One of the most influential musicians of the San Diego Rock scene, John Reis has done it all. After getting his start in Hardcore band Pitchfork, he founded not one, but two now legendary bands at the turn of the 90’s. Drive Like Jehu eventually became revered for their unconstrained blend of Rock, Post-Punk and early Emo, while Rocket From The Crypt simultaneously jolted the Rock N Roll world with their energy and fun-loving sound. In the late 90’s, he once again put SD on the map with the almighty Hot Snakes, which gifted us 4 great albums, including their excellent latest record Jericho Sirens, on Sub Pop Records. As if that wasn’t enough, he’s founded Swami Records, releasing music both from his revolving door of personal projects (The Sultans, The Night Marchers, etc) and talented younger bands like The Marked Men or The Bronx. While we wait for the next Hot Snakes record, or the multiple plans he has up his sleeve, we caught up with him for a good old music talk.
What have you been listening to the most lately?
I actually have been listening to tons. I’m always listening to lots of music and ever since I’m isolating and locked on, I’ve been listening to even more than ever before, because I have nothing else to do. Listen to music and make food. So I can’t really say there’s one thing in particular, I have to be honest with you. I think that my tastes are pretty varied. Someone else might not think that they’re very good, and all over the place but I do appreciate lots of different kinds of music. I would say primarily, the music I tend to listen to the most at home is Rhythm and Blues and Soul, generally starting around the mid 50’s up into the mid 60’s, that kind of decade.
What are you some of your go-to’s? Where was the hotbed in your mind?
For Rhythm and Blues, I really love the music from New Orleans in that period of time. There was so much talent there at that time. Not only singers but just amazing drummers, amazing guitar players, piano players, bass players, horn players. There’s just so much great music from there, and that time period. Kind of after Jazz but before it turned into more Soul music and Funk. Some of my favorites? Oh man, there’s so many…I love ERNIE K-DOE, I love EARL KING. I love FATS DOMINO. I could just keep going on and on. I mean, there’s probably over a thousand artists from New Orleans from that time period that all did amazing things. You know, LEE DORSEY, God, there’s so many. Even in the surrounding areas in Louisiana, stuff that came out on Duke records, or NOLA, or Sea-Saint and all these Louisiana-based labels. I buy mostly 45s so it’s mostly singles, we’re not talking about LPs per se, for the most part. I really like that music a lot. I always have but the older I get, there’s just always something new to me that I’m finding out about.
So you’re definitely a digger, when it comes to music? Finding something that you love and go down that rabbit hole to try and find everything?
Yeah, I think all musicians, we are all kind of diggers, because that’s how you find out about music. I don’t even really consider it digging, you find out about one artist, and you get into them and then they mentioned something and you get into that, and then someone tells you “Oh, yeah, if you like them, you should pick up these”. You look at the connections, etc.
Early on, what was some of your favorite music?
Punk Rock music was one of my first loves when it came to music, as far as being fascinated and consumed by it. It was not just the music, but it was also, I related to it, it was part of my identity as well. When I first started getting into Punk Rock music, obviously, there was no internet, and there’s just record stores. It’s funny because a lot of the music that you might take for granted now, these classic records, were actually kind of hard to find. I mean, you couldn’t just go out and get an MC5 record at the store because they weren’t in print anymore and they were rare. You had to come across it or find one maybe at a swap meet or used somewhere, but for a kid, it wasn’t like, you can just find these classic records. You had to get lucky, you know? I think it’s much better now, but we ended up really cherishing records and music. It didn’t seem disposable because it was hard to find and there just wasn’t as much information that was available.
I have this duality in me, where I somehow cherish that time when it was harder to get records and it was a quest to find new music, but at the same time, finding stuff at the tip of your fingers is really great!
It is great. I’m not a person to say it was better then because I don’t think it was. When you look at it, or think about in terms of information, it’s always good to have the information, not to be in the dark, and to have the access. It wasn’t better that I couldn’t find certain record and they were hard to find and rare, or non-existent. It’s better now. But there is some problems with it because music has become a bit more disposable. On to the next thing. For some people, it merely is just this content. But ultimately, I like the fact that there’s accessibility. That’s powerful and you would hope it would lead to people making better music, because now they’re exposed to more creativity and ideas. I don’t think it necessarily works that way, unfortunately, but you would hope, you know? I mean, I have a 14-year old kid who listens to KING CRIMSON, and the DEAD KENNEDYS and AC/DC and Hip Hop and to him, it’s all the same. Well, not the same, he obviously knows it’s different kinds of music, but to him, it’s just all part of the same dialogue. For me, when I was 14, I was only listening to Punk Rock music and that was it, because I identified as being Punk. It was very much about identity as well as the music and these ideas. It was about, “I don’t like the other ideas, I like this one.” You don’t see that anymore and that’s probably a good thing, actually. Looking back, that’s pretty close-minded to only listen to one kind of music, you know?
If we go even before Punk Rock, do you remember the first time that music really had an impact on you?
I really loved the JACKSON FIVE, that was one of my favorite bands as a kid. My parents took me to go see them in concert and that was a mind blowing kind of moment for me, seeing Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five play, in the stadium to a bunch of screaming girls. I thought that was great. Then I got into Hard Rock when I was maybe 12, getting into ALICE COOPER, KISS, AEROSMITH, AC/DC,…but Alice Cooper was big and Kiss was really big for me too, both those bands, and I’m sure the theatrics had a lot to do with it too. I was probably attracted to that because it was coming up like, comic books with music. Then, as a real small kid, definitely the BEATLES a lot, the house loved of Beatles. Then a lot of kind of joke records. Spike Jones who did these novelty records, probably in the 40’s and 50’s and I have these re-issue records. A lot of those.
Is there any one tipping point that got you into Punk Rock? A record, a show?
I was at school and a friend had brought a cassette and a mono tape recorder. He played it on the tape recorder and we listened to it. It was BLACK FLAG and the SEX PISTOLS. My friend got it from his friend’s brother, so it was something that was passed down already. We listened to the Black Flag side first and I still remember thinking that was music made by insane people, it sounded so crazy. There was something to be almost afraid of, and that we were doing something wrong just by listening to it. It seemed almost illegal! Then we’d listened to Sex Pistols side and that just seemed so tame in comparison, so I really just gravitated to that Black Flag side and that was it. It became all about Black Flag and DEAD KENNEDYS and CIRCLE JERKS and ADOLESCENTS and a lot of bands from the West Coast. Then eventually found out about BAD BRAINS and the East Coast and then realizing that there was this whole network of cities. This Punk thing was happening in every city and there’s bands, at least a band, in almost in every city, if not many more. There was these tribes of people doing this stuff all over the world. Pretty soon, it’s happening in Europe, it’s happening in Japan, it’s happening everywhere. Then it was finding out about fanzines, that talked about these different bands and talk about different places and everything. It was just really exciting. Then seeing bands come to town. I was now older, towards the end of high school, before I graduated, and some of people in the bands were the same age I was and were touring, and I was like, well, that’s what I want to be doing. I’m jealous of that, you know?
Then, the music changed and in my opinion, it got worse. Heavy Metal became more of an influence in a lot of that music, which I didn’t identify with, because I always thought this was supposed to be against that. Heavy Metal and Hard Rock failed us, in terms of being a voice for rebellion in music, so Punk was very much about change, and also about social change and political activism. All this stuff came from the music as well. I’m not saying that the music always had to be about that but that’s where I learned that from. I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but it’s true, when I was 14-15, I got my news from Jello Biafra! *Haha* That’s how I found out about things going on in the world. Things continue to change and now I’m able to listen to music for pure entertainment, it doesn’t need to have any kind of political or social undertones, necessarily.
Going back to the first question, you mentioned listening to a lot of different types of music. How do select the type of music that you’re going for? Is it more of the vibe that you’re in, or the vibe that you want to create? Do you have any go-to’s for certain activities, say doing chores around the house or in the car or just on the couch listening?
If I’m going to be doing stuff around the house, I’ll put on an LP, or I’ll even put on Spotify, or put on the radio. If there’s a baseball game going on, you just listen to the baseball game. Listening to a sports broadcast, that’s obviously not music, but there’s a soundtrack to it, the way that the announcers are talking, and they’ve kind of painting a picture of what’s happening. There’s something about it that I just really really love.
If I’m listening to music, a lot of times I’ll listen to music in what I consider a critical environment. I have a studio in my home and I’ll be listening to music in there, on speakers that you would use to mix music, so I’m doing this critical listening and I’ll listen to a song or some ideas. I don’t mean to be like it’s a high fidelity situation necessarily, although it does sound very good. It’s not intended to be necessarily super hi-fi, it’s more of the listening environment, so that you’re being critical, you’re focused and listening to the music, your face is pointed at the speakers. I have my turntable that’s set up and I put the record on and facing the speakers while it’s being played, almost as if you’re going to be watching a movie, you’re just facing it. and all your attention is just about the music. The way the environment is set up, it’s not set up to make things sound better, or worse, it’s made to accurately reproduce the way it’s actually sounding, so that when you take it out of that environment, it will translate into other environments.
I like to listen to music in there and I record a lot of music myself and I write a lot of music, and I’m always playing and practicing, so I like to listen to my favorite music in this kind of environment. Then, if I hear something, it doesn’t have to necessarily be an idea, it could be just a mood, or a feeling, I can listen to this in the same environment that I’m making my own music. That way, I can almost align these things that I want to do and these ideas that I want to try to translate and express, and try to achieve. I can put them all in the same place so that I have this idea of how my own musical will translate or how to get my music to sound or feel a certain way, compared to the stuff that really inspires me. I listen to a LOT of music in this environment and it’s really fun. It’s usually at night, when everyone goes to bed, and I have this kind of alone time, and I can really crank it up if I want to. I just really appreciate listening to music like that, because it’s different from listening to music in your car, in your house as you’re doing a task, or even if you’re just kind of listening to it in your living room. Listening to it in that critical environment, it helps me in my own music making. It’s not necessarily because I’m going to take an idea, or a part, more times than not, it’s about just recreating a mood. Like, “Oh, this song makes me feel this way, I would love to be able to do a piece of music that would have that same feeling.”
So is the vibe is the main thing that you’re looking for in music? It’s not too much about talent or, songwriting necessarily, it’s more about the environment that’s created?
Yes. I really like things to create some drama, and some tension and you can only have those things if your music doesn’t have drama and tension. Because if it has tension all the time, well that’s not tension, it’s just a tense sound throughout. Tension has to have a certain amount of release so if you want to have something that sounds heavy, you have to have something that’s not heavy, so that when there’s a heavy idea, then now you have a heavy part. You can’t always have it just one way. Same thing with melody, or the same thing with noise, if you want to have something that just sounds so noisy and chaotic, well then you need to have stuff that’s not noisy and chaotic so that when you want to emphasize something and have that noise, then it has more of an impact.
I’m not very good at balance myself. With all the bands I’ve been in, it seems to be more like everything going at once, the whole time and part of that is, I can’t help it because that’s kind of just what I do. But I try to bring elements that I hear in other music, when I hear someone do tension and release so well. Or if someone brings a sense of drama. Even with instrumental music, I also love a lot of music for film and the best music for film sounds so great on its own that when you’re listening, your head is filled with a movie, and it doesn’t have to be even the movie that the music comes from. It’s your imagination that’s coming up with these images. I try to do stuff like that, and I don’t think I’m always successful, but it’s fun to try, and that comes from listening in that critical environment. It sounds strange to say it, because critical sounds like I’m critiquing and being critical of the music but I’m just saying, I’m focused, I’m in front of the speakers, they’re two feet away from my face. I’m just there.
I record bands as well and a lot of times, bands will say, “I want to sound like this. You know, really distorted like that record, how the vocals are really distorted or blown out?” And I’ll go, “Well, I know what you’re talking about but I don’t see it as being distorted.” We’ll listen to it and, sure enough, that thing that they’re referencing really isn’t distorted at all but, there’s an energy to it, where you come away feeling that it’s like distorted, or wild because the delivery and the way that the vocals was done has so much attitude and energy to it. People sometimes will listen to something and get a feeling from it, and associate certain things, but things don’t always sound like the way they appear. They put themselves into the music and the ideas and then, when they’re away from the music, this music’s still playing in your head, but it changes. It lives in the brain, and it changes, and that is great. I love that. I’ve noticed from working with bands, how often that is. “I wanted to sound really big and boomy like this one song” but when you play the song, it actually sounds quite dry. That’s just the drummer is a great drummer and playing very powerfully, with a lot of space and this and that. You’re perceiving this, but really, that’s just the perception. I’m kind of fascinated by that because I know I do that as well. The music continues to play in our heads, even after the song is over and it begins to change. So it is something that, in a critical environment, you are much more conscious of. Of what is actually happening in the music.
Obviously, paying attention to the production is also a main component of your listening experience. What are some examples of the best produced albums in your mind? Or perhaps, some of your favorite producers?
For Pop music, you have to say The BEATLES, and the BEACH BOYS -the early ones, Pet Sounds-, those records kind of created what we have now in terms of modern recording, a lot of it stems from stuff that was being done on the West coast in LA, and in England. I think you would have to say that those records are very important, with multitrack recording, and what people were able to do with four, and later, eight tracks. Really pushing what they could do with that technology, and then pushing technology to expand in order to keep up with the demands, more tracks, more inputs and this and that. I don’t think though that necessarily made records sound any better, I have to say that. But I would say that the Beatles recordings and the Beach Boys’s stuff are very important, well produced records, and really kind of defined the idea of a producer. Before that, producers were different. You know, what is a producer? It can be so many different things. It could be just a technical person who’s recording and engineering the records and getting the sounds and is responsible for the sounds and the mixes and whatnot. But the producer could also be a person who’s not technical, and someone who’s arranging a band and bringing in songs and arranging the music itself.
As far as listening to records and what record sounds so great, I love the BUDDY HOLLY records, especially the later ones. They’re just so big, while low end, and they sound very beautiful. I love how those records sound. I think you have to say the SONICS, and all the stuff that was done in the Pacific Northwest. Those records are very loud and savage and very wild and they’re just produced so great. The WAILERS, all those bands, those records are definitely produced very well because the thing is, who knows if those bands were even as wild as that they were made to sound on record. The recordings literally jump right off of the grooves. And again, a lot of the New Orleans stuff, I think that’s why I love a lot of that music. Those recordings sound so great, very natural, very raw, some of them are so unhinged. It sounds like equipment on the brink of malfunction. They sound great.
And if you want to take the extreme of the 70’s excess, the extreme of meticulous cocaine-induced recordings or whatever, I love the ELO records from that time period. It’s an example of extreme excess but I just think there’s something about it that sounds so good. The records are very huge sounding, very warm, and there’s so much going on. They still sound incredibly great, on a hi-fi system.
As far as more contemporary records, I think the SLINT record, Spiderland was a big record for a lot of people because it kind of introduced the idea of ambience. I think a lot of people heard that record and the recording itself made people want to play music differently. Get back to using more ambient mics when recording drums, and whatnot, because it’s music with a lot of space in it. You can have that ambience when there’s a lot of space in the music. I mean, it’s not a new record, it probably is close to 30 years old.
What are some up and coming artists that you really enjoy?
You know, I listen to a lot of older music. Not because I don’t like new music but because I still feel that there’s a lot I’m missing out on. It has already happened and I’m trying to catch up with it. When it comes to new music, I have to say that I’m not really familiar with a whole lot of new music. That doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate it, that I’m not interested in it. I am. I’m playing in a couple bands, and we play with other bands and we have conversations with bands, talking about music. There’s this band called DES DEMONAS that Hot Snakes did a tour with them before all this wrapped up. They were a great band. I already liked the records, but seeing them play live, there was just a whole other level of appreciation. So that’s a band playing now that I really enjoy. There’s a band from San Diego called SCHIZOPHONICS, that we played with quite a bit, and are known for being this explosive live band, which they definitely are. They have a great sound and write good songs, and they continue to get better and better. I really like them quite a bit. I’m always interested in trying to keep up with what the OH SEES are doing, because they put out like eight records every year and I try to hear one or two of them! I’m always interested in his creativity and where he’s taking the sound because it’s always evolving and changing.
What band or artist do you believe has achieved the most perfect discography?
If you’re around long enough, eventually you’ll have a bad one! *Haha* Well, I know The BEATLES is such an iconic band but their discography is flawless and the last record, you’re almost glad that they didn’t make one more, in a weird kind of way. It would be nice to have one more Beatles record, don’t get me wrong but it has a beginning and an end. In that way, it feels like it has a story, it wraps up, like a book or a movie. I think that makes it quite perfect, in that regard. Most bands don’t have that.
Can you think of a band or artist that put out only one fantastic release and then disbanded? One that you really wish would have kept going?
Yes! That has happened a lot actually. Sometimes records come out posthumously, or there’s the demo but there are bands with only one record and you wish there was more. I’ll do one better actually, there’s a band I can think of that didn’t even make A record. There’s great bands that don’t get to record. The SCREAMERS always comes to mind as probably being the best band that never made a record. You see these YouTube videos of their live performances and there’s a bootleg of some demos they recorded, or live stuff they recorded but they never made a record. Or The NERVES, they never made a record. There’s records that’s come out since, a live record or collection of demos and they had a single but they never put out a LP. They also might be the best to never put out a record. You hear the demos and you think, this band could have been one of the classics. The talent is just off the charts with these three guys. Also, for the longest time, SUICIDE, they only had the one record and it is one of the best records of all time. But later, a second one came out so that doesn’t count.
No Comments