Trimming The Fat

5 February 2014 | 4:29 pm | Benny Doyle

"I’ve known these guys forever and I have every bit of faith that they know what they’re doing."

More Clutch More Clutch

Since emerging from Germantown, Maryland way back in 1990, Clutch have been a tough act to pin down. They can roar at you loud and fast, draw back to create layered music with great depth, and just as easily beat you into submission with their chugging, blues-anchored riffs and grooves. They're probably one of the most motivated acts to ever be lumped with the lazy tag of 'stoner-rock'.

In recent years the band have been extending themselves with their recorded output, spoiling their own wants with full-lengths Strange Cousins From The West (2009) and From Beale Street To Oblivion (2007). With their tenth studio album, 2013's Earth Rocker, they went the opposite way, constructing a concise master-class in dangerous rock'n'roll, the quartet not so much alive and kicking as wild and screaming.

Frontman Neil Fallon is on the tour bus in Illinois discussing the year gone. It's been a monumental one for Clutch: a fantastic reaction to Earth Rocker, louder crowds than ever before – a 3000-strong audience in Athens, Greece one for the diary. He tries to put his finger on the reason behind the record's success.

“Machine did a really good job of pointing out our strong suits,” he states, referencing the well respected producer who Clutch returned to for the first time since 2004's Blast Tyrant. “We're one of those bands that sometimes want to do different things, just out of sheer curiosity. And that's all well and good, but sometimes in that process you can overlook the strong suits that got you there in the first place. For example, [Machine] asked us to make a setlist of songs that we play at festivals, like a short 40-minute set, and he listened to those songs and created a bit of an abstract aesthetic template for the record. I know that sounds like a really highbrow description of it, but he was able to point out things that I don't think we would have been able to notice.”

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And once recognised, the mission for the album was simple – rediscover the riff. Widely known for his extreme approach to making records, Machine was the straight talker Clutch needed back in their corner.

“The way I look [at a producer] is sort of like a dictator,” relates Fallon. “And a band like us, we're a democracy, and that's great, but you can chase your own tail forever. You want to do whatever you want to do, and then you get the producer in who's blunt enough to tell you that that idea's rubbish, and hopefully we're mature enough now to acknowledge things and swallow pride for the good of the whole.”

Fallon admits it hasn't always been that easy to take negative feedback on board, but as he's gotten older he's been able to separate the constructive from the criticism. “From experience, I can get attached to ideas for the wrong reasons, and everyone sees thing differently, but it's a band, not an individual act – you've got to be able to compromise.”

Encouraged by Machine, Clutch got their shit together before entering the studio for once, knocking out a complete demo version of Earth Rocker during pre-production. This allowed the quartet to figure out tempos and hammer it out quickly when Machine hit record, that heightened work ethic reflected in the music. Fallon chuckles when admitting that for once he even wrote his lyrics beforehand, though he adds that he felt the entire process “very odd”.

“It sounds like a really live record but the fact of the matter is that I didn't even see JP [Gaster – drums] in the studio,” he reveals. “I've known these guys forever and I have every bit of faith that they know what they're doing. Nevertheless, when I did hear all the things put into place I breathed a sigh of relief.”

The path towards Earth Rocker first started being paved in 2011, when Clutch found themselves on the road with two hard rock legends; a couple of bands that inspired Fallon and his co-conspirators to get into the devil's game in the first place – Thin Lizzy and Motörhead. The bearded frontman found clarity during this time, and after getting deep conversationally with the infamous Lemmy Kilmister the foundation was set for the Clutch of now.

“To be able to do it as well as he has, you have to know your limits and be dedicated to some fundamental things that a lot of bands lose sight of very quickly,” he stresses. “I remember one conversation that we had, and he said, 'You have to keep it simple – you're not trying to storm a castle, it's only rock'n'roll'. [And it's] true, the simpler the better.”