Trevor Tanner
of the Bolshoi and Rathkeltair
May 14th, 2005 at Eat More Records in Atlanta, Georgia
LK: Talk about some of the very first music that you heard, very early on, that influenced you when you were a kid.
TT: I heard “Watch that Man” on the radio, when my Dad was driving us somewhere, and it blew my mind. Cause he wanted to turn it on too, you know. I was always big into Bowie. I used to like a lot of European music. My Mom used to listen to that whole Burlesque thing, so I kind of enjoyed that. Celtic music; my Mother is Scottish so she used to play all the horrible old accordion music and drink whiskey. I didn’t have a lot of money growing up, so I couldn’t afford records, so I used to get loads of records off my friends who were older, so I used to listen to anything from Deep Purple to the Bay City Rollers, anything anybody had.
LK: What was the first instrument that you picked up?
TT: Piano. I used to sing in the choir as well, because I went to Catholic school. So I used to play the piano and sing, and as an experiment we had a guitar teacher at the Catholic school for a week and had three lessons for the most promising kids, and apparently I was one, and we were allowed three lessons and after the third lesson I was hooked. I just taught myself.
LK: At what point did you know that you were going to be playing music, and doing what you do?
TT: I can’t remember when I had any ambition to do anything else. I remember the teachers saying, you know, “What are you going to do?” and I was like, “I’m going to be a guitar player.” They were saying, “Don’t be stupid, what about a career in,… the fabric industry…” I would say, “No, no, I’m going to be famous.” I didn’t turn out to be famous, but I did turn out to be a guitar player!
LK: I’m going to give you some words. Just tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. What about “Slow Fear?”
TT: Roller skates. And ice skates.
LK: Lamppost and Television.
TT: Twigs on trees in the wintertime.
LK: The Perfect Word.
TT: Obnoxious.
LK: Pink Fuzz.
TT: Anna Nicole Smith. That was very predictable!
LK: Black Feather Limbo.
TT: A 1978 Chrysler New Yorker.
LK: Blue Screen.
TT: All I can see is that weird dog in the New Order video, the Weimaraner dog; whatever it’s called, one of those.
LK: Modern Orange Sky.
TT: Florida.Those rotting boardwalks in Florida. And old men sitting there, drinking six packs.
LK: Mermaid and Pharaoh.
TT: I see Richard Burton in a pair of sandals and a thong. And Elizabeth Taylor dressed up like a mummy with just her eyes and earrings showing.
LK: White Room.
TT: A show called “Space 1999” I used to watch when I was a kid.
LK: Pen Lines.
TT: My mechanical drawing teacher’s glasses, which were cello taped in the middle for about six years. Mr.Eldridge’s Glasses.
LK: Adopt-A-Highway.
TT: No.
LK: I’ll let my sweater figure it out.
TT: Nice work, if you can get away with it.
LK: Porch Light.
TT: A big black charred beer butt chicken in a nasty old grill in the beautiful moonlight, popping and sizzling and daring you to eat it.
LK: How do you see the so-called “modern” musician fitting into what we call “modern” society?
TT: I think since the advent of digital technology and the internet, and musical instruments being so cheap, and every one has a studio in their house; I think everybody is a musician really now. It’s just that most of them are crap. Everyone has all the accoutrements and all the stuff to do it, so people make their own albums at home and stuff, but I believe at the end of the day people just really enjoy music even if it’s some guy banging the dustbin lid in the hallway or Jimmy Page with a Moroccan Orchestra. It’s all good to me, except I think the term “Musician” has become a very overused thing. I don’t think that musicians think they are special people anymore. Most of us are assholes. Why else would you start?
LK: What inspires you when you sit down to write? What areas? Are there times of the year or places, or seasons that inspire you the most?
TT: I think weird things that happen in life; Little weird coincidences. I’m not the sort of person that breaks up with my girlfriend, and then go write a song called, “I Hate Your Guts,” or anything like that. I can see someone that inspires me, but usually when I sit down to write I don’t have any conscious idea of what I want to do, I just feel like doing it. So I just sit down and start messing around. It’s almost like a form of therapy really. It’s just very enjoyable.
LK: The last question I want to ask you, is there any newfound influences, not necessarily new artists, but things as of late you have been listening too, digging on, or influenced any of your writing?
TT: I’ve been listening to a lot of Eastern music, belly dancing music, the real stuff, and I like that a lot. I used to listen to the radio a lot, NPR and all that lot, not because I’m intellectual and can’t stand the other stuff, and there is a lot of cool world music on there. But I have no desire to do that, but I listen to it a lot. I think Bowie’s last album was amazing. I didn’t like a lot of what he did in the last ten or fifteen years, so this was really good. I wish people would just stop, and get more pissed off when they hear a band that sounds just like Nirvana or Pearl Jam. I wish people would care more. It used to be really bad to do that. Plagiarize. But now it seems to be really cool, and I wish that wasn’t the case. I find that really depressing. Everybody that is trying hard and doing their own thing and all you want to do is come out with a song that sounds like Kurt Cobain 10 years ago, and everybody thinks it’s great, and I think it’s very sad.
LK: What advice would you give to a younger musician?
TT: Get a job! Just have fun, and be yourself. Don’t worry about being cool. It’s uncool to try to be cool. I grew up in the whole Punk thing, with the Pistols and the Stranglers and all that, and I think Billy from Green Day is really cool when somebody said, “What’s Punk?” and he kicked over a garbage can and said, “That’s Punk.” And then the guy {interviewing him} kicked over the garbage can and said, “So, now that’s Punk?” and Billy said, “No, that’s not Punk, that’s Trendy.” I just think that a young musician, or an old musician should just do what’s right for you. And if people don’t like it, tough shit. If you like it, that’s great. But don’t pander, and be something you are not. Even if nobody likes what you do, it doesn’t matter. Somebody will like it, even if it’s just your Mum!