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Clutch: “The extra time really allowed us to check all the boxes on what we wanted to do on the new record”

In our latest cover story, we spoke to Clutch bassist Dan Maines about the last 31 years and how lockdown helped shape their new album.

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Ahead of a European tour which starts on November 11th in Glasgow, Maryland rockers Clutch has been taking some time to hang out with family. The break follows a busy period of activity for the band, including a recent US tour with Helmet and Quicksand along with the release of their thirteenth studio album, Sunshine on Slaughter Beach. (Read our full album review here.)

Now well into their thirty-first year as a band, the riff-slinging, groove-riding friends from Maryland still manage to sound as fresh as they did when they released their debut album. To find out what keeps it interesting, how the last couple of years shaped the new album and, more importantly, what the future holds in store, V13 got on the phone with Clutch bassist Dan Maines.

Should you wish to listen to this podcast-style or play it while you read, our entire conversation can be streamed via SoundCloud here.

Thanks for your time, Dan. The new album is out, and it’s a record that Neil (Fallon) describes as a “weird record.” Can you expand on what he meant by that?

Dan Maines: “We definitely experimented a little bit in the studio with different ideas and different instrumentation. That is something I definitely enjoyed about this record, and I hope that we can continue to do that on upcoming albums. Typically, when we write songs, we like to play them in front of an audience, and that helps us learn the song and figure out where it sits tempo-wise. The songs take on a life of their own, and that’s something we’ve always been fortunate to do but didn’t do this time.”

Was that frustrating for you not to be able to do that, given that it is a process that works for you?

“2020 was when we started writing for this album, and by the time we had got into the studio, we had only played a couple of weeks’ worth of shows. A lot of the songs were also entirely constructed in the studio or at least finessed quite a bit in the studio. Then we started really letting our guard down with the idea of adding unusual instrumentation and backup singers. We usually look at something and think would this work live the backup singers were definitely one of those ideas that have never really fit the bill. It was amazing, but once we started on the first track we started to think about what other songs we can do this with. It just sounded so good and fit really well.”

Did you have a vision for how you wanted this record to sound?

“We didn’t want it to be an overwhelmingly dark album which was what 80% of the stuff we were writing in the majority of 2020. It was heavy but dark. We took a break from writing because we weren’t necessarily writing the kind of stuff we wanted the album to be. We started to put our focus on live streaming, and that really honestly picked up our spirits quite a bit to be able to do those shows. I think that the stuff we started writing after those first couple of live streams was infinitely closer to the mark of what we were trying to do for this record. We didn’t want to come out of this thing with a downer album. We wanted it to be the opposite.”

One thing you joked to me when we first connected was how you didn’t know how to work a computer. How did you find the whole live-streaming scenario?

“It was crazy [laughs]. The four of us were researching different platforms and how to make it as available to as many people as possible. The first one we did, we spent the first few minutes not knowing if we were actually transmitting or not. We knew that logistically that it worked and we could do it. We then lucked out with the videographer David Brodsky who we had worked with in the past on music videos. He’s a whizz on both the camera side of it and the tech side of it. He came into the room with us and brought in multiple cameras, and we had our sound guy Ted drive down from Philly to set the audio up for us. Then our booking agents hooked us up with the company that would facilitate the purchasing of tickets. By the last one, it was pretty amazing. It was so much fun to be able to do that.”

V13 Cover Story 010 - Clutch - Nov 7, 2022

For a band like Clutch though there is nothing that can match being in a sweaty club…

“Knowing that you sold that number of tickets for people to watch this thing, and it was do or die, so if you messed it up then you had to keep on rolling. It was nerve-wracking but it definitely got your adrenaline going too. It was weird because when the song was over, it was over, then it was just the four of us staring at each other.”

“We didn’t want it to be an overwhelmingly dark album which was what 80% of the stuff we were writing in the majority of 2020. It was heavy but dark. We didn’t want to come out of this thing with a downer album. We wanted it to be the opposite.”

I heard bands using canned audience sounds and it didn’t sound right…

“[Laughs] Yeah, it’s not Seinfeld. That’s not gonna work. You’ve gotta get used to that though but, for us, we’re used to it just being the four of us in a room so it wasn’t too much of a problem.”

Onto the new record then. You’ve talked already about trying different ideas but it still has that core Clutch sound of the big riffs and the grooves. How much did COVID affect the way the record sounded? Did it give you the time to regroup and really explore different avenues?

“Sure, I mean we put nine songs on that record but we wrote twenty-seven songs. Not all of them had lyrics. Some of them were half-baked ideas but we were definitely feeling creative. I think the extra time, if anything, allowed us to focus on what kind of record we wanted to make. We knew that we wanted it to be a classic vinyl LP length. We wanted to trim the fat as much as possible but we wanted to not say we weren’t going to have any jam sessions on it or anything like that. The extra time really allowed us to check all the boxes on what we wanted to do on the record in a minimum amount of time.”

Artwork for Clutch European Tour

Did it feel strange recording the album this way and having the time to trim the fat?

“It was weird. A lot of Zoom calls. Tom was busy. He’s from your side but he was over here a lot in 2020 because he was also working a lot with The Pixies and The Cult. That was really fortunate for us because there were definitely times in the year when he didn’t know that, if he went home, he would be able to come back and things like that. Things like that definitely threw up roadblocks in getting things coordinated with Tom. Other than that, I think that it would have been nice to have been able to play these songs in front of an audience before we went into the studio but, because that didn’t happen, I think it has a lot to do with how the record ended up sounding.”

As a band Clutch has been together for over three decades, how challenging is it to keep it fresh while still giving longtime Clutch fans the “Clutch sound”? Do you enjoy the challenge of keeping it fresh?

“We definitely enjoy it. It is challenging having been together thirty years but it is like an automatic sound that happens when we sit down and start playing together. I think that we have to be a little more aware of that and really make a conscious effort to incorporate a different kind of sound whether that is a different instrument like Neil chose the banjo and that’s going to influence how a song comes together. We don’t like to shy away from new things.”

When I listen to a Clutch record it always feels like it falls into place and you’re on the same wavelength. Considering you’ve been together as a band since 1991, is that how the relationship between the four of you is? Do you just walk into a room and it all just fall into place?

“Yeah, pretty much.”

That must be a pretty special feeling knowing the four of you can just walk into a room and connect.

“Yes, it is and we’re pretty fortunate that way. We all kinda usually come to the same conclusions when we’re kicking around a new idea. It’s pretty apparent to all of us immediately or eventually if an idea is just not that cool so we stop and move on to something different. It’s not the kind of thing where one of us drags an idea into a room and is hell-bent on making a song out of it no matter what the other guys think. I think, for that reason, it’s always a comfortable atmosphere for us to just sit in a room and just pick a key and start playing. Sooner or later one of us is going to stumble onto something cool and we each follow that, then Jean-Paul will push record and that’s an idea and we move on to the next one. Then try to get five ideas and see if you can make a song out of it…”

“It is challenging having been together thirty years but it is like an automatic sound that happens when we sit down and start playing together.”

Has that been the same formula for the last three decades?

“Yeah, that’s it pretty much…”

Artwork for the album ‘Sunshine on Slaughter Beach’ by Clutch

Talking about the new instruments then, was there any apprehension about trying that?

“When it got to a song like ‘Skeletons on Mars,’ I think it was Tom’s idea to add a Theremin to the song. Our first thought was that nobody plays the Theremin. Jay Robbins who runs the studio said he played the Theremin so he played the Theremin on ‘Skeletons on Mars’. I think probably at first we thought there was an effect pedal that would mimic the Theremin. Then, once the Theremin was laid down and we were listening to the mix, it became obvious we were going to have to get a Theremin to play live so that’s what Neil did and he picked it up really quick. That’s something we were playing every night on the last US run and it’s one of the most fun songs off the new record to play live.”

Given that this has worked so well for you, is Clutch the kind of band that look ahead and think where can we go with this?

“It’ll probably not get to that point until we start throwing around ideas. Even Tim or Neil or myself coming in with a new effects pedal that creates a sound we haven’t messed with before that can really inspire you into play in a different way. Neil was messing around with a talkbox but that never made it onto the new record. Definitely, though, things like that can take the writing process in a new direction that hasn’t been explored before.”

You mentioned the US tour, how did that go and was it your first time back out live?

“It wasn’t the first time but it was a pretty lengthy tour and it was awesome. We were out with Helmet, Quicksand and JD Pinkus who, if you don’t know, was the bass player for the Butthole Surfers. He’s doing his own thing right now which is him and a banjo which he has plugged into about ten different effects pedals and it’s brilliant.

It was a good tour. We started in ‘91 when we put out our first 7” and we were going to the 9:30 Club in Washington DC to see Helmet and Quicksand. These were bands we looked up to and they were definitely an influence on us and an inspiration. It was pretty phenomenal to watch and play with these guys every night.”

That must have been pretty amazing. You’ve got the European and UK dates coming up. We’ve spoken to a few bands who have been around a similar length of time and have said there is a difference between the setlist they play in the US to the one in Europe. Is that the case with Clutch or are fans fairly similar?

“I had really noticed that much of a difference but it hasn’t really occurred to me although I will pay attention to that on this tour. That’s not something I’ve picked up on but we try to play as diverse a set as we can. I think, if anything, the UK fans seem more willing to pick up on the newer stuff than other areas of the world. I might be pulling that out of my butt but I feel like that is the case. I think in Europe and the UK there is a different energy in the crowd. I think in the US the crowd is a little more aggro, they might lean more towards the aggressive side of things than over in Europe.”

Clutch aren’t one of those bands that I would class as “fashionable”…

“Yeah, we’re not pretty boys…”

Do you find a wave of new fans coming to your shows when you release a new record?

“I think that came to a head when we did that European Motörhead tour. The Motörhead was about as diverse as you could get. It was ages twelve to eighty-two every night and I think the Clutch crowd is really starting to follow that trend. You got the people who have been with us from the very beginning. Just like us, they have families, they have kids and some of them are now at the age that they can go to rock shows so they’re coming out to shows as a family which is super cool.

You even see young fans coming to the show with ear cans on and they’re up at the front and we love that. The more of that the better. I’m always blown away by the music knowledge the younger generation has as far as the music they are listening to. They have two or three more generations and different styles of music to go through than when I was a kid. The stuff that I was listening to when I was growing up from my older brother’s record collection, that is stuff that is still relevant to ten, twelve-year-old kids today.”

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Definitely and that’s, even more, the case if they’ve been introduced to that music by their parents…

“Absolutely and that’s super cool.”

I remember having a similar conversation with an English band called The Wildhearts whose fans have grown up with them. It must be an incredible feeling as an artist to be part of someone’s entire adult life because of that connection they have with your music.

“It is especially because I have bands like that who I have been listening to since I was in Junior High School and High School who still carry the same weight now as they did when I was listening to them back then. I know what that feels like. I definitely take to heart somebody else feeling like that about us and have it affect them that way. It’s a good feeling.”

Do you have a message to those fans?

“Come on out, now is the time to do it. We are itching to come back over there. This is what we enjoy the most. Writing songs and recording them is really kind of the work part of being in a band but getting to go around the world and play your music to a live audience is just too good. It blows my mind that this is an occupation and I do not take it for granted. We have the best time on stage and I hope that people can feel that energy when they come out and see us.”

Just to finish off then, thirty-one years as a band is an incredible achievement, how would you sum it up for you?

“It’s been a blink of an eye in a lot of ways. I have memories from our very first tour when we were struggling to make it from the East Coast out to the West Coast of the US without breaking down or being robbed. All the amazing people we’ve met along the way. It’s more than a lifetime of memories and it’s just gone by so quickly. It’s really those connections with people whether it’s just seeing someone’s enjoyment on their face out in the crowd or whether it is getting the opportunity to talk with someone at the show and make that connection. It’s truly amazing.”

I have an unhealthy obsession with bad horror movies, the song Wanted Dead Or Alive and crap British game shows. I do this not because of the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll lifestyle it affords me but more because it gives me an excuse to listen to bands that sound like hippos mating.

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