Phone Interview with Duane Denison of Tomahawk:
19/06/03
MIKE THORPE: Mit Gas sounds fairly different and more diverse than the first release. Did the band have a clear idea of what the album would sound like when entering the studio or did it evolve through jamming etc?
DUANE DENISON: When we recorded this new one we had already played a lot of the material live, so that was an advantage. Now that we’ve played a lot more shows and travelled together, we communicate a little more effectively. Everything seems to have worked more easily this time. One thing I wanted to do on this album was have a lot more space and be a lot more streamlined and I think we did it. There’s more of a group vibe.
How would you describe the sound of Tomahawk at this moment in time?
I would say fairly dense, fairly heavy hard rock, but it’s not stupid or generic metal. Some of it is a bit more artsy or atmospheric but without being too fey. It’s like a contrast between hard rock and more atmospheric experimental music.
Have you got a personal favourite song on the new album?
I would say Captain Midnight and the first song: Birdsong
Your guitar playing has always had a distinct and pretty unique sound. When did you start playing and what has influenced your style?
It’s changed so much. When I first started it was local guitar players. I grew up in a suburb of Detroit called Plymouth where there were number of professional musicians who lived nearby and a guitar shop where you could buy stuff and pay for lessons. There was a guy called Paul Warren who played with the Temptations. A fellow down the street who was a jazz, pop guitarist who ended up in Las Vegas playing for Tom Jones! Then there was a guy called Bender who played progressive rock like Robert Fripp and that kind of style. They were all at the same music store so I was fortunate because I would walk there with my guitar and lessons were cheap. So I learned from these guys who were already up there doing it and then as time went on I changed.
I actually took piano lessons when I was young and can read music really well. When I have downtime I have to try different stuff and have new input so that I don’t just sit around and play tomahawk songs all the time - unless I’m trying to write. Sometimes to practise, in order to keep my fingers and mind working, I just go and buy sheet music of country and western, African or Spanish music. I like to play different things that force me to think.
What would be your advice to a guitarist in an up and coming band?
All I would say is that you have to balance exercises for your fingers with exercising your mind. Whether it’s improvising or trying to compose, it doesn’t hurt to learn how to read music no matter what you play. You can go out and buy an obscure book where you can get ideas that no one else is doing and that’s the biggest secret I can tell anyone. Most guitarists are self taught, which is fine and I have done it, but people have already recorded what you learn from a record. You can find sheet music that hasn’t been recorded and that other people don’t play and then adapt it for your own purposes. Without sounding like a nerd, that’s the way to do it for me.
On the last European tour you threw in some covers like a Roxy Music song. Are there going to be any cover versions on this tour or any surprises in general?
We haven’t been doing it so much this time. We just finished a US tour and we have a lot of new material from the new album, so its mostly a mixture of that and the first album and then a little extended improvised piece here and there. We haven’t really been doing the covers, although occasionally we’ll pull out an old standard called Angel Eyes which Bryan Ferry also did.
When playing live do you prefer to convey an energetic performance rather than technically replicate the studio recordings?
It’s a bit of both. Typically in a set there’ll be a list of songs that are close to how they are on the records. Then we’ll mix it up so that the end of one song turns into an improvised thing where the sounds take off and we don’t worry about structure or logic. We let that go then go into the next song and balance it out. I’ve done it in the past where I’ve seen bands play the same set every night which is pretty boring for everyone whereas improvisation can be more special. I think the MTV influence makes bands lazy to the point that they just play the same 3-5 minute songs. It didn’t always used to be like that with bands such as Roxy Music, King Crimson or even Led Zeppelin, they just got somewhere in the set and then would just go off and I’d like more of that.
Do you have an all time favourite band?
I can’t really say one. No.
Fair Enough
Do you consider Tomahawk as your main band at the moment or have you got any more musical projects on the go simultaneously?
Tomahawk is my main thing and I put the most time into it and I think I put more material into it than anyone else. I’ve got a couple of things on the back burner like I have an idea of taking anonymous music of the past like Native American songs, Cowboy songs and Convict songs and doing modern versions of them. Here in Nashville a lot of people record and sometimes I do session work with alternative country artists. Last week I played on a Johnny Pay Check Tribute album. He was a country singer who did a song called ‘Take This Job and Shove it’. Anyway, he died recently and there was a tribute album. That kind of stuff pops up here in Nashville.
What have you been listening to recently?
On tour we’re all shoppers, so I accumulated some Faust, Interpol, Autechre and Hans Reichl who’s a German guitarist. Oh yeah, The Wicker man soundtrack as well.
Mike Patton is renowned for being a notoriously prolific workaholic when it comes to music. What has been your experience of working with him?
It’s not overbearing at all. When we get together to work we’re all on the same page and we work hard in the studio every day. It’s a twelve hour day and we don’t mess around. When we rehearse to go out and play, we don’t have much time but we focus very hard and work hard. Patton is great to work with and he’s very energetic and has lots of great ideas. He’s a great singer; I would say one of the best or THE best vocalist in rock right now. Anything I come up with he easily finds a vocal part that works and now that we’ve worked for a while, we communicate effectively.
My Favourite would have to be the weird singing-into-a-gas mask thing that he does. How does that kind of strange stuff come about? Is it just from messing around with random stuff?
Yeah, it’s just experimenting. Sometimes people will bring him things at shows, like toys or objects, so it’s just taking nothing and using it for what it wasn’t meant to do.
Talking about toys, this was originally meant to be saved for last as the token stupid question but I’ll ask it now. Do you remember an incident with a plastic squirrel?
With a what? A plastic squirrel? Where would that have been?
Manchester, early last year
I do remember something like that.
Well we had an idea of making a sacrifice, we had a squirrel intended for Mike Patton but it got thrown towards you and I can vividly remember you picking it up and placing on top of your amp.
I remember that yeah. I don’t know what became of it but thank you very much.
You’ve put my mind at ease
Yes now you can sleep at night.
Do you have any thoughts on the current state of rock music?
It goes in cycles and every ten years someone says that rock is dead and then something explodes. Right now there’s new Garage and Nu-Metal which get the most attention. But I’ve been doing this long enough so I watch things come and go and just keep doing my thing. We do records and draw crowds without any help from MTV or mainstream press or TV. So I’ve made a career of bypassing all of that. I don’t know, it seems like the population is getting so big and things are interconnected. With the internet, any kind of music can find an audience.
We have the NME here; in my opinion it tends to hype things before anyone’s heard them properly. So there’s a great expectation for something that eventually is underwhelming
Yeah, of course, the British press is more fashion driven that anything. It’s funny because the NME looks for the next big thing, Mojo is retro; everything is for old people or is new stuff that sounds like old people. Then there’s the wire which is too intellectualised and ruins things. Then Kerrang which is the biggest selling of them all and it is more hard rock. They seem to like tomahawk a bit though, so I can’t say anything bad about them. No one respects kerrang but it’s the biggest seller.
I noticed rock sound gave mit gas a good review
Yeah. We’ve done well with them.
Well it’s good to hear a refreshing view in a land where the word of the NME is sacred. It needs to be smashed.
It should be; you shouldn’t let the press tell you what’s good. Simply buy the records, go to the shows and you can see what’s real and what’s not. They hype things so much that you see them and then are disappointed.
Yeah. I’ve been pretty under whelmed by a lot of these kinds of bands. The last gig I saw that I liked was Sonic Youth when their new record came out. The next band I will see will be you guys.
Good. There isn’t actually much coming from here that thrills me but I don’t really hate all that stuff. I mean, I like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and some of that other stuff but they hype all that kind of thing so I sometimes start to resent it. It loses immediacy.
Ok well that’s it im afraid. I’ll say thanks a lot and it’s much appreciated
Thank you. If you see me at the show, say hello.
I’ll bring another Squirrel
Please, bring a pink flamingo
Ok, that will be the Nottingham Rock City show
Ok, Nottingham
Look out for the flamingo or any kind of animal
Ok I’ll know, I'll know
Thanks a lot
Interview conducted by MIKE THORPE Check out the IPECAC website, home to Tomahawk and other delicious bands: www.ipecac.com
