Interview - Robert Levon Been of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

[Dentist interview, conducted April 24, 2008]

(I’d like to personally thank the band, especially Robert, for granting time to give this interview for DLP. Please support the band by purchasing their music. BRMC will be in Austin on May 19)

DLP: When you took a bit of a departure from your classic sound on “Howl”, how easy was it to get back to a more guitar-driven record like “Baby 81”?

Robert: “A lot easier than recording “Howl”. It was a lot easier turning it up loud and just screaming your brains out than “Howl”. I don’t know, it was a lot of pulling back and a lot of…we were kind of trying to keep that space that’s in the record. It’s easier to let go of the reins I guess and lose control and in the studio it’s harder to keep control. So it was easier coming out of “Howl” than going into it, y’know?”

DLP: There seems to be a heavy Dylan and Cash influence on that album. How much did that factor into the writing of the record?

Click below for the answer to this and lots more great questions:

Robert: “There were a lot of pieces that we reached from other places for the direction of the record. The Bruce Springsteen “Nebraska” record was one that I was thinking of at the time when we were just thinking of keeping it acoustic guitars and also Neil Young. But I also thought of a lot of other bands that did it wrong, a lot of bands that made acoustic records that shouldn’t have—and that helped more than anything. It was easier to know what not to do than what to do for the “Howl” album. I guess that’s kind of the way it is for electric records as well. Other people’s mistakes can be as much of an education as when you hit it right.”

DLP: Some of the band’s supposed influences include groups like Jesus and the Mary Chain, Ride and obviously Brian Jonestown Massacre. Who would you really credit with early on helping to form BRMC’s distinctive sound and style?

Robert: “There’s really not just one band. We reached a lot of different places and I think when we started getting the band together we were listening to Hendrix and The Verve and Pink Floyd and Joy Division. That was when we first got together, but every year it sort of shifts into other things and other bands. You don’t stop loving the ones from before, but you kind of keep your ears and your mind open for new things. So that’s probably where it started, but it’s constantly changing.”

DLP: Who are you listening to right now?

Robert: “The new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album and the new Spiritualized record and The Black Angels. That’s kind of more than I can usually handle at one time anyway.”

DLP: Talk a bit about the songwriting process. How do you get from a thought or melody in your head to a song on an album?

Robert: “There’s not one way we do things, it always changes. Sometimes it’s me and Peter writing a song on acoustic guitar and then bringing it to the band and taking it from a skeleton and then making something out of it electrically. Other times we’ll just jam out as a band, at soundcheck or at the end of a show and we’ll kind of take off on something and that’ll be the start of it and then we’ll write the rest of the words later. The only thing I can’t figure out how to do is go from a poem to music. I can’t figure out how to make the words first and the music second; it usually needs to be the other way around.”

DLP: In a recent interview, you guys said that having a number one single or album isn’t the ultimate measure of success, but that it would be nice all the same. How much does commercial success matter to BRMC?

Robert: “I guess I used to worry about it more, but there’s more to music than that I guess. Writing and not letting any of that stuff affect your mind and the way you write songs. I’m sure some people sit down and try to write a hit song, but I don’t know if we’d be good at that even if we tried y’know? There’s other bands that I know of that are obsessed by that pressure, but I never wanted that type of pressure to produce—that’s for someone else. We’ve been pretty lucky just to make the albums the way we want to and produce some of our stuff so it’s kind of hard to ask for more than that.

DLP: Talk about the compromise of an artist’s work that can sometimes take place in a time when illegal downloading still takes place. How do you reconcile that with continuing to put out quality music?

Robert: “It’s not really anything that we have control over and I can’t really worry about it. We’re not looking to change the system; I kind feel like that’s going to happen either way and the only thing at the end of the day that I’ll be accountable for is what I did inside of that and what side of the fight I was on. So I’m kind of fighting just to keep making the best music we can. It can play with my mind in a pretty dark way, but I guess I always have that hope that it’s not going to be about…the definition of the word ‘quality’ can be taken different ways. Quality doesn’t necessarily mean recorded in a professional studio with lush sounding things—which is pretty wonderful if you do it right—but at the same time that wasn’t ever the definition of rock-n-roll. And so if that falls by the wayside for awhile or forever then I still have faith that what’s left will still be the heart and the soul and the feeling and the spirit. That other shit never had anything to do with rock-n-roll in the first place. The only thing that you kind of have to worry about is psychologically what it means to people to steal a piece of art and take it in its smallest, most compressed, shittiest sounding possible way, which just lessens the worth that it means to them. And that’s just something that our whole world has got to figure out because it seems like you’re getting away with something, but really it’s just the kind or world we’re living in; things aren’t getting better, just cheaper, faster and more disposable. It’s one of those things we could probably keep on talking about forever, but it would probably be more interesting to get to another question.”

DLP: There are so very few bands out there today that sound even better live than they do on the album. Having seen you perform several times I know that you accomplish that very well. How enjoyable is the live performance aspect?

Robert: ”It’s interesting because one can’t really be without the other. You could make records and never tour I guess, but probably better bands than you have come around and done that…kinda like the Beatles, y’know? But you’re not going to re-invent the wheel. There’s still room I feel like to break more ground live; playing shows is always interesting, there’s just so much more that can be done, that you can bring to people. Records are wonderful, but they’re limited by nature; it’s just feels like live anything is possible. That’s the thrill that to me is more fun sometimes than being in the studio.”

DLP: Last five itunes downloads?

Robert: 1. The Black Angels: Passover; 2. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Dig!!!Lazarus Dig!!!; 3. anything by The Ruts; 4. PJ Harvey: White Chalk; 5. Tom Waits: Blood Money

DLP: When can we expect a new album?

Robert: Working on the road, it’s kind of fun right now just writing some stuff and trying things out in front of people to see which ones sink or swim. We’ll probably go back in the studio sometime around the new year or a little bit before that.