I was originally introduced to Chicago’s Green when my friend Terry’s band played a cover of their song “Gotta Getta Record Out” to open the set of their CD release show. Years later, a Green mix he brought on a recent road trip inspired me enough to contact songwriter Jeff Lescher to request an interview.

Who the hell is Green some of you are wondering? They’re quite possibly the best pop band you’ve never heard. Here’s what Spin Magazine had to say about the band’s 1986 breakthrough release (which I’m pleased to report I stumbled upon a vinyl rip of the song mentioned above from the website Little Hits):

“…the most thoughtful and infectious white-bread, pure-pop music to slide down the rock ‘n’ rock pipeline in eons.”

Jeff was kind enough to answer a few questions that Terry and I put together. He also sent me the band’s forthcoming album to digest (which I’ve been enjoying since I got home from work this evening). More information about the release of the new album as it unfolds. On with the interview…

For those unfamiliar with the band: What are a few albums that you feel shaped the band’s sound?
The first three albums (Green, Elaine MacKenzie, and White Soul) kind of set out the parameters of what the group was and is still trying to do: take a lot of different approaches to end up at a great song. I think that listening to those albums, you can distinctly hear rock and roll, metal, pop, punk, country, thrash, romantic ballads, grunge, and a few other musics as well. We have always kept that approach of trying to write and perform really well written music, with no limits on where it can come from or how it has to sound.

The song “Gotta Getta Record Out” appeared on an Epic best unsigned band compilation that came out in the mid 80’s. Do you regret not going to a bigger label early on?
We were always dying to be on a major label. I think that we must have seemed really, really bush league to the few major label reps that came to see us. We were a touring band that put out our own records. We were living hand-to-mouth and making due with patched together musical equipment and amps (amps so small and puny, that we usually could not hear them on stage over the monitor speakers!) We did probably 150 shows per year during the years when we were living completely (but not very well) off the group.

The thing, of course, that always jumps to mind when someone asks this question is: “Why don’t you ask the major label jokers (or the large, independent label jokers, for that matter) why they didn’t sign us!? We weren’t hiding under rocks. We played hundreds of shows in some pretty big places all over the U.S. and Europe. We put out albums and got good reviews in some pretty big rags. You go figure.

Also, we were probably the first group from Chicago (arguably) to really go out on a national limb at that point and tour and put out records and get some national press. Chicago was still a music backwater at that time. I like to think that we made the world safe for Smashing Pumpkins and Liz Phair et al., by our forays into the world outside Chicago, bringing some attention and cache for the music scene here, with the major labels.

Why do you think Europe has been more supportive of the band over the years?
Europeans are generally better educated, they don’t have the mass media, merchandising/marketing pressures that monopolize our lives in America, and they are usually homogeneous populations i.e., they don’t feel a need to “fit in” like Americans do. They can like something that’s different from what the conglomerates are pushing and it’s OK.

Also, when we broke in in Europe, the post-WWII phenomenon of American hegemony politically and culturally, was still in full effect (a situation that has changed drastically over the past few years). American and/or British groups were all that Europeans accepted as “authentic.” I often asked groups over there why they didn’t just stop singing in English (they did sound pretty bad, and even laughable, sometimes), and sing in their mother tongue. That situation has altered a lot over time and The best groups that I’ve heard sing in either perfect English idiom, or in their native language.

Also, my world view and sense of reality comes from my Roman Catholic upbringing. I think the fact that Europe was so steeped in that tradition made our lyrics and motives accessible to Europeans. Maybe more accessible for Europeans than for Americans who may find the frame of reference obscure or off-putting.

Are there plans to put out more of the early albums (i.e. Elaine Mckenzie) out on CD?
We’ve been trying for a while now to get the backcatalog out. I won’t bore you with the disasters. We’re going to put out the first album CD again this fall, when we release our new album CD. We hope to put the rest out over the next year or so.

You did a Gram Parsons tribute CD with a female singer (which we would love to hear). How did that come about? I don’t hear much country in Green.
We had a record contract in Holland at the time. We owed them one more record on the contract. I put it to the label that we should make two albums: a new Green album and, to capitalize on the popularity of Gram Parsons in Holland, a Gram tribute album as well. They agreed, but then pulled a switcheroo and said that we’d have to do both albums for the price of the one left on our contract!

Anyway, we made The Pop Tarts which was was woefully under-recorded, under-produced, and under-promoted; and, Janet Bean and I made Jesus Built a Ship to Sing a Song to–the Gram and Emmy Lou tribute. Because they shorted us on the money, both projects suffered.

What motivates you to continue writing and recording new music?
Poverty.

Speaking of new material: Will the new album be more guitar or piano oriented?!
As I was saying above: the needs of how best to get a song across to someone dictate what instruments, vocals, production techniques, etc., are used on what songs.

Anything else new (yourself or the band) we should know about, Jeff?
Clay’s sex change went well and he can now fit into pantyhose. We have a new album coming out in the fall. We’ll be playing some shows to promote it in Chicago and in your neighborhood. ’nuff said.

Download: Green - “Gotta Getta Record Out”
Download: Green - “I Want What You Want”