my band released a cover of crawling after you by bass drum of death, go ahead and give it a listen, show some love and let us know what you think, thanks :))
Bass Drum of Death right after our interview at Exil.
Back in Early February, Bass Drum of Death - one of my favorite bands of all time - were back in Switzerland, this time at Exil in Zurich! I asked John if he and the band were down for an interview about the band's new record Six, and he kindly agreed.
Before the show, I joined the band backstage to ask them about Six, their classic rock and T-Rex influences, if they would have done anything differently during the band's 17 years of career, and more.
Many thanks to John, Jim Ian and their manager Sam!
Could you tell me more about the title of your new album Six? I think it's different from the others. Is that some kind of milestone?
John Barrett: I was looking at the song titles, and nothing jumped out. So I was like 'well, you get one shot to name a record like a number.' I thought, 'let's go ahead and take it.' It looks good written out. There wasn't a song title that really fit super well, so we figured it was best to go that route.
The cover art was made by Sarah Goldstein. It shows a rich-looking hand of a woman with jewelry. Did she present the idea to you, or was it a collaborative process?
John: We all collaborated on the idea and bounced things back and forth. I still don't know exactly where that hand...
Jim Barrett: She collaged it all together.
Ian Kirkpatrick: I remember throwing out a Ministry cover. We were like, ‘the hand thing is cool, let's roll with that.’ And then she ran with it and made it look really awesome.
I like it. It looks fancy.
John: Yeah, it's fancy. It's way fancier than we are. (laughs)
Bass Drum of Death playing at Exil. More photos of the show here.
I've noticed something about a few albums you guys have released so far – from at least Just Business onwards. In every record, there's maybe one or two songs that sound more like 'classic rock.' For example, in Just Business, there was The Odds Are Good. And now in Six, Like A Knife and Do Nothing. My question is: do you like T-Rex? (laughs)
Jim: That's the T-Rex song for sure.
John: Basically, whenever we have songs like that, it's difficult to have them not come off super cheesy. That's why T-Rex was so great, in lesser hands the chord progressions and the melodies would be really cheesy. But because it's Marc Bolan, it sounds awesome. So I'm always trying to be very careful and make sure we don't veer into dad rock blues sort of stuff, because it can go there very quickly.
Really? I think you're still far away from it!
John: I hope so. I don't know, sometimes we get closer than I would like. We're just hyper critical of ourselves. (laughs)
The video for Do Nothing was dated from 87, but it also reminded me of the Marc Bolan’s show "Marc". He had a TV show in the 70s where he would invite bands like The Jam to play. So that also reinforced my theory (laughs).
John: We filmed at this place where they had a full VHS set up with the old school editing bay and everything. So basically that was just the date that was up on the cameras that we filmed it with. We thought 'it looks cool, let's just leave it.'
Ian: That was sort of a coincidence, but I like the connection, that's really cool.
You did a songs in collab with other artists a few years back (ndlr: for example “You Were Right” with Eve 6 back in 2021). I’d like to know if you had any ideas for the next record already and if so, would you like to do a collab again?
John: That's a good question. It's hard to do collabs with two bands, because it's too many cooks.I think it'd be fun to do a song where we were the backing band for somebody else singing. I don’t know.
I would try something like a battle of solos. (laughs)
Jim: I've seen it where bands will cover each other's songs and they do a split 7''. That would be cool. We should probably do more shit like that, for reach and to stay relevant.
Ian: It would be fun.
Any names come to mind?
Jim: Who would we collab with?
John: Bad Bunny.
Ian: Charli XCX.
John: As far as a new record, we basically put this one out in September and we've essentially been on tour since then. In the last five months, we had a month off. I've got some voice memos and stuff jotted down, but nothing too much past that. It's hard to write on the road. The show takes up so much of the day, and when you're not doing that, you're traveling. And when you have a day off, you either want to try to see a city or sleep. There's not really a whole lot of time, but hopefully in the spring, when we have a little bit more downtime, we can get back cracking.
With the Bass Drum of Death project having been going on for more than 16 years, what would you tell your younger selves if you could meet them?
John: I was telling Sam, I think I might have been doing it longer than I haven't been doing it. I mean, it's pretty close. It's getting there. I would tell myself, 'when you move to New York, maybe do more of music and less of partying' (laughs). Because there's a bit of a gap there. I don't really think I would do very much different at all, to be honest.
Jim: I wouldn't tell myself this, but it should be 'go get a marketing degree. Just finish school'. (laughs) And 'get really good at Bitcoin. Buy Bitcoins now. And you don’t know this yet, but become a social media director.'
John: Actually, that’s what we should have done – for our early shows, we should have asked to get paid in Bitcoin!
Ian: I would tell myself, 'be more open to playing and be more open to ideas, instead of thinking whatever you’re thinking is the way it's gotta be. Collaboration is great, and it helps make things a lot better.'
Bass Drum of Death in Sion with opening band Fomies, (one of the best Swiss rock bands in my opinion), through my Nikon right after the show.
Back in October, one of my favorite bands, Bass Drum of Death, was touring in Europe and had a few shows in Switzerland. I had not seen the band live since their show in Bulle back in 2019, so I was really looking forward to it – I could make it to the shows in Sion and at Croc’ The Rock – and they were so much fun, with an incredible setlist. I couldn’t help but sing along and party in the pit while taking photos!
Bass Drum of Death was also one of the first bands I ever interviewed, back in 2014. So almost ten years later, I gathered all my courage and asked the band for a new interview before their show in Sion, and they kindly agreed. Join us as we talk about Bass Drum of Death over the years, life outside of touring, the album Say I Won’t and more.
Many thanks to John, Jim and Ian, and the team at Le Port Franc for making this possible!
I know that you guys were living in New York before Covid, and then you moved back to Mississipi. Are you still living there? What’s a regular day like in your lives when you’re not on tour?
John Barrett: I live in Nashville now, Jim lives in New York and Ian lives in Oxford, Mississipi. So we’re split up, but we all meet back up when it’s time to do a tour or something like that. As far as a regular day for me, it’s waking up pretty early, taking my dog on walks, writing emails and trying to get stuff done in my studio room. Maybe a little golf here and there depending on the day.
Jim Barrett: Very domestic these days! Mine is less so. I stay out late.
John: You’re still a big partier.
Ian Kirkpatrick: Oxford is a bit of a smaller town, so there’s not a whole lot to do. So I hang around, skateboard, play golf and that’s about it. It’s a pretty easy life down in Mississipi.
Awesome! I think it’s nice to live a peaceful life. Especially as a musician, touring can get pretty intense.
Jim: Yeah, on tour I want peace and quiet, and sleep. The opposite of running around! I love being on tour, but I’m counting the days to being in my own bed. Or sitting in a park for a bit and not moving around you know?
John: I love being on tour, but having to be somewhere and physically moving every single day can wear on you a little bit.
Jim: It’s exhausting.
Jim and John Barrett in Sion, through my Nikon.
The project Bass Drum of Death has been going for a while, about 15 years now. I was wondering if you still had the same vision in mind?
John: Yeah, it pretty much stayed the same. The only difference now is that I’ll record demos, bring them to these guys and they will help flesh them out. It’s essentially the same as I’ve always done it, it’s just that I don’t completely finish the songs myself. So it’s a lot better for me, because I can get an idea down, or a rough sketch of what I want. Basically, I don’t have to do every single thing. It makes it a lot easier, and a lot better getting input from different people.
Jim: And it’s fun for us too, because you’ll come in with a demo that you’ve either fully or half finished. You’ll be pumped on it, give it to us and we’ll work on it together. Which is way more how normal bands operate, whereas it used to be 100 % written and recorded and we would just learn the stuff. John is still the band leader, or primary songwriter, but we are able to put our spice on it too.
Ian Kirkpatrick in Sion, through my Nikon.
I think it’s also a great way to keep it entertaining. As a big fan of garage rock, I am happy that Bass Drum of Death has kept going for so long, but I don’t know what it’s like for the musicians.
John: It’s definitely one of the difficult things, just trying not to do the same thing or the same style over and over. You know, I think I kinda got in a good groove making songs that are maybe in a little bit different styles, but still sound like us when we get them all finished. So it is fun, but it is a struggle after so long. Because sometimes you end up writing stuff that you think you ‘should’ sound like and it makes it hard to take some chances.
Jim: I think – especially on the album we put out in January this year (ndlr: Say I Won’t), we had a bunch of talks about this – if we’re not changing some stuff up or adjusting, then we’re dying. If you’re not changing the way you create, then you are just recycling. And that’s not the point. So I think we came to a middle ground of changing the process, especially for John, but still adhering to the same rock and roll aesthetic that he has curated for the last decade or so. Sticking to that as a formula, but changing up the way that we go about it has kept it interesting.
I was thinking that perhaps you would wake up one day and think ‘fuck this, I’m making classical music now’ (laughs)
John: Nothing that drastic, but a jazz record perhaps? (laughs) But that’s the thing, I’m not a good enough musician to do something in these other genres. I should probably just stick to this.
I know you’ve done a lot of interviews about the recording and the music of your latest album Say I Won’t alreay. So I just have a question about the lyrics of the song Find It. Are they about something in particular?
John: I guess it was specifically more about being in New York, a place where you can find anything you want. And basically, the downsides of that as well.
Jim: That was the main one we wrote during Covid. When we demoe’d it, I feel like it was one of the first songs where we thought ‘Oh, we’re writing a record now’.
What can we expect from Bass Drum of Death in the future?
John: We’ve got a bunch of stuff coming up. We’ve got a live record that we recorded that will be out soon. And hopefully a new record, we’ll be able to do that sometime next year. We’re trying to hit it hard after having such a long break during Covid. We’ll get it going again.
