BANDWIDTH, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/20/11 Was there a band you heard when you were young that inspired you to become a musician? I discovered Nirvana in my brother’s record collection when I was 11. I listened to those albums everyday for years and scrawled the lyrics all over my middle school backpack. I’d hold vigils on his death day with a friend of mine. We dressed in black and defaced our school, writing “God is Gay” in homage to Kurt. The first song I learned on guitar was “Come As You Are”. Other than Nirvana, I owe a lot to Benny Goodman. I watched his biopic when I was 7. It made me want to play clarinet. How did your band come together? We all went to SF School of the Arts. After college, we happened to be back in the city at the same time. I had a group of songs I wanted to try with an electric band and I ran into Misha at a friend’s house. He was in touch with the other guys and brought them in. How would you describe your music? Gospel revised by thieves, pimps, poets, prostitutes, beggars, losers, lovers, carnival barkers, children, malcontents. Is there a main theme to your songs? We’re always in the process of creating reality and we’re responsible for our daily choices and their consequences, good or bad. Be careful. How does living in the Bay Area affect your music? Growing up on Capp Street in the Mission provided me with subject matter. As early as I could recognize the world outside my window, I learned about the Mission’s street hierarchy—drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, junkies, alcoholics, police, gangs, Watchtower messengers. The first song I wrote, “Mainline”, was about a teen prostitute named Gloria. I’ve always been more interested in writing from the agitated perspective of those characters. What's the most important aspect to putting on a live show? You have to enjoy playing with your band. As long as that’s genuine, people will be drawn to the performance. It also helps to tune our instruments before starting. Which of your songs best defines your band and why? “Lord Thought He’d Make A Man” is a synthesis of all our influences—folk, rock, soul, gospel, jazz, and cabaret. It’s my revision of the Book of Job. I was dissatisfied with Job’s ultimate submission to God, so I wanted to revisit his defiance and clarify man’s position in the universe, as well as God’s. How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you? At 15, I discovered Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Blake, and Blind Lemon Jefferson. I started the band as a folk duo in high school and I wanted to pay homage to the musicians who inspired me, musically and lyrically. I’d been influenced by white musicians who’d been influenced by black musicians. The blind, black itinerant guitar players absorbed the hymns they heard in church and enriched those hymns with the influences of folk music and street culture. They were living sieves with heightened aural senses. They wrote songs with titles like “Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground”, “The Soul of a Man”, “Broke Down Engine Blues”, “Lord I Wish I Could See”. I wanted to write songs as immediate and powerful. The name Blind Willies is appropriate to the cauldron of our various influences. What bands inspire you? Vic Chesnutt was a supernatural writer and performer. He laid himself bare at his shows and on his records and I’m thankful that he left so many great songs. North Star Deserter and At the Cut are both transformative albums that helped me figure out what I wanted to do within my own work. What books/writers, if any, inspire your music? Frankenstein, Walden (Thoreau), The Dharma Bums (Kerouac), The Basketball Diaries & Forced Entries (Jim Carroll), Mockingbird Wish Me Luck/It Catches My Heart In Its Hands/Ham on Rye (Bukowski), Journey to the End of the Night (Celine), and Tropic of Cancer (Henry Miller) are some of the books that have helped me attempt to write truthfully about myself and my surroundings. Is there a new release or a forthcoming release? If so, what are the details and release date? We released a new album, Needle, Feather, and a Rope, a few months ago. It’s been played and reviewed widely. We recorded it all analog at Tiny Telephone, mixed it at Hyde Street Studios, and Paul Stubblebine mastered it. Made in San Francisco. Lineup: Alexei Wajchman: guitar, harmonica, vocals Misha Khalikulov: cello, bass Daniel Riera: bass, flute Max: Miller-Loran: keys, trumpet Alex Nash: drums |
photo by Alex Akamine