Samtale med The Godfather of Doom om The Obsessed gennem godt 45 år, Townes Van Zandt og om at blive genforenet med sine børn.
The Obsessed blev dannet i 1979 i Potomac, Maryland, på den amerikanske østkyst af blandt andre Scott ”Wino” Weinrich. Staten Maryland var oprindeligt en engelsk koloni, opkaldt efter kong Karls 1. af Englands dronning, Henriette Marie, og blev optaget i den amerikanske føderation i 1788 som den syvende delstat. Selvom slavehandel var tilladt i Maryland, var den ikke en del af sydstatshæren, men til gengæld fandt borgerkrigens største og nok mest mytiske slag sted i Gettysburg i 1863 lige over grænsen til nabostaten Pennsylvania. Der er med andre ord masser af fortællinger omkring The Obsesseds fødested, og Wino er som sangskriver og musiker ubetinget en historiefortæller par excellence. Om det er stærkt personlige sange på hans akustiske soloalbums, som formidler af Townes Van Zandts komplekse countryfolk noir eller som smadremand i Shrinebuilder, er Wino altid 100 % til stede i sin musik, og han har stadig i en alder af 63 et behov for at fortælle.
Umiddelbart før koncerten med The Obsessed på Beta mødtes jeg med den langhårede, senede mand med det solide håndtryk til en snak om, om hvad musikken gør ved ham og om hvad det er, han forsøger at få frem med sine sange. I det skrumlede lokale under Beta lige ved baren satte vi os ned med en øl, og Wino sad tilbagelænet under de rå graffitier på væggene, som blev fint suppleret af den overtatoverede krop og det lange gråhvide hår. I starten fortalte han om, hvordan det var at være på tour og hvor de spillede senest:
Wino: We’ve been on the road for about three weeks now, and we’ve played pretty much every night, so it’s close to twenty gigs by now. And we’ve got eight shows left including tonight. A full month tour.
Men hvad kan du egentlig bedst lide? At indspille albums eller være på tour?
Wino: It’s a completely different animal. There’s a lot of X-factors on the road. For example, at our second show, my guitar tech got sick and all of a sudden for about two or three days I didn’t have a tech, and we had to play a big festival in Portugal. Actually, it was kind of a nightmare in Portugal because I had to do everything by myself. I am used to do everything myself, but I didn’t have exactly what I needed, and I must say that having the ability to having a guitar tech and a little bit of help is so nice!
Jeg spurgte nysgerrigt ind til, hvordan det var at spille de små klubber og svaret kom helt ærligt og skal ses på baggrund af, at Wino har spillet utallige store og små shows gennem de seneste knap 50 år.
Wino: We have played packed houses every night and I’m happy with the crowd. When you have 150 people packed in a 150-seat venue on a Monday night it makes me happy. I mean, my goal is always to make the best music I possibly can. I keep pretty high standards and if I have a bad night, it is devasting. But it does happen on the road. But what we really need to do, what we are trying hard to do, is getting up to the next level and play nice venues with 500 to a thousand seat venues, and we will get there. A little late in the game at 63, though.
Den afsluttende bemærkning bliver fulgt op af en tør men hjertelig latter, der lyder som ørkensand, der blæser hen over trægulvet, hvorefter jeg spurgte om, hvordan det er at spille i et band, han selv var med til at stifte i slutningen af 70’erne.
Wino: Well, adding a second guitar player is one of the best decisions I’ve made last year. He’s an amazing guitar player. He’s very young but he adds a lot and The Obsessed was pretty much his favorite band so for him and for me it’s really nice! And having The Obsessed going for all this time is a fucking good feeling, it’s a great feeling. I wouldn’t mind a little more success, but the bottom line is this: I am never gonna write a song just to write a fucking pop song. I am never gonna write “mama, I’m coming home” just to support myself. I’m never gonna do it. Never gonna sell out, never had and never will.
Når jeg lytter til dine soloplader og især den seneste Forever Gone, er det en meget personlig og nærmest nøgen Wino, der træder frem i sangene. Fortæl lidt om forskellen mellem dine meget personlige sange, og så det der foregår, når du spiller i The Obsessed, Saint Vitus og Shrinebuilder?
Wino: It’s a different animal. Again, it’s a different animal. I mean, not having a band and everything, but this is what I do. My next solo record is gonna be called Create or Die. That’s it, that’s what it’s all about. I mean, when I’m at home I paint pictures and write songs, I drive my motorcycle. My kids live in another state, but I have reconnected with them and recently my oldest son came out and visited me. And that was fantastic! He’s in Med School and we had an amazing reconnection so to speak. The lifestyle that I’ve chosen is very hard on your family. You have to make decisions. For example, we booked a tour for October, and then I got a call for my mother, and she said, “I am having my ninetieth birthday party”, and it’s gonna be five days in the tour. What can I do? I mean, I can’t cancel the tour. So … I’m still trying to figure out what to do, because it’s my mom and she is ninety. Most likely I will see her just before the tour or call her on her birthday. But this is how it always is, and sometimes it’s really painful. I mean, this is what I do, this is what makes me happy, this is how I live. My goal has always been to enrich other people’s lives.
Hvordan beriger musikken dit liv?
Wino: It’s like food, it’s like dreaming. It’s like you leave the pain in the everyday. It’s like a drug where you get to the sky for 45 minutes or an hour when you are on stage. And when we get the final product, the cd, from the record company, I get in the car and listen to it … the hair on my neck is standing just by thinking of it … because that’s what I live for.
Fortæl mig om Townes Van Zandt og det album, du bidrager til sammen med Scott Kelly og Steve Von Till.
Wino: I never met him, and I hope I did his songs justice. A good friend of mine that lived in Austin, introduced me to Townes, and then a German friend of mine turned me on his record In Pain, and that’s where I heard the songs I covered and especially “A song for”. In my opinion that is one of the heaviest songs ever written. And I always entertained the idea of doing an electric version of that song. Townes lived a very tortured life with electroshock treatment and it was obvious he was damaged. To be honest, I had to find the songs for the record – and I don’t like everything – but I found the songs that I do like, and his music is avantgarde. How else can you put it? I guess you could call him a country musician but as a singersongwriter his shit is out there! And it is inspiring as hell. I put my twist on his songs and I might get a lyric wrong here and there, but it is totally inspiring music.
Hvad er forbindelsen mellem det, du gør i The Obsessed og det, du gør med dine Van Zandt-sange?
Wino: Passion!! That is it!! (Svaret falder prompte og efterfølges af en lang og hjertelig latter.) What can you say? It’s painful, but there’s passion in there! Townes Van Zandt had his demons – and I have mine!
I dag bor Wino i staten New York sammen med sin nye hustru, som han blev gift med for godt halvandet år siden, og de nyder tilværelsen i et smukt hus oppe i Catskill Mountains. Mit sidste spørgsmål er med få ord at highlighte det som The Obsessed handler om.
Wino: Hope! It’s about hope!
Håb for hvad?
Wino: Hope for fucking humanity! Hope for good sound!! Just hope in general. I mean, they call me The Godfather of Doom, but we all know The Godfather of Doom is halfway a senior, but for me personally it’s about bringing happiness into people’s lives. That’s what it has always been about. But I also want to make social comments and be the best I can be. And see people enjoy music. It’s healing, music is healing. I want to heal, I want to enrich and inspire, and … you know … hope, passion!
Og med de ord sluttede samtalen et passende sted, inden The Obsessed gik på scenen med deres inspirerende og livsbekræftende tonserrock med en Wino i hopla bag guitaren.
