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With the exception of Guided By Voices, the Brian Jonestown Massacre are probally the most prolific pop group of the decade. Since 1995, the band has released seven LPs: Methodrone(1995), Space Girl and Other Favorites(1995), Their Satantic Majesties Second Request(1996), Take it From the Man(1996), Thank God for Mental Illness(1996), Give it Back!(1997), and Strung Out in Heaven(1998). The groups has gone through something like 50 members over the years, but the one constant has always been vocalist, guitarist, and group visionary, Anton Newcombe. While the bands excellent music should speak for itself, the press ceverage they get(especially as of late)tends to be on the sensationalist side, focusing on their drug use, the supposed fued with the Dandy Warhols, and out of control fighting on tour. While these issues are touched upon in this lengthy interview, I wanted to dig deeper and find out more about Antons musical and personal traits. I caught up with Anton while he was at home in L.A. in early June, just after their first leg of a U.S. tour which included an excellent show at TT's in Cambridge.
Interview by Ben Vendetta
Ben: I really enjoyed your Boston show. It was the first time i had seen you play. I'm glad you finally made it here. It was cool to see you after listening to your records so much over the past few years.
Anton: I thought that was our best show of the tour so far. I thought we let loose in a good way.
Ben: I really like the vibe. You weren't in too much of a hurry to do one song right after the other. You seemed to be really enjoying yourselves. I got a real kick at the end of the show when you played around on the drums and didn't want to leave.
Anton: The guy was thinking about (TT's bouncer) but at the same time, he had a leg brace on. It was really hilarious. I'm glad you enjoyed it. We really enjoyed it. That was the first time we played Boston. That's one of the legendary towns. That's a heavy hitter on any American trip.
Ben: It's one of the few places where the Velvet Underground were really appreciated in the 60's.
Anton: I really love it there. It's got so much history, so i very much wanted to do it justice. Plus, we got that really good write up in theGlobe.

"I'm just doing it because it's the music i like. It doesn't exist unless i animate it." -- Anton Newcombe
Ben: That was a really good article.
Anton: I wanted it to be good because people are so sceptical these days.
Ben: I'm really enjoying your new album. Do you like the way it came out?
Anton: (hesitates)Well, I'm just looking forward to the future. I'm very much akin to a visual art person, where you just do something and you're on to the next thing. I don't really hover around things that i've done for too long, besides being able to conjure up the head space to play them live.
Ben: Is that why you've been able to do so many records in such a short period of time?
Anton: On the back of Give it Back! it says I'm not in music business, I'm in the Brian Jonestown Massacre business. It really makes sence when you think about it. I'm just trying to do what feels right to me. I want to make the grade in the future, which means I want my music to be around. Whatever I have to do to avoid that flash in the pan bullshit, I'm going to do.
Ben: You guys definitely have your own attitude and vision. I especially love the liner notes on Take It From The Man, that whole thing about how digital technology is killing art
Anton: I really like getting together with my friends and writing that kind of stuff. We just talk about ideas. So many people don't even have a clue why they're doing stuff or they can't tell you. They won't admit it. I really love music and i want to put out stuff that isn't out there. I don't care what people think...if they think it's derivative or envoking a certain time period or what have you. I'm just doing it because it's the music I like. It doesn't exist unless I animate it
Ben: So have you loved music your whole life?
Anton: I really have. I hate to talk about myself--I hope you don't take it the wrong way--but i have musical aptitude. I can play any instrument. Not virtuoso style but i think up my own ideas. I'm really gifted that way. I feel fortunate. I've always heard music on a different level and i think super orchestrally. I think of complete ideas that are complex in orchestration. I'm a minimalist so they're not complex like a Stevie Ray Vaughn or Eddie Van Halen kind of way, but they're complex in a way that they relate
Ben: so is that why Brian Jones appeals to you so much because he could play anything?
Anton: I thought it would be interesting to have a band that had the same approach as him within the context of a band. So that's the connection right there, not even rhythm and blues , love of the blues. It was just that exactly, you hit it right on the head which is cool and perceptive of you.
Ben: The Rolling Stones were the first band who really effected me growing up before I got exposed to punk and post punk stuff. When i first heard you guys, I could tell where you were coming from. To me, you're not just feeding off the stones but trying to capture the vibe of what Brian Jones was about.
Anton: Thats it. I'm kind of into that but that isn't everything because i'm into the whole 60's sound and those classic pop structures. I'm really into folk music you know. Thats what i kind of consider my project to be, a folk rock project.
Ben: I can definitely see that on Thank God For Mental Illness and parts of the new album too. You do go off in different directions on your records.
Anton: Buts its all psychedelic, you know what i mean? Its all being psychedelic. Its cool that you have some thoughts on what we're talking about. I feel fortunate. A lot of people working in journalism have the fire power to be cynical but you have your own opinions which is cool. You're not treating it like this is a job or something.
Ben: I only interview bands that i'm totally into. I always have to turn down interviews from publicists, even groups that are pretty popular. I don't care if people stop giving me free records because of it. i have to be true to myself. Thats my whole approach.
Anton: Thank you so much for the way you described it.
Ben: I'm a total fan of your music so thats why I wanted to do this interview so much. So how long have you been interested in Brian Jones?
Anton: I always loved psychedelic music for as long as I can remember. I was raised by hippies. "Paint it Black" and stuff like that is absolutely amazing. "As Tears Go By," all that stuff. It possesses something that the Beatles don't in moodiness. Its like thhis dark somber angle. Bittersweet is what I want to call it. I've always been intrigued and once I realized he was the one responsible for that, he became a bit of a hero.
Ben: So do you even like any of the post-Brian Jones Stones records?
Anton: I don't like 70's music so much. I like 60's music. These past few years, I haven't listened to so much music. It's like 50/50. I spend a lot of time performing and creating my own. It's all in there. When i'm touring and driving in the van, I'm listening to mostly 60's music. I do love Elliot Smith and I do love Belle and Sebastian, and i kind of like the new Air cd but thats about it. There are very few current things I'm into, those are the ones. Elliot Smith and Belle and Sebastion are right up there at the top.
Ben: Your earlier material has a similar vibe to groups like Spiritualized. Were you intothat scene?
Anton: I've got video tapes of me playing that style of music in 1981, before there was even Spacemen 3. I did five tours with Sonic Boom. I'm kind of in the same clique musically in that I'm into one note minimalism with continious drone notes going through. Jason Pierce didn't invent that. That's the criteria in my composition. Geometrically that can exist. All my songs have a cotinuous note, whether it's cranked in the mix or totally buried. Thats what the connection to that is.
Ben: One thing that always struck me about the Brian Jonestown Massacre is that though you're not punk, you have the same DIY approach on all those albums that were put out on Bomp! It's totally your own thing
Anton: I do have that grass roots hippie punk thing. Do it yourself, the real vibe, doesn't need a label. I am kind of like a punk though, an old school punk, in that way. I was interested in punk bands. That got me really interested in the idea of actually being in a band
Ben: I wanted to ask you more about your overall outlook. From your liner notes and interviews I've read, it's obvious that you have an agenda. Do you see yourselves as being a revolutionary group?
Anton: Part of what i want to do is set an example for other people. We are individuals and we are doing things our own way and we have an awareness of where that fits in with tradition. I think that is revolutionary. It's not an ignorant thing we're doing. Alot of it is an understanding of history and all that stuff too. It's not for me to decide whether I'm revolutionary or not. I'm still going to get up and do the things I want to do. Classifying me as a revolutionary is going to be counterproductive. The value isn't really appreciated in our society right now. Like even though you celebrate the fourth of July, which is a celebration of revolutionaries and revolution, America is very sheepish and it's very threatening in this day and age to be sort of an easy rider individual.
Ben: Do you see any potential for cultural change, like there was in the 60's, in the near future?
Anton: No! It's like damage control. Anytime there is anything threatening, it gets attacked and coopted the way we learned how to do that. I think the Man is completely threatened that there are more young people today than there was then so the way they deal with that instead of having universal top 10 is having all these little splintered, fragmented groups. That way you can seperate everybody and keep everyone against each other. It's pretty nightmarish these days but i don't care. I think the revolutionaries of the future are going to be overlooked by society. There's so much shit going on and they're so busy. Hopefully people will do stuff and ultimately it will mean something to some people.
Ben: I think you express that really well on 'Wasting Away." I assume that's what the song is about, basically people being supressed.
Anton: Yeah. Mostly i write love songs but that's about love in a way too. I do have a love of humanity in way as much as i do a misanthropy. It's discouraging but it's not like going to make me give up and be a turd like everybody else. I'm heartened by the way the original punk groups were being beat up and not accepted. It sets you even more against the mainstream.
Ben: Do you get frustrated by the non-music related press you have been getting lately like fighting on tour or drugs or whatever?
Anton: It reflects on the laziness of the journalist more than our band that they rehash all that shit that they weren't obviously there to see. Most shows, like the one you saw the other night, we basically play a lot of songs. We played a good long set. I could have played more but time ran out. That was the booker's fault. We could have come on earlier. I would have played two hours, no problem.
Ben: All i seem to read about you lately is stuff like that supposed fued with the dandy warhols.
Anton: The funniest thing is that my goal is to crank out the greatest music of my existence and this whole continuum I'm laying down, you can call it whatever. I'm going to do my greatest work and I'm going to do it rapid fire and and i hope a fair amount of people in America. Already a lot of people like our band, but an even greater number are going to go 'fuck this is important and it's now and it's happening. I love it.' I don't care how that reflects monetarily, I just want some people to enjoy it as it goes down instead of a Velvet Underground thing where it happens in retrospect because that will always happen. We've done so much that it will survive. It fits in its own category.
Ben: There's definitely a word of mouth vibe about you. A friend really pushed you on me about three years ago and I've told so many people about you since. It's also refreshing that you don't play the game the British bands do.
Anton: We're so much different. People can say that we're the same thing as Kula Shaker but we're not. We're so much different. There's so much more stuff going on. As individuals we're so much different. There's more to us in our history.
Ben: Groups like Kula Shaker copy the sound from the 60's, sometimes really well. It's hard to put this in words, but you guys seem to capture more of an overall vibe that goes beyond music.
Anton: My thing is that it's not something like changing your clothes when you put on a pedal and change what gear your playing. It comes from the inside out, regardless of the gear we're playing. It starts with ideas. That's the way i hear music and that's the way i express art. I really love it. I've done over 160 songs so far. That's a lot. By comparison, Simon and Garfunkel only put out like 50 something.
Ben: Today it's even worse. A new group will put out something and then it will be two years before their follow up. In the 60's bands would put out albums every year. I think the Byrds released four albums between 1965 and 1967.
Anton: But We're different from the Byrds in that we're playing our own fucking music. They didn't play on some of their records but then the vibe was pretty heavy. It was perfect. I wasn't going for that, I was going for ideas. Maybe in the future someone will cover one of my songs and they'll sound perfect in the way the Byrds or Jimi Hendrix did Dylan songs. They really made them sound good.
Ben: How do you put out so many high quality records?
Anton: People don't usually understand the Germanic temperament! I like to take all this bad shit and turn it into good things. I take bad stuff that comes my way and turn it into other things
Ben: You mean like all your life experiences and relationships and stuff? You're just able to tap into that?
Anton: Exactly. I apply myslef that way instead of buying guns or what have you. I'm doing other stuff.
Ben: What is your favorite Brian Jonestown Massacre record to date?
Anton: I like Give it Back!, Thank God For Mental Illness, Their Satanic Majesties Second Request, and Take It from The Man. I like those four records alot. I wish there were more bands we could tour with. A lot of bigger bands that are like really good won't tour with us because most bands, at least their management, want to be seen as the biggest thing on the bill. I'm more interested in just providing a great evening of entertainment. On the smaller level, most bands don't have the money to tour so they couldn't keep up with us.
Ben: Of course there are groups that will always play support slots. I think I saw the Dandy Warhols about four times last year warming up for various British bands like the Charlatans, Blur, and Radiohead.
Anton: Thats bullshit though. We're headlining our own thing and doing really well and they're out there supporting people. A lot of people that go to see big bands don't give a fuck about the support. I think its really weird. We're building our own reputation standing on its merits and they're aout there living off other people. It's a different philosophy.
Ben: Is that what triggered you to write "Not If You Were The Last Dandy On Earth"?
Anton: That was more in responce to Courtney calling me up and saying 'I ripped off another one of your songs.' That was just putting it back to them. I'm just so done with that. We're just touring our asses off this year and a lot of people didn't think we could do that because of our reputation. We have gone through a lot of people. We keep going through drummers, and Matt our bass player, just went solo. It's his own thing. He thought it was the me show or something. I don't think he realized that part of our thing is a phenomena. It's not going to get repeated for anyone elses experience.
Ben: The basic thing, then, is getting the message across and not acting like pop stars?
Anton: I'm not interested in being a rock star whatsoever. It's something that doesn't appeal to me. I think rock stars are boring. I am an artist though and I love being creative. It's something that I think is worthwhile with what I have as far as physical resources. I think it's a beautiful thing to do with my life and my abilities, more so than if were in the Navy or working for Starbucks coffee or some bullshit. What I'm doing is teaching, with all sorts of things encompassed in it.
Ben: Does TVT give you enough money that you can totally go for it and do what you want in the studio and stuff?
Anton: Yeah. They gave me a recording budget and I bought my own studio which is in my house, so we'll see what happens with that, whether I get lazy or whether I do what I said I was going to do, which is push myself and be relevent. The new LP was recorded in my house. I have an EP coming out in the fall, I have a lot of shit coming out. I can't wait to get back and record some more stuff.
Ben: When you record do you use strictly 60's technology?
Anton: I use a mixture. I use the technologies of having instruments and performances in a way...I leave in shit that other people wouldn't. Very lo-fi or whatever. I leave in mistakes and frailities because i'm very much interested in capturing a moment. It isn't the most important thing to me, whereas other people absess on shit, doing 700 takes and stuff. I don't care.
Ben: People forget that some of the most creative records ever made in the 60's were done without the same technology that people use today. People were forced to be more creative.
Anton: I do that too. On Give It Back!, on the song "The Devil May Care," all those theramin type sounds are just from an 8 track. These people who are making a documentary film, watched me do everything in 40 minutes, rushing right through it. I think it's amazing. The sound of it is nuts. Its like my personal Pet Sounds shit.
Ben: How is the documentary coming along?
Anton: I'll still end up being a mysterious person, because it only reflects one side of my personality. It's so sensationalistic, what these people chose to film. It's on us and the Dandy Warhols so its kind of interesting because it shows two different approaches and two different songwriters.
Ben: So do the people making the documentary see both bands as being kindred spirits or something?
Anton: I set it up that way. They agreed. I don't watch it. I just allowed them unprecedented acess into my life. I think it's really sensationalistic on our part. I think a lot of people who are smart are going to go, 'O.K. they have a lot of fighting going on here. All these pissed off, fucked up people. How come all this music about love? Where does it come from?'.
Ben: I think it's interesting that the documentary both you and the Dandy Warhols because I interviewed Courtney and Peter last fall and that interview was the total opposite of this one. They were trying so hard to be cool with the one liners and stuff but you're being really open and honest.
Anton: You should say that in your article.
Ben: Oh I will. I publish my interviews in a straight Q&A format so i can capture the vibe of the conversation.
Anton: I have an ulteior motive. When I decided that you were somebody that I was interested in finding out things about, I just wanted to communicate with you like a friend, checking where you were at. I looked at it very much as if we were developing a relationship
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