Issue 105 / November 2019

In anticipation of their Liverpool gig, Brit Williams spoke to
bassist Jared Swilley about the band’s new album, growing
up in a religious family, and what’s help keep the Black Lips
alive for two decades.
PREVIEWS
Black Lips have a little bit of a connection with Liverpool. You
guys have worked with Sean Lennon before. How did that
happen?
We have actually known him for a while. Three albums ago
we were recording with Mark Ronson and we needed a guitar
player, and it happened to be Sean who came in. We kind of
just stayed friends after that and we all had mutual friends. We
also played SXSW with Sean’s band and with Fat White Family,
so we both discovered them at the same time. Sean ended up
recording the Fat Whites and they invited Cole [Alexander] to do
guitar. We didn’t really have a label at the time and didn’t have
many resources. Cole was up there in New York and Sean just
said, ‘Come record here’. So we moved in with him.
I heard you locked yourself in his recording studio for two
months. Do you normally go into the studio like that, with
nothing written?
That one took a little longer than usual because we didn’t have
a lot written, and we didn’t have a drummer. We also just had
the luxury of being on this magical mountain in the middle of
nowhere, so it was easy to kind of just turn off and tune out.
Both aspects have their ups and downs. I mean, I prefer to have
at least something done. That one was probably my favourite
recording experience we’ve ever had, just because we were in a
point of transition and it was such a magical place.
Do you feel like, as you get older, you are writing about more
mature topics, or are you just trying to stay as authentic as you
know to be?
Oh yeh, I don’t really try to set out to write about anything. I
mostly write about stories. Everyone has their own different
writing style. I never really wrote love songs. I mean, the last
sort of love song I wrote was a couple getting separated on
Kristallnacht in Berlin. I was trying to think of one of the most
devastating ways to split a pair up.
We hear you might be playing some new music on tour?
Yeh, our album’s done. It’s been done for a while. By the time
we get to Liverpool we’ll have some of those singles out and
already be playing a lot of those songs. We like country music
and always flirted with that kind of style. It’s not a purist country
record by any means, but we just felt like had to go back to our
roots and do country music. That’s where we’re from.
Can you tell us what it’s called?
Oh yeh, I don’t see why not. It’s called, The Black Lips Sing In A
World That’s Falling Apart.
Love that. What inspired the name?
My family are all preachers and they put out a lot of gospel
records from the 50s to the 80s, and they had an album called
The Swilley Family Sings, and then we had a lyric on our album
“in a world that’s falling apart”, so I wanted it to sound like an old
gospel record title.
Coming from such a religious background, at what point did
you pick up a guitar and get into music?
Before I can remember. I grew up on the stage. I’ve seen
performances of me on stage that I don’t even remember doing,
so basically my whole life. It’s like the family business, kinda.
So what does your family think of you being in the Black Lips?
They’ve always been a very accepting, liberal theology. My dad’s
a homosexual; he came out a few
years ago. He lost his main church,
but he still has his church. They
mostly preach love and acceptance
and all that. There was never a
conflict at all. I got most of my
inspiration from the church, ’cos I
grew up in one of those churches
where they’re screaming and the
music’s wild and they’re speaking
tongues. It was way more wild
than any rock ’n’ roll show I’ve ever
been to.
That must be where some of the
outrageous onstage antics come
from?
Totally. I always thought that if I
could get just a [bit of their vibe],
’cos those people are doing that on
a Sunday morning with no alcohol
and they’re going wild. And they’re
singing about something that they think is eternity and is way
more powerful. We sing about, I dunno, dumb stuff. Well, not
dumb, but if we could get even a fraction of this energy into our
shows, I’d be happy.
Do you think there will still be garage rock bands in the digital
age?
I think there will be a few, but I don’t really think you’ll see any
GIG
“I grew up in one of
those churches where
they’re screaming
and the music’s wild
and they’re speaking
in tongues. It was
way more wild than
any rock ’n’ roll
show I’ve been to”
BLACK LIPS
Arts Club – 13/11
Garage outfit BLACK LIPS have resided in an all-encompassing
rock ’n’ roll lifestyle for the better part of two decades. Their story is
one that has grown from the suburbs of Atlanta into countless nights
on tour, audience-led stage invasions and work alongside some of
music’s biggest names, including Mark Ronson, The Black Keys and
Beatle-descendent Sean Lennon.
bands doing what we did. It took us seven years in a van, eating
shit. I mean, that was self-imposed. We were middle-class kids,
we didn’t have to; it was self-imposed poverty. I don’t really
think there’s a formula any more. I could be wrong. But now it’s
so easy to connect with everyone. When we started, no one
had cell phones, and it was a very
different thing. We never used the
internet and we still are luddites
about all that stuff. Even ’til this day,
I can barely use the internet. I can
email, but I don’t even know where
to look for stuff.
Yeh, there’s almost too many
resources these days. It’s kind of
exhausting.
I only had a few sources when I was
younger. Mail order catalogs and
Maximum Rock ’n’ Roll and that was
it, but those were physical copies.
I’m glad that there’s people like ya’ll
still having stuff in print. I like stuff I
can pick up.
What do you want the crowd to
get out of your performance?
I want people to get their damn
money’s worth because it’s not cheap to go out. It’s kind of like
an escape ’cos the world can be rough and you need to just go
out and let loose. We just want people to have a good time and
meet each other. One of the best compliments is that we’ve had
a few Black Lips babies, from people who have met at our shows
and got married. That makes it all worth it. I love seeing Black
Lips tattoos, too. If you have one of those you get into all of our
shows free for life.
What have you been listening to lately?
As far as new stuff goes, I am totally out of the loop. I was just
in Croatia to go and check it out. I actually got my tooth busted
out a while back, so I heard they do cheap general surgery
over there, and I was just cruisin’ around the mountains in the
most beautiful place I’ve ever been and I think I listened to The
13th Floor Elevators all together for 22 hours straight. Last
night when I was up in Malibu I was listening to Loretta Lynn
and Tammy Wynette. I found the music I like a long time ago.
In my record collection at home I’ve got about 300, I don’t buy
any new records. Mostly just 45s now. I just listen to a lot of
country music and gospel, soul and R&B. It got a bad rap, the
South. It’s not really what most people think it is. It’s real dear
to me. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I think most forms
of popular music came from the South East. It was the first time
you had all of these different types of people thrown together,
living in poverty. You had poor Irish, mixing with slaves and
Native Americans and it was such a weird mix of stuff where
everyone shared their ideas and came up with some really cool
styles.
What do you think has kept Black Lips alive for 20 years?
This is what we do. This is what me and Cole set out to do
when we were kids, and we don’t really have that many other
skills. If we hadn’t gotten into music it would have been prison
or the military. That’s what a lot of the kids I went to high
school with ending up doing, so it kinda saved our lives. !
Words: Brit Williams @therealbritjean
Photography: Yana Yatsuk
black-lips.com
Black Lips play Arts Club on Wednesday 13th November.
PREVIEWS
31