I had the good fortune to speak to Robert from BRMC over the phone today. I wasted that good fortune by rambling and essentially forgetting every question I’d written down in large sharpie letters on a piece of paper right in front of me. Oh well. Robert was gracious and friendly. I’ll do my best to transcribe what transpired (ooh alliteration).

Robert: Hey man.

Sean: Hey.

R: Sorry this got pushed back so late.

S: No big deal man, I know how it goes when you’re touring.

R: Yeah, it’s been a big day [laughs]. It’s a good thing to be busy.

S: Better than not busy, right?

R: Oh man. True true.

S: Well, I’ll warn you right up front, I’m not a professional journalist.

R: [Laughs] I’m not a professional anything.

S: I tried to think of interesting questions, but realized I’d probably be asking what someone else has already asked you 15 times today.

R: Yeah, it’s really better if you don’t know what you’re doing. [Laughs] It can actually be quite interesting.

S: Well alright, maybe that’ll work to my advantage today. What are you up to today?

R: Well uhhh…you know no one has actually asked me that today. [Laughs] See, it’s already better. Uhhh well we’re scrambling to get out of town, get out of dodge by the strike of 12. The first show is tomorrow in Phoenix and we’re rehearsing this week trying to get, ya know, the final things ready for the tour. Trying to uhhh, make sure the cats have weeks of food to eat while we’re gone…

S: Actually, I was going to ask you that. It’s a weird question but I was going to ask if you were a cat person or a dog person.

R: Uhh yeah I actually hate cats but I ended up with them for some reason. I do like dogs, I wanted to bring a dog - ya know one of those wolf dogs - to be our mascot on tour. But then it’d probably just shit everywhere. Probably not as much as our crew [laughs]. It’s funny how these strange things happen on a bus but I don’t really want to go into it, I kinda wish I was joking. I’m sure a dog wouldn’t be that much worse [laughter].

S: Haha, yeah we won’t go there.

R: There’s this one animal though, I can’t remember the name of it. They’re for ships, ya know, they’re good for taking on sailing ships. Cause they know how to go to the edge and shit off the boat, ya know? They stick their ass out. They’re this kind of dog you can train to do that. Maybe I’ll get one and teach him to shit in Nick’s [Jago, drummer] bunk. [laughs]

S: I thought you were going to say you’d teach it to shit off the side of the stage or something, in the audience.

R: Nah, I’m still working up the confidence to do that myself. I think Iggy Pop did something like that.

S: Yeah, I think he’s done that in some pretty interesting places.

R: Yeah, that’s a lot of pressure on a person though. I don’t know, to perform, to perform above and beyond I guess. [laughs]

S: I’m actually going to be seeing you guys perform tomorrow.

R: Oh in Phoenix?

S: Yeah.

R: Oh cool.

S: Usually the first shows, the energy levels are really there.

R: Oh yeah definitely. Though it’s the nervous energy levels.

S: Have you guys been, I mean you guys are in San Francisco, right?

R: We moved to LA actually. We started there [in Frisco] but uhhh, this is kind of the city to get your music going. It’s just not as, I don’t know. The city actually, I wish things were different. Even bands I know, they’re still trying to get stuff going from back in the day. No one’s listening up there. It’s a drag. But that’s kind of the way it is, cities change and evolve, some are more the place than others at certain times. It’s just on a downward slope right now. Maybe it’ll come back up again someday.

S: Now, do you guys know who will be supporting you on the tour now? The Fratellis, they backed out, right?

R: Yeah, The Fratellis and The Horrors actually. It was a pretty fucked up week. The Fratellis, right after Coachella apparently, the lead singer collapsed and he basically ended up going to a doctor that said he shouldn’t play for three weeks. Which is ironically the exact time their big UK festival thing starts. [Laughs] It’s kind of like, it’s a little odd. And then the Horrors, they dropped off the tour for completely different and slightly more believeable reasons. Their record label, indie label Loog, they didn’t have enough money, tour budget wise, to give them so they could do all the dates in a row, it was a lot.

S: That sucks.

R: Yeah, they both kind of, it was kinda weird because it’s ended up better. These friends of ours, the Black Angels, were down for taking over for The Fratellis for the west coast. You’ll actually see them tomorrow.

S: Oh cool, I’ve actually heard them before.

R: Yeah, they’re really good.

S: Well, The Fratellis seemed like kind of a weird match to me. They just seem very poppy in comparison to you guys.

R: Yeah, they are. I like a lot of their stuff too. It just worked out for that. And The Cobbs, they’re taking over the Horror’s dates. And they’re really good too. It’s kind of weird, I thought it was going to be a disaster but it really turned around.

S: So at least you got that worked out before going out on tour.

R: Yeah, I mean it was right to the last minute [laughs].

S: Hey, that’s what makes life exciting, right?

R: Yeah, it reminds you that it’s not perfect, it’s not the smooth running machine like it can seem to be. It’s all just a bunch of amateurs running it anyway.

S: So we’re all just screwing up all the time.

R: I hope so. [Laughs]

S: Well, I guess I should probably ask you about the new album a little bit. Howl was very, I don’t want to call it ‘mellow’…it was unplugged I guess. But Baby 81 is a bit more, well plugged in. Haha. I’m trying to think of a better word. Louder? More aggressive, more energetic…[Robert begins laughing] sorry, I’m just kind of turning into a drooling idiot here. What I’m trying to ask is, was Howl sort of an experiement or was that just where you guys were at at that time?

R: No uhhh…well just to say really quick, it’s totally cool, I was making a very light-hearted joke because the truth is it’s almost impossible to talk about music ya know. People very rarely say that but it’s just one of these things, it’s a high…well not a high paying job but a job to write these articles and even the ones that aren’t, kind of, high and lofty, they use a lot of big words like they’ve had an education. But the truth is, they have no fucking clue what they’re talking about. So it’s kind of, I’d rather not even try [laughs] ya know to try and go into some particular thing because it’s an art form in itself to write about music and I think it’s a lost art that I haven’t seen many people able to do. You kind of have to be an artist yourself to achieve it. I’d just like to say that. At the same time, I mean, the simplest most honest answer - which no one ever likes but it’s the truth - is that Take Them On [BRMC's second album] was just a full-on assault on the senses, and it’s kind of like we made that record and as soon as we were done we were like a kid that’s tired of playing with a toy. It’s like ‘I don’t want to play with that anymore’ and then you throw it away and just do something else. And that’s kind of what we did with Howl. It was a completely different toy. It was a very gentle kind of record that was, the whole time we were always trying to go by that less-is-more sort of ethos and we’d put something on and if we thought it was taking away from the music rather than adding to it we quickly get rid of it. The songs themselves, they were all really delicate. Delicate to handle. It was like walking around with a glass egg all the time. And uhh, after doing that for like six months your nerves are so on end you just want to throw the glass egg against the wall and break it. And from that came Baby 81. [Laughs]. Everything is just kind of a reaction to what came before it…

S: So this record really was just a reaction in a different way to Howl…

R: Yeah, just like the glass egg, you have to destroy that. You’ve handled it for so long it’s the only way you can get that energy out. It’s not pretty but it’s the truth. Everyone hopes for very conceptual answers but we really just went out and kicked into the next one.

S: Well, I think people sometimes assume that the most complicated answer has to be the truth so they’re waiting for a really really elaborate crazy explanation for everything. Like your entire family died or you had a spiritual transformation.

R: Yeah, I guess there’s that record too [laughs]. I mean, there is a lot of depth to music that shouldn’t be joked about or made any less of but don’t be fooled by trying to cover it over with words either. It’s something that you can’t come up with using words and language. I think one of the reasons we still love music but don’t admit to is it’s the last form of magic left on this earth [laughs]. I mean, in that no one can fully understand or explain why or where it comes from and that’s why it’s kind of a beautiful thing. There’s not too many other things in life that are like that. Ya know, everything else you can kind of see the strings where the puppetmaster is and this is really one of the last things that hasn’t been just completely gutted and torn up and it’s kind of impossible to do that. I like that about music.

S: That’s true. At least if you aren’t involved in an American Idol kind of music [laughs].

R: Hey, I’d be happy to get one of them.

S: Yeah, you guys can get together and perform on American Idol.

R: Maybe that’s what we should do, that actually might be pretty decent.

S: You’d probably get a good paycheck at least.

R: I wonder what that would be like. I mean, I wonder if all the people that go out for that show, I mean I guess you get what you put into it really. Maybe good bands should go into it and try to actually prove they are the next American Idol.

S: That’s interesting and scary at the same time.

R: Well, if you don’t try then you’ll never know it.

S: That’s true, you guys really could be the next American Idol.

R: [Laughs] Exactly.

S: You’ll have to explore that, it’s a new horizon.

R: It’s only ourselves keeping us from the dream. [laughs a lot]

S: Alright well let’s see, I’m running out of thoughts…so you guys are going to go to Phoenix tomorrow, and then how long is the tour? A few months or?

R: It’s scary to look at. Forever. It’s 36 shows or something like that. About 7 weeks. Then we go straight to the UK and do European dates & festivals and that stretches into July or August. And that’s just the beginning. I’m sure they’ve got more shit for us after that. It’s great but it’s a lot, I mean even for us. We’ve kind of got a reputation for endlessly touring. You kind of really pay your dues and then some. Yet at the same time it’s been a little while since we’ve gone at it this hardcore.

S: Yeah, I remember seeing you guys when you toured for Take Them On, and I think you guys came through Phoenix at least twice that year. It seemed like you were doing it pretty intensely.

R: Yeah and we have been since then really. It’s pretty spooky. But ya know, there’s really two different kinds of bands. There are the ones that tour and the ones that make records. And uhh I mean everyone does both but there’s really two. And we’re more a live kind of band then maybe a Radiohead or a Beatles kind of band.

S: Do you do that as a desire for the human connection, interaction that happens live?

R: Uhh yes and no. It’s more of a kind of wanting to, a choice to kind of bite into the fruit and really really kind of take life on because there’s something very different about experiencing life in a box and writing inside like that rather than going out and travelling the world and every outlook and going out and experiencing what the world has to offer. I’m not saying one is really that much better than the other because they’re both valid. It’s just kind of there and there’s the inside and the outside and you take your pick. It’s fair enough if you’re afraid of the outside and you can dig inward deep enough to find ya know, uncharted territories still then it’s good.

S: Alright. Man that’s a good answer. [We laugh]. Well and the thing I always notice with bands that tour a lot - it’s only my observation - is that they’re different from bands that only, like you said, stay in and make records because those bands seem to get a little detached from everybody, in terms of their audience. It seems like when you’re touring and are constantly in front of people you seem to get a lot more feedback.

R: Yeah, the only thing I’ve figured out is it takes a long time to filter the feedback. I feel like I’m still just cracking that and getting to the truth. It’s strange, it helps having four albums now because in a way we’re a band that’s not on the radar but not really off the radar so we’re kind of flying in the slipstream somewhere and it’s given us this strange sort of perspective where you don’t, ya know, you don’t have a hit on MTV and all of a sudden you’ve got all these fans but thankfully we’ve kind of earned a lot of fans on the road and it makes it so you get to know them in a way and they get to know you and so after four albums I’m starting to figure it out a bit better that they are good reflections of your heart and what you make and it’s partially theirs as much as it is yours after a while. You always have to remember that. I guess it just takes some time. You can’t expect to just jump out there and be in touch with people. It’s kind of something you have to learn.

S: Well it sounds like it’s something you have to develop, like any other human relationship where you have to develop like a trust with your audience.

[At this point the RCA rep stepped in to remind us we needed to wrap things up]

S: Woah, that was kind of unsettling. It was like a dark ominous voice.

R: Yeah, sort of like the voice of god. [Laughs] Yeah, I guess the whole thing is, I mean it’s difficult but it is like a relationship because you’re kind of sorting this new relationship but for the most part it’s liars, cheats and thieves who just get better and better at telling you bullshit. And they come and go, and you don’t really miss them when they’re gone either so you learn that. Who can be two-faced and you kind of figure out your own truth and it’s a good lesson to learn. But it takes a while.

S: Ooh, that’s a good answer too. Haha. Well I guess I should let you go then, you’ve probably got other people waiting to talk to you as the man said.

R: Nah, really the truth is I have to get to practice. The whole rehearsal thing. But I think I did 5 interviews today so that’s pretty good. Sorry you were the last one.

S: Oh no problem man. Sorry if I was an all-over-the-place, rambling crazy person.

R: Likewise. [laughs]

S: Well hey, it’s late in the day right. Can’t expect us to be totally awake.

R: Well, I was kind of just waking up actually.

S: Oh, well either one works. Haha. Thanks a lot Robert.

R: Take it easy man.

BRMC’s Baby 81 was released on Tuesday and they will be starting their US tour tomorrow at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, AZ.

- Sean