| 52 City Interview with Brian Krumm
April 21, 2006 |
Interview: The Great Crusades The Great Crusades will be in St. Louis, on Saturday, May 6, with an appearance at Blueberry Hill's Duck Room, along with Dana Anderson and the American Professionals. The band's new album, "Four Thirty," is out now on the German Glitterhouse label. We checked in with Brian Krumm, the band's vocalist and primary songwriter, as well as a former member of regional favorites the Suede Chain. Our first e-interview! 1. To me, the first few listens to this album hints at a slightly different feel, though it's clearly fitting into the overall continuum of the band's career. How would categorize the band's approach to the songs currently? Are there thematic elements you see/hear running through them, as a whole? We took an entirely new approach to writing the songs on Four Thirty. In the past, I had always brought nearly completed songs to the band and we would finish them as a group. I usually had most of the lyrics finished too for these songs. This time, we got together once a week at our rehearsal space for two months or so and simply played music. Call it "jam sessions" or whatever you want. We really just started playing and recorded everything that came out. Then we went back through the recordings and picked our favorite parts and wrote songs as a group around that. As a result of the jamming, I think a lot of the music we grew up listening to on “classic rock” stations in St. Louis probably came out, stuff like ZZ Top and Thin Lizzy. But there’s also some quirkier influences in there like Camper Van Beethoven and Pink Floyd. After the songs were nearly completed, I wrote the lyrics. I really had fun writing these lyrics and tried to not take myself as seriously in the past, but still managed to tell some good stories I hope about spending time and meeting interesting characters in Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans. You might catch some references to the STL music scene of yesteryear in the song "Boom Boom." As far as themes go, I would say I've always tried to tell a story in my lyrics, and the lyrics are usually half fiction, half real life. And I guess the theme running through much of Four Thirty is "Ain't Life Strange?" or "Truth Is Often Stranger Than Fiction." 2. I love the fact that you're released on the German label Glitterhouse. Do you have any good anecdotes about German fans or press? And would you agree with me that the Germans are a wonderful group of folks/volks? I have many, many anecdotes. One that recently comes to mind is that we played a private birthday party gig on our last tour in a small town in Germany. It was in a church community center for two of our biggest fans in Germany. Last tour we did in 2004 there were these two folks who followed us around in an RV for five or six shows. Really nice folks. As the night wore on . . . and everybody was sampling the homemade schnapps and bier there at the party, everybody got a little bit more comfortable with coming on the little stage at the center. The 72-year-father of the woman who threw the party had been a polka musician for years. He came on stage and proceeded to yodel very loudly directly into the microphone (and my ear) and then played percussion for the rest of the show onstage. And then he picked up my spare guitar, but couldn't find a cord to plug it in. So he proceeded to play "unplugged" even though the guitar was electric. And he pulled out all the stops. Playing the guitar behind his neck, playing with his teeth, windmills a la Townshend. Very funny stuff. They actually made a DVD of the show that night, so I'm looking forward to seeing it. But the story goes on. We stayed with the folks who threw the party and at their house upstairs was a very extensive photo tribute to the Great Crusades that took up an entire wall of a hallway. There were many photos of the band but especially of me, including some of me that had been taken years ago at an Irish bar in Frankfurt after I had passed out and some people from the UK had drawn on my face with magic markers. (This is a very strange story in itself as well.) These photos were available online for exactly one day before I made bassist (and GC web guy) Brian Hunt take them off our Web site, b/c I didn't want my parents (or anyone else) to see them! But somehow the German folks had acquired them, blown them up, and included them on the wall. This is the first thing I see as I'm walking up to sleep on the floor in one of their bedrooms upstairs. And this is the middle of nowhere in Germany! It's a very small small world. I could actually write a book about all the experiences we've had on tour. Hey, you looking for a ghostwriting gig? One more quick story . . . in Jena, Germany, on our first tour. I had gone back to the hotel before everyone else after our gig at this place called the Rosenkeller. I was a bit . . . drunk. Anyway, I went back to the hotel and tried for about 40 minutes to unlock the front door to the hotel. I figured it must be the wrong hotel so I walked next door and found the front door open to a building I thought might be the hotel. I walked in and took the elevator to the third floor only to realize I was in an apartment building next door to the hotel. I went back to the hotel, banged on the front door, yelled let me in, etc. etc. before heading back to the bar next door to the Rosenkeller to get help from the boys in the band. Christian Moder ended up going back to the hotel with me and I showed him the "front door" which I had been trying to open and he started laughing hysterically. It turns out the “front door,” when I saw it the next day, was a miniature “Alice in Wonderland” service door, probably used to load supplies into the hotel’s basement. Many, many more stories like this. I actually have a lot of really good friends who I’ve met Germany. I’ve met a lot of really, really cool people there and in Austria and Switzerland and other places we’ve toured. A friend of ours from Langenau, Germany, ended up moving to Chicago and marrying a friend of ours from Chicago! Stuff like that is beautiful when it happens. And many folks from Germany have come over and visited us in Chicago. They like it here because they can drink 12 or 15 beers and not even get buzzed. At least that’s what they tell me! 3. Are you ever tempted to go onstage looking anything less than your best? Is there a downside to being a sharp-looking bunch of cats while in concert? Yeah, sometimes it’s a pain in the ass when we’re running late for a show and wish we could just get on stage and get to playing. But we get a lot of compliments about our look. We originally started it to do something different besides just wearing jeans and T-shirts. But by the end of a tour it starts getting really old putting on a suit that smells like cigarettes and beer and god knows what else. One trick for bands that wear suits: Put fabric softener sheets in the butt pockets of your pants and the side pockets of the jacket. They are heat-activated and help to keep you smelling somewhat fresh. If you don’t mind smelling like Bounce that is. Oh yeah, a couple people have asked us why we are copying The Hives and other bands like that and we tell them we’ve been dressing like this since 1998, beeyotch punk. One funny story about the suits. The first time we met Reinhard, the owner of Glitterhouse Records, we were wearing jeans and T-shirts because we didn’t have a show that night. The first thing he ever said to us was (in a German accent, naturally): “Where are zee suits?” Like we were supposed to be wearing them 24-7. He was joking. I think. He’s a funny guy. 4. Do people you know hand you books about the Crusades, which they've bought at local flea markets or remainder sales? If they do, how does one gracefully accept or decline them? Do you have a favorite book or film about the Crusades? Actually the band name has nothing to do with the historical period. I just thought it sounded like a cool band name. Pretty shallow of me, eh? One guy did give me an action figure of a Crusader that he built especially for me. That was pretty cool. But no one has really brought up the name that much. A couple of people have asked me if we are a Christian band, which always puzzled me because I don’t think a Christian band would want to be identified with the Crusades. Of my favorite films that feature some sort of reference to the Crusades, I would vote for Time Bandits. 5. Are Funyuns allowed in the van while on tour? Anything is allowed that covers the smell of B.O. in the band, although we are pretty regular shower-ers. Something else that is allowed in the van is beer, usually only in Germany because it’s legal for the passengers to drink. Hell, I think the driver can even have a couple in Germany. My favorite German beer is probably Bitburger because it features some of the only German I can speak: “Bitte ein Bit.” Speaking of food in the van, Brian Leach (the other GC guitarist) is the only person I’ve ever seen “sleep-eating.” He was dead asleep and started eating from an open bag of chips once when were on tour. I have the whole thing on video. It’s quite fascinating. 6. Speaking of film (back to question four, at least)... who would star as the members of the Great Crusades in the eventual bio-pic of the band? Michael Madsen as Christian Moder Robert Patrick as Brian Leach Billy Boyd as Brian Hunt Ron Perlman as Brian Krumm by Thomas Crone Click here for more about 52nd City more press |
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