INTERVIEWthe bay area ska page

How was your New York trip?

It was a real whirlwind - very chaotic. There was a lot going on the whole time I was there: filming for the Slackers documentary; Rock Steady 7 was recording; I played guitar on tracks for Marcus' dub project; Slackers had a crazy cabaret/multi-media experimental show/happening; Vic and I had a show; Slackers were gearing up for a tour, etc.

What are you currently working on?

The main reason I went to New York was to start work on my next album. When Slackers came through California last November, Marcus and Vic suggested we record some of my songs with Slackers backing me up. That sounded like an excellent idea to me, so we set it up.

After squeezing in some rehearsal, we spent about three days in the studio working on my tunes. We got some very cool stuff on tape. We need to go back into the studio for a few more days to finish up, maybe in early May.Vic is producing the tracks, which has been excellent.

I've heard you started producing other bands. How is it producing other people's music? How does this affect your own music?

I enjoy producing for other artists. Every time I've done it, the experience has been different, but always rewarding.

Whenever I collaborate with good musicians, singers, writers, engineers, etc., I'm always learning new things, experiencing
different attitudes, absorbing new vibes. It's hard to pinpoint
specifically how producing impacts my own music, but I know it does. The more experiences you have the more experienced you become.

Doing these tracks with Slackers right now is really the first time I've recorded my songs where someone else has been the producer. Having produced other acts has helped prepare me for working with a producer myself this time.

I intentially went into these sessions with my mind open about how the tracks would develop. I didn't want to be one of those artists that can't deal with outside input and thinks a song has to be the way it sounds in my head and only that way. In the end, some of the things that I would have expected least are probably the things I liked best. It's been cool creatively and led to some recordings I know will surprise a lot of people.

How is the scene around the country receiving you?

I always get a warm reception wherever I go these days. I've been doing the solo act for about five years now, so people who are part of the scene know exactly what I do and what my vibe is. They know my songs and have learned how to clap and sing along (for the most part).

I'll be doing a full Canadian tour later this spring with The Kingpins and General Rudie, both Stomp Records bands from Montreal. I have played solo in a handful of major cities in Canada, but this will be my first real national tour as a solo artist.

That should be pretty interesting. There are a lot of people in Canada who have seen me a lot of times with King Apparatus, but have never seen my solo act.

What do you think it will take to start the 4th wave? Should there even be a 4th wave?

Back at the end of the '80s, the term Third Wave started showing up and it really made a lot of sense at the time. Jamaican ska and Two Tone ska were so clearly distinct and separate as eras and approaches. The Third Wave was an entirely new crop of bands that were starting up in the '80s having been turned on to ska by Two Tone.

Somewhere in the mid-90's the term "third wave" stopped making as much sense to me, or maybe the meaning just shifted to the sound that bands had in the late '80 and early '90s. When I started to hear ska on commercial radio, most of the bands I was hearing didn't feel like they were coming from the same place as the third wave I'd been part of.

In some ways, I look at ska-punk as a fourth wave of ska. Operation Ivy and The Bosstones established a radically different sound for ska that spawned an incredible wave of bands who took the fusion of ska and punk as their standard approach.

At this point, I look at ska more as a tradition than as something that occurs in waves. Up and down is just the motion of the ocean.

I've noticed in all the shows I've seen of yours that you always put on a good show. How do you maintain this high standard?

Well thank you very much. Performers tend to be their own harshest critics, and some nights are better than other for me like for everyone. Quality of performance will always be important for any artist who takes what he does seriously.

I always try to remind myself as well, that it's only a show and it's meant to be fun, not perfect. What's most important about shows for me is to feel I've connected with the audience. I'd rather have a few wrong notes and some well-intentioned but sloppy clapping than a precisely executed set any day.

I've also heard about pre-show warm-ups in the bathroom. Is it for sound? Any other rituals?

Being on the road is physically draining, so healthy rituals can be helpful. I hardly ever feel good about my show unless I've done some vocal warmup or sung a few songs backstage. I try to eat well and sleep lots when I'm out playing shows. I like to stretch before shows, especially after spending many hours in a moving vehicle. I prefer to eat at least a few hours before I need to be onstage, so I don't feel too full.

Do you ever miss playing in a band?

Absolutely.

What's it like being a solo ska artist?

There certainly aren't any rules to follow. After having been in a band for a long time and working almost exclusively with one group, I've enjoyed being able to work with a lot of different people over the past five or six years.

Being a solo act lets me travel light, keeps travel costs low and allows me to go some cool places a lot of bands never end up. Last year I played in both Alaska and Hawaii, for instance.

A lot less energy needs to go into finding group consensus or making schedules work.

On the other side of the coin, when you're in a band, there are frustrations working with other people, but there's also a lot of energy and enthusiasm that other people bring into the project. As a solo artist, it's entirely up to me to make things happen. Being in a band, there are a lot of shared victories and shared hardships that build the group's character. Being a solo artist is lonelier.

Why did you decide to go solo?

After King Apparatus stopped playing, I didn't really have the heart to start another band. King Apparatus had been a way of life for me for years, and I'd given it about as much energy as I think I possibly could have. I didn't feel like I had the energy to try again with a band at that point.

Still I really felt like a big part of what was going in with ska in North America. In the spring of 1994, a couple of months after the last US tour King Apparatus did, I wound up road managing Skatalites for a ten day California tour. What an amazing experience!

That summer, I lived in Venice, in the garage on the back cover of The 4-Track Adventures CD. I wrote a ton of songs and did a lot of 4-tracking. It was a very prolific summer. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I kept creating music.

That fall, I was equipment manager for The Specials, who did a ten day tour in Canada. Again - an amazing experience! The same year my band broke up, I went on tour with The Skatalites and the The Specials - it seemed a little like destiny calling.

After a while, I realized I had a bunch of 4-track recordings that I personally loved and I thought other people would like too. I'd done a lot of songleading at summer camp, generally hacking away at songs and telling people to clap along, so performing solo was not a big deal for me.

I really don't remember a moment when I decided to release a solo album and promote it by performing solo, but I never really gave much thought to stopping my involvement in ska music. It just took a little creative thinking to figure out how to do it on my own terms.

How is the process of writing songs different when writing for a band and writing for your solo stuff?

Actually, the process hasn't changed much at all for me. I started making 4-track recordings as a way to introduce new songs to King Apparatus. The approach I take to writing songs hasn't changed too much.

What I do find to be different is the content of the lyrics. I think that's just me being a different person at a different point in life in a different type of situation and having different thoughts.

After the reunion tour in 2000, I started to write new songs for King Apparatus for the first time in a long time. It took some conscious effort, and some extra coffee, to get back into the mindset to write for such an intense band. In the end, it was really satisfying to write some songs that reflect who I am as a person now and resonate with the power and energy of King Apparatus. We have six new studio tracks recorded - we're not sure what we'll do with them yet.

Having played with ska legends like the Skatalites, how does playing with them inspire you? Will you continue touring/playing until you're their age?

Perhaps. It's really hard to look that far into the future, but I don't have any particular plan to stop doing my thing, so it might work out that way.

Touring with The Skatalites and The Specials was my first chance to really experience role models who were playing ska into their 40's or into their 60's. With a few exceptions, most of the people who ever played ska were all pretty young, did it for a few years and then stopped (including The Skatalites and The Specials). No one I'd ever heard of had succeeded in really making a long term career out of ska music, except maybe Buster Bloodvessel (not exactly a role model). Ska artist seemed to be a career with a very short life span.

As King Apparatus had just closed up shop, it would have been a very natural time for me to assess my situation in those terms and start doing something else. Definitely having the experiences I did with those bands, seeing how some older people who'd played ska then stopped were getting back to it, made me think twice about life after ska.

What do you think your contribution to the history of ska is?

Well I hope it eventually involves a lot of things I've yet to do. For now, I guess I shown some people that where there's a will there's a way.

Overall, I hope to keep being part of the tradition, someone with direct links to the earliest generations of ska that can pass the music on to future generations. Roots reggae is now accepted and understood as a vital roots music form. Personally, that's how I'd like it to wind up for ska.

So far ska has generally been perceived as a flash in the pan pop craze, perhaps not entirely incorrectly either. Maybe in years to come there will be another era of ska as Top 40 music - maybe not. For me, that doesn't matter so much. I'd prefer to make music that some people will listen to for decades than music millions will listen to for six months. I hope that ends up being my contribution to ska.

If you weren't a musician, what would you be doing?

If I'd never been a musician, I'd probably be some kind of writer. If I stopped being a musician tomorrow for some reason, I'm not sure what I'd do next.

If you'd like to learn even more about the versatile Chris Murray and his upcoming appearances in the Bay Area, then you've gotta check out his website:
www.chrismurray.net