?" To which he replies, with impeccable cool, "Whaddaya got?"

To take the name of your band from that movie requires nerve, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club live up to it. Inevitably black-clad and stylishly nonchalant, BRMC look the very image of rock'n'roll cool, and their music simmers on low heat, rising patiently to a boil. BRMC's music is often compared to the English shoegazers of the late 80s and early 90s, but the comparison only fits in their propensity for a droning, hypnotic groove. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are not staring at their shoes -- they're staring you down, eyes fixed with predatory, coiled menace.

I recently caught up with their bassist and co-vocalist Robert Turner while he was backstage at the U.K.'s Leeds festival:

Robert Turner: I'm on the move right now, trying to get away from the stage. I was watching the Streets play, and this call came in, so I'm trying to find a quiet place. It's Leeds. Leeds is what we're here today playing, and it's a lot more laid-back than Reading and some of the shit that you've got to do for that show; a lot of eyes on you.

Keith Daniels: I hear a touch of the accent in your voice. Do you pick it up a little when you're over there?

RT: Yeah, a lot more so the entire crew, and living here a year, living with Nick. It's one of the worst accents I've ever heard, [laughs] so I'm happy to be infected with it. It's that thing... When you get back on an airplane after living in London for a while or something, and before you even get back home everyone on the plane, all the stewardesses, have American accents. It's a weird thing when you miss it; you're away for so long, how much better it sounds.

KD: So you actually prefer the American accent to the English?

RT: Oh yeah. Yeah. It's got balls. [laughs]

KD: Do you think your sound works well in outdoor venues? I always think of you guys in a smoky bar, somewhere dark.

RT: Yeah, that's the way we always thought of it. We always figured that's all we were, we can only work in this one kind of way, in the dark, dirty, damp places of the world, but last summer we started doing every fucking European festival there was it seemed like, Spain, Portugal, all these places, and even ones in Australia and Japan. Once we got in it it didn't seem like we were that out of place. It's kindof simple. All it is is that people just like to watch rock'n'roll fuckin' music, and sing along with something under one gathered voice and that's what a lot of us oughta have, just that simple direct sort of thing. It's kindof surprising, but it works, y'know?

KD: The great thing about those European festivals is that they'll have anybody on them, not just one genre of music. They'll have an electronic act, then a rock act, and then a heavy metal act.

RT: Yeah, I wish Reading were more like that this year. It seemed like that they tried to do that, they tried to make it like everyone from Jay-Z, the White Stripes, Metallica, they tried to make it really fuckin' diverse, but then Jay-Z dropped out, Jack White hurt his finger, the rumor was that Metallica dropped off [too], but I don't know about that. It just kindof became... They went for that, but couldn't quite pull it off.

KD: I saw you guys about a year and a half ago and I remember "Stop" and "U.S. Government", which are on the new record. So some of these songs have been around for a while, right?

RT: Yeah, it's changed a little bit, on record, from where they're at now than when you heard them a year and a half ago, but the idea with our band, the way we write and create music; we don't see it as broken fragments. You think, "Okay, this is a group of songs written for this time. Twelve songs for this year that are always going to be like this", and then it's a stalemate until the next album. Our perception is like this constant flow of music and songs; a progression that isn't broke up like that. The album is just a haphazard document of the time, but the songs come at so many different places, different reasons, and different times, I dunno... It feels more right in the live experience, on the live tour, where you're playing whatever songs you've got for where you're at the time. Albums are a little bit more cut-up; I don't like that about records. I like to see where our band's at at that moment. That's why I like seeing live music more than listening to records, because it's like you really get to see it living and breathing right in front of you in the moment.

KD: So when you record an album, that's not necessarily the final version of those songs. It's just where they were at when you recorded them.

RT: That's the other thing, but that's obvious I guess. The songs change. On "Stop", we had this B-side called "Fail Safe", and we played that at most every show we had. We kept extending it at the end, it kept getting longer and longer, and "Stop" kindof turns the beat around a little bit, the bassline becomes more fragmented, and it just became kindof an outro. Then it became a reprise. Then it became an extended jam. [laughs] Then it became it's own proper song. We kindof cut the umbilical cord and made it into two songs, but that's what that song is to me. It's just a mutation of "Fail Safe". That's the way a lot of songs are for us. Like "Heart + Soul", the last song on the record, it's a continuation of "Salvation" seen through to the end, y'know? The whole thing is we doubled the time at the end of "Salvation", that's what we were doing, we were finishing that out for most shows we'd just jam out on it, and it would be boring to end on such a down note. So we'd just speed the thing up four times as fast, and really lift the spirit up. Then it became a song on its own, and "Heart + Soul" is what finishes the album.

KD: You've said that you held back on "U.S. Government" at the time you recorded the first album out of respect for the families of 9/11, but do you think that song is even more appropriate now?

RT: It's hard to look at a song like that: stuck in a time, or belonging to one time. That was what tripped us out with "U.S. Government". When it began, it wasn't about one man, one war, or one regime, it wasn't looking at it like that, but it kindof makes more sense when you push things back a bit see the whole fuckin' picture, and the song is able to mean more to more people for more than just one purpose. In that way, yeah, it is a good time. Our only fear was that it would be taken the wrong way, and we scrapped it from the B-side around 9/11, because it did seem like that wasn't what we wrote it about. It did seem pretty heartless to the people who lost family and friends, but things change. I've never been a fan of music that was... topical, a quick fix, pop it in, and "Wow" it hits you like a burst right when you hear it because it's so specific, and it's so direct. That's like the kind of thing you wouldn't listen to a month later, and that's not really what a record is supposed to represent.

KD: Have you been paying any attention to the California governor's race?

RT: [laughs] I think I had the same reaction as everybody. We've been over here this month watching it go down on CNN, and it was like... What can you say? It was like in the same week that half of the country was blacked out, and this city in Portugal was surrounded by flames and burning to the ground. It was the hottest day in recorded history in London, and global warming is destroying most of the world and then Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gary Coleman running for governor... I think that's the sign of the end, [laughs] but I couldn't be for sure. It's that kind of thing where you're just like "Come on", y'know? What the fuck can you do about it? I try and laugh at it, and I think that's what the point of a lot of that is, at least with that race; it seems like more a statement from people trying to say that the whole thing is fucking bullshit anyway.

KD: The title of the new album is Take Them On, On Your Own. What does that title mean to you?

RT: Well, it came from the song of the same title. It's kindof an experimental song, just a wall of white noise and guitar that kicks in playing this G chord for like five minutes. It's a really harsh sound, really powerful, with some lines of poetry running behind it. "You take them on, on your own, on your own..." is repeated behind the wall, and it just felt like it spoke to a lot of the record in some way, made the point. A lot of the songs on the record have an isolated feel to them, alone but still fighting, and still there with some hope. I don't believe you fight for anything unless you have hope for it, hope for something better.

KD: That's kindof the whole point of rock'n'roll.

RT: Yeah... well, it is, but trying to convince people of it is pretty difficult. Unfortunately, these are the times that are more like "Bury your head in the sand. Survive it, get through it, and hope it goes away." It's just entertainment [now].

Music's become more entertainment these days, which is a sad thing. It doesn't seem like anyone's trying just hoping it goes away with the snap of a finger. I don't know about that, though.

KD: You guys have been playing together for five years now. What have you learned about each other, about playing together, and about being a rock'n'roll band in that time? How has your perception of the whole thing changed?

RT: Besides the music, everything is pretty much a joke. [laughs] The music you make, that's the only real thing in it all. I think we were a bit idealistic that maybe it wasn't about that, but it really is. Thankfully the people that are making it... I've got to meet a lot of people, travelling around meeting people that really heroes -- our musical peers that we look up to, that are really good people with good hearts as well as great artists. Being inside the whole thing, it just fucks with your head. I think we got that it's all a circus, besides the music that you're making, and don't take it much more seriously than that.

KD: So what's a Spinal Tap moment that stands out?

RT: A Spinal Tap moment? Every day! [laughs] It's all of it. That's why that movie's so terribly funny, because it's way too close to the truth except that the songs aren't "Jazz Oddysey" and "Big Bottom". The music, thankfully, isn't like that, but it's just kids; it's a fucking playground, it's a lot of people who haven't grown up yet. They're still trying to live the dream of thirteen year-old undeveloped fetuses with guitars. [laughs]

KD: The nature preserve for the forever immature.

RT: Yeah, and everything that happens stems from that reason, but y'know, fuck it -- it's kindof like the last dream at the same time. I don't want to seem like... It's the best fucking job in the world too, playing music, being here and playing Reading. There's nothing we'd rather be doing. It really hits people, too, inspires them, and nothing else does that like rock'n'roll.

KD: You mentioned meeting some of your peers, so I have to ask: what's Meg White like?

RT: [laughs] First time I talked to her was yesterday. I said one or two words to her. We watched the Soledad Brothers together. She's every mild-mannered rocker's wet dream, because she doesn't say very much, and she keeps a mystery. She's pretty cool, laid-back. That's the whole thing, like I was saying; there are some really good people out there. Jack's a great fucking guy as well, really down-to-earth, and Noel Gallagher is too. Not kissing ass, I've definitely met some assholes in the world. [Oasis] definitely gets a lot of shit. I can't stand Liam very well, but Noel is just a really honest, noble guy. Iggy Pop has the fucking greatest spirit of any person. He's got more life in him than any twenty-one year old kid with the whole world ahead of him; Iggy Pop would beat the shit out of em. Y'know what I mean? The real thing. He loves doing it, and it's almost like if you love something that much it can come off as insincere or cheesy, living a Hallmark card, but somehow everything he does goes past that. It's dirty and raw and straight, what he puts into his music. That's the best thing about being in a band, meeting people. There have also been a couple of dreams burn down...

KD: You meet one of your heroes...

RT: ...and you wish you'd never met em, because their music sounded a lot better when you didn't know what a prick they were. [laughs] But I don't like to talk shit, either, so...

KD: Well, I'm not writing for New Musical Express, so... Speaking of that, I just read their review of the new album, and they called it a masterpiece.

RT: Oh, the NME thing... that's kindof a bit scary.

KD: Think you'll make the cover of Rolling Stone this time?

RT: [laughs] I don't know... we'd have to move over the Olsen twins... [laughs]

KD: [laughs] You guys don't really appeal to the whole pedophile market.

RT: Oh, we gotta work on that angle. [laughs] It's a weird thing, because we're really, honestly thirsty to come back to the States and get the music heard, or at least able to be heard. It seemed like the last record kindof got the legs cut out from under it, mostly to do with Nick's visa, which made it so we couldn't tour the States for most of the time that the record was doing well. A shitty side of business stuff is when you can't tour behind a record, can't support it in that way, a label will stop putting money into it, stop supporting it, and stop putting records in stores period so you can't even find it if you want to. That was a drag, once we left. We wanted to stake our own ground out at home first, we never wanted to be like "Fuck America, we're going to go to the U.K. and Taiwan." It's still a drag, but we don't need a Rolling Stone cover to make up for it. We're going to go back in a week, and start a pretty serious U.S. tour: the Philmore, Irving Plaza, places that we've been dreaming of playing.

KD: And a lot of people don't understand that... You're on a major label, so people think you're bankin', but you have to tour. That's where the bills get paid.

RT: I was talking to these guys last night that stopped me in my tracks and said, "Yer a fookin' millionaire. You fookin' rock star, you come off like whatever, but you've got fookin' gold in yer pocket." Everybody has this weird thing about [how we're] flying first class, staying in great hotels, and throwing money up in the air and rolling around in it. We've got shit. We've got fuckin' nothin'. We're lucky enough to travel around in a bus, but besides that, we're seriously hoping to pay rent next month. A major label mostly means you're in debt. [laughs] If you're on an indie you might have a chance every once in a while, but when you start out as a band on a major, the first record... There's so much debt accumulated, because they can put so much more into it. There's so much on your back that you don't see a dime. Maybe the second record, we'll see. The rumor is it's supposed to break even. I don't know. It'd be nice to buy something some day. [laughs] I got plans, I got things I'd like to have, but until then... That wasn't really the idea, so I'm trying not to get hung up on it.

KD: Did you ever read that article by Steve Albini?

RT: No. What was the article?

KD: There's a Steve Albini article that talks about the way major labels work. The A&R guy, he's your age, and he acts like he's your friend and he's going to get you all this money. Hundred thousand dollar advance... and then it ends up working out where you make twenty thousand a year, when you thought you were going to make a million.

RT: [laughs] My dad [Michael Been] was in a band. He was in a band on Elektra in the eighties, , and they made a bunch of records. [So] I knew a lot about that kind of shit growing up, what my dad saw, and what it was about: the fact that money wasn't easy, and how we were going to make it wasn't easy. I kindof knew way too much, [laughs] the whole ins and outs of majors, and how it's really not all that great. So I didn't have any expectations; I knew what we were getting into. At the same time, if you go the other road, which is choosing to sign on an indie, it just feels like you really don't believe in your music enough that it's good enough to be put out on the world stage or you're hung about "Oh, they're going to say we're not cool." Neither of those seemed good enough [to us]. You're not going to make money either way, [laughs] unless something really huge happens.

KD: That's true. If you made a list of your all-time, capital "I" Important bands, the "Great" bands, most of them were on major labels.

RT: The only thing it does for you, the only thing [major labels are] actually better at is getting records in more places to be heard. They have a much bigger distribution, so if you want your record to get farther... That's the best thing about it, and that's the only thing to really be thankful for that it can do that. We sold four hundred records in Egypt. [laughs] I saw that the other day. I saw this printout that was like "Four hundred and thirty records in Egypt."

KD: You've got to wonder if somebody would get executed for listening to your record.

RT: [laughs] Well, it's better than zero. Those four hundred people are probably diggin' it.

KD: ...riding on their camel with a walkman.

RT: [laughs] They're humpin', man. Anyway, right on. I've seen your site, and that's why I wanted to do an interview. I like some of the bands you write up.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's latest release is Take Them On, On Your Own. Tour dates, audio and video samples, and their latest news can be found at BlackRebelMotorcycleClub.com.