Interview with John Doe of X
(Page 3)

Can you still enjoy stuff from those days, aside from -- I mean, obviously you still enjoy X's stuff. You play it live and everything.

Well yeah, I don't listen to X records. I did a lot when we were doing the reissues, but actually a friend of ours had kind of a punk rock CD collection, and I listened to the Adverts and the Adolescents and all those old bands like that, and I couldn't really get into it anymore.

Are you just bored with it?

I guess it just doesn't fit into my mood, which is probably the reason that we don't make new X records. I think Exene's last band was pretty close to what X did. The Original Sinners. And I applaud her for that. I just don't get the X thing, you know. That sort of speed kind of mood. Plus I think that's why I started doing this sort of blues record -- because I wanted to get back to something simpler, but I didn't want to make a punk record.

When you go back and look, was there a time when suddenly you were just like, "Man, I don't like this stuff anymore"? Did it just hit you one day? Or was it just a continual process of growing and changing your music and not thinking about it really?

Yeah, it was eventual.

Because I'm 30, and I don't want to think that I'm gonna someday not like my punk rock records anymore.

No, I think you grow apart from it. It's not a conscious decision. I didn't wake up one day and go, "Punk rock sucks. I hate punk rock!" I like punk rock! I like punk rock just fine. I mean, I don't even mind -- I certainly like Green Day. I think that Billie Joe is a pretty talented, catchy songwriter. I think that's great that there's, you know -- even if it's a little overproduced, the fact that it got to teenagers and youngsters like that? I think there's a pretty healthy underground punk rock scene.

Did you enjoy The Nirvanas?

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah?

Yeah!

Cool!

I thought they were a great band, although I must say I'm kinda surprised that these new recordings are not better. The live stuff -- that they don't have better live recordings. I was pretty disappointed by that. You know, the recent releases.

You know, there are a lot of bootlegs out with songs that were never released -- a lot of really good songs that were never released.

Really?

Yeah! I've got several, like three or four CDs worth of these things. And then they put out this Greatest Hits and announce this unreleased song -- this ONE unreleased song -- and it's terrible! The one unreleased song is a terrible song!

I thought so too.

But you know, I hear that Courtney Love won't let certain things happen, but what are you gonna do?

Kill her and say that she went to Jamaica?

Oh, like she had Kurt killed?

Ooo.

Ooo! Did you ever see that movie Kurt and Courtney?

No, but I heard it was hilarious.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy. Her Dad is a nut.

Well, she's making her own Hell.

Yes, she is.

The poor thing. I mean, I almost feel sorry for her. If she wasn't so -- if she wasn't so EVIL, I'd feel sorry for her! But no. That poor kid. Oy vey. Poor kid.

Yeah. So who are all these people -- back on the punk rock tip, there's all these people that I'd certainly never heard of, that I guess were just fans or something. Gerber something?

Mm-hmm. She was Dix Denney's girlfriend forever. The guitar player who ended up playing with Bob Forrest in Thelonius Monster.

Oh yeah?

Mm-hmm.

Oh okay! I have a couple of their records.

Yeah. I worked with them on one record.

Which one?

Stormy Weather.

Oh! I didn't know you were on that. I still have that on my old cassette.

I produced it.

It's a good record.

Yeah.

Especially the PRODUCTION!

Yeah, but yeah, Gerber was around definitely. Who else?

Gerber was in both books. I think these other ones were just the girls from the Darby book, like Michelle something and Casey Cola.

Who?

Casey Cola?

Don't know her.

Who I think they said was the girl who was supposed to kill herself with him?

Oh. Yeah. I didn't know her.

I don't know. Who needs all those terrible memories?

It's hard to keep up with all those terrible memories!

Yeah. Especially when you only have them from reading a book!

Right.

Were you surprised when Darby ended up doing that? Or did you fear that it had been coming for a while?

Yeah. I wasn't surprised. I was very much saddened, but not surprised. He talked about for several months, but just like the same thing with Elliot Smith. He was a friend of mine, too. I mean, I didn't see him or talk to him all that much, because he kept himself pretty isolated. You know, at this point, it's like, if that's what people want to do, they can go right ahead. I feel bad for them, but I don't care. I mean, I do care. I'd rather they didn't kill themselves, but it's like, "You're gonna do it, so just go ahead. Do it. Whatever." At least they're out of their pain.

It's so sad though.

It is sad, but from a 50-year-old's philosophical point of view, I feel like --

If you can't appreciate what life has to give you, then --

Right! And getting old is not the be-all end-all of the world. Being happy is certainly not the only thing in the world. It's nice to have a moderate amount of satisfaction and happiness, but it's not essential. Just like having a family is not essential.

What is essential?

What is essential?

Yeah.

Some kind of balance of all those things. The most essential thing is having a deep well of experiences. Cutting through the shit and having that experience, and feeling as though you've been there. You've stepped close to edge and looked over and said, "Whoa! Look at that!"

What was the deal with Elliot Smith? Do you know? Did he seem really depressed the times you --

He was always depressed. You listened to his songs, didn't you?

Yeah. But it was a clinical thing?

I think so, yeah. And he was a big drug abuser, even in his best days. There was about two years when he moved down to L.A. that he was clean, and he was sort of getting his shit together, and he signed to Dreamworks and all that. And after those records didn't do as well as I think he hoped, he started backsliding. He had an unhappy childhood.

Oh yeah?

Yeah. He had a really abusive stepfather and not a very attentive father. Anyway, he started getting into crack AND heroin.

Jesus!

He was like WOOO!

Oh my. Yeah, I guess you can't do a whole lot for someone like that.

Well, you can try. I know that people tried.

Did you ever like Nick Drake?

Yeah! Yeah.

He was another one that couldn't deal with --

Right, right.

Couldn't deal with much, I guess, from what I understand. When his records didn't sell, I think he kind of --

Yeah. See, that's a funny thing, but you come to terms with it. I mean, I'd love to have everything that came along with selling a hundred thousand records. However, the reason I'm here -- one of the reasons I'm here is to make stuff. To make songs and to be an actor and do art and things like that, so that's what's important. You shouldn't worry about what your rewards are. Your reward should be having created that thing.

After you finish a CD, do you listen to it for a few months? Do you enjoy listening to it? Or are you just so tired of the songs, hearing the --

Oh no, I listen to it for a little while. Because I make records really quickly. This record will be done certainly by the end of the month, but I don't have the opportunity to work on it all the time. We'll work on it for a few days and then not work on it for a couple of weeks. Each of the last solo records I've done we've made in probably two weeks. We do all the vocals live, all the basic tracks live. We just sit in a room and play.

See, I've been playing the guitar since I was fifteen and writing songs and this and that. And within the past couple of years, I seem to have lost all interest in it. That's why I'm trying to understand what kind of drive keeps you interested.

How somebody so OLD can --

No! How someone who's been doing it for like 30 years or whatever --

Umm… I can't answer that.

Do you just wake up and say, "Man, I really feel like writing a song"? Or "I really feel like playing the guitar"? Or do you just enjoy playing with people?

Both. I hardly ever wake up and think, "Oh, today I'm gonna write a song." It just happens. And I think it's the same as -- again, to get philosophical -- a lot of things, the more time you put into it, the more reward comes out of it. So if I'm writing and playing most every day, then more stuff will come out of it. If I put it away, then there's other stuff that's going on in your head. If you have a down period, try not to get frightened of it or don't get spooked by it. Just let it go. Let it go until you feel like playing again.

And I think trying to be inventive with yourself and listening to other people and learning other peoples' songs -- that's good. I still do that. That's a lot of fun too. And you can figure out the way different chords go together. You can figure out the way that they treat melodies against those chords. And not do like a study of it, but --

Oh, so you don't end up just playing like yourself all the time.

Right.

You end up getting new ideas -- okay.

Yeah. Learn somebody else's songs. Or the other thing that I've heard, that I haven't actually done, but I've heard can come up with some great results are writing songs like somebody. Saying to yourself, "I'm gonna write a song like John Lennon." Of course it won't be like John Lennon.

No. No, and that's how things end up sounding interesting.

Yeah. And I've had the opportunity to write songs for a couple of movies. Half of 'em haven't gotten used -- I can think of three that haven't gotten used -- but I used all the images that were in that part of the movie or in the whole movie for inspiration. They didn't use my song, which was too bad, but….

Are lyrics more important to you than music? Or are they both of equal importance? Or does it depend on how strongly you feel about the lyrics that you're writing at the time?

I tend to do a lot more culling through the lyrics, and find recently that the small words are more important. Like the "and"s and "if"s and "but"s. Heh. I didn't mean --

Ah, nothing more important than the "butt"s, John! Heh heh heh.

Ha ha ha HA! Uhhh yeah. Anyway, the things that tie them together are really crucial. Music and melody -- I've been trying to write more melodies WITH the lyrics nowadays. Try to write it all at once. Rather than mixing and matching. Getting a general idea for the song, and then having maybe some chords but not having a strict structure to them, and then letting things go where they go. Just keep playing guitar! Don't give up.

I think what really killed it -- I got this big 16-track. I've never had a 16-track; I had a 4-track. And I put down a whole ton of like the beginnings of songs -- like four or five tracks. But sixteen is too many for me! It takes too long to finish one song!

Who says you have to use all the tracks?

Maybe that's just the obsessions talking. I don't know.

You don't have to.

I guess it's good that I'm not in like a 260-track studio trying to put something down.

Exactly. No! I mean, this guy Dave Wade that I've made the last four records with? He mixes Christina Aguilera and Savage Garden and shit like that. He's got a gazillion tracks, and we use like -- I think there's a couple of songs on this record that have five tracks. Use as many tracks as you need.

How many do you use? Generally. Generally what would a normal song have?

Maybe sixteen.

But you have actual musicians. With me, it's just me.

Well, you could too.

Aww yeah, but then you have to meet people and talk to them….

You even have to be nice to them occasionally.

Ohhhh God.

Oh, that's too much for you, huh?

As long as they don't ask for anything. As long as they just do what they have to do and get lost.

Who's that guy that has a robot playing his songs?

Who?

I don't know. Some guy who built robots to play his songs.

I didn't hear about this.

Yeah, I can't remember his name. They're actually like animatronic robots that would play his songs.

Aw neat! I'm gonna have to look that up on the ol' Internet. That sounds neat.

Yeah. He was in some other band, kind of like the guy that did that 69 Love Songs.

Oh, Magnetic Fields?

Yeah, something like that.

Oh okay. Funny.

Yeah.

Okay, I've kept you for over and hour and that's not right.

That's enough.

Yeah.

That'll do. Well Mark, I look forward to seeing it. I'll ask Thom to send me a copy.

Okay, thank you so much and have fun with the blues!

Oh yeah! You know… It's not gonna be a dumb record.

Put on a 12-minute solo for me.

No.

"BUH-BWEEEE!" Like that. "BWEEEE!"

Ha ha! Heh heh heh….. NO!

Oh okay.

Sorry. That's where I draw the line. I don't like that "Dwi-tih dwi-tih dwi-tih DWEE!"

Alright, that's good.

Now we've both made guitar sounds to each other. We've bonded.

"BWEE!" Alright. Okay, well, have a good evening.

Same to you.

Alright. Bye.

January 9, 2004.

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