A short talk with Clams from Warmduscher on band comparisons, contrasts, and adult movies.
Diogo: If I had to bet, I'd say that your free-spirited crew isn't that fond of being labeled or compared by journalists to acts from the past. However, there's a lot happening in Warmduscher's music and it's hard not to end up creating links between your sonority and the artists and genres that are familiar to us: for example, in my case, I'm able to hear Mellow Gold-phase Beck in "Greasin' Up Jesus", the free-flowing attitude of Soul Coughing, The Fall's bitter cynicism and even some Spiritualized here and there. At The Hotspot feels grandiose and filthy at the same time.
Wamduscher: We don’t mind comparisons at all, it comes with the territory of what we do. We get so many comparisons that we like to make our own, really, or at least make them up in our minds. Right now I’d like to believe we are a cross between Little Richard and the lord Satan herself after a bad date night!
Diogo: Aesthetically, you present yourselves as a band of contrasts: there's a certain dandy, even intellectual charisma to your lyrics, but if you think twice about it, as a listener, it all sounds quite... theatrical? A Shakespearian "play within a play": the artistic persona of the hedonistic and deranged representing a post-modern form of the bourgeoisie.
Warmduscher: Yes, the lyrics are almost a form of torture sometimes. Rather than just spelling it out, Clams likes to make songs that leave the listeners make up their own stories. That can mean a lot of wordplay on simple subjects and definitely theatrical in the sense that we hope the words conjure up images in the listener's minds. With that being said, some songs are improvised on the spot and others are just stories based on people or situations we’ve had in real life. I hope that makes sense?!
Diogo: The storytelling is effective and tinted with bursts of bizarre humor. The spoken-word and its unpredictable twists and turns also give the songs a frenetic, almost anarchic quality. How do the lyrics usually start gaining form in your head?
Warmduscher: Each song is different, really, but most of the time the song title is created before the actual music, so with that comes all kinds of different scenarios that arise lyrically. Sometimes, the lyrics will be done completely, and then, when I put them to the song, it doesn’t make sense how it’s written, so I’ll close my eyes, take a deep breath of something sweet, and change it while we are recording, or describe a vision in my head in time with the music and hope for the best.
A song like "8 Minute Machines", for example, was made because I was so upset when the George Floyd situation came out, but I first read that the pig was on his neck for 8 minutes, not 9, so I had that in my mind over and over as the song was playing. Then, later, I started thinking about how you have these people meant to protect you from killing other people, and then these machines helping people breathe as Covid was just coming out and so many people were on respirators. The contrast was awful and funny at the same time. Initially, in that song I had the lyrics written "8 minute machines, all down on their knees, choking 8 million dreams, cos they can do what they please", and then "8 million machines, for a human disease, 8 million machines, for 20 million more needs"… that last verse went out the window in the recording because I was hung up on how I was delivering it so I threw the lyric sheet away and concentrated on the performance rather than the words, so in typical fashion, I suffer internally while being happy with how it sounds externally! Phew, that was a lot!
Diogo: "Wild Flowers", in particular, sounds like an enormous middle finger to the world. You're having fun, just dissing everything and everyone. As if the song was a proper justification to set your surroundings on fire. You manage to do this in a danceable way. Do you think people take themselves too seriously? What benefits would come from the concept of ripping off our social masks and just being honest and straightforward to each other?
Warmduscher: "Wild Flowers" is just an anthem to all us little creatures out here fed up with the little things thrown at them daily and with trying to tow the line of being a good little piggy when all we want to do is have a good time and roll around in the mud somewhere with whatever’s closest! I definitely think people need to appreciate the humor in life and realize that death is inevitable and with that means ultimately everything we are doing and who we are will be forgotten sometime eventually. Do good things while you’re here and bad things if you have to and enjoy them, just don’t hurt anyone but yourself as best as you can, and enjoy your time! Laugh more if you can and get help if you can’t.
"Wild Flowers", Warmduscher | At The Hotspot
Warmduscher: "Baby Toe Joe" has a cinematic facet to it. It's cheaply erotic. For some reason, Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights came to my mind when I first listened to the song, maybe for the '70s-to-'80s transition funky groove sonority. Just out of your curiosity, what is your favorite adult flick? What would you consider to be the masterpiece of midnight cinema?
Warmduscher: Oh boy, I have so many, it’s such a hard one to choose. I love adult movies, B movies, classic porn, horror, and just movies in general. It’s really very hard to pick one particular but a few that are coming to my head while writing this are:
Crimes of Passion, Fort Apache The Bronx, Escape from New York, Dickman and Throbbin, Mandy; there’s too many really, this is just off the top of my head as I’m writing this and in the particular genres I mentioned.
Diogo: Do you enjoy working with Dan Carey?
Clams: Dan Carey is a master, he’s like the Kung fu master with the long white beard in Kill Bill of music. He makes his ideas work for each band and sticks to what he believes works for each band and it seems it always works! We love working with Dan Carey and, in fact, Ben is getting ready to unleash a new project with him as we speak!
At The Hotspot | Warmduscher
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