HARMONY ‘N’ CALAMITY Giant Sand
Sep 12, 2008
Howe Gelb sees... visions.
BY LAVINIA JONES WRIGHT
Despite his chiseled looks and gravelly badass cowboy voice, Giant Sand mastermind Howe Gelb is a chatty and thoughtful conversationalist. Speaking from Denmark, where he spends part of each year with his family, Gelb brims with useful information about the exotic nature of the Southwest, about his long and prolific career, and about how not to get hired by Bob Dylan as a sideman. His newest effort, proVISIONS (Yep Roc) marks Gelb's umpteenth release as Giant Sand. It's a healthy, if not heroic, output-yet he's also squeezed in numerous side projects (the country outfits The Band of Blacky Ranchette and Arizona Amp and Alternator; OP8 (with Lisa Germano), the gospel group ‘Sno Angel). Also, he scores and plays "Dr. Fortunato" in the upcoming animated feature, Mars.
Whatever he does, fans everywhere gobble it up. And, despite his hardships-losing close friend and GS co-founder Rainer Ptacek to cancer in 1997, and the band's rhythm section to autonomy (John Convertino and Joey Burns went fulltime as Calexico in 2004)-Gelb constantly eyes the next project. Doggedly, he dives deep into the present, assuming that every album, song or show might be his last.
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BLURT: What led you to release proVISIONS with Yep Roc?
I got the government notice in the mail that it is imperative that you sign with Yep Roc as a singer-songwriter over fifty [laughs]. In the beginning, every record was on a different label for me, so I've seen how they work. I like that Yep Roc is in North Carolina and not in New York or LA. It's also because I realized a lot of my friends, and a lot of good singer-songwriters, are on Yep Roc.
BLURT: There's always been a prevailing sound to Giant Sand records...
It's sort of a flavor. It's harmony mixed with calamity. It has to be a mix of music and hang time. So when the band feels family-like, and there's some kind of sound in there that's what I've always considered rock ‘n' roll, that's Giant Sand. Everything else is spin-offs or side projects. But then that is the problem attached to carrying a name around too long: eventually there's no mystery left.
BLURT: Then why not retire Giant Sand?
I see it as something that has its own season. It seems to go around the sun every couple of years. And it's always there, looming like a satellite. Some signals you pick up for a while.
BLURT: Why is Giant Sand's very strong Americana flavor such a hit in Europe?
Our first records were released in Europe and I wasn't sure why. Then I realized that the exotic tendency of Southwestern culture appeals to them. But I never made it easy for them to digest, because my records don't exploit "desert rock" or pretend to be important because of that, and what makes it harder [to absorb] is my wordplay. It's hard to figure out what it is that gets under their skin, but [European fans] learn the words and sing them perfectly.
BLURT: Do you have a visual aesthetic in mind when you're writing?
At times it's exactly like that. I think that's because your ears develop in the womb before any other sensory receptors, and you start hearing at the very beginning of your existence... Sounds are set so far ahead of your other senses, so sounds will always more accurately reflect your feelings. That's why [films] are always more moving when they have soundtracks.
BLURT: Did you have a visual in mind when you were writing proVISIONS?
Yeah... Sometimes you spin right into some notion that wasn't your own, but now you're in it, and for a while you can see and feel everything; you're in that time and place. And if you're lucky enough, the Polaroid you'll get of that will be a song.
BLURT: Speaking of characters: You're in an upcoming film?
It was filmed in Austin last year, and it's all about Mars. It's animated and it's hypnotic and involving. All the actors worked in front of a green screen. I got to play the bad guy, which was really fun, because all I had to do was be the cranky old bastard at NASA control. They've recently asked me to do the soundtrack, which is really exciting because when you're making these records they always feel like there're soundtracks, but there's no movie!
BLURT: Will you continue making Giant Sand records?
Every record always seems like the very last record. It is, literally, always the last record. You can assume you're going to do another one if a bus doesn't run you over today, but it really is all you know. It's one of the good things about getting older, that you realize that. When you're on a tour you think, "This is my last show," or "This is the last time I'll ever play this song..." because you really enjoy it when it's the last time.
BLURT: Are there any musical opportunities that you haven't been offered?
To play piano in Bob Dylan's band. I came face to face with him in my favorite Mexican restaurant in Tucson one time. There was my moment to ask him, and instead I said nothing. It kinda has to happen without me instigating it-that's the trick.
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