CELT IN A TWIST – INTERVIEW
TRANSCRIPT
Trevor Rogers of The Clumsy Lovers
‘Smart Kid’ (Nettwerk)
As
long as we are lucky we attribute
it to our smartness; our bad luck
we give the gods credit for.
Josh Billings (1818 - 1885) US
writer
Celt In A Twist: The Clumsy Lovers
have made a lot of smooth moves,
touring extensively through the
heartland of the United States
where they’ve found fertile ground
for their rootsy blend of pop,
rock and Celtic stomp, building
their fan base to a size that
can’t help but attract label
interest and hooking up with
Vancouver-based Nettwerk Records,
a label that has built a
reputation supporting
independently-minded artists.
Smart kids, indeed. Their latest
and most cohesive release to date
is called Smart Kid and Trevor
Rogers joins us by phone from the
road he knows too well. How you
doin’, Trevor?
Trevor Rogers: I’m doin’ great,
Cal. I’m talking to you from the
fertile State of Tennessee right
now.
CIAT: Tennessee! Blue grass
country … no wait, that’s
Kentucky.
TR: We played in Kentucky last
night! It’s been fun. It’s nice
down here.
CIAT: Congratulations on the new
disc, Trevor. What is the title
track Smart Kid all about?
TR: Smart Kid is a song our bass
player, Chris (Jowett) wrote. It’s
about all the chances we take as
human beings … some of us end up a
little worse for wear. Some
people end up in serious trouble.
Ya, the choices we make …
sometimes we pay for them and
sometimes we get off ‘Scott free’
by the grace of God or what have
you.
CIAT: This album followed quickly
After The Flood. Has the band
developed any new writing tricks
to speed the process?
TR: Well the beauty is playing all
the time. Really, we did almost
300 shows again last year.
Somebody will have an idea at
sound check and we’ll try it that
night. If it sounds OK, we’ll
stick with it. By the time a year
or so is done, we’ll have 15 or 20
songs that we want to demo. So, I
don’t know about any new writing
tricks. Basically, it’s the same
upbeat music with fiddles and
banjos. We’ve gotten some reviews
that were like, “Dude! It’s all
over the map but … we like it!”
It’s kinda nice to be in a band
where you can play some reggae
grooves and ska, bluegrass and
Celtic and some old tyme music. We
stuck a kind of Clumsy Lovers
funky tune on there too. So, it’s
nice to have that freedom for
sure.
CIAT: For an acoustic roots band,
the production on Smart Kid is
very lush. You mentioned to me
before that the challenge is to
recreate the songs in a live
context. How’s that going for you?
TR: It’s going alright. You know,
we actually had about 10 days at
home when we practiced almost
every day in Vancouver before the
big summer tour. And we were like,
“Alright, we’re not going to have
3 part harmony on this part, Let’s
see how it sounds with 2 part
harmony. Oh, and you better cover
that organ part on the banjo …” I
guess we’re just covering for some
of the melodies we laid down in
the studio and simplifying them
for the live show.
CIAT: You’re not bringing along
samples or anything with you?
TR: No, no (laughs) we could have
used the Harlem Gospel Choir on a
couple of the tunes but they were
all tied up for the summer.
4/ Got cha. You’ve got your Celt
In A Twist and we’ve got Trevor
Rogers on the line, on the road.
Keep up with the band’s travels
through their travel diary at
www.clumsylovers.com. Is that
a hard thing to keep up with,
Trevor?
TR: Well, again, one of the guys
in the band, Chris has his trusty
laptop. Actually, it wasn’t all
that trusty when he was a PC man.
He went through about three of
them. But now he’s got his Mac
and he sits there in the hotel and
sums up the day at the end of the
night. People seem to enjoy that.
We check out the hits on the
website and a lot of people go
directly to the road diary now.
CIAT: Well, I think it’s an
enjoyable read and it really gives
you a sense of what life on the
road is like.
TR: Ya, he’ll say stuff like, “
Do you know far it is from
Vancouver to Sheridan, Wyoming? We
do … 999 miles.”
CIAT: I know you’re not the kind
of band to rest on your laurels or
rest much at all for that matter …
but do you have a golden moment
from the new disc you’re most
proud of?
TR: We’ve been starting the shows
a lot with a song called Coming
Home … a real fast, upbeat tune
which actually has a tune written
by another guy named Neil Dickey
called The Clumsy Lover. So, we
finally incorporated that song,
The Clumsy Lover into one of our
own tunes. It’s actually a bagpipe
tune but we play it on the banjo
and the fiddle. That’s the
highlight of the live show right
now. There’s also a song on Smart
Kid called Not Long For This
World. We pull that one out now
and again. It’s kind of a more
reflective ballad which is nice to
play every once and a while.
6/ Really good food for thought,
that song … I like it a lot. One
of my favorite moments comes in
the form of Okay Alright when
Andrea takes a turn at the mic.
She really has a delightful and
unaffected delivery. Can you set
up that song for us?
TR: Well ya, she steps forward to
the mic probably 2 or 3 times a
night. That song is about not
wanting to fit into a certain role
somebody might have you pegged
for. In this case, it’s more of a
female empowerment song.
CIAT: But, it’s written by Chris,
right?
TR: Yep. He wrote that one.
CIAT: So is he getting in touch
with his feminine side?
TR: Well, I don’t know. I‘ll have
to have a talk with him about
that. He’s my room mate most of
the time.
CIAT: Hey Trevor, drive safe and
give my best to the heartland of
the United States. Congratulations
to you and the rest of the band
and we’ll look forward to you
coming home and giving us a bit of
a concert as well.
TR: Thanks Cal. Maybe October (1st
with The Proclaimers at Richards).
We really appreciate all the
support you’ve been giving the
band and some of the local
Vancouver bands you’ve been
playing on Celt In A Twist.
CIAT: Our pleasure.
Trevor
Rogers was interviewed by Celt In
A Twist producer, Cal Koat for
broadcast on AM 1470, CJVB,
Sundays at 4pm with host, Patricia
Fraser.
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