JESUS LIZARD

an an extract from the e.p. magazine vaults

This interview took place in the summer of 1996...

Fronted by the maniacal David Yow, American indie-rock legends the Jesus Lizard came to fame when they released a joint single with Nirvana and were at the spearhead of the late-Eighties American invasion which also gave us the Pixies, Mudhoney, Dinosaur Jr, Lemonheads and Babes In Toyland, amongst others. Their grinding, unforgiving, balls-out rock'n'roll is a breathtaking live experience perhaps only equalled by the Stooges in their heyday. After a string of successes with stalwart independent label Touch & Go (which also gave rise to the Butthole Surfers), they recently released their first album with EMI's Capitol Records, the typically monosyllabically-titled Shot. David Yow tells e.p. magazine's Jon Ewing about how he's kicked the demon drink in favour of nights in front of a computer screen...

In articles about you, journalists write like they're very nervous about meeting you.
Typically I make it pretty easy - I'm pretty easy going. If it was a bad one it was probably when it was twenty interviews that day and trying to come up with a different answer to the same question a thousand times in a row... you know, it's hard to entertain yourself.

I'm a late-comer to Jesus Lizard - I know you from the time you were supported by Jacob's Mouse in 1993. And I've never looked at your lyrics - they get to you on a gut level, but now I've taken the time to sit down and read them and I'm none the wiser. What's it all about? Do they make sense to you?
Pretty much. Not all of 'em. Some of them have more than one specific idea contained within them, so if you go literally through the song it won't mean one particular thing. 'Thumper' off the new album...

That song's full of anger, sexual repression, loudness... Those are the emotions, but I can't make sense out of the lyrics.
That song is almost like poetry, because it does mean stuff. Like "On Monday we pass through the arch" - I've always been of the school that it's more important to work on a gut level, and all that was was we were on tour a couple of years ago and the bus driver was taking us past the Arc de Triumph (sic) in Paris and he was driving really, really fast in traffic, so that's going through the arch on Monday. Stuff like that - little memories and stuff. But then it gets... like the last line, "glass idiot wrestle, you get me aroused" - that means absolutely nothing! I just thought it sounded good.

Sometimes words just sound good together. That's the art of poetry.
Yeah. Course don't go thinking that I consider myself a poet [with tongue-in-cheek modesty he mimes shining up a medal on his breast pocket]

Are you an angry young man - or at least an angry man?
I was gonna say! Whaddya talking about?! I'm younger than my parents! I don't really think of myself as angry and I don't think that most of the stuff I write is angry. I think it's maybe aggressive, but I honestly think in a positive way. I don't hate anybody and I'm not out to hurt anybody.

Your vocals always sound full of frustration and I've always wondered how someone so frustrated could have survived so long.
'Cos I get to be in a band.

Do you escape it all when you're up on stage?
Sort of. It's a very different world. We were talking about it the other day because our guitar player hurt his back and he was asking me what it's like when I've been hurt pretty bad, and before we play it's just screaming pain and then once we start playing it all goes away, we don't really notice it. I think that's really weird. I don't know if it's adrenaline that takes it away or what.

Is it intoxicating?
Not if you're sober. It won't intoxicate you if you're sober. I've done three shows sober and I didn't like it. Not at all.

Is that shyness? It sounds like you need Dutch courage.
Yeah exactly. Stage fright. That's precisely what it is. I don't know if you read that I quit drinking several years ago and went on tour and did the first three shows sober and said 'Fuck this'. So now I drink on tour. It was no fun.

Why quit in the first place?
Cos I was drinking far too much. Every day, every day, every day.

It never occurred to you that it was part of what makes people want to come and see you?
I figured I could still do what I do and maybe to the casual observer I did, but I was faking it. It didn't feel very honest.

Do you write when you're sober?
Nowadays I do because I don't drink at home.

At what point in your recorded career did you give up?
Between Head [1990] and Goat [1991].

Is there a difference?
Probably not due to a lack of alcohol. Even when I was drinking all the time, I wouldn't necessarily be loaded when I would write words - there were a couple hours every day when I wouldn't be drunk! Just enough time to write something down real quick.

So what did you find to fill the gap in your life left by drink?
My wife, Scrabble, cats, cooking, the computer. The computer probably became my other drug.

What do you use it for?
Graphics, artwork. When I first got into that, it was like a drug. Y'know, start at nine o'clock at night and next thing you know the sun's coming up and birds are chirping and it feels like I've been doing it for an hour and it's been like twelve hours.

You've done your album covers then? I don't always read the fine print on album sleeves.
Oh, I don't give myself credit for it. I've laid-out everything we've done. But usually it's always been hard mechanicals and cutting with a scalpel, but the new record is the first I've been able to do all on the computer. It's a blast - it was really cool.

Most people would find it hard to imagine that graphic design has the same allure as hard drinking.
It's not the same allure, it's a different allure. It's certainly a lot more productive.

But it could be equally mindless and addictive.
Yeah, but it's an awful lot quicker than the old way. If I think 'Geez, what would that look like if it had 12% more cyan?' I can push a button and go 'Hey that's good', instead of waiting a week for it to come back!

Have you tried using a computer in your music?
No. I don't really consider myself a musician. I can't play any instruments and I can't read music.

Is it a factor in your music at all, except for controlling lights or something?
We don't even do that! David Sims has a computer at home, and he does music with it, but it hasn't come into play with us. I think he tinkers around on his own...

Will he end up writing film soundtracks in his old age?
I think he and Duane both have interests in stuff like that.

A lot of people still consider computers to be geeky.
I was one of those people.

Are you concerned what people think of you?
Everyone's a bit vain, aren't they? I've got vanity. I've combed my hair and shit. Let's see. I guess I don't want people to think I'm an asshole or a geek, but then again if they do it doesn't really bother me.