The Black Watch Interview: SXSW 2010

How did you come up with your band name?

When I started in the late '80s I wanted something that was very martial and musical at the same time. The Black Watch pays homage to my Scottish heritage, because it's the regiment of bagpipers that also killed people.

Say that again?

It's the Scottish regiment that also has guns. I wanted something aggressive and musical, and I'm mostly Scottish.

Through all the years of this band and its different lineups, you've held onto this name. Why?

We've often tortured ourselves, ruminating over whether we should change the name or not, but we thought it would just be a capitulation to the industry that's plagued by a perpetual quest after the new. It smacks of much more of integrity to just say, "This is what we do." If people are going to discover it, then fantastic, and if not, that's the way it goes.

How did the band form at first?

I was teaching at University of California, Santa Barbara and I had just finished my Ph.D. I was writing a 400-page novel, and I realized that I could write four songs in the time it took me to write a page of prose. I recruited three students, actually, who had mentioned they were into things I was into, like the Smiths, the Cure, the Cocteau Twins, and we just started doing gigs around Santa Barbara.

What about the current lineup?

The four of us have been together for two years now. Rick [Woodard, drums] has been in the band on and off for ten years. Steve [Schayer, guitar, vocals] has been my friend for 20 years. He was in the Chills, and he's a great singer-songwriter in his own right, as is Scott [Taylor, bass, vocals]. But neither [Taylor or Schayer] is bloody-minded enough to front a band. Like the famous John Lennon quote, "In order to front a band you have to be the biggest bastard on the block" -- well, that's me.

How would you describe your sound?

I could describe our sound as New Order in a fight with a gang of postmodern poets, but I wouldn't dare! We try to make something that is ours alone, and our forebearers' as well! And we fail. All art is failure. And that is why we go back again and again to make records, because we must correct the previous failure that was the penultimate LP.

Tell me about your musical influences.

The Black Watch are, in terms of how we sound these days, building upon a tradition established by Love, Echo and the Bunnymen, Sly and the Family Stone, Crazy Horse and the Cure.

You have a 14th album coming out soon. Tell us about it.

Most musicians think their most recent thing is their best. If you swing a dead cat you'll hit a million musicians, just in my neighborhood, who will crow that what they've just done is their best thing. But with that said, our new record, which will be called 'Led Zeppelin V' - we have the audacity to do that and hope to be sued by Plant and Page – that said, of course, it's going to be the best thing we've ever done. It's a really fun lineup of people who are just incredible friends as well.

When is the album due out?

We're not sure because, like lots of indie bands these days, we're fresh out of a label, Stonegarden, the label that we've been on for the past six records. We don't know – we may shop around for it. We're trying to find a manager and a booking agent now, so that's our goal at SXSW. When it comes down to it, we've put out lots of records and we have a very cultish following, despite the fact that a lot of the songs we've put out have minor radio success. I can't tell you how many people come up to me and say, "John, I can't believe you guys aren't huge," because of the accessibility or the literary elements of the band or how catchy it is or all the riffs. That's up to the gods, I think.

Is there anything else that brings you to SXSW this year?

Well, it's playing for people who've heard the records and read about us, because there's been tons of press but only been sporadic touring opportunities because we've been with small labels. Tour support is really difficult and we do live in Los Angeles, an expensive city. We haven't been able to tour for some time because I'm a full time lecturer in English. A lot of times I've gone to England to do acoustic shows because we can't afford to take the whole band. We just got back from New Zealand -- we did ten dates there, but we could only afford to take Steve and me. We had to pick up rhythm sections along the way. It truly is a guerrilla kind of outfit.

What's in your festival survival kit?

The notion I picked up from the novelist Geoff Dyer, in 'Jeff in Venice/Death in Varanasi,' that during these sorts of things it is easier to talk than it is to listen.