With no mind paid to the clichéd posturing that often accompanies heavy metal, Clutch has for nearly 25 years delivered a brand of hard rock that calls attention to itself simply by being what it is: tight, heavy, gritty and as direct as a punch to the gut. Much like the relentless grind of Clutch's music, the Maryland foursome's career has grown at a healthy pace from tour to tour and album to album, picking up more fans along the way.
Clutch - still the original lineup of Neil Fallon (vocals/guitar), Tim Sult (guitar), Dan Maines (bass) and Jean-Paul Gaster (drums) - on Oct. 2 released its 11th album, "Psychic Warfare," the follow-up to 2013's uber-successful "Earth Rocker," which topped Billboard's Hard Rock Albums Chart, made it to No. 15 on Billboard's Top 200 overall album chart (a career best for Clutch) and garnered critical claim, including a spot in Rolling Stone's "Top 20 Metal Albums Of The Year." The new album is off to an even better start, debuting at No. 11 on the Top 200 and rising to the top of Billboard's Rock and Hard Rock charts. What's more, Clutch's commercial high points have come since it started releasing music on its own independent record label Weathermaker Music, launched in 2008.
"It's gratifying," Fallon says of the strong sales figures during a recent interview with Headlines & Global News. "On one hand the chart position doesn't affect our feeling about the album one way or another. We're very proud of it. But after having been doing this for 25 years and to kind of reach your high-water mark at that point, one, it's a bit of head-scratcher, but it's also very gratifying, particularly if you keep in mind that we put out our own records on our own record label.
"I think in general terms, it's an example of sticking to your guns and doing what you believe in. It might not be an overnight success, but sometimes that's for the best, because sometimes overnight successes become overnight disasters, whereas this has been a very slow build and will last a lot longer because of it. And specifically for putting out your own records, I think if you're an artist and you can do that, you'd be a fool not to. The business model of signing multi-album contracts with corporations for some reason still carries a lot of weight for some people, and I don't understand that."
Taking some time to speak with us before a show in Billings, Mont., Fallon discussed the band's writing process, the influence of everyone from Tom Waits to Chuck D on his lyrics and what he learned from the legendary Lemmy of Motorhead.
What was the band's approach going into "Psychic Warfare" coming off the "Earth Rocker" album, which was your most successful record to date?
I think we had a lot of momentum after "Earth Rocker" that we kind of didn't want to lose. Sometimes if you wait too long, the wind will go out of your sails. I do think it's faster than "Earth Rocker." We also focused on really micromanaging the performances. I think it's a more live-sounding record than "Earth Rocker" because of that. And me personally, lyrically I wanted to have more meat and potatoes and more action in the lyrics than maybe "Earth Rocker" had.
What's the writing process like in the band? How does a song come together for Clutch?
That's one thing that hasn't changed since we started in '91. We get together in a room and kick a lot of riffs. Sometimes a guy will write a riff at home, or we just start noodling around and something happens, and we acknowledge the fact that we just wrote a part and hit the record button and try to come up with a rough draft, and I bring it home and try to write lyrics to it and bring it back. And it goes back and forth and it keeps changing until we get to the studio.
So you don't write any lyrics until you've heard the music?
Well, both. If I come up with some ideas, even if it's just a rhymed line, I'll jot it down and save it for a rainy day, but in an ideal world, the mood of the music will evoke images that hopefully will get crystallized into lyrics.
Where do you find inspiration as a lyricist?
I could say the best ones always happen when you least expect it, like if you're pulling weeds in a garden or if I sit down to write lyrics it rarely happens. And also getting out of one's comfort zone. I think that going to new places is stimulating on a subliminal level that will ultimately reap some creative rewards down the line.
I think one of the coolest songs on "Psychic Warfare" is "A Quick Death In Texas," which is a story song. How do you come up with a song like that? Does it come to you fully formed?
That song is a good example. That was the last song we wrote for the record, and I didn't have any lyrics just days before we tracked it, and we happened to be in Texas, and I think that environment obviously stimulated those lyrics. If we had recorded in New Jersey, that song would have never come to be. The idea kind of came fully formed, it was just a matter of trying to cherry-pick the strongest images to convey it.
In 2013 you had issues with your neck and spine, having to cancel shows due to Cervical Spinal Stenosis. How is that now? Is it an ongoing concern?
It's ongoing only in that I'm aware of it. I'm very, very fortunate that everything worked out well and it made me appreciate day-to-day routines if you keep your body in shape. I mean, I bring a yoga mat on tour with me, there's that (laughs). As long as I keep stretching it's not that much of an issue. The thing that spooked me about it is there was a potential of not being able to sing after it because they have to yank your voice box off to one side, but knock on wood that wasn't the case.
Your performance style is pretty intense. Do you have any sort of methods or pre-show rituals to get into the right frame of mind?
I think that there's some kind of - a psychologist might answer this better - but I'm really not in the mindset up until about a half an hour [before the show] when I put on my stage clothes that stink. Suddenly the brain kind of turns on and says "now it's go time." And when the intro starts, and we've been using the same intro for years, a Chuck Brown song, that gets my adrenaline pump moving, then it's off to the races.
What about the comedown after the show? When you walk off the stage, are you still in a frenzy?
Well, for a couple minutes (laughs). I guess it's like any other exercise, you feel great and kind of crash afterwards. It's very therapeutic. I think sometimes people who get backstage are expecting to see a continuation of the live show and they see four guys quietly listening to the Allman Brothers (laughs). But it's very therapeutic to do it night after night.
How would you describe your relationship with Clutch fans? They've been a pretty loyal bunch.
We're very lucky to have the fans that we do. The majority of them found out about us because they saw us open up for another band or by word of mouth. Fortunately this band never had the burden of a number one hit. People who like Clutch are generally fans of the band and our catalog, and that's a really good spot to be in for longevity. It's hard for me to say because I've always been on one side of the fence looking at them, but I think one of the things they like about the band is we look like them. I'd like to think we don't put ourselves on some sort of rock star pedestal.
U.S. Co-headline with Mastodon:
10/28/15 Austin, TX at Austin Music Hall
10/29/15 Dallas, TX at Gas Monkey Live (Clutch closes)
10/30/15 Houston, TX at Bayou Music Center
U.S. Special shows:
10/24/15 in Sacramento, CA at Gibson Ranch (Aftershock)
10/25/15 in San Bernadino, CA at San Manuel Amphitheater (Knotfest)
10/31/15 in New Orleans, LA at Voodoo Festival
U.S. headline shows w/ Crobot and Valkyrie:
12/27/15 Washington, D.C. at 9:30 Club
12/28/15 Philadelphia, PA at Electric Factory
12/29/15 New York, NY at Terminal 5
12/30/15 Cleveland, OH at Agora
12/31/15 Cincinnati, OH at Bogart's
2015 Europe/UK Dates:
20/11/15 Dublin, Ireland Olympia Theatre
21/11/15 Belfast Limelight (SOLD OUT)
23/11/15 Glasgow, Scotland
24/11/15 Nottingham, England
25/11/15 Bristol, England (SOLD OUT)
27/11/15 Paris, France Le Trabendo (SOLD OUT)
28/11/15 Cologne, Germany Essigfabrik
29/11/15 Hamburg, Germany Grosse Freiheit 36
01/12/15 Aarhus, Denmark VoxHall
02/12/15 Goteborg, Sweden Tradgarn
03/12/15 Stockholm, Sweden Debaser Medis
04/12/15 Copenhagen, Denmark Store Vega
05/12/15 Berlin, Germany Astra
06/12/15 Frankfurt, Germany Batschkapp
08/12/15 Amsterdam, Netherlands
10/12/15 Manchester, England (SOLD OUT)
11/12/15 Wolverhampton, England Wulfrun Hall (SOLD OUT)
12/12/15 London, England London, England (SOLD OUT)
