Stoned and Dethroned
Melody Maker
16.07.1994
16.07.1994
The Jesus and Mary Chain are back with a new single and a 17-track album which they recorded during "one long, bad dream".
Now, restored to sanity and confident that they've made "a good record", the Mary Chain's William Reid (left in pic) has been talking about the trials and tribulations of the recording sessions.
The band went into the studio in January 1993, after spending most of the previous year on the road, taking in the Lollapalooza tour.
"That was the worst experience of our lives," William told us this week.. "We had to play something like 40 dates over two months or something. By the second gig, we realised we'd made a mistake, and we had another thirty-something gigs to play to thousands of Beavises and Buttheads. We got f***ing drunk out of our heads every day, just trying to forget it. But you can't. We just shouldn't have been there. That f***ed us up for a long time, it f***ed up our thought processes."
The Mary Chain followed on with another tour, with Curve and Spiritualized, and went on to the studio in the New Year.
"The record took us from January to November to record, and we have never taken that long," said William. "We expected to to be any longer than three months, four at the most."
"I think me and Jim (Reid, his brother) had kinda nervous breakdowns, collective breakdowns, and then everything took longer. We were just so exhausted, just so depressed, about the whole thing, making this record."
"There were times when we thought it was just a piece of shit, just not knowing if it was any good, maybe letting somebody hear something and if they weren't totally ecstatic about it, we'd just go home depressed. I think the hardest thing in the world is to make a good record."
"We kinda lost faith in ourselves, but after it was finished, we re-found the faith. It was just like one long, bad dream, and at the end of it, we had a pretty decent reord."
The album, "Stoned And Dethroned", is produced by the Reid brothers and released by blanco y negro on August 15. It was originally intended as an acoustic album, and is still widely referred to to as such, although it didn't eventually end up quite that way.
"Me and Jim were going to go into the studio and make a record in four weeks, an acoustic record," said William. "We had all the songs that sounded as if they could work acoustically. We kept playing more and more stuff, but then it started to feel like we were compromising it, like we were in danger of making an acoustic record just cos we'd told everybody we were. We've used a lot of acoustic guitars on it, but there's other stuff too. You just put the sounds on you think fit. If a fuzz bass is needed, then that's what's needed. We just made the record."
"It kinda changed from conception to birth. It just became a different record. I don't know what inspired it."
"We've left ourselves open for people to say 'They've softened' and all that crap. This record doesn't sound like Ministry, but we know it's a good record."
The album features lead vocals from guests Shane MacGowan on "God Help Me" and Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, trading verses with Jim Reid on "Sometimes Always", which is released as a single on July 18.
"One of the plans on this record in the very beginning was that maybe me and Jim weren't even goign to sing on it," said William. "We'd have 10, 12 songs with a bunch of people we liked. But somewhere along the line, it semed like a bad idea, and we thought we'd do it with Shane and Hope cos we just liked their music, we knew they'd fit in, and they did."
Of the collaboration with Hope, William said: "I wrote this song that sounded to me like Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra. We'd known Hope since she was in Opal, back in 1987. We always liked her voice. We asked her years ago to be on one of the records, but there was never as song that suited. Then this one came along and it just felt right. At first, I felt maybe it was just a bit too cute or whatever, too light a story. But when we recorded it, Hope and Jim sang and they just transcended it."
"I think we got her to sing differently from her Mazzy Star voice, which is a brilliant voice, but this was a different type of song, more up-tempo, and it worked."
MacGowans's vocal on "God Help Me" is unusually subdued.
"Some people wondered if it was Jim singing in a different style," said William. "We did two versions of the song, the one you've heard and another one where he was singing in a more Poguesy way. I'm not sure which one Shane actually prefers, but I think in the long run, he'll prefer the quiter one. I feel good that maybe we've got him to sing in a different way, although it's still his way."
The album was named "Stoned And Dethroned" by Jim Reid.
William: "I think it's because in the past few years, we've felt like we've been shit upon by a lot of people, people who seem to feel like we made 'Psychocandy' and then did nothing else. In fact, we made pretty good records."
"The working title of this record was 'Psychocandy II'."
"People treat us so differently in America and Europe. Sometimes when your record gets reviewed here, it's reviewed in the context of what bullshit's happening this week."
"I don't think we're paraniod, but I feel like maybe in 10 years time when this group's finished and done with, people can see what we've done without being influenced by people wearing baggy trousers that year. Sometimes you just get pissed off with fashions interfering with the appreciation of your music."
The Mary Chain's ongoing dislike of the music industry is reflected on LP tracks such as "Hole". Elsewhere, according to William, the lyrical content varies from autobiography to observation to fiction.
"Feeling Lucky" and "Save Me" are "confessional", "Between Us" is William's true-life story about a relationship breaking up and "Till It Shines" is a love poem. "These Days" is another song from William's diary, during a happy perod of his life.
The country and western-flavoured "I wish I could" is fictional, as is "Girlfriend" - "It's about a couple of f***-ups and one of them decides he's not a f***-up any more."
"Bullet Lovers" is an observational song, about drive-by killers in America.
"I was in LA a couple of years ago," explaied William. "I was watching the morning news show. It was bizarre. There were two guys on, being interviewed without any masks or disguises, and they were drive-by killers. I was lying in bed having breakfast, just stunned by this, and I was thinking, This is live, the police could be on their way there to get you, you dumb motherf***ers. One of them, when he shot people, his girlfriend got so horny, and then they'd go off somewhere and f***."
"I suppose they could have been making it all up, but they looked like the real thing to me."
"Never Saw It Coming" and "Everybody I Know" are both about death.
"I've written about 20 songs about dying and death, and I'll probably writing another 50," said William. "I don't think a day goes by without me thinking about dying. It's very important."
"Human beings are the only animals who klnow they're going to die. Every other animal thinks they're just going to eat and shit all day, and f*** and hunt. We've got minds, not just brains. We know there's an end. Right now we're dying. One day dying will turn into death.
"I don't want to seem like the only thing that goes through my mind is death and dying. It's not like that. But it does intrigue me. It amazes me that everybody is going to die and yet the subject is almost taboo. I've been at parties and people are talking about this and that, and I'll be bringing up the subject and all of a sudden, I'm the party pooper, and I realise nobody wants to talk about it. I do."
The Mary Chain are off to play in America in October, but there are no plans for any live appearances in this country.
William: "I don't want to f*** up my mind and my body too much and touring does that to you. As far as the UK is concerned, we may turn up here and there unexpectedly, unannounced, but as for tours and things, I don't think so."
Now, restored to sanity and confident that they've made "a good record", the Mary Chain's William Reid (left in pic) has been talking about the trials and tribulations of the recording sessions.
The band went into the studio in January 1993, after spending most of the previous year on the road, taking in the Lollapalooza tour.
"That was the worst experience of our lives," William told us this week.. "We had to play something like 40 dates over two months or something. By the second gig, we realised we'd made a mistake, and we had another thirty-something gigs to play to thousands of Beavises and Buttheads. We got f***ing drunk out of our heads every day, just trying to forget it. But you can't. We just shouldn't have been there. That f***ed us up for a long time, it f***ed up our thought processes."
The Mary Chain followed on with another tour, with Curve and Spiritualized, and went on to the studio in the New Year.
"The record took us from January to November to record, and we have never taken that long," said William. "We expected to to be any longer than three months, four at the most."
"I think me and Jim (Reid, his brother) had kinda nervous breakdowns, collective breakdowns, and then everything took longer. We were just so exhausted, just so depressed, about the whole thing, making this record."
"There were times when we thought it was just a piece of shit, just not knowing if it was any good, maybe letting somebody hear something and if they weren't totally ecstatic about it, we'd just go home depressed. I think the hardest thing in the world is to make a good record."
"We kinda lost faith in ourselves, but after it was finished, we re-found the faith. It was just like one long, bad dream, and at the end of it, we had a pretty decent reord."
The album, "Stoned And Dethroned", is produced by the Reid brothers and released by blanco y negro on August 15. It was originally intended as an acoustic album, and is still widely referred to to as such, although it didn't eventually end up quite that way.
"Me and Jim were going to go into the studio and make a record in four weeks, an acoustic record," said William. "We had all the songs that sounded as if they could work acoustically. We kept playing more and more stuff, but then it started to feel like we were compromising it, like we were in danger of making an acoustic record just cos we'd told everybody we were. We've used a lot of acoustic guitars on it, but there's other stuff too. You just put the sounds on you think fit. If a fuzz bass is needed, then that's what's needed. We just made the record."
"It kinda changed from conception to birth. It just became a different record. I don't know what inspired it."
"We've left ourselves open for people to say 'They've softened' and all that crap. This record doesn't sound like Ministry, but we know it's a good record."
The album features lead vocals from guests Shane MacGowan on "God Help Me" and Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, trading verses with Jim Reid on "Sometimes Always", which is released as a single on July 18.
"One of the plans on this record in the very beginning was that maybe me and Jim weren't even goign to sing on it," said William. "We'd have 10, 12 songs with a bunch of people we liked. But somewhere along the line, it semed like a bad idea, and we thought we'd do it with Shane and Hope cos we just liked their music, we knew they'd fit in, and they did."
Of the collaboration with Hope, William said: "I wrote this song that sounded to me like Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra. We'd known Hope since she was in Opal, back in 1987. We always liked her voice. We asked her years ago to be on one of the records, but there was never as song that suited. Then this one came along and it just felt right. At first, I felt maybe it was just a bit too cute or whatever, too light a story. But when we recorded it, Hope and Jim sang and they just transcended it."
"I think we got her to sing differently from her Mazzy Star voice, which is a brilliant voice, but this was a different type of song, more up-tempo, and it worked."
MacGowans's vocal on "God Help Me" is unusually subdued.
"Some people wondered if it was Jim singing in a different style," said William. "We did two versions of the song, the one you've heard and another one where he was singing in a more Poguesy way. I'm not sure which one Shane actually prefers, but I think in the long run, he'll prefer the quiter one. I feel good that maybe we've got him to sing in a different way, although it's still his way."
The album was named "Stoned And Dethroned" by Jim Reid.
William: "I think it's because in the past few years, we've felt like we've been shit upon by a lot of people, people who seem to feel like we made 'Psychocandy' and then did nothing else. In fact, we made pretty good records."
"The working title of this record was 'Psychocandy II'."
"People treat us so differently in America and Europe. Sometimes when your record gets reviewed here, it's reviewed in the context of what bullshit's happening this week."
"I don't think we're paraniod, but I feel like maybe in 10 years time when this group's finished and done with, people can see what we've done without being influenced by people wearing baggy trousers that year. Sometimes you just get pissed off with fashions interfering with the appreciation of your music."
The Mary Chain's ongoing dislike of the music industry is reflected on LP tracks such as "Hole". Elsewhere, according to William, the lyrical content varies from autobiography to observation to fiction.
"Feeling Lucky" and "Save Me" are "confessional", "Between Us" is William's true-life story about a relationship breaking up and "Till It Shines" is a love poem. "These Days" is another song from William's diary, during a happy perod of his life.
The country and western-flavoured "I wish I could" is fictional, as is "Girlfriend" - "It's about a couple of f***-ups and one of them decides he's not a f***-up any more."
"Bullet Lovers" is an observational song, about drive-by killers in America.
"I was in LA a couple of years ago," explaied William. "I was watching the morning news show. It was bizarre. There were two guys on, being interviewed without any masks or disguises, and they were drive-by killers. I was lying in bed having breakfast, just stunned by this, and I was thinking, This is live, the police could be on their way there to get you, you dumb motherf***ers. One of them, when he shot people, his girlfriend got so horny, and then they'd go off somewhere and f***."
"I suppose they could have been making it all up, but they looked like the real thing to me."
"Never Saw It Coming" and "Everybody I Know" are both about death.
"I've written about 20 songs about dying and death, and I'll probably writing another 50," said William. "I don't think a day goes by without me thinking about dying. It's very important."
"Human beings are the only animals who klnow they're going to die. Every other animal thinks they're just going to eat and shit all day, and f*** and hunt. We've got minds, not just brains. We know there's an end. Right now we're dying. One day dying will turn into death.
"I don't want to seem like the only thing that goes through my mind is death and dying. It's not like that. But it does intrigue me. It amazes me that everybody is going to die and yet the subject is almost taboo. I've been at parties and people are talking about this and that, and I'll be bringing up the subject and all of a sudden, I'm the party pooper, and I realise nobody wants to talk about it. I do."
The Mary Chain are off to play in America in October, but there are no plans for any live appearances in this country.
William: "I don't want to f*** up my mind and my body too much and touring does that to you. As far as the UK is concerned, we may turn up here and there unexpectedly, unannounced, but as for tours and things, I don't think so."
