AUTOarchives | AUTO7

Anyway, I didn't start doing home recording until the summer of 1986, when I got a dual cassette deck with a "live dubbing" function on it. I recorded my first cassette and gave it to some friends when I finished it the following January. It was in mono and sounded really crappy. It's no longer "in print", as it were, because it's flat-out embarrassing to listen to now! But I was proud of it.

I sent a copy of it to MIKE CROOKER at GGE Records in Kent, Ohio, and he said if some of it could be rerecorded he would release something. So I went out and bought a Fostex X-30 four track and rerecorded six of the songs and put it out as POP! in 1988. After releasing another cassette EP and single, I started up my own catalog, and I've been releasing my own material ever since. I have 15 cassette releases to date, and my next cassette will be out hopefully early next year. I also carry a few cassettes by some of my favorite underground artists: DON CAMPAU, RICH ARITHMETIC, R STEVIE MOORE, KEN CLINGER, SHANE FAUBERT, THE GHOST ROCKETS, LAWRENCE SALVATORE, ATMOSFEAR, JAMES ST VRRAIN, and the rockabilly band KING DAPPER COMBO. I was KING DAPPER's first drummer! Imagine SPIKE JONES fronting THE CRAMPS...
I play several instruments, but I have no formal training, and I know nothing about music theory. I'm a good drummer and rhythm guitarist, and an OK bassist. But keyboards and lead guitar parts can be a bit of a hassle. I really have to work at it when I record those parts.

YOU'RE IN A UNIQUE POSITION IN THAT YOU'VE HAD A LOT OF EXPERIENCE DEALING WITH A BIG-ASS LABEL. PLEASE DESCRIBE HOW THIS CAME ABOUT, HOW IT WORKS...HOW YOU LIKE IT OVERALL. IS BEING SIGNED ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE?

You're talking about when I was the drummer for WITCH HAZEL. Actually, I never really had to deal with the label they were on. I didn't even sign the contract, because I had just joined the band, and only the core members signed it, not me, or the guy who was their trumpet player at the time.

Basically, WITCH HAZEL's first album, LANDLOCKED, came out on Flydaddy, which, for a time, was distributed by V2. The album came out in several countries. In fact, I have a Japanese version, complete with liner notes in Japanese, and a lyric sheet! The US version doesn't have a lyric sheet, or liner notes in Japanese, for that matter! Flydaddy is a good indie label. We were able to get great distribution (and get reviewed in a lot of important music mags), without having to deal with the "big boys".

DESCRIBE YOUR LATEST RELEASE AND HOW/WHERE/WHEN/WHY/WITH WHOM IT WAS RECORDED.
TOO OLD FOR ANGST is the latest album of "new" material. It came out in 1997. It was recorded at home (of course!), and was originally intended to be mostly acoustic material. The title refers to the fact that "alternative rock" just doesn't interest me much anymore. I'm not as unhappy or angry as I used to be, for one thing. I don't have the same problems teenagers have. I can understand them, but I don't identify with them anymore. My music isn't "happy-go-lucky", necessarily, but it isn't angst-ridden, either.
I mean, my mom and dad died last year within three weeks of each other, and that has really affected my whole life, but I also got married this past May. So, there was an up side, as well.

KEN CLINGER co-wrote and played on two tracks ("Walk Away" and "Amtrak To Pittsburgh"), and produced one ("Monster"). It's funny. On his own, his music is totally different from mine. But we work really well together. Usually he writes the music and I write the lyrics, but recently he put lyrics to an old instrumental of mine, and I'm putting it on the next album. I always enjoy working with KEN. He's a great musician, and a great friend.

As for the next album, it will be a collection of cover tunes, along with a couple of collaborations, called CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG. I have released a cassette single of two songs from it, called LUCKY "13". The songs are my versions of THE MONKEES' "Daydream Believer" and THE RESIDENTS' "Constantinople".

HOW ARE YOUR RELEASES DISTRIBUTED?
My releases are always available direct from me. I'm always open to trades, as well. Sometimes I'm really slow getting stuff out, because we live-like lots of people-from paycheck to paycheck. But I DO get stuff out. Eventually.
The NOTHING PERSONAL CD is still available from Not Lame Recordings, a great power-pop catalog out of Colorado. Three CDRs of mine, HOPES AND FEARS/SNOW DAY, HANGER 18 and OBSCURITY KNOCKS, are available from KEN CLINGER

DO YOU PERFORM YOUR MUSIC LIVE?
Nope. I did one live gig at an art show years ago, playing to a DAT tape, and that was it. I don't really write songs to play them live, I write them to record them. I always thought my music was better suited for walkmans than for bars. People don't go to bars to hear the kind of music I do. They go to get picked up, and want something a little more lively! Although, about six months before my dad passed away, and right after I had quit WITCH HAZEL, he told me I should get out and front my own band, because I'm not gonna want to do it when I'm forty (this was after he asked me how old I was...), so I guess maybe I should do some live gigs. I'm 36 now.

WHAT KIND OF RECORDING SETUP DO YOU HAVE?
My recording setup is VERY simple. I still record on the Fostex. I have a Yamaha DR-550 drum machine, a six-string Rickenbacker, an old bass with no mid-range that says Kalamazoo on it (?!), a 12-string Yamaha acoustic, a six-string acoustic, a banjo, a couple of cheap Casio keyboards, a nice 1202 Zoom Studio effects unit, some odds and ends...and no mixing board. I've never used one. One of these days when I win the lottery...
I have recorded in "real" studios. My NOTHING PERSONAL CD was recorded in a very small eight-track setup that MIKE CROOKER was running about eight years ago, called Uneven Tracks. I got free studio time in exchange for managing the band he had at the time. I've also recorded two tracks for CD compilations in WITCH HAZEL's studio, Waterloo Sound Recording. I've also been offered use of a friend-of-a-friend's eight track setup in his house. But I don't want to go in there without new material. I'm suffering from a bit of a writer's block at the moment, which happens after every tape of new material I put out.

WHAT INSTRUMENTATION DID YOU USE ON TOO OLD FOR ANGST? IS IT DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS RELEASES?
Yeah, actually, the instrumentation IS different. Mainly because I used feedback on several songs! Like I said, TOO OLD was intended to be acoustic, but only about half of it sounds like that. Songs like "Monster", "Walk Away", and "Changes" use a lot of feedback. I wanted it to sound like what ROBIN GUTHRIE did with COCTEAU TWINS. Of course, I failed! No one plays guitar like he does, in my opinion, although there are TONS of imitators, myself recently being one of them! I really do think TOO OLD is one of the best things I've done, though, and it has some of my best songs.

EXPLAIN THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE IMAGE ON THE COVER OF TOO OLD.

Well, it's a baby picture of me. And I'm crying! I thought it was apropos, since some (but not all) "alternative" rockers come across like crybabies anyway, complaining about how difficult their lives are, at least in my opinion. That's one of the reasons why my next cassette will be cover tunes. A lot of my songs are fairly personal, and thought it would be a welcome break to put something out that wasn't so serious.
As for the cassette single, there's a picture of THE MONKEES with the RESIDENTS eyeballs on them. I remember reading a quote in MONDO 2000 from HARDY FOX (RESIDENTS spokesman) saying that without THE MONKEES, there would have been no RESIDENTS.
Something like that.

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR YOUR MUSIC? STOP AT NOTHING.
Well, I'd REALLY like to upgrade to eight tracks at some point! I almost did that a few years ago, but it just didn't happen, unfortunately. I'd also like to put out another CD, because I really don't like NOTHING PERSONAL. The reason being...well, I could come up with a bunch of excuses, and a lot of them would be true. MIKE CROOKER produced it, and he said that I was trying to play "beat the demo", where I would bring a home recording to the studio, and then try and match it exactly when I rerecorded it. That's not really possible, because it was a different studio, there were more tracks to play with, and a whole different set of rules. So I'd like to release another CD, if any small labels out there would be interested (hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink)...

CARMENOGRAPHY
(All releases are cassettes, except where noted. All are available from the POP! catalog, except*)
DUET YOURSELF (1990)
RADIO FRIENDLY 7" EP (1990)
NAIVE ASSUMPTIONS (1991) compilation of tracks from early, out-of-print cassettes
RE: MIX EP (1991)
NOTHING PERSONAL CD (Emigre, 1992)* (Available from Not Lame Recordings, P.O. Box 2266, Ft. Collins, CO 80522)
BUBBLEGUM BUDDHA (1993)
HOPES AND FEARS (with KEN CLINGER) (1995)
ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE EP (1995)
HANGER 18 (1996)
SNOW DAY EP (with KEN CLINGER) (1996)
TOO OLD FOR ANGST (1997)
1987-1997: VARIOUS ARTISTS AND RAY CARMEN (1997) compilation of songs by CARMEN, and other artists from the POP! catalog
OLD AND IN THE WAY (1998)
compilation of tracks from NOTHING PERSONAL, plus rarities and remakes LUCKY "13" cassette single (1998)
THE MONO TRIO EP (1998) three-track live tape of CARMEN playing
drums with a jazz trio
CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG (an album of cover tunes coming soon...)

With THE KING DAPPER COMBO
OH NO! IT'S THE KING DAPPER COMBO! (1997)
combines both WOO HOO! and DOUG WOFSEY PRESENTS... on one cassette,
and is available from the POP! catalog
KING DAPPER COMBO ON MONSTER ISLAND CD (Briggs, 1995)*
DOUG WOFSEY PRESENTS... (1994)*
WOO HOO! IT'S THE KING DAPPER COMBO! (1994)*

With WITCH HAZEL
LANDLOCKED CD (Flydaddy, 1995)*
BEESWAX 7" EP (Get-Go, 1995)*
JUST DON'T TRY b/w PLAIN 7" single (Bubblegum Smile, 1994)*

Compilations
UNSOUND, VOL. 1: POP! CD (To M'Lou Music, 1998)*
SMELL OF SUCCESS CD (Gajoob Magazine, 1997)*
NORTHCOAST KICKS CD (Pixler Discs, 1996)*
COOL YULE CD (Optional Art, 1996)*
EMIGRE SAMPLER NO. 1 CD (Emigre, 1992)*
USA GOES POP! (Lonely Whistle Music, USA/S.H.M. Tapes, West Germany,
1988)*

Video
PICTURE START VHS (1996)

CDRs* (Available from KEN CLINGER at: 311 Stratford Ave. #2, Pittsburgh, PA 15232-1108)
HOPES AND FEARS/SNOW DAY
HANGER 18
OBSCURITY KNOCKS (a best-of RAY CARMEN collection)

POP! Productions PO Box 152 Green, Ohio 44232 USA