PHOTO: NINA FERNANDEZ | Hatched via email between musicians, the new trio Night Crickets comprise the talents of Violent Femmes co-founder Victor DeLorenzo, David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets, and multi-instrumentalist Darwin Meiners. Their debut release A Free Society, released earlier this year on CD has just been issued on vinyl this summer by Omnivore Records. From his studio in Milwaukee, DeLorenzo talked about the collaboration, his experimental drum approaches, the split with Violent Femmes, and the drum pattern that captured the world.
How did Night Crickets come to be?
In 2013 my band Violent Femmes played the Coachella Music & Arts Festival in California and backstage, I came across Darwin Meiners. It turned out that not only was he a fellow musician, but also was the manager of David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets.
I didn’t really know that much about Bauhaus or Love and Rockets other than maybe the one or two hits that Love and Rockets had. But I got on well with Darwin and stayed in touch. And then two holiday seasons ago, he got in touch with me and asked me if I would be willing to create some drum tracks for him that he could write some music to. So I said, yeah, that sounds like a great idea because as a matter of fact, I own a recording studio here in Milwaukee and I’ve had this studio for over 30 years.
From time to time, when I had a great drum setup going, I would just record wild drum tracks just to some kind of click track or some kind of drum track, and I would just store them away to be able to use in the future for different music projects.
So I told Darwin I had some of these already recorded and that, if he wanted, I could create some new ones for him too. So I did that, but when I got to the point where I sent him some stuff, I said, what about the idea of maybe seeing if David would want to be involved in this and maybe we could create some stuff together, what do you think about that?
And Darwin went to David and got back to me and said, “It sounds like a great idea.” So that just started us on our kismet way of putting together some music that eventually became this full length record.
Is it unusual to start songs with drum tracks?
I think for some people, it’s just another way of recording. Because I’ve been in the business so long, I’ve learned to record music from many different ideas at the onset. Whether it’s just the drum track, or it’s the guitar track that’s recorded to a click track, or what have you. Or maybe just starting with a lyric and building from there. So I don’t look at recording music as being a one way process. I’ve got many different ideas in my arsenal.
Was it ever possible to get together in a room to play?
It was just starting to get serious with the plague. And at that time, the only way we could approach working together was remotely. So essentially, I would send them stuff and then they would send me stuff, and then I’d be like a kid on Christmas morning when I would get a new email from them, because I’d be wondering what did they add this time around?
It was a very exciting process and, in some ways, more exciting than being in a room with a bunch of people recording, because you never knew what to expect and you had to nonetheless respond to what you were given, or they had to respond to what you gave to them. I quite enjoyed it. I thought it was a really interesting way to not only put a song together but eventually put a whole record together that way.
Did all of the finished songs begin with drum tracks, or did others start with other sounds that you added to?
Well, the one track in particular, “Candlestick Park,” I was sent a vocal and a guitar track that Darwin laid down. And then I put my drums on, then I also did some background vocals and I think I did some percussion on it too. I don’t think I played auxiliary keyboard parts. But that was a track that came to me and I added stuff to.
There was another track called “Amanda’s Mantra,” that was about the young poet Amanda Gorman, and that came from an idea David had. David said to me, because I had sent a track in which was just a basic track of snare drum and a transaphone, which is a folk art instrument that I had invented that we used on the Violent Femmes recordings.
So I had laid down a drum track using those two instruments and the track came back to me with all this keyboard stuff and bass on it and I had an idea that maybe, as an homage to a girl I went to high school with who had recently died, I was going to write some kind of memorial lyric to her. David said, that sounds like a good idea, but what if you did something along the lines of a tribute also to Amanda Gorman, the young poet that we were all enamored with. And I said OK, let me see what I can put together along those lines.
So that was something that was very different, because I had to incorporate my own emotions, but also try and fashion some kind of tribute to this young poet. I really like the way that one turned out. I think the drums sound great, and also the keyboard parts and the bass on that are really good.
Was there editing involved?
There was some editing here and there, but I’d have to say, it was such an enjoyable process because for some reason, the three of us just fell into this mindset and we had very little disagreements or serious discussions about one way or another how a track would proceed.
So that was very refreshing, because I’ve certainly had some instances in the past where it’s hard to get ideas across, or maybe your ideas are not as respected as you want it to be, or maybe maybe there were other things at play with the other musicians you were working with that maybe didn’t have anything to do with music. For example, inter-social relationships. And of course you know I’m referring to Violent Femmes.
What happened with the Femmes anyway?
I had quit the band a few times, or had been asked to leave a few times before. In 2013, I had come back to Violent Femmes specifically to play four shows with them. I didn’t come back to rejoin the band. I guess for all intents and purposes I was almost like a guest musician just coming back to play four shows with them.
There was maybe a possibility that we could work things out and I could maybe come back and play with the group again. But having gone through just playing those four shows, I decided that I was much more happy being a solo artist, because at that time I’d released five records under my own name. And I’d produced records for a lot of people and also recorded with different people. So I was having a grand old time.
Tell me more about the transaphone you mentioned.
The transaphone was an instrument that I created for Violent Femmes. Essentially, it’s a folk art instrument, a one headed floor tom mounted on a snare drum stand, and then over the floor tom is a metal bushel basket, and then you play this whole apparatus with metal brushes. It gives you a very tiki sound, kind of like a cymbal, but it doesn’t have a cymbal’s sustain. But you get a thump out of it, because the metal bushel basket is on top of this floor tom. So it does activate the skin of the floor tom.
Is it on a lot of Violent Femmes material?
It’s certainly on our biggest hit, “Blister in the Sun.” It’s featured a lot on that first Femmes album.
Was it invented out of convenience because you played outdoors on the streets?
When we were in our busking phase, I would usually just have a snare drum on a snare stand and some brushes, just for the portability of it. But that particular drum system that I described I used in the recording. That’s because we were always trying to fashion new sounds and we didn’t want to be like anybody else. So that was the mother of invention. We wanted to find new sounds to record. I think during the course of my career, I’ve been known for playing many different kinds of drum systems and acquiring different sounds. I’m very happy I developed that as part of my sound.
That may be why “Blister in the Sun” sounded so distinctive and fresh—and still does. If you had an ’80s drum machine sound, people would dismiss it as an old song from that era.
Right, it would fall into that category. I think you’re onto something there, where it really played up the acoustic psychedelic folk approach that Violent Femmes had. And of course, coming from Wisconsin at that point in time, people didn’t know what to make of us, because that was the reign of the hair bands and stuff in the ’80s and we certainly didn’t fit into that in any way, shape, or form.
Did it fit into the punk scene?
I’d like to think we were in the punk movement; we described ourselves as folk punk. So it was like acoustic punk renderings which I guess people after a while, like Nirvana, even caught up to us when they did their Unplugged.
Those opening notes of “Blister in the Sun,” and the callback of the drums certainly has embedded itself into the culture. It seems like every day in America, in every baseball park, the opening hook of that song is played, and everyone responds with that clap-clap pattern.
Yeah, I’m the hook! They clap, along with my snare drum, which is really crazy to think—that the hook is a snare drum, where normally, you think the hook of a song is a guitar or something else. But for some reason, people really love to clap along with that, and I’m the hook.
I’ve heard it all different places too. I’ve heard it in soundtracks for films, I’ve heard that song coming out of the Indy 500, going into commercial. Certainly, when you go see the Bucks here in Milwaukee at the Fiserv Forum, they certainly play “Blister in the Sun” from time to time, so yeah, it’s really kind of crossed over. It’s almost like The White Stripes with “Seventh Nation Army,” that kind of thing.
It’s really funny how much that’s woven itself into the fabric of American music. I’m really proud of it. Whoever thought that’d be the case, because that song is so strange to begin with! There’s many different theories about what [lead singer] Gordon [Gano]’s talking about, and he has certainly not let me know what it’s really about. I’m not even sure he knows what it’s about. But it’s a strange case with that song. That song will be around forever now I think.
No ballpark would ever play the lyrics of it, because it’s about wet dreams and stuff, so the beginning is the only part they’d ever play—yet everyone knows it! I’m sure it’s made you a millionaire many times over.
Yeah, right! I’m trying to figure out how to buy a pizza for lunch! But I’d have to say, in its own way, yes, it’s been very fruitful for the three of us. It’s certainly has helped us many times. I still get a nice royalty check a couple times a year via the Femmes. But it certainly hasn’t generated for us millions or anything.
But it’s given you a legacy—a tune people will remember.
Yeah, for better or worse.
Do you think about that now when you’re creating drum tracks—making things that will be different and stick into people’s minds as well?
Well, It’s funny, I was just listening to an interview with Ringo Starr the other night, and he describes himself as a song drummer. I feel like I’m the same way when it comes to popular music. I was trained as a jazz drummer and I’ve played in big bands, I’ve played in small ensembles, I’ve played Dixieland, I’ve played straight ahead, I’ve played very avant garde music. So when I put together a drum track, all of that comes into play for me. But working in the rock idiom, I always want to serve the song just like Ringo does. And he is certainly one of my main influences when it comes to rock drumming.
What does it mean to you now that Night Crickets’ A Free Society is finally available on vinyl?
Well, when I started out, that was certainly the most welcomed way to release music was on vinyl. Then of course, cassettes came into being, and finally CDs but I was also excited to have vinyl come out. I wasn’t sure it was going to happen with Night Crickets, but wonderfully, the people at Omnivore, they’re into the whole vinyl scene. So I was very happy when they were interested in doing a vinyl. It’s nice to also feature a different cover art for the vinyl as opposed to the CD.
Do you think you’ll be touring with Night Crickets?
Yeah, we talked about that. The last Zoom we had last week we talked about probably getting together sometime this year and maybe having those two guys come to Milwaukee and do some rehearsals, and playing a couple shows, just at a little jazz club that’s close to my studio here. And then the possibility next year of doing a bona fide tour. I know I’ve got some things I’ve got planned for next year. I think David is finishing up some Bauhaus and may do some touring with Love and Rockets. But the will is there, it’s just finding out the way to do it. We certainly want to play together in the future, because I think it would lead to a really good band.
Night Crickets’ A Free Society is out on vinyl, CD and digital download from Omnivore Recordings.
