the black watch - Interview

  by John Clarkson

published: 1 / 1 / 1

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Article

It is incredible to think that in the two short years since the Los Angeles-based collective the black watch (always lower case) played two Pennyblack gigs in Edinburgh and London it has released another three albums. The black watch, which is fronted by former college professor John Andrew Fredrick and features an assortment of American and British musicians, was formed in 1987. It has always remained just under the musical radar and very much a cult band, but with a small but ardent following. The first of these albums, ‘The Morning Papers Have Given Us The Vapours’, has come out on the British label Dell’Orsa, The others, ‘Weird Rooms’, combines songs with fake DJ interplays and radio jingles, and the latest, ‘For All The World’, have both been released, on Fredrick’s regular American label, ATOM Records. ‘For All The World’, the black watch’s 25th album, is remarkably a double album, and merges Fredrick’s trademark sparkling, jangling tunes and quirky, offbeat lyrics. The ever busy Fredrick also published ‘The King of Good Intentions III’, the final volume in his trilogy about a 1990’s Los Angeles rock band. Pennyblack caughtup with JohnAndrew Fredrick to speak to him abour ‘For All the World’ and a forthcoming London show. PB: Why have you decided to call this album ‘For All The World’? JOHN ANDREW F:REDRICK Well, it was going to be called “Bye”—a cheeky pun on goodbye and, say, a bye in a tournament. I’ve threatened to terminate the black watch a few times and of course never really meant it. The title we ended up with was kinda/sorta sarcastic, given our cult status. Only later did I realise that that phrase is yet another connection to The Black Watch Regiment! It’s one of their mottos. Maybe at last they’ll sue is or something. PB: For this album you returned to Misha Bullock’s studio in Austin in Texas, where you recorded your last album,‘Weird Rooms’. What do you see this new album having in common with that album, and, other than obviously size, in what ways do you see it as differing? JAF: Only the second and third sides were produced by Misha at his studio in Austin; Andy Creighton produced sides one and two. I think’ For All The World’ was a sort of reaction against the very ‘The Who Sell Out’ nature of ‘Weird Rooms’ where we had all these intermittent instrumental passages between songs. None of that sort of carry-on on this one—though it was fun to do on the first LP we did with Misha. PB: Your son Chandler joined the black watch to make ‘Weird Rooms’ and also features heavily on this album. He has long experience with other bands. What do you think he has brought to both these records? Is he now a permanent member of the band? JAF: Chandler has played guitar and bass and sung on quite a few the black watch albums. He comes up with melodies and riffs I would never in a million conceive of. Though trained as a pianist, he is a self-taught guitarist and that’s, I think, an advantage sometimes. J’Anna Jacoby (ex-member and violinist/guitarist of the black watch from 1989-2001) was equally inventive on guitar in that way. She came up with simply beautiful parts and counterparts, perhaps as a result of loving Sonic Youth. Chandler, ex-New Yorker, hates Sonic Youth now, but used to love them. PB: Who else was involved with ‘For All The World’? Oh gosh. JAF: Rob and Andy Campanella did some bits and bobs. They’re signal parts of the live band and have done heaps on earlier records. PB: The lead single is ‘Achilles Past’ with its stabbing string arrangements and long instrumental introduction. It describes the claustrophobia of a relationship gone to rot and which has gone on “too long, far too long”. It was recorded after the rest of the album. How did that song come together? JAF: Well it’s more of a song about one’s own Achilles heels, really. The ways in which, after a while, one becomes sick of one’s own proclivities. I have often maintained that people’s best qualities are often their worst enemies in certain ways. I am chuffed you mention the idea of “stabbing” strings, because they were meant to mime the notion of something needling one! PB: Another stand-out song is ‘Lord Marchpane’ with its ringing chorus and accelerated guitar line, who you say about “I couldn’t begin to describe you” and “hope you have got what you wanted”. Who was Lord Marchpane? Oh, that’s a trade secret. But he exists! Someone who I daresay hasn’t learned to get attention in a good way but is always and forever kvetching and bitching about his lack of recognition for his work. POB: You have always been prolific, yet this has been a golden age for black watch fans with seven albums, including this double, in the last five years. Why are you going through such a period of productivity at the moment? JAF: I suppose it could be imputed to my awareness of “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near” from the Andrew Marvell poem. I write a lot of poetry, separate from lyric writing, and I spend a lot of time writing music on guitar—ripping off The Beatles in my own way that few see! That little band is an incessant inspiration. PB: You formed the black watch after seeing The Lucy Show play a gig to about a dozen people in your home town of Santa Barbara in the late 80’s. What was the inspiration there? JAF: They were sort of a cross between the Fabs and The Cure—twin obsessions of mine. And the double-front man thing blew me away—very Beatley. The had great songs. I’ve met Rob Vandeven and talked online to Mark Bandola a bit. Nice blokes who get my joke when I tell them “Hey, you guys made me throw my life away and start a band!” PB: You are also a satirical writer, and last year published the third and final volume in your ‘The King of Good Intentions’ series, which was about an indie rock band in Los Angeles in the early 1990s.Do you have any other books in the pipeline? JAF: I have a thriller about two writers –a prof and a returning student—who are both obsessed with My Bloody Valentine. One murders the other at the end. It’s weird as I don’t read thrillers—that I would write one. It’s sort of witchy and a UK publisher, Weatherglass, nearly took it last year but were concerned with “the male gaze.” The irony is that, on the last page, you realise it’s been written by the female in the equation and not the male. I’ve given up on getting any more novels published. It’s my darkest and, I think, best and funniest novel and it’s a pity that no one’s picked it up. The little plot of patriarchy that is me has been smashed, seemingly. I say that without too too much bitterness. One day the pendulum will swing back. So many awful novels get published now in the name of equity. That does indeed make me sick. I am with Lionel Shriver, an American female novelist based in the UK, who has lamented this a great deal. PB: When you were last over in the UK in 2023, you did two shows in Edinburgh and London with Penny Black in which you were joined on guitars by Nev and Mark Bradford from Damn Vandals. You are coming over again in September. We are to our regret unable to be involved because of other commitments. You are doing an “acoustic” show at the Betsey Trotwood in London with the Bevis Frond on September 18th. What can UK music fans expect from that? JAF: I am going to play the songs that seem to have worked best acoustic down the years—not necessarily the songs on the new LP or the LP that Blue Matter (Nick Saloman’s label) will release in 2026. I am going to make the set more singerly, I think. Normally my guitar-attack acoustic gets emphasized but I am planning on relaxing that a bit and being more of a performer of the songs, if that makes sense. Some people rather prefer me acoustic as it’s hard for them to hear the lyrics when I have the other three the black watch members caterwauling away behind me. I’m really looking forward to being in England again and Nick’s sorting me a gig in Hastings where I’ve never visited—despite having travelled all over the country that’s deepest in my heart as a recovering Anglophile who will never, ever recover and wouldn’t want to anyway. PB: Thank you.

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