Vuelve Cracker con su directo de primera
división tras más de 20 años mezclando en un cóctel de Americana estilos como
el country-rock, la psicodelia, el punk y el folk.
Los
fundadores de la banda David Lowery y
Johnny Hickman dirigen el viaje como
es habitual y pisan escenario de siete ciudades españolas. Sus letras siguen
estando definidas por la crítica social. David
Lowery es profesor en la Universidad de Richmong y un activista declarado
contra las grandes corporaciones, como se puede comprobar en su blog The
Trichordist.
Su último
álbum de estudio “Berkeley to Bakersfield” (2014) reunió a la banda original en
el estudio y como explica el propio Lowery:
“En el disco está el line up original de
Cracker: Davey Faragher, Michael Urbano, Johnny y yo mismo. Es la primera vez
que estamos juntos en una habitación para grabar en casi 20 años. Y casi de
forma preconcebida, al estar en los Estudios Easy Bay Recorders en Berkeley, pensamos
en centrarnos en la música que asociamos inmediatamente con la East Bay: Punk y
Garage con rollo funky por ahí. Y darle fuerte a la reivindicación política en
las letras."
LA GIRA
04/05. Riquela-Santiago
de Compostela
05/05. Intxaurondo
K.E. - Donosti
06/05. Kafe
Antzokia - Bilbao
09/05. Looco
Club - Valencia
10/05. El
Sol- Madrid
11/05. La2
de Apolo - Barcelona
12/05. Helldorado
- Vitoria
THE INTERVIEW
The songs of Cracker sounds
like an elegant Rock where I can detect Country, Folk, Stoner, Blues and a bit
of Pop. A mix of styles that results on the personal and beautiful sound of
your music. But, what are really your musical influences?
Probably classic American sounds as translated
through the UK/Canada. Seriously. It’s like the Stones, The Faces, The Kinks,
Led Zeppelin and the Band taught my generation when we were teenagers about our
roots music. But there was also a big
west coast hippy-country influence as well.
Things like The Grateful Dead , Kaleidoscope, Country Joe and the
Fish; Southwest Punk Country influences
like X, The Beat Farmers, Meat Puppets, River Roses, Los Plugz and the Blasters.
This year will mark 15
years since you edited our first album named “Cracker”. What is the difference between the music of Cracker today
and your music 15 years ago?
15? You
mean 25? I think the strange thing is
that remarkable little has changed. When
we turned in our first record to Virgin Records, our A&R executive politely
noted it was a country rock and blues rock record and the most popular music
styles in rock were grunge and “Manchester sound.” In other words we were out of sync with the
times. However they released it anyway
and it went gold. Don’t we still make
the same kind of albums?
What's your inspiration when making your songs?
I like to
invent characters in my head. Then I
let the characters speak. I don’t write
the songs. They write the songs. This is the definition of being
schizophrenic right? Hearing voices?
What do we will see
and enjoy in your live concerts?
Lately we’ve been trying to play a little bit
from every part of our catalogue.
Leaning a little bit more on the first album as well. Maybe because it’s
25 years since that album was released.
Also we’ve been playing a few of the songs without drums and bass each
night. We’ve developed this offshoot of Cracker called The Trippy Trio. I play a classical style guitar, Johnny plays
electric and Pistol plays pedal steel.
The songs are reinterpreted.
Also rare songs we don’t play in concert.
This is not your first
time in Spain. What do you expect from the Spanish crowd?
Spanish rock crowds are the best fans in the
world. Every American rock band will
tell you that.
Do you think the
digital world will end with music as we know it today? What do you think is the
future of music?
Well, ultimately I’m an optimist. You can’t have a situation where songwriters
(especially) are not fairly compensated for their work. Eventually no one will write songs. In Nashville 90% of the professional
songwriters have quit. It’s irrational,
eventually the businesses or governments will have to fund songwriting again. In rock music where the performers also
write the songs it is not as big a problem, but it’s only a matter of time.
What is your best
memory about music?
The other night in Bilbao at Kafe
Antzokia. I have this song Almond
Grove. I think it’s one of the better
songs I’ve written. But it often doesn’t
get a big reaction in live concerts. But
in Bilbao they sung along with the chorus and people were crying. Never have I achieved that level of
connection with an audience. It was
powerful.
How is a normal day in
the life of Cracker?
Coffee at the hotel, drive in the van for 6
hours, soundcheck for two, quickly eat
dinner, play, teardown, sleep for 6 hours start over. It’s very glamorous.
What do you think
about the current economic and social situation in Spain, Europe and in the
World in general?
Politically I’m very moderate. In the US I’m
not registered with a political party. I’m listed “Independent” at the polls. But I am deeply disturbed by
the acceleration of wealth inequality. I
think both capitalism and government interventions are accelerating the
problem. It’s the worst of both
worlds. It seems similar in Spain. Are we and our children going to be waiters,
housekeepers and gardeners for rich New Yorkers? Berliners? Russians? Is that our future? To quote Yeats “The center can not
hold.”
If it’s not corrected we will end up with
populist fascism.
CRAKER
Low (2009)
MISCELLANY
Could you tell us
about...
... A book?:
Who Owns The Future.
By Jaron Lanier. This Silicon Valley visionary turned critic,
predicted the present. Everyone needs to
read this to understand that essentially wall street, military industrial
intelligence complex and silicon valley have all merged into an extremely
powerful entity.
... A movie?:
The Big Lebowski.
The Cohen Brothers are modern
day Homer.
... A song?:
Taylor Swift: Shake it Off.
... An album?:
-
... A group or soloist?:
Divine Feed, really
just one guy. A pig farmer from South
Georgia. Start with the song Valdosta
or Valle D’Osta. It’s what I imagined the Alabama Shakes were supposed to sound
like.
... A hobby?:
Obscure music scenes. Like near the very rich areas of Palm Springs
and Palm Desert there is also the agricultural eastern half of the Coachella
Valley. There is this hybrid transnational
culture there. It’s neither US or Mexico.
But it is producing all these young bands playing backyard parties. They sound heavily influenced by midlands UK
bands from 1980s. No one knows why. Try
the “The Tribesmen” for cool post punk instrumental music. (THIS IS NOT THE
QUEEN OF THE STONEAGE DESERT SOUND. THIS
IS FROM THE POOR EASTERN HALF OF THE VALLEY!)
Also similar transnational space rock scene
South Tucson.
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