Rock n' Roll Lobotomy

The future of rock n' roll is something that any music fan tries to predict. Some may say that rock is dead, others may say that the future of rock is in a state of reproducing old ideas, but anyone who has heard Clinic would say that there is much territory left to be explored for rock music. Decked out in surgeons scrubs complete with identity-hiding masks, Clinic are referencing the past to create sounds that will only be referenced by future rock bands trying to take pop music to new planes of creativity. With a tour that supported Radiohead in Europe, quite a bit of hype from the aforementioned "Amnesiacs," and an overwhelming amount of critical endorsement it becomes no surprise that Clinic have amassed a loyal following of believers in their future pop.

Amidst a wash of neo-psychedelic noise, garage, and indie pop, tied together with an unabashed sense for strong melodies, they are setting a stage for what could be a new generation for pop culture with intelligence.

At a recent sold-out gig in Cleveland (the White Stripes also had a sold-out show across town that same evening) I had a chance to talk with Brian Campbell about the intentions of Clinic's music and the bands origins, along with the thought process of hiding behind their medical issued scrubs.

Interview conducted in person by Dan Rizer.

Names: Brian Campbell
Band: Clinic

Dan: When did Clinic form and what were the band's intentions when you began playing together?

Brian: We formed about 1997. We had all been in bands playing around Liverpool together and in other bands and then we all just came together. Our intentions were to just make good music. The music around there at that time wasn't bad or unbearable, we just wanted to do something better. They weren't the sort of intentions that we were going to make records or that people were even going to be interested in buying our records. We just wanted to experiment a bit and do something different. We had no intentions of taking on the world or anything, we just wanted to make credible, decent music.

D: Have the bands intentions changed since 1997?

B: No, not really. I mean you would think that we would start to hate it, as far as the whole corporate thing is concerned. I think that because we kind of look center field and concentrate just on the music and let the corporate people take care of all the other stuff, we don't get let down. There's a massive quality control in the band where it takes a lot to make us satisfied with our songs. We just want to make good music.

D: And hopefully others will enjoy it too.

B: Yeah... I mean it's music, it's entertaining and all that, but we would never change what we're doing to satisfy someone else or to sell more records. We just concentrate on what we think is good.

D: Is there a primary songwriter in the band or is it more collaborative?

B: Yeah, Ade writes the lyrics and everything, but each song is really approached in a different way. We each have our influences and different ideas are brought by each member of the band.

D: You said that you guys played in other bands before Clinic, anything that we should take note of?

B: No, not really. They were really just school bands. Carl and I, we've been playing music together since we were 12. Playing together since that age has really helped us to hone our instruments.

D: How would you describe the music Clinic plays?

B: I think we're eclectic, a bit experimental. We want to make it so that you can't switch off at all, so that just as you think you understand Clinic we change it up. Maybe sometimes in a song or sometimes between the different songs. We also like to make it tough on journalists, try to give them a hard time. We want to keep people second guessing.

D: Your album artwork draws heavily from 60's era jazz albums. What is Clinic's connection to that scene and era if there is one?

B: Hartley comes up with all the artwork. Those old album covers, you can't deny it, they just look really classy. He does a really good job of taking those covers and making them work as Clinic covers. It's just a really classic look that really influences Hartley.

D: Okay, your name is Clinic and you all wear doctor's scrubs and surgical masks for your live performances and photos. Why the obsession with medical imagery?

B: At the moment the main thing it's about is having some intrigue and having a sense of humor with it, and creating a sense of paranoia. We have a few friends that are doctors, and they would always tell us these gory stories and other tales about their profession and their stories really intrigued us. We had the name of the band before we started wearing the masks. So we took that intrigue and linked it with us to create a sense of mystery. We are musicians but we aren't about strutting around on stage or showing off. So with the surgeon's gear we can just stand there and look stunning. There's a certain mystery that's been lacking in music recently and it's always been one of the main things we've loved about music.

D: There do seem to be quite a few more bands recently who have been hiding their identities. A number of the Rhode Island bands come to mind.

B: Yeah, but we were doing it before them. (laughter) But it's good though because music has been lacking in mystery and I think it needs it. Music with mystery can create a really good atmosphere when playing to an audience. You can see a million bands any night of the week playing in jeans and t-shirts, so we try to put a bit more into it than that so we dress up. One time our surgeon's outfits were stolen while we were on tour.

D: ...Oh no...

B: Yeah, and it's really hard to get a hold of surgeon's gear. It's not like we just walk in to Wal-Mart or K-Mart and buy it. So it took us a while to get some more, but we still had to do the gigs, so we would just play in our normal clothes. A lot of people were really pissed off.

D: Clinic uses a lot of unusual instruments for a rock band, such as the melodica, the clarinet, and an array of keyboards. So how does Clinic formulate which instruments and sounds are appropriate for different songs?

B: It's really just through experimentation. I mean writing a Clinic song is not an easy thing at all. It takes months. We'll start kicking a few ideas around, and then we'll try a few different things and those experiments usually dictate how a song will work. With this album we needed a clarinet and we needed a flute, so as opposed to hiring session musicians Hartley and myself went out and bought the instruments and we had to learn them in about four weeks because we were recording our album at that time. We told Carl that he needed to learn the piano, so he's playing piano on this album as well. So if there's a necessity for something we try to figure out who the best person is to learn that instrument.

D: So you guys assign instruments to each other?

B: Yeah, and none of us play these instruments perfectly and I think it adds charm to the music. We each bring our own personalities and character to our instruments.

D: The lyrics and vocal melodies seem to be one of the most recognizable characteristics between your songs with your songs all sounding so unlike one another. So what is it that Clinic hopes to achieve with the lyrics and is it a conscious effort to sound so diverse?

B: We definitely try to avoid getting stuck in a formula, otherwise we'd start sounding like a million other bands. We enjoy pushing our boundaries, that's why it's so exciting for us, it's a challenge. As I said earlier, Ade writes the lyrics. I think he writes the lyrics more to create vocal melodies than to say things about heavy-handed topics. We try to use vocals more as just another instrument. We're not a political band, and you're not going to find the answers to the world through deciphering the lyrics.

D: The new album, Walking With Thee has taken on a bit darker feel than Internal Wrangler. What were some of the differences in writing these two albums that can account for the bands development?

B: With Internal Wrangler we wrote the songs around our guitar, bass, and drums set up, and with Walking With Thee we made a conscious effort to bring in a bunch of new instruments. We wanted to experiment with different instruments and in turn experiment with different moods. We learned a lot from working on Internal Wrangler, because at that time we didn't really know what we were doing. It was a difficult album to make. There was a lot of tension and friction at that time which really affected the mood Internal Wrangler took. This time we recorded the rough mixes for the album in four weeks, which is really short. We went into the studio knowing exactly what we wanted to do, we had all the songs written, and even recorded them in our own mini-studio. Sometimes communication between people can get very skewed and perceived incorrectly, for example my version of what is punk might be very different from what your version of what is punk is. So it was good to be so well prepared for the producer so that there was no confusion as to what we wanted to do with Walking With Thee.

D: So I'm curious, what is your version of punk?

B: ...To me it's more the spirit of getting off your ass to something and do it the way you want it done on your own terms, putting two fingers to the industry. What's punk mean to you?

D: For me punk isn't really a style of music, but more of an ethic to be creative and excite yourself without the worries of others enjoying it or "getting" it. It's about expression. To me punk doesn't even have to have guitars or drums.

B: You're right people try to make too many distinctions between punk music and punk ethics.

D: Exactly. Clinic has been praised by the European press which has a tendency to eventually turn on bands that it used to praise. Have you experienced any backlash from that yet?

B: In Britain, when you're starting out, it's important that you have your records reviewed by NME. So when the first EP came out it was very different than anything else around that time, so NME couldn't ignore it and it got some really good reviews. Then we took our first EP's and released them altogether on one CD for Domino Records. Then Internal Wrangler came out and that's when the backlash started.

D: ...The backlash started with Internal Wrangler?

B: Yeah, yeah.

D: That's the album that really made people in the U.S. start to turn their heads and pay attention.

B: Americans seem much more open to different ideas than the British. I like to use this example of when an American sees a Rolls Royce parked in the street he'll say "Wow, someday I'm going to work really hard and try to earn one of those," whereas when a British person sees a Rolls Royce they get jealous and pull out their keys and scratch it. British journalists really get off on building up bands until someone decides it's enough and then they knock you down. We get good press from a few respectable British journalists but for the most part British journalism is like the tabloids.

D: You guys have a video out now on MTV that's been getting some airplay. So how did the video come about?

B: Well we've wanted to do a video for some time now, but we really just didn't have time for it. But then someone just had an idea an idea and it worked out quite well with our song so we just did it. We didn't really have much to do with this video because it was totally someone else's idea, but it worked. We'll never appear in our own videos, it's just boring, having bands play in their videos. There's a lot more interesting things to be done.

D: Well you guys have the video out now on MTV and you've toured Europe with Radiohead. Do you ever see Clinic as having any sort of mainstream acceptance?

B: I don't know, and we never really look that far ahead. All we can do is make the music and if it becomes accepted by a wide audience then that's brilliant.

D: Critics have been describing Clinic as a pop band for the future, so what from the past has influenced you guys?

B: How long do you have? (laughter) Well here we go: the Shangri Las, the Ronettes, Captain Beefheart, Donna Summer, Crime, Kraftwerk, Velvet Underground, Suicide, Wire. The list is really endless. We never really put any value on different influences. We're constantly listening to music so we're always being influenced by new ideas.

D: The last time you came over to the States to tour you flew into New York on September 11 and ended up being trapped there for several days. Have there been any difficulties or strange incidents on this tour?

B: Yep. (laughter) Our first night on tour we were in Atlanta and we decided that it would be fun to take an RV on this tour, and we were driving around looking for the venue and we literally drove right into the side of the club. We've had the cops pulling us over, we were really done over by Canadian customs, we've had two tire blowouts and now we're here in Cleveland and it's raining. Mostly it's just problems with transportation, the gigs are all going really well and we've met some
really nice people.

D: Would you ever take an RV on tour again?

B: No. I think flying would be better, but flying where you're completely comatose throughout the flight. So that you get on the plane and they put you to sleep and you just wake up in your destination. So if anyone one knows of anything like this please get in contact.