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A Conversation with
Kevin Welch (continued)
PM: Are those Kieran's paintings on the front and the back of the record?
KW: They sure are.
PM: Holy shit, are they good.
KW: Yeah. He's got a really fantastic style, really striking. And it was never planned, like, we'll make these records and Kieran will do the covers, just the first record, You Can't Save Everybody, we noticed that one of the paintings that he had would simply make a good cover for this, it seemed to go with it. And then exactly in the same kind of casual sense, the second record, the same thing happened. The third record we weren't necessarily going to put one of Kieran's paintings on there, and he had that fat lady, and I just lobbied really, really hard for that.
PM: That's a hell of a painting.
KW: Yeah, I thought this would be a really cool cover. And they resisted. I mean, I had to really kind of stay on task.
PM: Who did? The label resisted, or the guys?
KW: The guys. But anyway, I'm really glad that we did. I think it's a gorgeous cover. And anyway, Kieran's painting, he's got a website. I think it's just called KieranKane.org, where people can go and see his stuff.
PM: So does he bring any artwork or print on the road to sell at gigs?
KW: No. Probably should.
PM: He should at least have prints.
KW: That would require being organized.
PM: Yeah, right, and that's out of the question.
KW: Yeah.
PM: We don't go in for that kind of thing.
KW: We need a manager or managers desperately.
PM: Along with the paintings, there was a superior design going on with this record. Tracy Wallner, who is that? She's got it going on.
KW: She's a woman who had done a CD package for us at Dead Reckoning. I want to say it was Shadows on the Ground. When we were talking about a designer for this one, she came up. I had never personally worked with her before. Kieran had had a really good experience with her, because Shadows on the Ground was one of Kieran's records, a great record. So sure enough, we laid it on her, and she just knocked that out. And she's just fantastic. I really would love to work with her some more.
PM: Yeah, she did a beautiful job there.
KW: Yeah.
PM: I like that song "Dark Boogie No. 7" on this new record, and how it worked out. Did the words get written for the track, or did the music get written to the poem?
KW: I had those lyrics around for a while, and had been looking for some kind of a groove to just chant them, just recite them. And I pulled it out and showed it to the guys. And Fatty had that really odd instrumental written. And so they started playing it, and I just started saying the words. And we decided that it made sense. It actually turned out to be a really good live piece. I didn't think it would at all. But it's gotten to where--I mean, we even close some shows with it now.
PM: Wow.
KW: It's a bit more intense when we do it live than when we recorded it. One of the reasons for that, with all the drums going on, it's hard for me on a live stage to quietly say those things. So I tend to shout it a lot more, and it just kind of ratcheted up the intensity. So yeah, it's an interesting piece of business. I never really expect people to like it, but we keep getting these really good reactions.
PM: Yeah, so there's probably going to be more of that going on.
KW: Oh, not necessarily.
PM: [laughs] Yeah, that would be planning things out, and that's just not the way it happens.
KW: Exactly. Hey, Frank, I'm kind of getting the "let's get the hell out of here” look from the boys.
PM: Yeah, absolutely. I was just about to wind up, myself. It's a pleasure to talk to you, Kevin, as always. And have a good time up there in Canada, and I'll see when you get back to town.
KW: Thanks a million, Frank. See you soon.
listen to clips print (pdf) kierankane.org (his paintings)
deadreckoners.com (KWK official) compassrecords.com
their page at compass their myspace dig this
fatskaplin.com (pulp country) kevinwelch.com
download their albums or songs here
see more photos by the inimitable Ron Baker
