INTERVIEW: For Clutch, each gig is different than the last
Photo: Clutch are on a co-headlining tour with Killswitch Engage. Photo courtesy of Dan Winters / Provided by New Ocean Media with permission.
Clutch, the rock ‘n’ roll band originally from Maryland, are on a co-headlining tour this summer with Killswitch Engage. They are bringing their hard-rocking sound to towns across the United States and sprinkling in new songs off last year’s Book of Bad Decisions album.
Clutch and Killswitch stop Saturday, Aug. 3 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. Audience members can expect to hear the sonically powerful riffs of vocalist/guitarist Neil Fallon, drummer Jean-Paul Gaster, bassist Dan Maines and guitarist Tim Sult.
“We’re here in Columbus, Ohio,” Gaster said in a recent phone interview. “It’s a beautiful day, not too hot. We’re playing outdoors tonight, so that’ll be great, looking forward to that. … It’s been a great year.”
Gaster and the band have had a lot of fun this summer. They have been playing festival dates in between their gigging with Killswitch Engage, and this keeps them constantly busy and always focused on the music. When they’re not playing live, they are releasing singles from their new project, the Weathermaker Vault Series. The latest song from that collection is “Precious & Grace.”
On the Road Again
For Clutch, the open road has always been about joining with the audience in a symbiotic relationship over the course of 60-120 minutes. The band gives a little, and the audience does the same. There is celebrating of the past successes, but also the cherishing of new pathways and new tunes.
“We’ve had fun out here,” Gaster said. “The festivals I think have been my favorite part of this thing because we get to play with some bands that maybe we haven’t seen in a while or play for some fans that have not seen us play before, so that’s always cool.”
Audience members will never get the same Clutch concert twice. The band members like to incorporate unexpected variety into their set lists, and they often test out new material on the road before heading into the studio. This makes it interesting and endlessly engaging for Gaster and company.
“We change the set list every night, so that means that every night before the gig, a different band member puts together the collection of songs that he wants to play for that gig,” Gaster said. “So it really depends on the guy and what stuff he wants to play. Sometimes in a festival situation you might pick different songs, or maybe not. It really depends, so the cool thing about that is that we get to play different songs every night. It is not such a routine kind of a thing. We try to avoid that out here as much as possible.”
Decisions for Clutch are made in a democratic fashion, and Gaster said this collaborative spirit has been with the band since the very beginning, when they released their 1993 breakthrough album, Transnational Speedway League.
“Everybody has a skill set, and I think we’re really good at bouncing ideas off each other,” he said. “We usually come to decisions pretty unanimously.”
He added: “We always try new material out, whether it’s a re-record of somebody else’s song, like ‘Precious and Grace’ … or even just our own material. We always put new stuff in the set. That’s really a testing ground for us. It gives us the opportunity to see how a song plays live, and right away, we have a better idea of how to approach that song once we put it into the live set.”
Finding That Rhythm
As a drummer, Gaster searches for the rhythm of a song, and he tries to keep himself open to the fluid process of musical discovery. Over the years, he has made it a point not to make early iterations of songs too “rhythmical” because he wants the other guys to develop their own ideas of how the track should sound.
“That gives me the opportunity to listen, especially in the live situation,” Gaster said. “You hear stuff that pops out. You figure, OK, that’s something that we want to accent, or that’s something that we want to incorporate into the groove. Or maybe that’s something we want to stay away from.”
Gaster said he thrives on this variety, on this musical diversity, on this testing ground with a live audience. That’s what makes his job so much fun.
“Even within the songs, I never play the songs the same way from night to night,” he said. “Each night is completely different, and I think the more we play the song, the more it tends to deviate from the original recording. That’s what kind of a band we are. We’re not the kind of band that just gets up there and plays exactly what’s on the record, and so for me, that keeps me engaged.”
Gaster admitted that he thinks about his drumming almost all day long. He considers different musical concepts and perhaps how to adapt the style of other drummers he has seen recently at a concert. Thankfully, Clutch’s songs are designed to be flexible, and that means Gaster can incorporate new elements each night.
“You can move within the form, so as long as you stay in the form,” the drummer said. “Not everything that I play works, and sometimes it’s more obvious than others. But it keeps me on my toes and the band on their toes and hopefully the audience, too. Hopefully the audience stays engaged because at the end of the day that’s what we want to do. We do not want to just be going up there and sort of doing a set list by the numbers kind of thing.”
Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum
Gaster received his first pair of drumsticks at the age of 14, and his first kit came two years later. He took some lessons in his teenage years, but he admitted that his focus and drive were not there. It wasn’t until his 20s that he began to realize the full potential of rock music.
“I didn’t know how to practice,” he said. “I was a terrible student to begin with, and taking lessons at that point for me really just consisted of seeing my drum teacher once a week. And we’d open up a page in Realistic Rock and sort of slug through the page. After about a half hour of that or so, I would say, ‘Well, show me something else.’ Then it would degenerate into this thing where … I’d be just watching him play. So I didn’t understand the discipline of practice really until I was in my 20s. I started taking lessons from a teacher in Washington, D.C. … and I learned a tremendous amount. Part of that was this idea of learning how to practice. Really a whole other world opened up for me. I started listening to a lot of different kinds of music, different drummers, and from there it kind of really opened up.”
And that early experimentation continues to thrive with Clutch and their dedication to changing it up each and every night.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Clutch will play with Killswitch Engage Saturday, Aug. 3 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. Click here for more information and tickets.
