Cut in the Hill Gang’s Johnny Walker

For full disclosure, I am co-owner of The Little Room Record Co.  We have released one 45 for Cut in the Hill Gang, and the LP, Hung Up, will be coming out soon as well.  With that said, I love this band.  A few years after The Soledad Brothers parted ways in 2005, Johnny Walker partnered with some musicians from his new home in Covington, KY.  Now, Johnny Walker (vocals/guitar/harmonica), Brad Meinerding (lead guitar/vocals), Lance Kaufman (drums/vocals/percussion) are continuing on the dirty, blues/rock trail of The Soledad Brothers.  In their short time together, the band has already been featured on the Sony Playstation 3 video game MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, and are just wrapping up a tour of Europe.

Cut in the Hill Gang - Hung Up

The What of Whom: You’re just returning from a tour of Europe, how was your first International outing with the band?

Johnny Walker: The response was great.  The kids were really going for it.  The music improved as the tour progressed.  We were not deported.  Our van was towed, not stolen, in Paris.  I only had minor mental breakdowns, no mechanical ones.  I took care of those repairs on the roadside.

TWOW: You had a chance to play with Ben Swank again while you were in London, how was that?

JW: That guy is a train wreck waiting to happen!  Always 2 wheels on the tracks, about to go off.  Actually, he is living in the

Johnny Walker and Ben Swank - Credit to Carl Hoff

states now and I get to play with him more often.  We played yesterday for about 2 hours.  Maximum wankerage.

TWOW: Do you have any plans to tour the U.S. more extensively?

JW: No plans for the US.  We are spoiled in Europe.  Promoters get us hotel rooms, feed us, hang out and listen to music with us.   Here it is a pitcher of beer and good luck.  The drives are insane, and I am too busy with other things to deal with all that.  Sorry if i sound old and bitter.  Dems da facts.  Maybe when the “garage” resurgence happens in 2035.

TWOW: How is the band getting along after spending some time on the road?

JW: Have you read about the double, double cross on our website, www.cutinthehillgang.com?

TWOW: How did the idea for the story of The Cut In The Hill Gang come about (insert included with the LP)?

JW: I am fascinated with bad guys.  I am trying to get as many people to write stories about us getting gunned down in the streets as possible.  Maybe an obituary or two.  I like the idea of people killing us off.  We can beat the record labels to the punch.  The record is being released as an LP and CD split release.  The CD is the untimely demise of the Cut In The Hill Gang.  The LP is our glorious rise.   If anyone wants to join in on killing us off, feel free.  Send me a story.  Drop our names into a Billy the Kid or Bonny and Clyde legend.

TWOW: Did you have any reservations about working with a label called The Little Room Record Co.?

JW: No, I like the idea of a communal record label.

TWOW: Well one concern I had with the name of it was the impression that we were trying to make money off of The White Stripes. Did you ever have that concern?

JW: Are you making money?  Bully for you!  I doubt the accuracy of that though.  Didn’t the Rolling Stones name themselves after a Muddy Waters song?   Or the Soledad Brothers after revolutionaries?  No shame in that game.  You name yourself after objects, people, etc. that you admire.  By the way, have you made any money?  Because i sure haven’t.  Guess that Soledad Brothers ploy never worked out.

TWOW: Jack said in Under Blackpool Lights, that you never had one guitar lesson, is that true?  How did you learn to play?

JW: No guitar lessons.  Lessons are a trap to suck people into more lessons, a money pit.  I learned with patience and open tunings.  Sitting on my bed or the front porch, and yelling my head off.

TWOW: People often talk about how great you sound live.  Can you talk a little bit about the equipment that you use?

JW: I like to run my amp with out any effects.   Usually straight into a tube bass rig, preferably with a 15 inch speaker in the cab, you have to push the amp hard.   It’s more about dynamics of playing and style than stepping on pedals.  What happens when pedals don’t work?  Disaster!

TWOW: I love ‘Hammer Me Down’ from Steal Your Soul and Dare Your Spirit to Move.  Can you talk about the process for

Johnny Walker - Credit to Carl Hoff

recording that song?

JW: In a nutshell, an old Silvertone record cutter, one condenser mic, putting louder instruments farther away and vocalists in the front.

TWOW: How do you hope to split your time between the new band and your work?

JW: Recipe for success, work and then play.  We never rehearse, never have, even in the Soledads.   Mostly, I play with country and bluegrass guys from Covington.  All I have to do is show up at the bar with my harmonicas.  There are about 6 guitars, an upright bass, a banjo in my bedroom and I play there a lot.  I work about 60-80 hours a week, and the rest of the time I study and play music.  No TV, no video games, no foolishness.

TWOW: A lot of the musicians that I talk to enjoy collecting vinyl, do you share that interest?

JW: Yeah, I am not as voracious as most about collecting.  I listen to vinyl, more than collect.   There is something funny about the collector’s mentality.  In my sphere of reality, the value of an object is secondary to the aesthetic of an object.   Collecting can sometimes be kind of selfish.  I am more of a listener of vinyl.  I neither categorize records nor care if I lose a record.  Sacrilegious!

TWOW: You have never been shy of talking about politics.  How do you feel about what is happening in Detroit with the auto companies?

JW: Well, my pops is a tool and die maker.  Toledo is a ghost town because the jobs are drying up, Detroit is a third world country, and we keep shoveling money at banks.  Without a manufacturing base the country will collapse.  Manufacturing is the surest way to create wealth.  Banks create a “false wealth”, it only exists on paper.   Unfortunately, the auto industry haven’t utilized or needed a powerful lobby in Washington that can rival the financial institutions.  So what side of the bread is buttered for Capital Hill?   The bail out for GM and Chrysler is about 1/20th of the bank bailout and those 2 companies employ, indirectly, about 20 million.  Want to see new millennium trickle down economics?  Watch those 2 companies fold.
The thing that makes me worried is the way they calculate unemployment.  It is “new unemployment claims in the past 6 months.”  If you declared unemployment a year ago you aren’t counted.  The jobless rate is way above 8 percent and I see the despair everyday in psychiatry.  Things are more desperate than they appear.

PS: Did you know that I have a bachelor’s degree in finance?  With honors!  More appropriately, dishonors.

TWOW: Rock and Roll and Business?  What is the world coming to?  How did you go from Finance to Psychiatry?

JW: Jaggar had a degree in Finance!  Are those degrees a deep dark secret that should be kept locked away?  In chronological order, it goes like this:

finance degree
Payne Webber
hospital cafeteria
biology
hospital orderly
ER clerk
med school
Soledad Brothers
residency

Whew!  i get tired just looking at that.  Guess I’ll have to start a new band… or write a book.

TWOW: Your views on politics were integrated into Soledad Brothers, do you plan to do the same with Cut in the Hill Gang?

JW: “I’m payin’ taxes but what am I buyin’? You can have yours and I’ll take mine”

TWOW: What are your five favorite records of the moment?

JW: Oh, I have a hard time with that question.  The last 5 records in my pile;

1) Lounge Lizards “live at the drunken boat” fantastic complex arrangements and composition.
2) Roxy Music  “country life”, great band of miscreants, weirdwind instruments!
3) James Brown “say it loud”, no better energy, duh.
4) Jr Walker “live”, amazing drum sounds, listen to that kick!
5) Merle Haggard “mama tried”, what a great lyricist.

Here is a video of Johnny Walker’s previous band The Soledad Brothers.

Loretta Lucas of Sister Lucas

Loretta and Julie Lucas are the twin driving force behind Sisters Lucas.  The two have been seen around Detroit in other incarnations in the past, Loretta and the Larkspurs, and Friends of the Diddlers.  No matter what form they take, their voices are unmistakable.  They create the kind of music that makes me reminisce about the good ol’ days of sitting on the porch in the summer time, having drinks and laughing with good friends, listening to their records.  While I’ve never actually had that experience listening to a Sisters Lucas album, the strength of the music and songwriting are so powerful it automatically finds a place in your soul.  And while the band is named after Loretta and Julie, that is not to discredit the talent of the other members, Jamiel Dado (Bass), Cheryl Larson (Bass Calrinet), Brett Lee Pikens (Drums), who create the perfect musical landscape for the sisters vocals.

The Sisters Lucas

The What of Whom: Loretta, you and your sister Julie have been around for a while in different bands.  Can you talk a little bit about how Sisters Lucas is different from the previous projects?

Loretta Lucas: Sisters Lucas is truly a joint effort.  I began writing and performing music a few years before Julie, so I sort of headed the other projects.  In the Sisters Lucas, we write together and help each other cultivate our own songs.  We’ve also tried to go down a different road musically, focusing on experimentation and different genres.

TWOW: Can you tell us about when you started singing and when you and Julie started working together?

LL: We were always singing from what I can remember.  As children along with the radio and making up our own ditties.  We started performing in choirs together in school.  We attended a Catholic school, Our Lady of the Lakes, and spent many years singing there.  We also joined the Vocal Arts Academy, which gave us some neat opportunities like singing the national anthem at Old Tiger Stadium.  I didn’t start performing on my own locally until I was in my early 20′s.   I got a few lessons on guitar and piano, took music classes at Wayne State, and went solo.  The Larkspurs were almost an accident, and I forced Julie to join the band because I needed a bass player!  She picked up instruments very quickly, and now plays the keys and a little guitar as well.

TWOW: Was your intent always to be a performer while you were studying music?

LL: Yes, performing was always the intent.  I also studied dance and theater.  I’m just one for the stage I guess!

TWOW: The style of music that you play and the vocal harmonies are the best kind of unusual.  Who are some of your musical influences and how did you come up with your sound?

LL: Unusual is what we’re going for!  We always harmonized together in choir, and we love dissonance.  We’ve both been influenced by Buffy Sainte Marie, Love, the entire Brazilian Tropicalia movement, and DAVID BOWIE.  Julie is super hooked on Linda Perhacs right now.

TWOW: The single that came out last year with Bellyache Records was your first release correct?

Loretta Lucas

LL: It is our first release, Yes.

TWOW: Is there a reason there were no Larkspurs or Friends of The Diddlers records?

LL: The larkspurs did have a few releases.  I put out a self-titled EP on CD, as well as a limited edition 3 song DIY CD, and we were also included on The Bellyache Candy Shoppe’s Sweet Sounds of Detroit Compilation.  We had begun more recording, but then the band broke up!

Friends of The Diddlers did a DIY Christmas release, with only 25 copies handmade.  We attempted to record a record, but we had so many technical difficulties, it was never finished.  Then we sort of drifted apart and started other bands.

TWOW: Are you working on recording any other material?

LL: Yes, we are setting up a home studio to start demo-ing a full-length album.  We might release another single as well.

TWOW: Are you going to do all of the production yourselves or is someone working on it with you?

LL: The home recording will be a group effort.  We all (meaning our band members Alia Allen, Scott Mahalski, Jamiel Dado) have recording experience and plenty of engineers to call in for troubleshooting.  We do plan on having it professionally mixed though.

TWOW: I saw you have a video up on My Damn Channel; can you talk about how you came to work with Don Was?

LL: Our second show was opening up for Blanche’s record release party at The Crofoot.  Don Was had come into town to record bands for his Detroit Wasmapolitan Road Trip.  He caught our set and really enjoyed it.  We were introduced and he asked us to take part.  The next morning, we were in the studio!  It was a pleasure working with him.  He’s a very positive guy.  He came back into town for the Concert of Colors, and we performed with him at Orchestra Hall.  That was a rush!

TWOW: It seems that you perform at most of the larger events, the Blowout, Cityfest, Sounds and Spirits, etc.  Are there plans for more shows this year?

LL: Oh yes.  We already have several upcoming shows booked, and we plan on playing out of town as well.  Basically, as much as we can!

TWOW: Do you have any dates set so the readers can know when to expect you in their town?

LL: We always have our dates posted on myspace.  www.myspace.com/thesisterslucas.   Check it out, we have some coming up!

TWOW: What are your five favorite records of the moment?

LL: Lodger – David Bowie
Parachute – The Pretty Things
Nevermind – Damin E.I.H. Alk and Brother Clarke
Gris Gris – Doctor John
Many A Mile – Buffy Sainte Marie

The Go’s John Krautner

John Krautner - Photo by Carl Hoff

The Go have been one of the most well known Detroit bands for the past 10 years.  Bobby Harlow (vocals/guitar/harmonica), John Krautner (bass/guitar/vocals), Marc Fellis (drums), and John McConnell (lead guitar), worked to produce one of the best records of 2007.  Howl on the Haunted Beat You Ride was not only the best record to come out of Detroit that year, but one of the best in the country.  They have had music featured in major motion pictures and on television. In 2008 the band released the album Tracking the Trail of the Haunted Beat on Bellyache/Italy Records and the single Knock Knock Banana, also with Bellyache.  Now the band is back in the studio working on new material.

I had the chance to talk to John Krautner about The Go and their new music.

The What of Whom: John, I’ve heard that The Go are working on some new music, how is that going?

John Krautner: Its going great!  The songwriting process fused with the recording process is always a pleasurable experience…even if its painful!

TWOW: All of your records seem to have a distinctly different sound to them. Does that have to do with the evolving line-up of The Go or was it a conscious change in the songwriting for you and Bobby?

John: Well…I do think evolution has something to do with it.  People’s lives change over a period of time which sets in motion a series of changes.  Whatever is distinctive about each record probably matches the distinct experiences of the individuals involved.  Tough times = Tough sounds!

TWOW: I personally think you and Bobby are one of the best songwriting duos in recent memory.  Can you explain what the songwriting process is for you two?

John: That is appreciated, Kim.  I’m not sure I can explain our songwriting process, because I’m not sure if I understand it.  It’s so random and usually depends on a lot of circumstances.  Sometimes one of us will bring a song to rehearsal and we’ll tweek it as we learn it.  Sometimes we’re just jamming and lyrics are written in 10 minutes (‘Meet Me At The Movies’ was done this way).

TWOW: Did you and Bobby grow up together?  How did you meet?

Bobby Harlow - Photo by Carl Hoff

John: Actually…Bobby and I went to High School together, but we didn’t know each other.  I met him when I was in college.  He heard a version of “Hey Bulldog” that Marc and I recorded and expressed an interest in making music together.  Marc and I drove up to Grand Rapids where Bobby lived, and recorded our first song together, “Send Me Down Love”

TWOW: I know you’ve played bass and guitar in The Go, which instrument do you consider your best?  When did you learn to play?

John: My younger brother played guitar.  I would pick it up once in a while and pluck it.  My brother at that time worked at plastic mold-injection plant with a guy who wanted to sell his nylon string acoustic.  I bought it for 60 bucks…took it up to my dorm room at college and taught myself basic chords.  The first song I ever learned  all the way through was, “Hot Love” by T-Rex.

TWOW: I was at your show at The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor a couple of years ago, I remember you mentioning that you went to school there.  Did you go to University of Michigan or Eastern Michigan University?

John: I went to Eastern Michigan University for one year.

TWOW: Were you in a band all through High School and College?

John: Marc and I played together during that time but we went to different schools.  We had a band called, “The Rail-Faced Wonder Wheel”.

TWOW: So I’ve heard Free Electricity, it’s really an interesting album.  Is there ever the possibility of that being released?

John: There is a good possibility it will be released…but that is entirely up to Subpop records.

TWOW: Whose idea was it to release Tracking The Trail Of The Haunted Beat?

John: It was our idea!

TWOW: “Knock, Knock Banana” is a great, fun record.  Especially “Grow a Mustache”.  What gave you the idea to do a kids record?

John: It came from a love for bubblegum music.  Kids like rock and roll too.

John in the studio by Josh Band

TWOW: Do you have plans for any other unusual projects?

John: Unusual projects?  Do you mean a record of nothing but backwards guitars?

TWOW: What is the status of The Skies Above?

John: The Skies Above was a fun project during the holidays, but since we all have so much to do with our respective groups, The Skies Above is sleeping right now….shhhh

TWOW: How did the idea for that group come about?

John: It was just something fun to do at the time.  I was just happy to have an excuse to play with  (Danny) Kroha…he inspires me a great   deal.  Ben’s a handsome devil and a good drummer.

TWOW: Can you give me your five favorite albums of the moment?

John: 1) Frank Zappa – Lumpy Money
2) Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – Criminally Ignored Album cuts and B sides
3) Giorgio Moroder – Early Singles Collection
4) Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods – Special Someone
5) Larry Santos – I’m  Just a Man…Born of a Woman Like You

TWOW: So when can we expect the new material to be released?

John: GO fans can expect a single release this summer and something like an
album soon after.  Touring is likely.

• The Go – Myspace
• The Go – Band Website