Hard Rock/Blues guitarist Popa Chubby is like a cartoon
character come to life. He cuts a snarling intimidating figure
who plays his music the way he feels it. But Chubby is anything
but predictable, as his music veers from rock-Blues and metal to
rap via JS Bach and Leonard Cohen. Chubby is also a true New
York son who also happens to be a star in France, a place where
he is revered as a 'personage'.
His albums come with titles like 'The Good The Bad & The
Chubby', 'Deliveries After Dark', 'Stealin the Devils Guitar',
'Booty & The Beast' and 'The Fight is On'. But scratch beneath
the surface of the apparent snarling shaven headed tattooed
figure and you find a martial arts practitioner and a Tai Chi
and Chi Kung devotee, as well a song writer in search of a
spiritual enlightenment, even in a place like his native New
York City.
'Back To New York City' on Provogue is his toughest album so
far and brings him full circle as he draws his inspiration from
the big apple - past and present - and related cultural
signifiers such as films books and musical heroes to street
people. 11 eclectic wide ranging songs are pounded out by his
tour band and carry a punch as only Chubby can. Pete Feenstra
talks to Popa Chubby a man for all seasons.
You've been described 'a post modern blues man' who has
incorporated rock, metal, r&b, hip hop, rap, electric loops etc
in to your music. Does that explain your widespread appeal to
non traditional blues markets?
Well I'm a bit more like Popeye, I am what I am, but none of it
is contrived man! I'm wide ranging in what I do, I'm musically
dyslexic, and sometimes all over the place, but I've got my
roots and they are blues and blues/rock roots. So I step out
while I'm still rooted in that way and I think the end result
has got a lot of power.
Your last album 'The Fight is On' took 2 years to make and
this one sounds more 'live in the studio' and presumably took
half that time?
No actually this one took longer as it was a lot of work. The
main difference between this record and 'The Fight Is On' was
that I recorded it with my touring band, so the material was
road tested before we went into the studio. So by the time we
got to recording it I had what I wanted. It's straight ahead
rock with lots of low end on the bass and drums.
There's much more of a raw edge to it?
Yeah there is and I really tried to go for the throat on this
record. Very often when the tape is running in the studio a band
suddenly changes and you know they get very thoughtful about
what they try and do. But I'm very aware of that so I try and
bring a performance to the whole thing.
'New York City 1977 Til…' from 'The Fight is On' was your
homage to the New York City of your youth. Is 'Back To New York
City' a case of extending that concept to a full album?
Well I stole the hook from 'Walk on the Wild Side' and added
Snoop Dog's 'Gin and Juice' and the rest of the song came from
the city itself.
I didn't really have to bring a concept over from the last
record as this album is really about how I felt when I came back
from a year's touring. Things had been tough for me in 2011, it
has been a challenging year and I toured all over the place and
came back shattered and broken.
But when I flew back home and we were coming in to land over New
York, I thought this is still my city, a place I still love to
come back to and it still nurtures me, it's the tit I feed from
if you will, it's still my mother. And it's also the creative
source for my music as I always look to it for inspiration.
But the New York of 2011 is a vastly different place from
that of the early 90's when your solo career took off, a point
reflected in your own lyrics; “whatever happened to the great
wild way; things ain't the way they used to be/No more pimps, no
more whores, just wax museums, and retail stores'
Oh yeah man. It was like the city that never was. Just like the
lyrics suggest it's all changed, from Broadway to the places I
used to hang out like 42nd street where I used to see Kung Fu
movies and the pimps in all their gear and the whores on the
street.
I guess there was also a big change after 9/11?
In a way that event was the great equaliser
Equaliser?
Well maybe that's the wrong word, I mean catastrophe! But after
it happened the city went back to square one and the day after
you've never been in a more peaceful place on earth.
You don't realise just how quiet the place can be when there's
no one crowding the air space. There were no planes at all. Then
there was also the fact that people were really nice to each
other like never before.
It lasted about a day (laughs) and then they went back to normal
and back to the old hatred. So the place changed in so many
ways, but it's still home and an inspiration to me.
Is 'Back To New York City' as much a concept of you going
back to your musical roots as it is the place itself?
No so much going back musically as drawing inspiration from the
past to create what I do now, but as a place, despite the
changes, it's still where my roots are.
You said you've 'gone for the intensity wall' on this album,
does that explain the live in the studio feel?
Yeah it's just the band going for it, just guitar, bass and
drums, balls out flat to the floor rocking, reaching for that
live feel in the studio but with plenty of guitar overdubs.
You're a child of the 70's, is that where your love of the
guitar comes from? After all you are a drummer too?
Absolutely, from the moment I heard Chuck Berry, The Stones,
early Zeppelin, The Who and Pete Townsend - with his power
chords - Foghat, Johnny Winter, Hendrix, Robin Trower and all
that stuff. I had to be a guitarist, though I still play drums.
My inspiration comes from my own life impressions and
experiences. I try and take the good things from the changing
circumstance of my life. Every year brings different changes and
I never end up where I think I'm gonna go.
This is your 22nd album you've been involved with as a solo
artist, producer and sideman. Where do you go for your
inspiration when you approach working on a new album?
My inspiration comes from my own life impressions and
experiences. I try and take the good things from the changing
circumstance of my life. Every year brings different changes and
I never end up where I think I'm gonna go.
Is that always a bad thing?
Not necessarily, it can be both positive and negative of course,
but I tried to use it all to my own ends. As I got older there
were big changes in my life, including physical changes. About a
year ago I had a debilitating back and joint pain and I was in
bed for a month.
It was terrible man. And I tried all the different therapies and
drugs etc and surgery wasn't an option. So I studied Tai Chi and
got into martial arts systems, the idea of energy flows and
lettings things flow through you instead of getting caught up in
you.
The album has got love songs on there and songs about broken
relationships, broken hearts etc. And that is what the blues is
all about. Maybe whoever said you can't sing the blues till
you've experienced heartbreak was right after all?
I looked at everything and found the philosophical side of it
too. I hooked up with a guy called Rick Barrett who got me into
energy healing (the idea that Energy flow is helped or hindered
by structures of the body).
And a year later I'm fit, no pain, no drugs, I'm a lot healthier
and I'm working. It's a philosophy of life and it works for me.
So right there is an example of how things can change and it's
proved to be an inspiration for me both as a person and a
musician.
And I can't over stress the importance of music in my life as
it's an extension of who I am. It's all there on the album in
songs like 'Warrior God' and 'Back To New York City'.
The album has got love songs on there and songs about broken
relationships, broken hearts etc. And that is what the blues is
all about. Maybe whoever said you can't sing the blues till
you've experienced heartbreak was right after all?
On 'Back To NYC', you've reappraised your life as a survivor,
and yet you have grown to become an experienced recording
artist. What originally gave you the confidence to express
yourself through music?
I didn't go back to being a survivor, I am a survivor! I came up
in rough circumstances, my father died, my mother left, I was
self raised, did drugs and eventually found my music.
And confidence is not a term that sits easily with me. I'm not
really a confident person at all man, I'm lacking in self
confidence, it's not confidence so much as necessity that drives
me. The need to be playing and recording music for one thing,
but also the greater thing is the need to please people. The
need for people to like me is ultimately my salvation
You are also a prolific song writer unafraid to work in
different genres. In 2008, you and your partner Galea recorded
'Vicious Country' which was chosen as 'Record of the Week' by a
French TV station. Were you surprised by that success?
Yeah I was, but it was funny because the people in France
initially misunderstood about what kind of country we were
singing. I think they expected some traditional republican style
redneck country music, so I had to explain that we were playing
Outlaw Country music.
I guess I'll always be a rebel and my music is a vehicle
channelling that part of me, but having said that, in business
terms I'm always looking for a partnerships and a way forward.
I'm not interested like some band's managers in an adversarial
role which I think is really stupid. We're all in it together,
so let's make it work.
It's a long way from your Richard Hell Punk days to country
music?
Yeah but like music as a whole things are connected, they are
all part of the treatment. I mean you can go out there at
different times with three different hair cuts and be called
three different things, everything can change.
You first heard Freddie King when you were 19, but I think
the Popa Chubby band didn't start until you were about 30. You
must have taken the long way round before you came back to the
blues?
I first heard Freddie King through a guy I knew when he was 28.
I idolised him and he turned me on to Freddie King. I think it
must have been round about the time he played with Clapton and
did some of that funky stuff, things like 'Pack It Up' and maybe
the 'Burglar' album that Mike Vernon produced.
That album had Steve Ferrone on drums who was awesome (he's with
Tom Petty now). So I knew what I liked and what I had to do,
which was to play music at all costs. So I moved from the
suburbs to New York and played with all sorts of people and in
different places whenever I could.
Did you become a gun for hire as a guitar player?
No so much a gun for hire in the financial sense as just an
enthusiastic and willing participant who just wanted the
opportunity to play when and where I could. I still like to do
that now, so when I'm back home and somebody calls me up and
says 'come and play this cool, small bar, its fun', I'll
probably do it.
1994 you signed to the Okeh label to record 'Booty & The
Beast' produced by Tom Dowd, Was there a lot of pressure working
for that famous label and with a heavy weight producer?
Well there was no pressure from Dowd at all, quite the opposite,
but tons from the record company of course. The trouble was that
like a lot of labels the record company didn't really know what
they wanted.
And when you recorded something for them it was never good
enough. But it did do me a lot of good as 'Booty & the Beast'
got me noticed and I got a radio hit with 'Sweet Goddess of Love
and Beer' which got me international acclaim.
You've produced most of your own albums, what techniques did
you learn from Tom?
I learnt so much from Tom that I could write a book about it. He
had tons of knowledge and was very generous with it. I also
guess he liked the fact I was very open to what he was talking
about and receptive to his ideas.
Years later in my role as a producer I tried to realise Tom
Dowd's concept of low end. No one had a pair of ears like him,
he had this instinctive ability to just listen and hear the most
important things.
You can have a studio full of the best gear but without those
ears you miss so much. He taught me things like how to mix at
low volume for example, the importance of the sound at the lower
end, and I used to love the way he got the bass to pop out. No
one had his ears.
You've said 'This is an inspiring time to be a guitarist' when
talking about the new album. What guitar players inspire you?
Well there are gazillion guitar players out there and you can
learn so much now. Everything is easily available. There's you
tube now so you can just learn from the best and that makes it a
great time to be a guitar player. Then there's also the fact
that I'm on Provogue records now and they have a great roster of
guitar players too, so I'm inspired by all those things.
What do you think Hendrix would be into musically if he's was
around today?
That's a hard question man and one we've all thought about and I
guess everyone has an idea about it.
All I know is that some of his stuff was amazing. I've been
listening again to 'Electric Ladyland'. Check out track 11,
'1983… (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)', one of the greatest
compositions of all time. But I think sad to say, he couldn't
have lived, he was like a supernova. I saw him on the Dick
Cavett TV show and he'd already gone, he was ready to leave…
With 2004 'Peace Love & Respect' brought heartfelt political
commentary with Bush and Iraq in the firing line. What was the
response to that?
A lot of people supported me but I also got a lot of hate from
that. America right now is a lot like that, if you don't fit the
prevailing trend you get ostracised. So looking back in
commercial terms it was a big mistake, but sometimes you got to
stand up and say what you think.
Let's quickly talk about the new album
'She Loves Everybody But Me' is a Texas shuffle with a 'call
& response' sequence and gutsy guitar work, will it be part of
the live set?
Yeah I think so. I love covering different guitar styles and
this was my Freddie King meets SRV moment.
'Pound of Flesh' sounds like an early 70's rock ballad/love
song with repeated guitar lines and an unexpected Spanish guitar
part. Where did that come from?
The strange thing about that track is that the Spanish guitar
part came about as an afterthought. At the time I was listening
to Willy de Ville and was influenced by Doc Pomus. Do you know
Doc Pomus?
He was part of that New York City song writing team and he wrote
everything from stuff for Lou Reed and Willy De Ville to 'Save
the Last Dance For Me' and 'Can't Get Used To Losing You'.
Anyway, when I was busy writing 'Pound of Flesh' I got to the
point where I needed a solo.
I loved the way the drums and low end were nailed on that song,
a bit like the early Zeppelin, Eddie Kramer type of production.
So I thought about a Les Paul solo and got this acoustic and
aimed for a nice gypsy jazz style solo and it fitted so well.
'Warrior God' has the opening rap 'coming at ya baby like a
warrior god, half the fat and I'm twice as hard' and is maybe
the closest you get to speed metal?
That song came from my King Fu practice and it was also about
the same time I went to see the film about Lemmy. In fact I came
right out of the move theatre and went home and wrote the song.
I love Motorhead they are a great blues band! The end of the
song was conceived as a funky Cream, 'Disraeli Gears style
guitar solo
As was the case on 'The Fight is On', you've recorded another
Leonard Cohen song called 'The Future'. -It's a doomy song with
the lyric I've seen the future, brother: it is murder. Yet you
are a survivor and seem to be an optimist in contrast to the
sentiments of the song?
The thing is it's not just necessarily gloomy. What he's singing
about is a song about change. We can't deny there's so much
energetic stuff going on and after 2012 we might need to get a
new Mayan calendar (a reference to 21 Dec 2012 when Mayan
calendars predict the end of the world).
Everything changes and I think Leonard Cohen is a prophet and he
can see that things are going to slide in all directions. You
have to look at what he means, his lyrics are fucking deep man.
He's not just doom and gloom and it's not all negative.
I've got a new tattoo on my right arm which is the Chinese
character for chaos, but it also represents the character for
opportunity. And it's that kind of ambivalence in the song that
appeals to me.
Did you come to that song via 'Natural Born Killers' movie?
Oh yeah, fucking great movie man!
Were you always into Leonard Cohen?
Not at all. I got into him in the 80's when in fact he was a
junky. I wasn't a huge fan at all as his stuff was much too dark
for me, it sounded like heroin music, a bit like the way the
Velvet Underground used to sound.
But I first got into him through the song 'Everybody Knows'
(from the 'I'm Your Man' album) which I heard on a CBS sampler
and I was hooked. Then I heard Jeff Buckley's version of
'Hallelujah' which I thought was good but it didn't move me, So
I went back to Leonard's version and I learnt that his songs are
all about the lyrics, I've become a huge fan and he's a great
model as a song writer.
'It's About You', features the line 'Crawling up from the
bottom, everyone knows my name'. What was that a reference to?
It was a song I wrote a long time back and it's a point I will
continue to make again. The reference is autobiographical but
the 'you' in the song refers to the audience I play to.
For example, you can have the greatest venue in the world with
the perfect pa, great stage site lines with everything new and
you put a good band in it, but what's missing? People, man!
It's the audience, the public that makes any venue and they make
me who I am – It's about YOU!! And beyond that what I believe in
is my music, I don't need religion just the music and the
people.
A bit like the song 'Rock & Roll is My Religion' on 'The
Fight is On'
Right!
'A Love That Will Not Die' is another love song?
Yeah an autobiographical song, set in the city.
I particularly like the splendidly titled 'She Made Me Beg
for It' it's really good keyboard/guitar groove
Thanks man, that's a touring band you're hearing doing what they
do best.
You close the album with JS Bach's 'Jesus Joy of Man's
Desiring'. I used to sing it at school, and I guess it's not a
transcription? Where did you get that idea of mixing JS Bach &
metal chops?
It all came about because my oldest daughter is a classically
trained violinist and a bit of a snob, so I really did this to
piss her off. It wasn't transcribed or anything, I just learnt
the melody and went for it.
Is it now a regular Chubby album feature to put something
different on the end, as you did that with Motorhead's 'Ace of
Spades' on 'The Fight Is On'?
Ha ha, it ended up that way on the last two albums but it wasn't
deliberately thought about, I just do what I do at the time.
Finally you are playing with Walter Trout again, on the
forthcoming 'Giants of Blues Rock' tour across Europe and the
US.
Yeah. It will be great to play with Walter again, we go back a
long way and this will be both of us going for it, flat out
Blues- rock. Some people know me in some of the countries and
others know Walter better in other places so we're trying to
build all the time.
'Back To New York City' is released via Provogue Records
Popa Chubby tours with
Walter Trout in the UK in November
Wed 23 Nov
Woloverhampton Wulfrun
Thu 24 Nov Islington O2 Academy
Fri 25 Nov Salisbury City Hall
Sat 26 Nov Holmfirth Picturedrome
Sun 27 Nov Edinburgh The Queen's Hall
Interview © September
2011 Pete Feenstra
 |
Print this page in printer-friendly format |
 |
Tell a friend about this page |
|
