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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Interview with San Francisco Rock Band, Love Club

The following is an excerpt from an interview I did for FAD Magazine, published in the Spring Issue, 1987.

Created during the spring of 1985 by Lawrence Doyle and Deborah Borchers, LOVE CLUB is one of the strongest and most original new San Francisco bands. Their dark, driving dance rock sound is fueled by Deborah's haunting vocals and a lush, deep pool of rhythmic music from the band. Their latest 4 song demo has seen extensive local air play and dance club exposure. A & R people take note, before someone else signs them up!

(LI) There's an interesting chemistry between you and Deborah on stage. It's as if you're the straight man and she is the emotional center. It seems to emphasize an underlying tension in your music. What would you attribute this to?

(DB) Our different personalities. Larry's a very right brained artist. I guess there's a kind of yin yang going on. Like good and evil maybe?

(LI) What is the message in your music?

(DB) We try to convey pure and absolute human emotion.

(LD) The band is based on contradiction because we're working with computers and these really exact things that keep precise time. Yet, we're trying to make an emotional statement and that is where the human elements come in. So the machines play their part (in our technological society some of the highest levels of rational thought are obtained through computers) - but we add the emotion, especially with voice.

(LI) There's an aggressive quality to your music. Is there a socio-political statement there?

(DB) The ideas I write come directly from my own experience so what you see when I'm performing is me. Whether it be anger or frustration, it's not very happy. Larry and I tend to write on the dark side.

(LD) We shouldn't dwell on that, though. We also do some things that are funny.

(DB) That's true, "Olga's Dream" is hilarious.

(LI) Wouldn't you say that the creative process is therapeutic?

(DB) Definitely. Music is therapy. When I'm performing, I hope that people can empathize with their own emotion - come with me into the song and let it wrap around them and comfort them as it does me.

(LD) I've always felt that music was a refuge. We live in a world that's very demanding and dehumanizing. Music is one thing that's irrational, that we can experience intuitively.

(LI) So, in the midst of all this - what do yo think the future of rock is?

(JS) There don't seem to be very many styles of music coming out now that are unique. More or less what you are hearing is a hybrid of different styles from groups that are just clones of each other.

(LI) Do you have other jobs?

(DB) Sure...O'Farrell and Polk. Just kidding - really I'm a professional gofer.

(LD) I just sit on a couch and show people to their hot tub.

(LI) Back to the music - I recently read a quote from Until December saying that they wanted more than fame - they want to rule the world. What does Love Club want?

(LD) We want to pay the rent.

(LI) Would you say that you've achieved a harmonious state between discipline and creativity?

(LD) I think that its more of a neurosis. Basically, we're weirdos. If we were normal we wouldn't be doing this.

(JS) We'd probably be in Napa State Hospital.

Monday, February 13, 2012

I Left My Heart in San Francisco...Happy 50th Anniversary!

It was a festive celebration at City Hall on Valentine's Day to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of this great song! The Mayor proclaimed February 14th to forever be Tony Bennett Day in San Francisco. I stood next to a man whose wife had to stay home to do her hair but he had bought a box of Sees candy for her. Just before the performance, a high-spirited blonde woman joined us whose husband was at work. The three of us had our picture taken together. The man laughed and said he would show it to his wife. When the tribute ended we all shouted,"Sing Tony!" The blonde woman kissed the married man on both cheeks. I told him I'd enjoyed talking and we said our goodbyes as he looked somewhat sad to see us go.

Walking home I wondered why some men feel compelled to confirm their marital status immediately after meeting an attractive woman. This is often accomplished by working a seemingly innocent reference about their wife into the conversation. And, at times even if he isn't married but has a girlfriend the same technique is used. Could it be that once their unattainable status is declared it clears the conscience so they feel free to flirt like there's no tomorrow?

I then began wondering if married women do the same thing? After all, the woman celebrating Tony Bennett Day with us did mention her husband shortly after we all met. Maybe Valentine's Day had something to do with it. Or is this just something spouses do? I don't know. Maybe if I was married I'd do the same thing. But, that won't happen. At least, I don't think so...

Saturday, February 11, 2012

A Box of Oil Pastels

Woman on Black Beach
Oil pastel sketch on newsprint, 1998

When I created the above sketch I was just beginning to rediscover my painting and drawing after two decades of focusing on making ends meet in San Francisco.

I'd just purchased a box of oil pastels and was the first time I'd used this medium. I remember standing over a large and very blank piece of newsprint and, after staring at it for a few minutes, I opened the box of pastels and randomly selected one of the large crayons. I immediately responded to the fluidity of this new medium and before long a woman standing on a black beach wearing a pink tutu began to emerge.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Jour de Pluie dans la Vallée de la Loire

Watercolor on Paper, 1998

Leonardo's Flying Machine

"The great bird will take flight above the ridge...filling the universe with awe, filling all writings with its fame..."
- Leonardo on manned flight

On Leonardo's rooftop I can see his flying machine ready to take off. But, how do I get up there? I close my eyes and suddenly I'm there! I climb in and swing my feet back and forth beneath the sprawl of enormous bat wings. My hands grasp the steering mechanism and I wonder where to go. I'd like to go far, very far into the stars. How do I measure the wind pressure or navigate my direction? Does it matter? I'll just let the wind carry me and keep my eyes open to avoid bumping into clouds or a migrating flock of birds. A strong wind comes up and in a sudden SWOOSH! I'm airborne and flying high above tree tops over farmlands and miniature houses. I feel free but its not as glamorous as it seems. I have my work cut out for me! Warships float past and the nine-hundred forms of perfection Leonardo drew for Ludovico's horse. They gallop and curl kicking up hooves in a thousand different directions. I dodge and weave trying to maneuver the giant bat wings spreading out above me. After awhile the flight levels out and I reach out touching the pink clouds. I prefer Leonardo's flying machine to the Battle of Anghiari, forever peeling in some museum or the unfinished Last Supper suspended high above whispers of controversy in Santa Maria delle Grazie. I like to take wing, to levitate the spirit, to meet the mystics!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Let's Twist Again, 1961

Its been 50 years since Chubby Checker's Twist hit No. 1 twice on the charts (above video, Dick Clark's American Bandstand).

At lunchtime, I'd twist with my friends in the elementary school gym in Cathlamet, Washington, hometown of my youth. I was a tall, skinny kid with an attitude but I pretty much did what I was supposed to do. My mother was a teacher at the Big High School across the parking lot. But, I could twist! And, I loved my 45's that I'd tote around in a slick, blue patent leather carrying case like a purse. The smell of Sloppy Joes hung in the air while we twisted up a storm. With the cool, nonchalance of any 10 year old I'd flip my hair while casually glancing across the shiny linoleum at my First Big Crush. Could he be watching me? After graduating from highschool I moved far away and then many years later discovered that my First Big Crush is gay. And, I'm glad he's openly living the life he wants to live each and every day.